I may have found the first surviving image of "Khaki Modern Chess" by E. L. Perry
I've been researching the history of three-player chess variants for a book and recently tracked down something I'd only ever seen mentioned in one sentence by David Pritchard.
Pritchard lists an obscure game by E. L. Perry called Modern Chess, but gives almost no information beyond the title.
"Modern Chess [Perry] (Proprietary game, Elizabeth Perry, 1918). Board of 64 hexagons in three colours arranged in a triangle. Set-up not known. (Collection of game rules under ‘CUP 700.g.1’, presumed to be a British Library shelfmark)".
After contacting the British Library and following a few dead ends, I finally obtained a photograph of what appears to be the original board.
Some interesting details visible on the board:
The full title appears to be Khaki Modern Chess.
It credits E. L. Perry, Sole Proprietor.
It gives the address 18 Lytton Road, Leytonstone, London E.11.
The board is an equilateral triangle made from hexagonal cells with three distinct player territories.
Unfortunately I still haven't located the rulebook, so I don't yet know how the pieces moved or exactly how the game was played.
Has anyone here ever encountered this game before?
I'd especially be interested in:
advertisements,
rule sheets,
patents,
newspaper mentions,
or any references to E. L. Perry.
I'm trying to document early three-player chess history as accurately as possible, and this seems to be one of the more obscure surviving designs.