An exemplary embodiment of a chess game variant comprises a game board and four sets of eighteen chess pieces each. The game board has an inner zone and four panel zones thereabout. The inner zone presents eighty-one playing positions in a nine-by-nine square array. Each panel zone presents twenty-seven playing positions arranged in a three-by-nine rectangular array. The board includes universal rows which adapt for chess-like play on an unbalanced board. Each set of game pieces include institutional pieces and citizen pieces. Most of the citizen pieces are matched in status with corresponding institutional pieces, and are subject to rules of promotion which are driven, in part, by these status relationships. Most of the game pieces include covert or overt markings, which also drive game play and strategy. In certain aspects of game play, a player may take control of the game pieces of one or more opposing players.