Safari-Dual 2011

Publisher's summary Safari-Dual is a kind of Chess game, using three kinds of pieces; Lion, Elephant and Giraffe. The board and pieces are made of ceramic.

The Lion is the King and the Elephants and Giraffes are the Pawns. The winner is the first to capture the opponent's Lion, or to move their own Lion onto the opponent’s Lion's base area.

Pieces have dual natures; one is their shape and the other is their species.

Players move their own pieces and try to sandwich any of the opponent's piece or pieces. If the player's pieces making the sandwich are of the same species, this is a capture and the captured animals are removed from the board. A Lion can sandwich and capture any opponent’s pieces, using their own Elephant or Giraffe piece as the other end of the sandwich.

But the dual nature of the pieces gives the game more complexity.

For example, a player's own Elephant piece will sandwich and capture the opponent's Giraffes and Lion by using the opponent's Elephant. The same specie will work together! Likewise, the opposing Giraffes will work together to capture the opponent's Elephants and Lion. Only the two Lions will not work together.

This dual system is a unique and very interesting system first invented by the designer Mitsuo Yamamoto in 2008, and the game was first produced in 2011, a small and a large edition. A new edition is being produced in 2017 for a Kickstarter campaign.