In the opening scene of "Passing Through Gesthemene" we see the end
of an alleged "game" of chess between Brother Theo and Sheridan
(our spies report this began as a Bishop's Opening).  Actually, many
races on the station play chess variants.  Thanks to our extensive
series of Informants, we can now bring you:

TOP 10 BABYLON 5 CHESS VARIANTS

10.  HUMANS (OLD SYTLE) -- This is the royal game we now know and
        love.  Among former and current station personnel, there
        was always a hole in Sinclair's analysis (although he has
        allegedly improved), Sheridan loves opening traps, Franklin
        is a speed chess addict, Ivanova is a Rook ending expert,
        Garbaldi plays the Italian Game, and many of the other
        staff play the Benko Gambit because they believe in the
        strength of 3...b5!  Among nonstaff humans, Marcus plays
        the English Opening and hates the French Defense.  Bester
	plays blindfold chess.

9.  HUMANS (NEW STYLE) -- Back on Earth, a new variant has been
        evolving.  Home Guard revived the Two Knight's Defense,
        and now KnightWatch is pushing a version with 2 Kings and
        30 Knights.  We think KnightWatch should go fork themselves.

8.  VORLONS -- Stevenn Orso has been telling us for some time that
        Vorlon chess has 2 Kings and 30 Pawns.  What he hasn't told
        us is that Vorlon pawns don't promote; they start over on
        the first or second rank to "close the circle."  The game is
        considered somewhat antipositional by outsiders, because
        Kosh always decribed it as a "nonlocalized phenomena."
        A move of the piece does not guarantee harmony in the
        position.  Kosh's "best games" collection is called "Beauty
        on the Light Squares."

7.  MINBARI -- Delenn: "You must understand that we work for many
        moves, many games even, to prepare one great sacrifice."
        Lennier: "Lately, however, we have noticed a loss of many
        of our greater game scores.  These days most games are
	drawn by threefold repitition of position.  Draal has
        become exclusively preoccupied with computer chess.  Now
        Valen, he was a fighter!  It is said that he played like
        a Minbari, but was not trained as a Minbari..."  They also
        believe you play the same opponents over and over again,
        kind of like in some cosmic round robin tournament.

6.  NARNS -- G'Kar points out that many Earth religious figures
        such as Ruy Lopez ("Why did your Catholic religion not
        make him a Bishop?") were players ("One of your Popes
        ruled that killing an opponent after a game was not a
        crime.  G'Quann expressed a similar opinion.")  Narns
        favor a pure attacking style with slashing, sacrificial
        games.  They like the Sicilian Dragon variation of the
        (old) Earth game.  The Narn Bat Squad says, "1 e4! wins!"
        Some of us must be sacrificed if all of us are to win.

5.  MARKAB -- We see the inherent problem with sudden death time
        controls.  They also had problems with a virus in their chess
        computer software.  We think "Drafa!" is Markab for "Mate!"
        but we were unable to confirm this as Markab will resign
	any game and leave quickly when they hear this.

4.  DRAZI -- Sets are Green and Purple.  No provisions for draws
        are in the rules.  All Drazi events are team knockout
        tournaments.  Colors (teams) are assigned randomly before
        the first game and players keep the same color for the
        entire set of games.  The tournament ends when there are
        only players of one color eligible to continue.

3.  CENTAURI -- The pieces are glasses, and when you capture an
        opponent's piece, you must drink the contents.  The last
        round of long tournaments can produce some sloppy play.
        Games often begin with more than one Queen per side, as
        assigned by the organizers.  Centauri Kings can move in
        any one of six directions.  They regard other chess
        variants as a bit tame, but Londo in particular *hates*
        bughouse.

2.  SHADOWS -- Sets are Black and Blacker.  As near as we can tell,
        Shadow chess is a bit like Kriegspiel in that you can't
        directly see what your opponent is doing, and you often
	don't know you've lost until it's too late.  Some PsyCorps
        members are very good at this game.

and the #1 BABYLON 5 CHESS VARIANT

1.  EPSILON 3 CARETAKERS -- Zathras like symmetrical openings, but
        Zathras not a good player.  Zathras have only finite time
        to think, and make bad move.  Worse than wrong tool.  Ah,
        Zathras not need to *understand* the move to *make* the
        move.  Our version influenced by the Position that Was,
        the Position that Is, and the Position that Will Be.