[1][2] The game is played using a standard chessboard and pieces, except that each player's queen is replaced by a chancellor, a piece which combines the moves of the rook and the knight.
Almost chess was featured in NOST[a] magazine Nost-algia, beginning with issue 205.
Other than the replacement of queens by chancellors (notated "C"), the game follows all the rules and conventions of standard chess.
Replacing queens with chancellors imparts a radical change to the nature of the chess game, despite the queen and chancellor having approximately equal strengths.
Around 1994, Betza invented sort of almost chess, a variation whereby one player owns a chancellor, and the opponent owns a queen.