A decade ago, Gardner was sitting in a bar in New Rochelle, N.Y., and noticed a sort of farcical checkerboard wrapped around the woodwork.
It would be impossible to play checkers like that, having to stick your pieces to the sides and crawl under the bar to make some moves, Gardner thought. But a light flickered in his mind.
That was 1998.
“A year and a half later I built one,” he said. “That's when I realized I'd done something, and I've been chasing it ever since.”
Since that day in 1999 when Gardner built his first Third Millennium Chess board, he has been traveling the country trying to realize his dream of popularizing the game.
His personal board has been signed by everyone who's ever played it, from California to New York.
The game is round, so opponents can attack each other from two directions. Each player has two sets of pawns and two split-knights. These can move in tandem, split and move alone, then re-form and move together again.
These knights will protect each other, so if a player gets the opportunity to move into the classic queen-check, rook-check position, where there is no way to fend off an attack from a properly backed-up knight, the knight can “split” when moving and defend himself. That way, the king, sitting next to the queen, cannot take the knight without putting himself in check.
The possibilities, Gardner says, are infinite. Instead of the 20 possible opening moves in a normal chess game, Third Millennium Chess has 48 possibilities.
“Even the split-knight isn't a deviation of rule, it's just an expansion of possibilities,” he said. “It is the future of chess.”
In fact, none of the rules change. Each piece still moves across the board at the same pace, with the same limitations. But with two full boards wrapped around a five-inch tube, if a player is caught unaware, he can receive quite a swatting from a bishop around the other side.
Gardner says this is a natural progression for the game of chess, and is more representative of real-world strategy.
“Chess was invented when people thought the world was flat, but the world is round,” he said.
A player must readjust his outlook when playing, and learn to be mindful of another direction and another side where attacks can rain down from. The board is set on a wooden spin-wheel, so at any one time a player can only see one side. Players need to use their memories as well as their eyes.
“You're tapping into different qualities of your mind,” Gardner said.
Once a player readjusts his or her mind-set, the game plays as smoothly as any normal chess game.
Not that the modifications came easily, Gardner said.
“This has taken 10 years to get here.”
Those 10 years haven't always been kind to Gardner.
When he came up with the idea, Gardner was working as a bartender and waiter in New Rochelle. About six years ago though, he hit the road, thumbing it all over 49 states.
“It's taken me from New York to ... Alaska, to Mexico and Miami, and everywhere in between,” he said. Only Hawaii has eluded him.
These trips posed serious trouble at times.
In 2003, he was picked up by a couple of guys in California.
“The father's drunker than hell, and the kid's been drinking, he's about 17 or 18,” Gardner recalled.
The car veered onto back roads and, during a stop, Gardner said he noticed the kid sneaking up on him. An approaching police car seemed to get him out of a situation that looked like it was headed for trouble.
He said he left them at the closest town - Eureka, Calif. - only noticing a large knife in the car as he got out. He slept that night in a church.
“That's one that just really, really scared me,” he said.
Gardner's first encounter with Missoula came as he was just passing through in 2004.
He learned then about the Poverello Center, and returned to the Pov at the end of this summer, staying there for about a month before a friend offered him a room in his house.
“I've been fortunate enough to meet some people in this town who believe in me, and believe in the idea,” Gardner said.
It is here Gardner is now trying to build and refurbish his chess sets. He has built 23 of them since 1999, but only one is still in his possession. The rest have been lost, stolen, broken, or given away.
Now he has refinished a set for himself, and is working on several more. Previously, he used chess pieces from games he bought, and modified and magnetized them for his board, which is made from 5-inch metal duct pipes. He creates his own pieces using clay that can be baked in a home oven. He hopes eventually to sell the sets for under $200.
Now that he has a complete game, he brought it to World of Games on Front Street to showcase on First Friday. Manager Jonathan Crummett sees new games now and then, and is working on his own, but says Gardner's is unique.
“I haven't seen anything like it,” Crummett said. “Pretty innovative.”
Gardner said he has a patent pending for his invention, and hopes to start selling the boards soon to move his operation into a studio.
“My only shortcoming is the financing,” he said.
The lack of money had caused 40-year-old Gardner to contemplate quitting, and he has been pushed in that direction by his father.
“He thinks it's just a dream. He doesn't know how real it is,” Gardner said. To “let it go,” he said, “and drop back into society, and get another job waiting or bartending job, I couldn't do it.”
Gardner said he is determined for people to know about his creation, Third Millennium Chess.
For more information about his game, Gardner can be contacted at thirdmillenniumchess@yahoo.com
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Melvin Hutcheson wrote on Jan 25, 2009 5:33 PM: