Not played yet: this article is based on announcements and the sources listed below. We'll review the games once they've been on our table.
Words appear on the living room mirror, written backwards: “Alice, we need a new queen.” Alice reaches through and ends up on the other side. In Queen Alice you prepare the coronation banquet, and to do that you have to talk the chess pieces into helping you.
The facts
- 1–4 players, 30–120 minutes, ages 14+, with a solo mode
- Designers: Héctor Carrión and David Heras, art by Amelia Sales
- Publisher: Combo Games from Spain, €69 in their own shop (currently sold out)
- Funded on Gamefound, backers receive copies before retail
- No German publisher. Whether German rules are included is unclear: fair reports say yes, the publisher’s page lists Spanish, English, French and Greek
How it plays
You play a card to move a chess piece, exactly the way it moves in chess. The square it lands on triggers an action. Over the game you take better cards into your hand and make your actions stronger. The publisher calls it “chess-building.”
On top of that there’s a race: depending on which color contributes most, Alice is crowned the Red or the White Queen. Only some of Alice’s wishes, the scoring goals, come true in the end. Bet on the wrong color and you’re left out in the cold.
At SPIEL Essen 2026
According to fair reports, it’s in Hall 3, booth U210, where backers can pick up their copies. Whether there will also be demos and sales hasn’t been confirmed by the publisher.
Our take
We haven’t played it yet. Chess as the movement rule is a lovely idea because almost everyone already knows it: the knight jumps, the bishop moves diagonally. For our 10-year-old, that could be a good way in. Whether the game itself turns out too heavy remains to be seen.
