I remember watching a Saturday Night Live fake ad for Wilson brand trapdoors. This ad showed how superior Wilson brand trapdoors were to other leading brands (I’m going to assume that there aren’t any trapdoor distributors in real life). Their slogan was “with Wilson, it’s out of sight”. To punctuate this, the ad ended with the Wilson Logo underlined, and then the underline split down the middle like a trapdoor.

I wish I could find that sketch on YouTube, and I suppose the trapdoor is one of those things from movies or television that just isn’t in real life. Still, it is often romanticized by James Bond villains and the like. So why not put it in Checkers? I don’t see why not.

Except that it might change the traditional rules of the game. You can forget your dream of having a trapdoor on every one of the 64 squares, as Trapdoor Checkers has just 8 trapdoors. Each player starts his or her turn by spinning a spinner. and that decides whether he or she will move a piece, or activate one of the trapdoors.

So if your opponent is setting up a major jump, then he or she could be foiled with a trapdoor! Clearly, if we can make Trapdoor Checkers, then we can make a Trapdoor Chess. Of course, the board will have to be a little thicker. As it is, I’m surprised that the board for Trapdoor Checkers is as thin as it is. But you hear me, let’s get trapdoors in every major board game.

Anyway, if you want to try it out, it costs about $29.99 from Goliath Games.

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