Joker’s on You

Say one thing for Carl Chudyk, he’s always swinging for the fences. His latest, Chess Joker, is full of wonderful ideas. At its most basic: what if we took the game-altering jokers from Balatro, say half a thousand of them, and transformed Chess, that ancient game of strategy and discipline, into a cast-iron bathtub filled with jelly beans and marmalade and one or two razor blades just for fun. At its best, Chess Joker lives up to that promise. The problem is that it isn’t often at its best. This is chess. Picture Chess. I don’t have to explain Chess to you people, do I? Knights, bishops, queens. Castling and checkmates. Year ago, some dork with taped eyeglasses and a collared shirt buttoned all the way up to the top pulled an untimely en passant and you haven’t played the game since. Chess Joker is Chess. But it’s also Joker. The Joker portion of Chess Joker works like this. At the end of your turn, you draw a card. On your next turn, this offers a new possibility. Like, say, letting…