Description

This game was published in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the beginning of World War I. The title "Friegur" stands for: "Feldgraue rangen in Ehren, gewannen unsterblichen Ruhm"

Exerpt of the description by Elfriede Strey, as suplied at June 9, 1934 to the US patent Office: My invention relates to a game to be played on a board like chess by two persons or two parties and in which the aim is for one party to beat the other, under observation of determined rules.

Whereas in chess the various chessmen are moved merely according to their nature, the board of my new game has aspecial division or characterization of the squares which prescribes that determined menmust move only on determined squares.

According to the leading idea of my new game the board represents a terrain which comprises a fortress for each party, a glacis surrounding each fortress, and a battle ground situatedbetween the positions of the two parties. Both in the battle ground and in the glacises there are obstacles of various kinds which are denoted by differently marked squares. These obstacles further determine the moves of the various men, beyond their motion prescribed by their own nature. The rules of my new game, which may represent for example a battle for fortress and flag, further prescribe that the men or fighters may be both promoted and degraded, so that, for example, the
private soldier may be promoted to oflicer, if certain conditions are fulfilled, whilst an officer who has been derelict, may be degraded. Finally, as in chess, my new game provides that the fighters of one party may be taken according to determined rules, in order to break the fighting power of the enemy gradually.