Labyrinth: the Moving Maze and the Move that changed the game forever
It is a beautiful day here in Ravensburger, Germany. I am sitting at a small cafe drinking a beer and waiting for Axel Fischer, noted historian and 1886 champion of “Labyrinth: A race for Treasure in a Moving Maze, and Randy Fernandez, noted gaming historian and writer of “The Moving Maze and the move that changed everything”. I had tried to track down James Smith, but was not able to find him.
It has been 30 years since the match that changed the game forever between, Axel and the younger James “ The Madman” Smith. I have also spoken to multiple other officials and personalities of the sport to better understand how the game changed.
Axel, showed up looking as you might imagine a middle aged German boardgame player might, reserved and slightly slumped. Randy showed up next,. Randy is actually an American whose father was stationed in German, when he was just a kid. It's partly due to his passion that I am here today. Without his personal attention to archive and keep interest, we might not even know about the game. I have done my best to keep his story as intact as an article as possible.
Interviewer: Please tell me about the 1987 Labyrinth tournament?
Alex Fischer “ It was incredible. No one, not even me, the previous champion ever thought to do what James did. As the tournament went on, and I was beat my competitors, I kept hearing talk about “this kid”. A kid who was doing moves that no-one would do, moves that should not have worked. But they did, and he was melting his way through the swiss bracket. James and I met briefly before the final match.
Randy Fernandez:It was un-fucking believable. No one played the maze like James played it. I grew up with him on the base and the kind of things that he was doing, no one was doing. He had a chart, that he made himself with all the possible piece combinations. He taught himself to be looking 6+ turn ahead. The board was moving all the time, half of that time it was moving because of your opponent. There was no way anyone could look that far ahead, but James did it. He Knew what you were going to do, before you did it. Just that knowledge alone got him through the swiss rounds. He went 7-0 , it was crazy.
Interviewer: Wow seems like a crazy time. I understand that there was some issues that arose before your first match in the finals. Tell me about it.
Alex Fischer: We had a small disagreement between who would use the Green witch, as we both preferred that piece, and the starting section of the green player. Like most disputes we went to the judges and they flipped a coin, the green witch went to me. James took the opposite piece, the Red Enchantress.
Randy Fernandez: James always used the green witch, it brought him luck. At the time we thought Alex was just trying to mess with James. But I asked the officials what piece Alex was using during the tournament and it turns out that he also used the green witch. Ultimately it didn't matter. James didn’t need any one piece, the owned the whole game and he was going to show the world that he owned it, using the red enchantress.
Each man laughed. I did not quite get the joke. All three of us took another drink of our beers as I asked them. OK Tell me about the match.
Alex: It seemed like a normal match at first. We each received our 7 cards (note: In Labyrinth 30 years ago the finals were played with 7 cards instead of 6). I had to get the Book, a solid piece next to the yellow starter and James had to get the beetle a floating piece across the board near the green starter.
Randy: Randy was winning. We could all see it in the audience. He quickly gathered up three pieces before James was able to get the first beetle.
Alex: Yes, I was winning. Then I had to get the Dragon, the Labyrinth Dragon, the one on the cover of the box. James was supposed to get the the green Emerald, a solid piece hear the blue starter. There was an easy move that would have gotten him there in one turn. Instead…
Randy: Instead, James did something that had never been done in LEAGUE play , let alone the finals. Piece to B-R, middle. No one could believe it, the room lost its fucking mind! James had just attacked Alex, he made a move that did not help him at all but one that set Alex back a turn.
Alex: I was very surprised at his move. I had done attacks in some practice games against myself, but I never would have thought to have done them when facing an actual opponent. It was then my move and i played Y-G, middle to move my pieces back, expecting James to play “Correctly” and get his piece so I could get the dragon. But James did not do that. He did another move that countered me and then he got closer to the Jem.
Randy: We couldn’t fucking believe it! Yay he did an attack, and that by itself was fucking crazy, but to then attack AND get closer to your objective. I can't state this enough, It had never been done before.
Interviewer: Can you describe what it felt like?
Both: Laugh and look at each other.
Alex: As I said earlier I was in shock. It completely threw me off my game and he easily won that game.
Randy: Let me put it this way, imagine you were asleep and when you woke up, left was right. The game was blown completely wide open now. The people who play Labyrinth now, they take it for granted that the game is so complex, and the match on each move is figured out, but that's not how it was in 87. James and his Piece to B-R, Middle changed it forever.
Interviewer: The finals were best 2 out of 3. What happened after the first game?
Alex: I was very shaken and asked for a short break to gather my thoughts. The entire crowd was whispering and asking if what James had done was legal to do. James just sat there at the board. He just sat there looking at the pieces like they were speaking to him. When I came back, the officials reset the board and we played game two.
Randy: Man, it wasn’t even close. Alex .. no offense meant by this Alex. He was playing badly. James had just messed him up to bad. It was a slaughter.
Alex: It is OK my friend, it is true. I was off my game and could not compete with such aggressive play.
Interviewer: So looking back on it 30 years later. What do you think?
Randy: You know, i’ve been playing Labyrinth since release in 86. I still play today, i’ll never be as good as James or even as good as Alex. Even with all the other innovations that have come over the last 30 years, no one played the game better than James played it on that day. I have seen many good players, Sven Carlison, Arata Tsuda, and even Carliton Planter last years winner, but they dont even compare.
Alex: To me, it was a game I played when I was young. I have not played a game of Labyrinth in many years, but I still look on those days very fondly.
Interviewer: OK, one last question. Where do you think James Smith is now?
Alex: I have no idea. I have not spoken to James in over 22 years. For awhile we kept in touch with letter, but then I believe he moved back to the United States.
Randy: I have no idea where James is now. Hopefully he’s out there somewhere coming up with new strats for the moving maze and he will return to the scene to destroy all comers. It’s what I am waiting for man, it would just be crazy.
I thanked both men for meeting with me and we finished up our drinks and went our separate ways. It is amazing to think that 30 years ago, one young person changed the way the world saw, one of his most popular games. I hope where James is, he is happy in knowing that without him, Labyrinth would not be where it is today. Good luck in the moving Maze players!
Nicholas Smith
Board Sport Circuit Writer
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