The commercial offsprings of Chess: Smess

Smess, aka All The King's Men, is a 1970 game by Perry Grant and Reuben Klamer, published by Milton Bradley among others.

The game is played on this 7x8 board. Each army has twelve pieces: One King called Brain, four Numskulls, and seven Ninnys. Initially, the two Brains are placed at d1 and d8. Each Brain has two Numskulls at each side, and the seven Ninnys occupy the second row (just like Chess pawns).

The rules:

• On her turn, each player moves one friendly piece in a direction printed on its current standing square.
• Brains and Ninnys move only one square per turn,
• A Numskull can move in a straight line as many empty squares as possible
  
• Nb: only the initial standing square determines the possible moving directions
  
• Captures are by replacement (and not mandatory, just like in Chess).
• A Ninny that reaches an initial square of an enemy Numbskull is promoted to a previously captured Numbskull (if there's no Numbskull captured, the promotion does not happen).
  
• Wins the player that captures the enemy Brain. The game is a draw if only the two Brains remain on board.
  

The game was also known as Take the Brain. There's a review of it in Abstract Games Magazine #9.