Sam Trenholme wrote on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 12:44 PM EDT:
Yeah, I think I put the gauntlet down. Can we design new types of pieces whose move is simple?
This is a question that is, by nature, a subjective impression. One person’s simple is another person’s complicated.
OK, let me try to prove myself wrong. I think one simple type of piece is a piece occasionally seen in historical Chess variants:
The “hook mover” in Dai-Dai Shogi (and some of the other really huge Shogi variants) There are two versions of this hook mover; one that moves like a rook, then can, at any point, bend 90 degrees and continue its movement; the piece can go to any square on an empty board. There is also the “bishop” form of the hook mover that can go to any square of its color on an empty board.
We don’t have the complete rules of Dai-Dai Shogi here, but the Wikipedia is your friend; you can also play this game in Zillions (yes, Jeff Mallett deserves your $25 to register the game if you haven’t done so already)
The “griffion” in Grande Acedrex. This piece moves out one square diagonally, then turns 45 degrees and moves any number of squares like a rook. A picture is worth a thousand words:
('#' is the piece, and it can move to any square marked 'X', '-', or '|'; the lines are used to show the piece moves like rook in these directions)
This is, if you will, a limited subset of a hook mover; unlike a Dai-Dai Shogi hook mover, its hook rotation is 45 degrees, not 90 degrees, and it can only make the hook after moving precisely one square
So, based on these two pieces, lets make some hook mover that aren’t three times as powerful as FIDE’s queen:
This hook mover is a variation on the Griffion; instead of starting with a diagonal move, it starts with an orthogonal move. If the piece moves more than three squares, it must bend 45 degrees on the third square it moves to, then move outward diagonally.
Here is the same piece’s move if it’s on the edge of an 8x8 board:
Which is probably a little less valuable than the orthogonal version shown above.
Is this a simple piece? I’m not entirely sure. When I first saw the Griffion in, as I recall, New Rules For Classic Games (or was it Murray’s A History of Chess) I was very confused by this piece, but today it makes perfect sense to me.
We can have versions of this piece that bends after moving only square (the Griffion in the diagonal form), after two squares, after four squares, etc. We can have a version of this piece that bends 90 degrees instead of 45 degrees (the diagonal version of this piece is colorbound). We can limit the range of the piece. Etc.
Jose: Since you mentioned Ajax Capablanca Chess as a game with simple moves (add a non-capturing king move to the pieces), may I suggest Ajax Schoolbook. I should add that as a variant to the Zillions preset for Schoolbook. I really like the bishop + non-capturing Wazir piece; it nicely solves all of the headaches one has coming up with a board setup for colorbound pieces.
This is a question that is, by nature, a subjective impression. One person’s simple is another person’s complicated.
OK, let me try to prove myself wrong. I think one simple type of piece is a piece occasionally seen in historical Chess variants:
- The “hook mover” in Dai-Dai Shogi (and some of the other really huge Shogi variants) There are two versions of this hook mover; one that moves like a rook, then can, at any point, bend 90 degrees and continue its movement; the piece can go to any square on an empty board. There is also the “bishop” form of the hook mover that can go to any square of its color on an empty board.
- The “griffion” in Grande Acedrex. This piece moves out one square diagonally, then turns 45 degrees and moves any number of squares like a rook. A picture is worth a thousand words:
('#' is the piece, and it can move to any square marked 'X', '-', or '|'; the lines are used to show the piece moves like rook in these directions)
So, based on these two pieces, lets make some hook mover that aren’t three times as powerful as FIDE’s queen: This hook mover is a variation on the Griffion; instead of starting with a diagonal move, it starts with an orthogonal move. If the piece moves more than three squares, it must bend 45 degrees on the third square it moves to, then move outward diagonally.We don’t have the complete rules of Dai-Dai Shogi here, but the Wikipedia is your friend; you can also play this game in Zillions (yes, Jeff Mallett deserves your $25 to register the game if you haven’t done so already)
This is, if you will, a limited subset of a hook mover; unlike a Dai-Dai Shogi hook mover, its hook rotation is 45 degrees, not 90 degrees, and it can only make the hook after moving precisely one square
Here is the same piece’s move if it’s on the edge of an 8x8 board:
Like other sliders, this piece can have its move blocked.How valuable is this piece? Somewhere between a rook and queen in value.
There’s also the diagonal version of this piece:
Which is probably a little less valuable than the orthogonal version shown above.Is this a simple piece? I’m not entirely sure. When I first saw the Griffion in, as I recall, New Rules For Classic Games (or was it Murray’s A History of Chess) I was very confused by this piece, but today it makes perfect sense to me.
We can have versions of this piece that bends after moving only square (the Griffion in the diagonal form), after two squares, after four squares, etc. We can have a version of this piece that bends 90 degrees instead of 45 degrees (the diagonal version of this piece is colorbound). We can limit the range of the piece. Etc.
Jose: Since you mentioned Ajax Capablanca Chess as a game with simple moves (add a non-capturing king move to the pieces), may I suggest Ajax Schoolbook. I should add that as a variant to the Zillions preset for Schoolbook. I really like the bishop + non-capturing Wazir piece; it nicely solves all of the headaches one has coming up with a board setup for colorbound pieces.