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Amazon Grand Chess. A combination of Grand Chess and Amazon Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Sat, Dec 14, 2019 06:06 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Below is a link to a site apparently written by the inventor of Grand Chess (and other variants); in it's coverage of that variant, it mentions that the inventor strove for 'completeness' (by adding the Archbishop and Chancellor piece types that he felt were missing from FIDE chess) - similar to the inventor of Amazon Grand Chess, I kind of feel logical completeness might mean including an amazon piece for each side (possibly the inventor of Grand Chess rejected this simply due to having an odd number of pieces in each army as a result). Note in my 10x10 variant Sac Chess, which has had a lot of testing, having 2 amazons per side (though on a crowded board initially) doesn't seem to hurt the quality of the play in games much at all.

Anyway, for a variant idea I'm still considering, I came up with an alternative setup to that of Amazon Grand Chess (I thought reverse symmetry for the setup can be used, to make the odd number of pieces per side seem less asymmetrical, IMO). On a seperate website from the one below I saw some posters wishing that Grand Chess used normal promotion rules, as in chess (so that the board's edge is made use of for one thing), and also that it allowed a king to leap up to 3 squares once per game, to make up for the absence of castling, so I'm considering these as possible refinements, too. I'll also mention that one thing I don't quite like about the Amazon Grand Chess setup is that the amazon and queen of each side are doubled on a file (albeit behind a pawn) before play even begins... Now, here's the link I mentioned:

http://www.mindsports.nl/index.php/how-i-invented-games-and-why-not/chess-variants-are-easy

[edit: Here's a link to a discussion I alluded to, about how Grand Chess might be improved:]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AGrand_chess

[edit2: Here's a diagram of a CV idea of mine that might be called Grandiose Chess, which I'll study at leisure (pawns would promote on last rank to any piece type in the setup, except for a king, and an unmoved king that's not in check can leap up to three squares away to an unoccupied square on the first or second rank that's not under attack, regardless of any pieces or enemy attacks that may be in between):][edit3: I'm not liking this so much just now - perhaps it's a worse version of Grand Chess, or even of my own Sac Chess:]


Flowerman wrote on Fri, Feb 5, 2010 09:49 AM UTC:
Who inventend this game? If this game is modern, so why not just make board 14X14 or 14X8 (if 14X14, allow pawns move 5 steps in beggining), put rooks in corners (to make castling possible as usual), when 2 bishops, to knights, 2 archebishops, 2 cancelors, 2 queens and general instead queen? It will be more alike classic chess. Or game like this already exists? Prabably, it exists... When we can count this game as variant of game what i just described. If where is java application of of game like this, please, give link to it.

John Smith wrote on Mon, Jan 19, 2009 06:06 AM UTC:
Did you not notice the wink? I was refering to the generally lesser quality of sequels.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Jan 19, 2009 05:06 AM UTC:

Calling a film something 2 is appropriate when it is a true sequel to the original. Do you know of any example of a film that was appropriately named something 2 without being a true sequel to a prior film named something? I think calling some game Chess 2 or Shogi 2 is about as appropriate as calling Buffy the Vampire Slayer Nosferatu 2.


John Smith wrote on Mon, Jan 19, 2009 02:52 AM UTC:
Fergus, I disagree. If you're familiar with films, calling it 'something' 2 makes perfect sense. ;-)

Stephen Stockman wrote on Sun, Jun 4, 2006 05:27 AM UTC:
I made a preset with these same pieces on an 11x8 board to avoid the open ranks behind each kingdom. It is listed as Elite Chess

Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Jun 4, 2006 01:19 AM UTC:
Rules question:
Do pawns promote (optionally) on the 8th rank, as in Grand Chess, or on
the 10th rank?  The language of the rules states that the rule is the same
as Chess, but Chess only has 8 ranks...  I would assume they promote as in
Grand Chess, since this game is basically Grand Chess + an Amazon.  Of
course, if the game is a Grand Chess derivative, why then do the rules not
say 'rules are the same as Grand Chess, except...' instead of saying they
are the same as Orthodox Chess with exceptions?

Sam Trenholme wrote on Fri, Apr 14, 2006 11:17 PM UTC:
To clarify, I don't have any problem with this variant; I just think the initial name was not the best. It is possible that the amazon gives white a winning game from the get-go, but we need playtesting to confirm or deny that.

- Sam


Jeremy Good wrote on Fri, Apr 7, 2006 02:08 AM UTC:
Just fyi, I did contact the inventor and he agreed to change the name of this variant to Amazon Grand. We have written to some editors and asked them to take action to this effect.

Jeremy Good wrote on Sat, Mar 18, 2006 12:35 PM UTC:
Has anyone contacted the author about a possible name change? I recommend the name 'Grand Amazon Chess.' Might I contact the author about changing the name to 'Grand Amazon Chess'?

Sam Trenholme wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 06:49 PM UTC:
I think the problem that we are seeing here is that the Chess variants site is growing in popularity enough that we can no longer practically have the free-for-all where people can do what they want with variants. Should a variant be mis-named or what not, an editor, in a perfect world, will handle the issue.

I notice that the Chess variant pages are also inheriting another problem of Usenet: Poor variants (as in, with bad names, or with poorly written rules) are getting a lot more comments and attention than good variants (cough, cough shameless plug cough, cough).


Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 05:01 PM UTC:
Namik probably didn't realise that he was doing anything wrong, what i
can't understand is why chessvariants site even put the game up!
if you talked to the guy first, he probably would of changed name ...

Derek Nalls wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 04:14 PM UTC:
I also agree with Duniho's proposal of a ban on sequelled game names by different inventors. For the purposes of eligibility for a contest, we should pass no judgment on the games themselves but for their names, the inventors should be made to 'go back to the drawing board' and come-up with something original.

Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 03:54 PM UTC:
I agree 100% with Fergus's comment regarding '. . . a ban on letting any game be called something 2 unless it has been created by the inventor of the original game.' Would we expect Genral Motors to come out with Mustang 2, for example? No. Or an author, other than Steven King, to come out with The Shinning 2' ? Hardly. Both common sense and respect indicate that names followed by numbers should be a naming covention reserved for the game's creator.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 02:15 PM UTC:
I seriously think we should have a ban on letting any game be called something 2 unless it has been created by the inventor of the original game. So, no Chess 2, no Shogi 2, no Grand Chess 2, etc. People should use names that are more original and less presumptuous.

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 02:03 PM UTC:Poor ★
I sure hope no one ever makes an inferior knock off of one of my own games and calls it [name of game] 2. It's bad enough to have something like Wildeurasian Qi around, but it would be worse, say, if someone added an Amazon to Cavalier Chess and called it Cavalier Chess 2. An Amazon is a bad piece, because it can force checkmate on its own. Its presence in a game routinely makes a game worse for having it, and I, for one, purposely left it out of Cavalier Chess and other games to avoid making them bad. Therefore, this is a worse game than Grand Chess, and calling it Grand Chess 2 is disrespectful to its creator, Christian Freeling, who, we should remember, is still alive and may not like to have his creations trampled on like this.

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