Check out Grant Acedrex, our featured variant for April, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
ppirilla wrote on Sun, Jan 16, 2011 06:18 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I think that the beauty of this game is that it adds computational complexity, without affecting in-game complexity. Although it has a learning curve to familiarize yourself with the new pieces, the in-game board positions are generally of comparable complexity to the FIDE standard.

By taking away the known and studied board positions, it takes the chess back to its root as a test of logic and strategy. From pure information overload, players should not -- and generally can not -- rely on memorized openings or endgames, but must instead invent the process as they play.

Really, is that not the point of chess variants, giving chess players a new experience outside of the tried-and-true? I have not, nor do I have any desire to work towards memorizing opening books, beyond two or three moves. My enjoyment of chess comes from working out the best tactic as the game develops.

CWDA is my preferred variant, because of its simplicity and expandability. Really, the game play is chess. Learn the movements of four new pieces, and you can introduce a new army into the game. With just four armies, there are now 15 games you can play (not counting the FIDE vs FIDE match). Starting with a knowledge of chess, and only adding the movement of 12 previously unknown pieces. Simple! Versatile! Elegant! What's not to like?


Edit Form

Comment on the page Chess with Different Armies

Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.