Comments by BobGreenwade

The issues that the Tinkercad website is having recently may lead me to take a break after this weekend. Since the problem mainly affects new uploads, I may continue for a short while, but otherwise I'll just wait for the problem to be fixed.

I had already planned on only going to #366 (I'm running out of possible pieces to post), posting only occasionally afterward for extensions of sets, missed rotary counterparts, special requests, new discoveries, and so forth. I also had planned, if I hadn't done this already by then, to take the time to create an index of sorts that I could post as an article.

281. Mei (Chinese Rose / Rao). If a Nao is a Chinese Nightrider, then could there be a Chinese Rose? Well, of course there could! Like the Nao, the Mei (the best translation into Chinese for the word "rose" that I could find*) moves without capture normally, but must jump over a hurdle to capture. It's just that the Mei moves like a Rose. (mqNcqpN)

I don't think a move diagram is needed in this case, since most of us here knows how the Rose moves. I can vouch that the above XBetza does work; I tried it out in the XBetza Sandbox, and it behaves just as intended.

As I was informed in a later reply, this piece is called a Rao by chess problemists.

Creating this led me to discover some serious design flaws with my original Rose piece, which I've now corrected on my own system and will upload some time soon (Thingiverse is still having problems.)

*I have no doubt -- and, in fact, much hope -- that someone well-versed in the language will correct me if I got it wrong.

Thanks for the catch. I only just recently realized my error there. I'll go fix that, both here and in my games where it appears, today and tomorrow.

280. Yak. No, this isn't another Tifinagh piece*; this is named for the animal.

It simply occurred to me recently that particularly large boards could use a piece that's the equivalent of a Buffalo (NCZ), extending one space further. I considered naming it for a pouncing predator, but besides most such creatures being already taken, it didn't seem to fit the established pattern. This piece combines the leaps of the Knight (horse), Camel, Zebra, Giraffe, and Antelope, and also includes many compound ungulates (Gnu, Bison, Okapi, Buffalo, and so forth), so an ungulate seemed fitting. After a little bit of research, the animal that stood out was the Yak. (NCZFXNY)

I deliberately excluded the (4,2) leap of the Hare/Stag/Lancer since it's just an extension of the Knight move; pieces that add the DY or N2 can be considered separately. As it is already, it can be a formidable and versatile piece.

*The two forms of the letter yak are ⴽ and (in Tuareg) ⴾ, neither of which (in my opinion) make particularly good chess pieces -- at least, not without some sort of mirror image.

That's one take, though the larger sandworm like that is one that I'd want to represent with a giant piece (one that takes up more than one square), something that isn't implemented in XBetza, and probably -- probably -- never will be. In any event, removing adjacent pieces upon capture of a central one will probably have to wait until HG can program in the semicolons for bracket notation.

I have something a little different in mind for something more man-sized. I'm not sure yet whether it'll be today's PotD, or tomorrow's...

Has anyone besides me even used this piece?

Now that I have a name for it, I intend to. In fact, I've already added it to the piece list for my all-Dragon game.

A Sandworm might make an interesting piece.

279. Striped Dragon. I was trying a couple of months ago to figure out a good counterpart for the Tiger, but all anyone could offer as a name was Dragon, which I'm reluctant to use because there are so many Dragons running around the site (I even have some work done on a variant featuring every one I could find). So, I waited until something presented itself; and finally, a few days ago, it occurred to me that if it's related to the Tiger, maybe this Dragon is striped. So, while it's generally known as just Dragon, I decided to call it Striped Dragon.

The move is simple: the Striped Dragon makes a (2,3) leap like a Zebra, then may slide from there orthogonally outward like a Rook. ([Z?R])

And so now we have a pair.

Despite the lack of wings, I think this piece looks quite draconian.

I actually do have the Señora (and Saltador) on my Thingiverse page (though I didn't think to do the Señor; thanks for reminding me about that link, HaruNY!). I'll probably post them all separately at some later date, as a follow-up.

As to the contrast with Chinese pieces, I would have done that but I couldn't remember which pieces the Argentinian ones contrasted with.

PS: I like my interpretation of Loco better. But then again, I would. :þ :)

And in case anyone's interested, I have the lineup figured out for Clue Chess. Some of these pictures need a bit of reworking, I'll admit, but in general this is what you'll see on the character cards:

I acknowledge that it's hard to tell what weapon some of the characters are holding (or associated with in the picture) or what room they're in, so that'll need a bit of work. But this is a good start.

Tinkercad continues to have its upload problems, so it took until today to get the weekend's pair.

277. Faro. and 278. Loco. Also called the Argentinian Rook and Argentinian Bishop, these two pieces (along with the corresponding Knight and Queen -- Saltador and Señora, respectively) were invented in 2016 by Manfred Rittirsch for use in fairy chess problems; they've rarely been seen in an actual game until this year.

Argentinian pieces capture with a normal move, but must pass a hurdle in order to move without capturing. The distance before and after the hurdle can be anything, as long as the piece follow a straight line and jump exactly one hurdle.

As suggested by their alternate names, the Faro moves orthogonally (cRmpR), while the Loco moves diagonally (cBmpB).

The names, translated from Spanish, mean lighthouse and crazy person.

The added-on part of the dot inside a circle is intended to represent the Cockade of Argentina, one of the country's most recognizable national symbols.* My apologies to those in North America (and elsewhere) who associate that image with the Target department store chain.

(I'm thinking that maybe I should rework these pieces, with the circles a smaller diameter.)

The Señora, of course, compounds these two. (The Saltador moves like a normal Knight, but must have a piece in one of the two intervening spaces to move without capturing.) More Argentinian pieces could be extrapolated from all these, including Archbishop, Chancellor, Nightrider, and others.

*The most recognizable is the Sun of May, which consists of a sun with a face and 32 rays extended, alternating between straight and undulated, as seen in the center of the country's flag. While a beautiful  and singular icon, it's a bit too complex for this context.

As it happens, two of the options I would've given over Champion are Cardinal and Camel.

And since I'm mentioning it, where you put the Fortress I would've suggested something more whimsical or offbeat: Butler, Piglet Pawn, Viking, Eighth Note, Waffle, Noose, Poison, Wrench, Coil, or Emo Starstruck. (Or, put the Infinity as the last icon, suggesting the nigh-infinite possibilities!)

I also see that some of my icons also made the grade for the row along the bottom. Awesome! I seriously am truly honored.

(They're not the three I would've chosen myself, to be honest, but to get anything at all is more than I could've expected!)

To find a specific piece, you can type the piece name and "chess" into the search bar. You'll get a limited number of possibilities, and the piece you want is most often in the last one under my name.

And I'll get right on putting the link in my profile.

Yeah, it's the curves all right -- specifically, curves that are both horizontal and vertical.

There's not much to be done about that, unfortunately, mostly because I don't have many pieces (almost none, in fact) that don't have that feature. Either you'll have to use just the Nightrider, or Lifebook Mars users will just have to deal.

I can try to find some pieces of that sort, like the Vivi and Double Cross, but there aren't going to be many.

That said, I really like the brown ones in full-color mode.

I was just thinking that it might be time to take a break and let Fergus address the issue you and (IIRC) David are having.

I just uploaded wood-brown versions of everything, plus four new pieces.

Hopefully, brown works at least a little better.

I think you're right about the shapes making the difference. I think I'll try them in a medium brown (I'd go for tan, but apparently I'm the Black player), and maybe add a couple of angular pieces.

Hold off on that Midnighter; I need to update it with better wings.

Here are the requested pieces (some are overwritten from before, so you may need to flush the cache):

I'd suggest using only one Knight variant and only one moon-topped piece in the lineup; offhand I'd choose the Midnighter and Thaumaturge.

And a few others, sorted roughly in order of importance to include (as I see things, anyway):