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


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Latest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments by ChessShogi

LatestLater Reverse Order Earlier
Hectochess. 10x10 variant that can be played with 2 mismatched Chess sets.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Mar 8, 2019 07:13 PM UTC:

The rule for deciding who moves first is no longer a part of this game, but I forgot to remove it from the Rules section. It has now been removed from both this page and the corresponding Game Courier presets.


Interactive diagrams. Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Feb 23, 2019 05:19 PM UTC:

The BadZone function is indeed very useful. For example, if you wanted forbidden moves of royal pieces into check (which are highlighted dark gray) to not show up at all, all you need to do is use this function in your script, which works with both moves that move directly into check and castling moves that land on or pass through check:

function BadZone() { return blockFlag; }

However, this function isn't elaborated on very well. It has four parameters - x, y, piece, and color. The parameters x and y can be used to track the destination square of a piece (i.e. typ = board[y][x]) but piece and color are shrouded in mystery.

You said that you used this function to "confine pieces to their zones in Xiangqi," which is very interesting and could be very useful, as I am reasonably certain that you all four parameters there, though I could be wrong. Perhaps you can show me the function that you wrote to do this?


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Feb 20, 2019 04:53 PM UTC:

These diagrams are a wonderful thing. They can easily describe various moves that Game Courier can't handle without using complicated code. However, I have a few suggestions that, in my opinion, would make the diagram even better.

  • Tame pieces - The modifier t on a final (or only) leg of a move means that move cannot capture royal pieces in XBoard. In other words, it is the opposite of the modifier k on a final (or only) leg of a move, which means that move can only be used to capture royal pieces. This modifier should be relatively easy to implement.
  • Custom definition of royal pieces - Currently, the only piece that is specified as royal by the diagram is the last piece on the diagram. Some variants may have more than one kind of royal piece (i.e. Chu Shogi), which makes this a useful extension, especially if the royal pieces must stay out of check.
  • Triple Captures - This is without a doubtthe hardest extension to implement. Adding this would, in theory, require adding a lot more code to handle the second locust capture. However, this extension would be necessary for the Lion Dog, which can capture three pieces in a straight line, and other pieces that can capture three pieces at once. There might be a way to do this with the WierdChain function. However, that function hasn't been used in your diagrams other than in the Paco Shako diagram.

MShanten-shogi[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Feb 6, 2019 09:45 PM UTC:

Game Courier Tournament 2019. Chess Variant Tournament to be played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Jan 19, 2019 08:09 PM UTC:

I would love to be a part of this event. My favorite variants that are currently on the list are (in no particular order) Sac Chess, Colossus, Opulent Chess, Gross Chess, and Hectochess. Also, on a side note, I tend to not favor games that are not much like chess, escpecially if their rules are complicated like they are in Decima or if their presets don't contain full rule enforcement.


Futashikana Shogi. Expanded version of Shosu Shogi played on an 11x11 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Jan 18, 2019 01:47 AM UTC:

Note to editors: The site name for this page is incorrect. It should be https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/futashikana-shogi instead of https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/dacimal-chess. As this page hasn't been approved yet, the change can be made without any trouble.


Yangsi. A very playable chess variant with 12 different pieces on a 10x10 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Jan 11, 2019 10:54 PM UTC:

Increasing the board size does give the pieces more freedom of movement, Mr. Duniho, but it also does another thing - it makes it harder to keep track of everything. You yourself have stated this in your article "On Designing Good Chess Variants" in the section "Don't make your game too small or too large."

"Small games can finish too quickly, and large games can last too long. Note that the three classics are on moderate sized boards, ranging in size from 8x8 for Chess to 9x10 for Xiang Qi. 10x10 has proven a good size for many games, though 12x12 and up might be too large. I have recently (November 2009) created a 12x12 variant called Gross Chess. To some extent, this is an experiment with a board of this size. The only pieces it adds have been tried and tested in other variants, which allows the game to be a test mainly of the increased board size. Games against Zillions of Games suggest that the game is enjoyable but the larger size makes it harder to keep track of everything. I haven't yet won a game against Zillions without taking back moves. I have played a couple games on Game Courier, drawing one game and losing the other."

As for your comments on piece density, I don't think that cramming the pieces together within a 10x10 space will create too many problems. Kevin Pacey's Sac Chess also has a piece density of 60% at the start of the game, and is one of the top 50 games on Game Courier.


Hectochess. 10x10 variant that can be played with 2 mismatched Chess sets.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Jan 11, 2019 10:23 PM UTC:

The name has been finalized (finally!). Many thanks to H. G. Muller for suggesting the name.


Yangsi. A very playable chess variant with 12 different pieces on a 10x10 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Jan 11, 2019 10:14 PM UTC:

The rules for deciding who moves first after deciding who controls which pieces is no longer effective in Yangsi or Hectochess.


💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Jan 11, 2019 05:48 PM UTC:

When I designed Yangsi, I did so with the principles in Fergus Duniho's On Designing Good Chess Variants in mind. I have actually playtested this game several times. The people I played the game with all thought it was fun and very playable. I remember one particularly enjoyable game I played where I had a bare King and my opponent had a king and two pawns. That game ended in a draw via stalemate.


Hectochess. 10x10 variant that can be played with 2 mismatched Chess sets.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Jan 7, 2019 03:42 PM UTC:

The main reason I gave the name "Decimal Chess" to this variant  because I did not find any Chess variant that went by that name. I  wanted to avoid stealing the name of another game and including any part of my name when naming the game. I wanted to give the game a name that referenced the size of the board, but I couldn't a good alternative. I will put a note on the page to avoid confusion until I decide on an alternative.


11 comments displayed

LatestLater Reverse Order Earlier

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.