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Comments by GaryK.Gifford

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Cannons of Chesstonia. Cannons launch a Pawn, Wazir, Ferz and Stone to increase strategical and tactical play. (12x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Mar 14, 2010 10:55 PM UTC:
Thanks, Mr. Flowerman for your comment. I think perhaps 'Catapults' would have been even a better name (than Cannons). But then there are the Chinese Cannons of Xianqi that leap, rather than fire a projectile. Anyway, to answer your question, 'Stones cannot be captured and they cannot move other than being launched from a Cannon.' Two things I like about this game are: 1) with the piece shoots, some openings and defenses can have certain weaknesses removed or compensated for; 2) when shooting a piece from a Cannon one must carefully consider the tempo-loss. I won my last game of this, in part, due to an important tempo advantage. I also was able to play a better version of 'Bird's Defense to the Ruy Lopez' due to the Cannon aspect.

Catapults of Troy. Large variant with a river, catapults, archers, and trojan horses! (8x11, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Wed, Mar 17, 2010 06:56 PM UTC:
In regard to the question, 'Can archers capture by replacement [displacement]?' Answer: Yes. There is an example of this in the archer movement/shooting section of the rules.

💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Fri, May 28, 2010 03:09 AM UTC:
Hello Claudio - I am glad you like CoT.  It has been a long time since I have played the game myself, or looked at the rules, but I will see if I can answer your questions.

Some questions:

1- The rook also does not cross the river, right?
Answer.  With a bridge available, a rook can cross the river.  It can also be catapulted across.

2- Can the A jump over the river? After all, only him and the TJ leaps;
Answer: No, Archers cannot jump over the river.  Archers don't leap, except when inside the horse (as they move along with it). 
3- Shouldn't be better, if the bridges belong  a number to a side, instead of a commom pool? 
Answer:... so, you are asking about each side having a limited number of bridges. An interesting idea. I do not know the answer. If desired, players could set their own bridge limit. I like 'unlimited.' I never had a game where lots of bridges were built. I think if there was a bigger version of the game that a limit might be a good idea. .  

4- How far a C can throw a piece?  
Answer:  All the way to the promotion zone.  In the Archer section of the rules there is an example, with this comment, 'Also note that the Catapult on C8 could catapult the Pawn to C11, resulting in a Pawn promotion to Archer at C11. Giving check to the King.'
My best regards to all - Gary

Juxtaposition Chess. Pawns and Pieces switch places with pseudo-pieces throughout the game. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 10:25 PM UTC:

I do not understand the question regarding double moves in relation to the rules already provided.

On a move a player can either:

  • Move a Pawn, Piece, or King, or
  • Swap a Pawn with the Stone, or
  • Swap the King or Piece with the Flag

King's Reincarnation. Captured Kings return to the board, but at a price. 2 versions of play. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Wed, Jun 23, 2010 11:12 PM UTC:

Daniil, Charles, Simon - Thanks for commenting. Interesting is that your comments have appeared at a time when I happen to be reading
about reincarnation in Buddhist literature.and I've not thought about this reincarnation-based game in ages.

The King enpassant idea is interesting and would likely be best in variant II. I imagine many variants could adapt such a rule.... or be easily modified to do so.

In regard to pawns promoting, yes it is just as in Fide chess... they are no longer pawns and the King, if captured, can reincarnate as the promoted piece.


Latrunculi duo milia et septum. Chess with rook/ferz & bishop/wazir substitutes for rooks and bishops.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Thu, Jul 1, 2010 09:27 PM UTC:
Thanks for the questions.
The knight is a normal knight. This game simply replaces rooks and bishops with their associated promoted cousins from Shogi (Dragon King and Dragon Horse).
Yes, they can capture with their Shogi-like move.
Of interest to me is the idea of doubling bishops, or throwing in the queen to have a 3-power diagonal power strike.

Shanghai Palace Chess. A blend of Chinese, Japanese, and Western Chess. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Aug 16, 2010 11:31 PM UTC:

Hi Daniil Frolov - no need to apologize for having a similar game. With the large number of inventors and inventions, it happens every now and then.

Hi (zzo38) A. Black - Glad you like the game. Hopefully you got to play it against Zillions... though it mishandles cannons (at least it used to) I thought it was still fun...
but not as fun as playing against a human face-to-face. I agree that the western student's arguments are terrible. But I had heard some along those lines.


Dimension X. Chess on two planes - one with the usual chess pieces, the other with spooky trans-dimensional pieces with strange interactions. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Jan 23, 2011 02:41 PM UTC:

Hi Greg. To your very good question. 'Pawns can be 'pinched' back to the first rank. Can they then make a double move? What if they take a single step back to their starting rank - can they make a double move then?'

Answer: No. Though not stated in the rules, pawns can only move 2 spaces from the second rank. So, a pawn that was knocked back to the first rank would need to move 1 space to reach the second rank. On its next move or after it could then move 2 spaces.


Odin's Rune Chess. A game inspired by Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, runes, and Nordic Mythology. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Mar 5, 2011 01:27 PM UTC:
Hi Calvin: To answer your question from a few days back.... The introduction to the rules explain how this game resulted from an experiment in synchronicity (a term coined by Carl Jung). And that is why there is a piece that moves like a Bishop. However, Beorc is the runic name for that piece. So, you can call it Beorc if you want. As for piece images, you can buy runes on-line or download graphics and re-size them.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Mar 15, 2011 01:37 PM UTC:
I have White in this game. But I cannot make a move. I get a message that begins like this:

Syntax Error on line 1

[KQRBNP]-Dice1 is not a valid expression, because [KQRBNP]-Dice1 is not a recognized piece, coordinate, command, or subroutine.

some code is provided. It seems that the auto-dice generator function is not correct. Any ideas on what to do here? Can this game be played at CV ?


Game Courier Tournament #4: An Introductory Semi-Potluck. A tournament to feature games good for introducing people to Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Dec 10, 2011 02:05 PM UTC:
I'd like to sign up for Tournament # 4 ... can I do that with this comment? Or do I need to send an e-mail somewhere? Thanks. Gary

Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Dec 10, 2011 04:13 PM UTC:
Thanks Joe - and Congrats Carlos. I saw the Tournament 4 link on the side and it looked like it was starting in January... I suppose that was last January.

House of Mirrors Chess. Mirrors and reflective pieces add interesting twists to strategy by making pieces appear in 2 or 3 places at the same time. (8x8, Cells: 87) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Wed, Dec 21, 2011 12:02 AM UTC:
(zzo38) A.Black asks, 'What if you want Variant III: Reflections block, but real pieces that are standing on a mirror can be passed through (but only if standing on a mirror).'

Yes, you could certainly have that variation. I tend to think of the 'real' piece as one that could not be passed through, but we could certainly play the game as you suggest. Under those rules, a piece on a mirror could not block a check.


Dimension X. Chess on two planes - one with the usual chess pieces, the other with spooky trans-dimensional pieces with strange interactions. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Feb 4, 2012 10:05 PM UTC:
A. Black - You ask, 'Are pieces near a spider still allowed to move from the FIDE board to X board?'

Not enemy pieces. As stated in the rules, 'Spiders automatically immobilize all adjacent enemy pieces (including an adjacent enemy Crab and an adjacent enemy Cobra)... Enemy pieces in a web remain immobilized until such a time that the capturing Spider either returns to Dimension X or is captured. Spiders have no effect on other Spiders.'


Gryphon Aanca Chess. Large Variant with Gryphons, Aancas, and a few other not-so-common pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Oct 7, 2012 11:24 AM UTC:
Thanks Christine, for your information.  I have updated my piece notes for this game with this entry: "Noclaf [Update 10/07/2012] -
- from Christine Bagley-Jones' comment I see that, "Ralph Betza's army
'Forward Fide's' has 'Bishight', moves forward as Bishop or backward as
Knight, and 'Knishop', moves forward as Knight or backward as Bishop. So
the Noclaf is a Bishight... accredited to Ralph Betza."

Royal Magician's Chess. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Nov 12, 2013 09:51 PM UTC:
Pawns promote as in chess. You can play the game here: http://www.pathguy.com/chess/RoyalMag.htm  The program is rather week, but it moves fast and will give you a good idea of how to play the game.

Little River Chess. A 46 square variant based loosely on Chinese Chess. (6x9, Cells: 46) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Nov 16, 2013 01:39 PM UTC:
I have not looked at this game in ages so was able to look at it with a fresh eye, and I do strongly agree that diagrams would be helpful.  But diagrams take up memory and I had been informed in past not to use so many (as I often tended to go overboard with their use). Though diagrams would be nice, they aren't essential if one sets up the initial position and then reads the rules for the variant of interest.

Remote Sensing with On & Off-Board Detection. Special pieces mimic others, some on-board, some which have been captured. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Feb 4, 2014 02:41 AM UTC:
Glad you like the idea. Since about 8 years have elapsed since I created the game, sadly it would take me a while to get the hang of it again.

Shatar, Old 1 Hia. Old Shatar with one Hia. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Thu, Dec 15, 2016 01:44 AM UTC:

Thank you Fergus, for your Diagram suggestion. I added one.

Thank you Jose for your suggestion. I considered starting with Hias on the board, also considered allowing them to be dropped into the game on any vacant space in a player's first or second rank. But The goal of the game was to keep this as close to Shatar as possible... so it starts as does Shatar, with no Hias and with D-pawns advanced. Anyway, when the King moves I figured the bodyguard (Hia) would appear at the King's side, And this would be somewhat akin to castling in this game. 


Gryphon Aanca Chess - links broke[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Gary Gifford wrote on Mon, Oct 30, 2017 06:30 PM UTC:

I accepted an invite to play Gryphon Aanca Chess- but my opponent and I noticed the links to the preset and rules do not work. Instead, we get a default abstract 8 x 8 chess board... can anyone correct this? Seems a link fix should be simple. Thanks.


Catapults of Troy. Large variant with a river, catapults, archers, and trojan horses! (8x11, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Jul 29, 2018 11:59 AM UTC:

This is in regard to Kevin's comments on several games yesterday, of which C.O.T. is one. Thank you Kevin for taking time to comment on games. It is much appreciated. Happy Gaming! Regards, Gary G.


Six Fortresses. Capture Fortress to releases free pieces to drop. Imposter Kings will complicate checkmates. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Sep 25, 2018 01:39 AM UTC:

I created Six Fortresses 12 years ago and no longer recall the game... there is no working  link to the setup.... If I can find the game in old notes I will see if I can update this.... otherwise, it seems to be a lost game.


Catapults of Troy. Large variant with a river, catapults, archers, and trojan horses! (8x11, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Sep 25, 2018 01:55 AM UTC:

Thank you for your detailed review, Kevin... it is appreciated. I've not played this game in many years, but I do not recall the play being slow. Antoine Fourrier created a Zillions version of this and if you play that I think you will find the game moves along pretty well... also, if you play another human I think you will see it moves along well.  I did find one minor bug in the Zillions app concerning the Ram...not sure if it still exists after all these years. If I ever  update  the rules it would be to delay movement of the Traojan Horse 3 moves. I have reasons for this.... but will not go into them at this time.  Thanks again for the comment.


Odin's Rune Chess. A game inspired by Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, runes, and Nordic Mythology. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Tue, Jul 23, 2019 09:31 PM UTC:

Many thanks for the fix Erik, it is much appreciated. I was not aware of the issue. Regards, Gary


💡📝Gary Gifford wrote on Wed, Nov 20, 2019 11:55 AM UTC:

There is (was) a Zillions version which grasps the game and plays it brilliantly. I lost all initial games to it... Thanks for commenting.

 


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