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Comments by GregoryStrong

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The Osprey[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Sep 21, 2020 01:06 PM UTC in reply to Aurelian Florea from 08:31 AM:

Expanded Chess. Here's the preset:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Expanded+Chess&settings=default


Diagram Designer. Lets you display diagrams without uploading any graphics.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Sep 20, 2020 06:46 PM UTC in reply to Fergus Duniho from 12:45 AM:

Ok, I have removed extra whitespace from all piece sets and verified that they all now work in diagram designer.


Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 19, 2020 09:46 PM UTC:

I am referring to a space in the php file that defines the piece set, not the image file created by the script. The diagram designer executes php code to dynamically create and return a binary image, right? Why would whitespace in the php source code of a program affect its output?

Update: Ok, maybe I see. Since the space is outside the ?> it gets incorporated into the output stream?


Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 19, 2020 06:23 PM UTC:

With some extensive testing I've been able to figure out the issue, although I don't understand it. The piece sets that don't work with diagram designer all have an extra carriage return at the end. Remove it, and they work fine. Take a file that works, put an extra blank line after the ?> line, and it breaks. Very odd for whitespace to break code...


Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 08:31 PM UTC:

Oh, ok. I guess that makes sense. Unfortunately, that means the diagram designer can't show uncheckered boards, but that's not critical.


Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 04:22 PM UTC:

Some piece sets still won't render a board with diagram designer although all the individual pieces show correctly. My earlier speculation that it involves sets with "for" in the title appears to be incorrect, or there is more to it. The ones that fail all seem to have "for" in the name, but some others containing "for" do work.

Also, in Game Courier, if there is only one square color, it will draw outlines around the squares as shown in this preset: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DMaorider+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault But Diagram Designer doesn't do this. It just shows a solid board with nothing to separate the squares.


Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 18, 2020 01:07 AM UTC:

Something seems wrong with the code that displays comments on a game page. This page: https://www.chessvariants.com/41.dir/2pipe.html does not show my most recent comment on the page, but if you view all comments, then it does appear.


Two Pipe Chess. Setup on 41-squares board looks like two tobacco pipes. (9x5, Cells: 41) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 17, 2020 06:30 PM UTC:

Although the rules don't state it, pawns on the first rank can move two spaces, subject to en passant capture. I determined this by looking at the Zillions implementation.


Insane. Pieces change to random type when they move. With program playing this variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 17, 2020 02:51 PM UTC:

What if a piece randomly changes into a pawn on the first or second rank? Can it then move two spaces? What about the eighth rank? Does it then promote? Or is it stuck forever?

The rules don't seem to address any of this.


A new error in apothecary chess- classic[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Sep 15, 2020 01:39 PM UTC:

Edge should work fine but I don't know if it has plug-ins for ad blockers, nor do I know if it runs in a security sandbox. (It's Microsoft and they are not exactly known for putting security first. Or even second.) These are the important things if you are going to continue to run Win7. Firefox should work for you just fine, although Chrome should as well.


Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Sep 14, 2020 05:39 PM UTC:

If you are still running Windows 7, you should discontinue use of Internet Explorer. I would recommend you install Firefox, and then add the uBlock Origin extension (an ad blocker). Firefox runs in a security sandbox, and the ad blocker will reduce the chances of even viewing malware in the first place. Running Windows 7 still won't be 100% safe, but this will be much, much better than running IE. Under no circumstances should you run IE on Win7 at this point.


The Sultan's Game. Variant on 11 by 11 board from 19th century Germany. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 11:43 PM UTC:

I have rewritten most of this page with updated information from Jean-Louis Cazaux's excellent new book A World of Chess, co-authored with Rick Knowlton. The previous version had the initial setup incorrect (both of a player's bishops on the same color) and incorrectly identified the author of a book on chess variants as the game's inventor. Additional historical information has also been added.

I still need to make a similar revision to The Emperor's Game


Summary of Game variations, Clock times and other Information. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 03:59 AM UTC:

This page is a mess which, in my view, should not have been published. If there are over 30 variants to Tiger Chess, they should be listed on that page, not here, were no one would find them anyway - since the name of the page, "Summary of Game variations, Clock times and other Information", does not indicate what it is.

If you'd like to format this variant information in reasonable HTML, I will happily add it to the bottom of the Tiger Chess page. But I am scheduling this page for deletion a month from now. If nothing further is done, I will add a comment to the Tiger Chess page linking to archive.org's copy of this page so that those interested in Tiger Chess will still be able to find it.


88 Hexagons Chess. Hexagonal chess on chessboard with 88 hexagons.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 01:42 AM UTC:

Posted. Interesting looking game!

I converted the graphics to PNG so I could make the backgrounds transparent. The backgrounds were white and the web page background is not white. I may make some small edits to the HTML formatting later, but for now it is pretty good.


Full Cavalry. Rooks are replaced by Lancers and castling is still legal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 11, 2020 01:41 AM UTC:

You're welcome.

Yes, ChessV is still in development, off-and-on. New versions will be forthcoming, but I make no guarantees about what they will include. The effort involved with programming support for the Lancer is probably "moderate". But there is an almost infinite list of things that should be added, and honestly, there are many that are desired by a larger group of users. But it may happen at some point. It is an interesting piece.


Leaping chess. Members-Only Chess centered around the gimmick of knight-like pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Full Cavalry. Rooks are replaced by Lancers and castling is still legal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 10, 2020 11:55 PM UTC:

Published with some minor edits.


Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 10, 2020 10:39 PM UTC in reply to JT K from 10:08 PM:

Yes, "Full Cavalry" is just fine. I'll try to review it tonight. On a quick look it appeared fine.


Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 10, 2020 06:46 PM UTC:

Since members submitting new games with names that are already used has become a common problem, I have added a new alert message to the member submission page to make users aware of the issue.


Copycat chess. Members-Only Variant centered around piece which copy, and also a cat is there.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Apothecary chess preset error[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Sep 4, 2020 01:39 PM UTC:

Yes. As I posted earlier, there was actually no problem with the preset. The problem was that there was an actual illegal move in the game log. The illegal move was originally ignored, but when you fixed it, it would not load the game (which is correct behavior.)


Mad Mate A game information page
. Wooden set for chessgi: captured pieces change hands and can be used as reinforcement.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Sep 2, 2020 05:48 AM UTC:

Dead. Will delete this page in a couple days unless someone has some good reason why it should stay.


Kar OukA game information page
. A variation of Khmer Chess (.rar unix archive file).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Sep 2, 2020 03:31 AM UTC:

This link is dead, and since it is a link to a RAR file, it is not captured on archive.org.

Per Wikipedia, however, this is a variant of Cambodian Chess, which is itself a variant of Makruk. Cambodian Chess probably deserves a page (we have a Zillions file and a Java file, but not a game page), so I will make one. This variant should be mentioned on said page, but I do not think deserves a page of its own. When I have made that page, I will just delete this one.


Double Chess. FIDE Chess x 2(with extra queen replacing what would be an extra king).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Sep 2, 2020 03:13 AM UTC:

I just tested this preset and it seems to mostly work. I tried all four castlings (king-side and queen-side, close-rook and far-rook) and they all worked. Moves often weren't displayed correctly, though. Queen-side castling with the close rook displays and works fine. King-side castling with the close rook does not display as legal, but it will work if you tell it to try anyway. King-side castling with the far rook does not display but will work. Queen-side castling with the far rook (a) does not display the legal move, but it will work anyway, and (b) displays a king move to the g-file as legal that should not work, but does.

Kevin also previously noted a castling in a real game that should have worked but didn't. This is Antoine's preset and he is no longer active. I will try to look at it in a few days if no one else does, but it would be great if someone else could take a look.


Double Chess Game with analysis. Sample game with analysis.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Sep 2, 2020 02:43 AM UTC:

I have updated this page to replace the position diagrams, previously drawn as ASCII graphics, with images dynamically generated by the Diagram Designer.  I also added a link to download the game as a ChessV saved game file to facilitate further analysis. 

I've always been a fan of David Short's Double Chess (16 x 8).  This is both the first time I have seen a game go this long, and the first time I have seen a player castle with the far rook.


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