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Comments by JeffRients

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Mitregi. Larger Shogi variant with more powerful diagonal pieces. (10x9, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Sat, May 29, 2004 02:13 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
The more I think about it, the more I am liking these variants,
particularly the Mitre.  It seems like a nifty little piece.  The Hump is
a little less obvious direction to go in, and I worry about its
usefullness on an average-sized or small board.

The mixed pawn line seems inelegant to me.  As a matter of personal
preference I would like the pawn line to be all one type of piece.

Geodesic Chess. Variation of hexagonal chess on a geodesic sphere with a few new pieces added. (Cells: 279) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Sun, May 30, 2004 09:09 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Although I'm not very interested in playing on a geodesic board, I like
the way the pentagons break up the playing field into sections.

Also, the Templar and Obelisk are interesting pieces.  Are they original
to this variant?

Contest to design a chess variant on 44 squares. Our annual N-squares chess variant design competition.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Mon, May 31, 2004 02:12 PM UTC:
If at all possible, could some kindly editor please move Monkey King Chess and Canyon Chess to the Competing Entry list in time for the opening of voting tomorrow? Voting is opening tomorrow, right?

Enochian Chess. Four-player team variant of the Golden Dawn. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, Jun 10, 2004 01:29 AM UTC:
I believe the spelling of 'priviledge' can be attributed only to Mr. Zalewski and not to any earlier Golden Dawn practitioner. As far as I can tell, there is no evidence to indicate any special significance of this word within the occult framework of the Golden Dawn. Personally I had chalked the whole thing up to differences between American and British spelling.

📝Jeff Rients wrote on Sun, Jun 20, 2004 08:06 PM UTC:
At the beginning of the game the corner squares are at double capacity, a
king and another piece.  The original Golden Dawn method squeezes two
pieces onto a normal sized square.  The point of my odd-shaped board is
that actual play is helped by using enlarged corner cells.  This allows
players to avoid crowding on the corner squares.

The oddly shaped board shown in the diagrams is one of my own making.  I
know of no one else that has used or proposed such a board for Enochian
chess.  One can play Enochian chess on an orthodox 8x8 board.  The only
difficulty is the rather cramped conditions that the king and his guest on
the throne square must endure at the start of the game.  My board merely
gives the king the elbow room that a personage of his rank is due.

Circular Chess. Chess on a round board. (16x4, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Wed, Jun 23, 2004 11:22 AM UTC:
'Isn't it accepted that in a good variant it is desirable to keep as
close as possible to ortho rules?!'

Accepted by who?  I'm not aware of any chess variant governing authority.

A brief perusal of this site will reveal dozens or even hundreds of
variants more unorthodox than Circular Chess.  

'Yet the Circular Society rules disallow en passant and castling.  
(Why are these differences necessary?'

I think the answer provided by the Society seems perfectly adequate.  I
would not expect a neophyte chess player to write a master level game. 
Nor do I see any reason to scorn simple variants.

'Sorry to jump on this, but is that really a good basis for forming
a variant's rules, basing them on the predjudices of a beginner
player?!'

I think the successes of this variant (its own Society and championships)
go far in establishing that Circular Chess was soundly constructed.  Keep
in mind that the audience for Circular Chess seems to consist largely of
pub patrons, not chess fanatics.  If anything, chess variantists who want
to see there games actually played by a mainstream audience might do well
in emulating Mr. Reynolds' design approach.

Navia Dratp. An upcoming commercial chess variant with collectible, tradable pieces. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 2, 2004 01:11 PM UTC:
'The other problem I see with this game catching on is that collectible pieces are going to cost much more than collectible cards.'<br> I think a better analog to Navia Dratp would be the 'Clix' collectible miniatures put out by <a href='http://www.wizkidsgames.com/wk_home.asp'>WizKids</a>. Booster pack containing only a handful of pieces run something like $10 in the US. Still, I'm not sure that a chess variant will be able to compete commercially with clicky games. I agree that the name is horrible, but what I think about it is a lot less important than what Bandai's target demographic thinks about it.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Jeff Rients wrote on Wed, Jul 7, 2004 10:24 PM UTC:
There's probably no need to be concerned yet.  I submitted Knight Chase on
April 21st and that just got posted last week, after Enochian Chess went
up, which was a later submission.

Delta PIBROKEN LINK!. Commercial chess variant with science fiction theme.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 03:59 PM UTC:
The link no longer contain information about the variant. This variant is now sold only through an eBay store: <a href='http://stores.ebay.com/Guys-Board-Games-new-collectibles'>http://stores.ebay.com/Guys-Board-Games-new-collectibles</a>

DjambiA game information page
. Four-player all-against-all game with unusual pieces; also known as Djambi.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 04:06 PM UTC:
An English explanantion of the game can be found in the second half of <a href='http://www.gamecabinet.com/sumo/Issue22/node11.html'>this page</a>. A picture of the board can be found <a href='http://www.abstractstrategy.com/djambi.html'>here</a>.

Fidechel A website
. Unique styled chess pieces and 3D chess game in development.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 04:17 PM UTC:
Link appears to be broken. No further info on 'Fidechel' in Google.

Kaissa A game information page
. Decimal variant developed from descriptions in John Norman's Gor books.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 04:27 PM UTC:
Link broken, but the pop-up ads seem to be working fine!  Information on
this variant may be found at http://www.kaissa-thegame.com/

Kaos: The Game A game information page
. Multiplayer game on a 7x7 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 04:32 PM UTC:
Link broken. A review of the game can be found at <a href='http://www.gotdice.com/kaos.htm'>here</a> with more information in its <a href='http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/3375'>BoardGameGeek entry</a>.

Partner Chess A game information page
. Commercial two and four-player variant on smaller cross-shaped board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 04:49 PM UTC:
New link: <a href='http://partnerchess.twoffice.com/'>http://partnerchess.twoffice.com/</a>.

World War Chess A game information page
. Commercial variant with pieces more suited to a war game.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 05:19 PM UTC:
New link: <a href='http://www.worldwarchess.com/'>http://www.worldwarchess.com/</a>

Rook Mania. Game where all pieces have different sorts of Rook-like moves. (7x7, Cells: 43) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Jul 9, 2004 08:31 PM UTC:
If two foes are equidistant and orthogonally aligned to a Basilisk are both frozen?

Comments on Grand Chess. Notes on Grand Chess and a variant. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Fri, Aug 20, 2004 04:21 PM UTC:
'Michael Howe chided me for wanting to change the rules of an existing
chess varianr without the inventor's approval. Excuse me, but isn't that
like leaving the science of aviation entirely in the hands of the Wright
Brothers?'

The folks following the Wright brothers generally built their own planes,
rather than taking the model the brothers made and modifying it. They
apllied the principles of the Wright brothers to new constructions. Rather
than offer to change an existing variant, why not propose a similar variant
under a new name? Changing an existing game without altering the name leads
to confusion because the older form of the game becomes obscured. These
days if I want to find some players for a Dungeons & Dragons game I have
to specify which of more than a dozen versions I mean. When a game author
does not have to worry about Brand Identity, why not just use a new name
for your variant? Taking your method to its logical conclusion, your
version of Grand Chess might as well be called simply Chess.

PiRaTeKnIcS. Pirates on ships fight each other in 44-squares chess variant. (6x8, Cells: 44) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Mon, Aug 23, 2004 04:45 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Every time I come back to this game I like it more and more. I like pirates as much as the next guy, but I think the theme actually detracts from the game. 'Triadic Chess' is a super variant that brings a great idea to the table. 'PiRaTeKnIcS' seems too gimmicky.

Supremo Superchess. Decimal variant with extra powerful pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, Aug 26, 2004 01:58 PM UTC:
I think perhaps that Frederick overreacted a bit. After all 'Supremo' and 'Supremo Superchess' are not the exact same name. However, a simple Google search of www.chessvariants.com would reveal the prior existence of a variant called Supremo. When working on new CV projects I have found the Google search tool provided on the CV pages main index to be invaluable for avoiding these sorts of issues.

General Comments Page. Page for making general comments.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Wed, Sep 8, 2004 03:36 PM UTC:
External links will continue to die at an alarming rate as long as people continue to believe that publishing chess variants as board games is a commercially viable endeavor.

Contest to design a chess variant on 44 squares. Our annual N-squares chess variant design competition.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Sat, Oct 16, 2004 09:27 PM UTC:
I've had the same problem as Erez in mailing my votes.

Jeff Rients wrote on Wed, Nov 3, 2004 01:28 PM UTC:
What's the status of the contest? Is voting closed? Have prizes been announced?

Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, Dec 9, 2004 03:01 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Congratulations to Mr. Aronson!

Enochian Chess. Four-player team variant of the Golden Dawn. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, May 18, 2006 02:21 PM UTC:
While Mr. Nichols is certainly entitled to his opinion, I thought I made my intentions quite clear in this article. The divinatory aspect of Enochian Chess bears little interest to me, nor did I consider it within the scope of this site. If, as Mr. Winther suggest, chess games throughout the ages have been used for occult purposes then I would love to see more on the subject, as it may shed some light on the development of the game. However I am hardly qualified to comment on this area.

Citadel. Simple chess variant from early 20th century on 45 degrees turned board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jeff Rients wrote on Sat, Dec 11, 2010 12:04 PM UTC:
Boardgamegeek.com has a page with photographs: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10252/citadel

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