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Comments by JohnLawson

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Chu Shogi pictures. Photos of a commercial Chu Shogi set.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝John Lawson wrote on Mon, Nov 5, 2012 04:42 AM UTC:
I also went back at looked at the photo linked to, and there are substantially more pieces scattered across the board than the 60 pieces shown in the final set up.

📝John Lawson wrote on Mon, Nov 5, 2012 04:35 AM UTC:
And as if this weren't confusing enough, the Wikipedia page for Chu Shogi, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu_shogi , refers to "Heisei chu shogi", which seems to be Chu Shogi with all the slow-moving pieces in hand at the start of the game, to be dropped later.  This seems to be the same as the Heisei shogi mentioned in the post in the shogivar Yahoo group.
I spent some time looking for Heisei shogi online, and found nothing conclusive in English.  I neither speak nor read Japanese, so I have to leave that research for others.

Alibaba. Jumps two orthogonally or diagonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Sat, Sep 15, 2012 04:16 AM UTC:
In http://www.chessvariants.org/piececlopedia.dir/ideal-and-practical-values-3.html , Betza gives no value, but explicitly states the AD [funny notation] is in practice worth "much less than a knight".

xkcd comic[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Thu, Aug 2, 2012 09:44 AM UTC:
Yup, I follow xkcd, and that one made me laugh out loud at work.

Minishogi. On a 5 by 5 board. (5x5, Cells: 25) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Sat, May 19, 2012 10:18 PM UTC:
Minishogi has not been the smallest shogi for quite a few years.  It would be hard to surpass Bushi Shogi.  http://www.chessvariants.org/index/external.php?itemid=BushiShogi

What's New page error[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Thu, May 17, 2012 04:19 AM UTC:
Something is not right on the "What's New?" page:

 Last item created or updated 163 DAYS ago.

Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Mon, Apr 2, 2012 04:30 AM UTC:
This seems better than the current text, but you might want to make it a little clearer that when you say 'Chess' without modification, you are referring to the modern variant originating in Europe.

On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Sun, Feb 19, 2012 09:18 PM UTC:
David, I also find the 'point-count' classification interesting and possibly fruitful.  One interested in games in general might establish 'point-count' characteristics for other types of games, and then for those games that are ambiguous, one could perhaps, for instance, compare the various 'point-count' analyses of a difficult case like Nemoroth to decide whether it is more a Chess variant or a Fox-and-geese variant.
One of the characteristics could be, as trivial as it sounds, does any game in question take advantage of the physical nature of a chess set to define or clarify aspects of its own rules?

Concise Guide to Chess Variants. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Tue, Dec 27, 2011 03:06 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Wow!

Introducing Economy in CV's?. Several chess variants based on economic principles.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Fri, Nov 11, 2011 02:38 AM UTC:
'Zorkmids' are the currency used in 'Zork', a text-based computer adventure game released about 1980. Using it here is just a joke.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Thu, Jul 7, 2011 07:25 PM UTC:
I've been visiting this chess variant site for almost 14 years.  I like
these posts by George.  They sometimes remind me of things I've
participated in that I have forgotten, and I'll go to the old threads to
review the discussion.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Sat, Jul 2, 2011 10:24 PM UTC:
I'm glad you're back!

The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Sun, Apr 17, 2011 07:45 PM UTC:
My point about the Ghast was not about pushing a piece closer to a Ghast, but pushing the Ghast itself.  There is no compulsion for a Go-Away to flee a friendly Ghast if it approaches, but if the Go-Away screams, the Ghast will move and potentially create compulsions in other pieces not affected by the Go-Away's scream.  It says in the rules 'The Go Away cannot approach a Ghast, and may be compelled to flee an enemy Ghast (but pushing the Ghast further away counts as flight).'
The mind boggles.

John Lawson wrote on Sun, Apr 17, 2011 01:00 PM UTC:
Whew! OK, I'm going to think about that for a while (I have to go back and study the interactions section). Don't Ghasts also cause you a problem, since they can trigger cascading flight?

John Lawson wrote on Mon, Apr 4, 2011 03:44 AM UTC:
I don't understand why you see so many alternatives. What is your thinking on the interaction of the Go-Away and the Basilisk?

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Sat, Feb 26, 2011 04:59 AM UTC:
There is either a post or a comment in an article somewhere on this site
where Ralph admits that he mostly designs variants on 64-square boards
because, as a US-Master-level FIDE chess player, that was the board he
could most easily visualize.  This allowed him to do his play-testing in his
head, without resorting to physical equipment.

Gothic Isles Chess. Fictional historic variant, with Dragons, Wizards and Champions. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Mon, Nov 29, 2010 01:44 AM UTC:
I found the Fairy Tale Draughts link:
http://www.zillions-of-games.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi?do=show;id=406

The Pizza Kings. An experimental army for Chess with Different Armies, with lots of calories.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝John Lawson wrote on Wed, Nov 10, 2010 05:08 AM UTC:
I had originally given the Meatball Knight moves in all directions (a more 'well-rounded' move, like a perfect meatball), but it was way too strong, so I had to lame it. This army is a lot of fun to play with, questions of balance aside.

Papers on phylogenetic analyses of chess variants A book, magazine, journal or pamphlet
. Papers describing phylogenetic analyses of chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Fri, Nov 5, 2010 11:25 PM UTC:
This link is broken, but I found it here:
http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/Alex$20Kraaijeveld.pdf

The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Wed, Oct 27, 2010 05:02 AM UTC:
No, I don't think so. 'No piece, neither friend nor foe, will dare venture upon an an ichorous square'

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Fri, Oct 15, 2010 03:04 AM UTC:
There is an old topic thread on much the same topic at:
http://chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=piece+sets

Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Tue, Feb 23, 2010 02:45 AM UTC:
Roger Hare's shogi pages are here now:
http://www.shogi.net/rjhare/chu-shogi/chu-intro.html

Royal FuryA Zillions-of-Games file
. A Futuristic Chessery Game - relaxed win rules.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Lawson wrote on Thu, Jul 9, 2009 04:07 AM UTC:
I became a chess variantist in 1962, so yes I know how hard information was to find in the olden days.

Bob Abbott published a paperback book 'Abbott's New Card Games', Funk and Wagnalls, $0.95, in 1963, containing the rules to Ultima, so the possibility of cross-fertilization is there.  I happen to have two copies.

But does it matter really?  I see no reason to be concerned with 'primacy'.  They are different games, inspired by an idea that could occur to anyone.

John Lawson wrote on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 06:54 PM UTC:
According to the 'Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants', Royal Fury is dated 1972, and Ultima is dated 1961.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
John Lawson wrote on Thu, Nov 27, 2008 04:28 AM UTC:
Lynn, I was just kidding of course, but there are other symbols that are
ambiguous also.  I recently moved from New Jersey to Texas.  Here they
have monuments to 'Our Brave Confederate Dead', and I've seen a county
courthouse flying three flags, USA, Texas, and CSA.  I'm not sure what they really meant by that, but I drove directly out of the county.

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