Comments by MichaelNelson
Onslaught. Several pieces can capture only on the enemy half, favoring attack. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you for the clarification. It's obvious in the interactive diagram. Likely on the wording of the rules as given, but capable of being misundertood.
Now I'm certain this is the rule, let me give the game an excellent. The slashing rider moves deep into enemy territory and the defense against such should be a thing of beauty.
Rules question: How do moves across the mid-line of the board work? Can a knight on f6 capture on g8 or must it enter the other half of the board as a non-capturing knightrider? If the latter, can it move as far forward as as empty squares allow, or can it only take a single knight leap?
I'm assuming cross the mid-line as a non-capturing knightrider and go as far as you can, but I'm not certain that's correct. Clarification appreciated.
Paragi. Shogi without drop rule + Strong pieces. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]An interesting take on how historic Little Shogi might have evolved if the players had strengthened the pieces rather than introducing the drop rule.
Duck Chess. A Duck that must be moved by both players can block your moves. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Would letting Black place the duck after his first move provide a more balanced game?
Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Zillions played a wild game--a 119-move marathon culminating in a King, Guard, and Harvestman vs. King and Gnu ending. The stronger side was eventually able to fork the King and Gnu for an easy mate. Zillions could have won by trading Harvestman for Gnu, King and Guard vs. King is a forced mate on 10x10, but perhaps that would take more moves.
Camel Decimal Chess. Decimal Chess with Camel. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Exactly the solution to the Camel problem I independently adopted for my unpublished Colorful Osmosis Chess. Camel Decimal Chess should be a good game.
Colorful Osmosis Chess
. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching and can create compounds. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fixed a subtle bug in the zrf. Due to a typo, a black pawn in the j-file could not promote except by capturing. I noticed it by observing a Z vs. Z game where Black blew an easy win by persistently failing to move a pawn from j3 to j2 and promoting, eventually letting White escape by a perpetual check draw. BTW, the Harvestman (and Harvestman compounds) are quite good at saving a lost game by perpetual check on a relatively empty board.
Corrected .zrf uploaded.
Zipfile containing revised zrf, images and ten sample games included has been uploaded.
I notice Zillions is rather fond of the "Four Camels" opening. Indeed it once played an "Eight Leapers" opening. Getting and keeping a compound piece when the enemy doesn't is normally a winning advantage.
Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks, Fergus. Correct All correct images are displayed now. Now getting ready to upload new zrf on that page, with sample games (I will provide ten).
But how do I link to the individual piece images? I don't want to show the whole set.
Board image .gif created and uploaded, working on the piece images. Where are the existing piece graphic files? If necessary, I can convert all my .bmp files to transparent.gif files, but if chessvariants.com already has the correct piece graphics, I'd prefer to use them.
After a large amount of editing, I think the game and this page are really ready for publication. I believe I have a playable game and a reasonable page now. I have to make a few edits to the help text in the Zillions file, and then that page should be ready as well. The Zillions page will probably be ready later today.
Are any further edits necessary or desirable?
Fergus, I know what I was told, I'm glad the rule is nonexistent, it must have been someone else's opinion. I will try the suggestions for better tools and see what works best. If none of those tools give satisfaction, I will upload a Zillions screenshot (trimmed to show just the board) as I wanted to originally.
Bob's suggestion of a piece on the blank space improves the game considerably. I chose the Guard (non-royal King) as the best fit. It provides better King protection and if it persists to the endgame K + G versus K can force mate. The Guard should be a Pawn promotion option as well. In certain positions, it may be the best choice. Thanks to all for the suggestions that improved the game considerably. I should be able to upload the revised .zrf this afternoon or tomorrow.
(Deleted replied to the wrong person.)
A modified Queen doesn't fit the theme, but perhaps a Mann or Commoner (non-royal King) would work well. I'll try that out later today.
H.G. the Diagram Designer is the tool provided by Chessvariants.com and is the preferred tool. The site discourages uploading images--I had originally uploaded a Zillions screenshot which has a proper Harvestman graphic, but the site maintainers strongly suggested I use the Diagram designer instead. Diagram Designer has already defined 26 pieces that don't include the Harvestman so the Rook is the least bad alternative to represent it, as the piece is the game's Rook analog.
Even if I had access to another tool (free, I can't afford to buy one), that would still involve uploading files.
Please tell me how it is possible to add a new piece to the DD piece set, or get the site maintainers not to complain about uploading screenshots.
I can already tell that the new version is much more balanced. The Grand Chess-like setup with Camels on the corners of the board alone on the first rank is much more balanced. I have also extended the osmosis rules. Now when a basic piece captures anything but a Pawn or a corresponding piece, a compound piece is created. The promotion by capturing is reminiscent of Maka Dai Dai Shogi and possibly other large Shogi variants.
Colorful Osmosis Chess . All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching and can create compounds. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Put this on hold for a while. I want to add more sample games to the .zip file, as well as the updated .zrf.
Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks, H.G. A NW can't checkmate, my source was incorrect. No wonder I couldn't figure out how to mate with it. I want to give accurate information about the mating potential of Colorful Osmosis Chess pieces. As I'm revising the game page anyway, I want everything right. Can mate is important in the endgame--it might be quite bad to have a Caliph rather than a Cardinal. If I have this right, to have can mate, a piece cannot be either color-bound or color-switching but must be able to reach squares of both colors on a given move. In Chess, the Queen and Rook have this property, the Bishop and Knight. The Harvestman, Camel, Knight, and Bishop are all either color-bound or color-switching. Likewise, the Caliph (BC) and the Battlemaster (N - Havestman) should lack can mate. Cardinal, Evangelist, and Imam have the can-mate property. Of course, being neither color-bound nor color-switching is a necessary but not sufficient condition for can mate: King + Gnu vs. King is
A piece loses some value if K + piece can't force mate, but loses far less value than a piece that can't check the King. This might be a interesting way to reduce the power of an otherwise overpowered piece.
Bob's Zebras don't fit the theme, but I'm now inspired to create a leaper-heavy game with Knights, Camels, Zebras, and all their compounds with such other pieces as may be needed for adequate mating power.
Some thoughts on the "can mate" property of pieces. Apparently, since K + NW vs. King can force mate, King + X can force mate if X is any of the Harvestman compounds, or presumably where X is the Harvestman itself, though I'm not familiar with mating with NW's and Zillions is not good at it. We know mate can be forced if X is a Cardinal. As has been pointed out, when X is a Gnu, the game is drawn. If X is a Caliph (BC), I assume it is also a draw, as the Caliph is colorbound.
In Chess, a major piece (Queen, Rook) can mate, while a minor piece (Bishop, Knight) can't and this is the definition of major and minor pieces. In Chess, the majors are stronger in terms of overall power as well. This is not necessarily true of variants. It is quite possible for a minor piece to have more overall power than a major piece. Can mate is only a significant part of piece value (the proportion is unknown and may vary).
A thought for research: how much less valuable is a Queen which can't capture a King than a normal Queen? The possibility of King capture is the basis for check and mate, though in Chess and variants using the checkmate rules, the capture is never actually carried out.
For Colorful Osmosis, if my assumptions are correct, the major pieces are Harvestman, Evangelist, Imam, Battlemaster, and Cardinal; while the minor pieces are Bishop, Knight, Camel, Gnu, and Caliph.
Please let me know if any of my assumptions are incorrect.
I've found a flaw in this design--the opening Camel move to the fourth rank is too disruptive to the enemy development, so as White, Zillions always chooses it. This seems to result in an excess of White wins. A recent series of ten test games yielded 8 wins for White, 1 win for Black, and 1 lack of forces draw. This is not acceptable.
I'm experimenting with a fix: play on a 10x10 board, ten pawns on the third rank, pieces (except Camels) on the second rank as in Grand Chess (with the square next to the King empty), and Camels in the corners.
Initial testing looks good. If more tests show more balanced outcomes, I will update these pages accordingly; if not, I will withdraw the game.
For now, consider this game on hold.
BTW the new setup on the 10x10 has a much more pleasing appearance. The rather ugly Bishop Camel swap on one side of the board is no longer needed to give each player one Bishop and one Camel of each color.
Agreed, I like Neo-Nemeroth better. I'll include an Inspired by credit and a link.
I want this to display in What's New as "Inspired by the Game of Nemeroth" but it appears in the listings of my unpublished submissions as "Nemeroth Simplfied" (the original entry which I have reconsidered). How do I fix this? I am also open to suggestions about a possible better name for the game.
I have been trying to add a description but the database won't update.
I have been trying to add a description but the database won't update.
Colorful Osmosis Chess . All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching and can create compounds. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I see that the Alfaerie 1 set for Diagram Designer already has 26 pieces. How would it be possible to add a new piece?
Thanks, Lev for pointing that out. I will edit the page.
I'll see what I can do with the Diagram Designer. I may need to add several images from other Alfaerie sets, Alfaerie 1 doesn't seem to include them.
Need to post a board diagram and do some endgame studies.
Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Zillions of Games. It can play an endless variety of abstract board games, and we have a large collection of Chess variants you can play on it.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This code works perfectly with correctly defined zones:
(define push-n (n (while on-board? (if empty? add (verify false))(if (in-zone? board-edge-n) add (verify false)) cascade n))) (define push-e (e (while on-board? (if empty? add (verify false))(if (in-zone? board-edge-e) add (verify false)) cascade e))) (define push-s (s (while on-board? (if empty? add (verify false))(if (in-zone? board-edge-s) add (verify false)) cascade s))) (define push-w (w (while on-board? (if empty? add (verify false))(if (in-zone? board-edge-w) add (verify false)) cascade w)))
The (verify false)'s are essential to stop move generation when the final square is found, otherwise, Zillions crashes. I decided to use rook-wise pushes to complement the piece's bishop-like move.
I solved the Mason move by using single-step moves and add-partial.
The last piece I'm coding can push a line of pieces. This almost does what I want:
(define push ($1 (verify not-empty?) cascade (while (not-empty? $1) $1 cascade) $1 add))
But if the piece at the end of the line is at the edge of the board, I want to capture it (push it off the board). The above code disallows the move if the last piece is at the board's edge. I wonder if there is a solution using zones or dummy squares.
The piece is inspired by Nemeroth's Go Away (but it can only push one line at a time, and any effects of or on the pushed pieces are ignored).
Indeed, the whole game is inspired by Nemeroth, but on the whole, it's much simpler to code in Zillions. There is an unapproachable piece, a piece that turns the target square to stone (by a rifle-capture-like move), a piece that moves and captures as a king, a piece that lays down a line of stones, and so on. Stones do not move on their own but can be captured or pushed (a bit like ichor without the bookkeeping). Victory is by stalemate or opponent's repetition. There is no concept of compulsion or multiple-occupancy squares.
My game loses much of Nemeroth's peculiar flavor but is interesting in its own right. Pushing pieces of the board will make it complete. I will need to clean up the Zillions file and author a page.
The Zillions user forum seems dead. I registered, but can't start a new topic.
I have the following move macro:
(define Mason-step ((verify (empty? $1))(create Stone) $1 add))
How do I turn this into a slide? All my attempts are generating pares errors.
Divergent Dreamers. Army for Chess with Different Armies where pieces can only move when it has a neighbour. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You need to define what it means for a piece to travel. I assume it means "move without having a neighbor", but this should be specified.
Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Made a slight edit: Pawns may promote to basic or compound pieces. This shortens Z vs. Z games from averaging 100+ moves to 50-70, due to typically more aggressive play. Now King+Pawn vs.King is a win if the enemy King can't stop the Pawn. One will always choose a Cardinal in this case. But in more complex positions, other choices may work better.
You're right of course, Bob. Should be interesting pieces, though. Perhaps a game where the winds are extinction royalty? I expect it will use a large board. I may try my hand at it myself in a a day or two.
Colorful Osmosis Chess . All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching and can create compounds. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Colorful Osmosis Chess. All basic pieces are colorbound or colorwithching. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The North Wind would be an aggressive attacker with a good deal of forward forking power but relatively poor in retreating, while the South Wind is a rather nice defender but hasn't got much attack potential. Bob, do you feel like designing Four Winds Chess?
I have a complete.zrf and should be able to submit as soon as I build the web pages. The game should be in the editor's hands tomorrow or the next day.
I have a name: Colorful Osmosis Chess. Colorful refers to the importance of color-bound and color-switching pieces while osmosis is a synonym of absorption. I decided to not use triple and quadruple compounds. On the right of the King, the positions of the Bishop and Camel are reversed, thus using rotational symmetry as in Shogi rather than mirror symmetry as in FIDE Chess. This provides one Bishop and one Camel on each color. The absence of castling and promotion at the Pawn line rather than the back rank is also very Shogi-like.
I like the Evangelist piece name and I will experiment with triple compounds. The Knight-Camel-Bishop-Harvester quadruple compound would be strange a more than a little frightening. It covers more squares than the Amazon (aka the Terror), but unlike the Amazon, can't mate unassisted.
My mistake. You are correct--it doesn't cover one of the wazir moves even at the edge of the board. But it does confine the King rather nicely as you bring in the King or another piece to cover that square.
I have invented a new variant and have a working .zrf. I don't have a satisfying name for it. (Rather reminiscent of my first variant Separate Realms.)
The essential idea is to use four basic pieces, two leapers, and two sliders. One of each type is color-bound, and the other is color-switching.
For the leapers, I have the Knight and Camel, and the Bishop is the obvious choice for the color-bound slider. For the color-switching slider, I'm using Jörg Knappen's Harvestman from Seenschach, which moves a wazir and then continues as a crooked bishop.
Also, simple pieces can combine with captured enemy pieces as in Assimilation Chess, but the compounds do not split, and there are no King compounds.
So Gnu, Cardinal, and Caliph can appear as well as three Harvestman combinations I've never seen before. I've named the Bishop compound the Metropolitan (a title used in Eastern Orthodoxy for a prelate ranking above an archbishop but below a patriarch). The Camel compound is the Imam, which has the property of mating a bare King on an empty board unassisted. I haven't done the endgame studies to see if mate can be forced. The Knight compound is named Battlemaster, after the Fighter subclass in D&D 5e.
The Harvestman is a good Rook substitute on the whole, though not as good at forcing mate. It does however move in a general rook-like direction with greater mobility. Intuition says this is a reasonable trade-off.
The game is played on a 9x9 board with normal Pawn movement including promotion at the enemy Pawn line rather than the back rank, allowing very FIDE-like Pawn play. Castling is forbidding, so the King is very exposed in the center of the back rank. This is rather reminiscent of Shogi.
A very playable game judged by Zillions vs. itself play. Now I need a name, and I can change some piece names if that fits the theme better.
Boyscout. Moves in a diagonal zigzagline.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm looking for a good name for a piece that moves one square as a Wazir and then continues as a Crooked Bishop. I am using this piece in a game where the four basic piece types are two leapers, one color-bound, and one color-switching; and two sliders, one color-bound, and one color-switching. Three of my basic pieces are Bishop, Knight, and Camel. I devised an approximately Rook-valued piece that is always color-switching. I would also be interested in possible alternative pieces that are color-switching and approximately Rook-valued.
Royal Lion Chess. Chess with a Royal Lion and many strong pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]BTW, mating positions do exist for Royal Lion and Amazon vs. Royal Lion, but I'm not sure mate can be forced.
(deleted)
By intention, the Royal Lion is hard to checkmate. The games run quite long (100+ moves) but draws are not common per Zillions vs. itself at a strong setting. This won't be to everyone's taste. If further testing indicates the game is drawish, perhaps bare Lion should be a win, but so far it doesn't seem to be.
The page should be ready for publication now. I have a working .ZRF, but it needs a bit of polishing.
Decima. Variant on 10 by 10 board where you win when you have 10 points on the 10th row. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I notice the download link for the Decima .zrf is broken. I am downloading .zrf's for my games and some others, this is the only one missing.
ChessV. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A much better player than Zillions. I notice that version 2.2 is scriptable, and the scripting language looks easier than Zillions' Lisp-based scripting language (which is a monumental pain in the a** to debug--all those nested parens). Does ChessV have a scripting reference? I'd love to see it rather than ask a thousand questions in this thread.
Royal Bishop Chess. Simple variant with royal bishop. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Can the Royal Bishop move across attacked squares? A Chess King when castling cannot, neither can the Royal Queen in the excellent Cassia Britania. I'm assuming the same limitation applies to the Royal Bishop, but the piece description should explicitly say one way or the other. Example, can a Royal Bishop on e5 move to g7 which is not attacked even though f6 is?
Cylindrical Chess. Sides of the board are supposed to be connected. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Very nice touchup of the page. You might have mentioned that in problems, there is more than one way to use the cylinder concept. The one here described is chess on a horizontal cylinder, which is the only form that is playable as a game. Other forms have appeared in problems: the vertical cylinder with the first and last ranks connected and the anchor ring both basically both a vertical and horizontal cylinder simultaneously. In the latter case, a1 is connected to both a8 and h1 (and in some version h8 as well, if you really want to go crazy). With rooks and queens instantly attacking each other and the kings in mutual check, we'd need special rules to play this, but a KBB vs K ending on such a board can be analyzed, as well as more complex problems.
Two Move Chess. Designed to alleviate the first move advantage for White using double moves, while retaining the tactics of international chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't rule 3 imply that a player with a bare king is stalemated, even if he has legal moves, since he's not allowed to move his king twice in the same turn?
Pandemonium (Surajang修羅場). Capablanca chess + Crazyhouse.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A very well thought and pleasing out blend of a Capablanca's Chess and Shogi. I am curious about the rule against having identical promoted pieces other than promoted Pawns. I consider it a small wart on a otherwise perfect design.
Sign in to the Chess Variant Pages. Sign in to the Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I was able to sign in using Microsoft Edge with blanet permission to accept all cookie anywhere (the default for Edge).
Makarenko's Chess. Pieces are stacks which can be split and combined to create other pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Definitely reverse the values of bishop and rook. I suppose the prohibtion on splitting the last king even to form another king is to limit the king's mobity, else last king facing capture could move as a split off a bishop and fuse with a rook all the way accross the board. I wonder if this prohibition is needed for playabilty. My guess is that the case where my king is captured, I capute the enemy king, but opponent can't form a new king on the next turn would be a draw. I think I would prefer the simpler rule "a player who has no king at the start of his turn loses."
Backlash. Play on two boards, but capturing on one board leads to a backlash on the other! (2x(8x8), Cells: 132) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Decima. Variant on 10 by 10 board where you win when you have 10 points on the 10th row. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Pocket Mutation Chess. Take one of your pieces off the board, maybe change it, keep it in reserve, and drop it on the board later. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks, H. G. I will try promoting only the Cardinal and related pieces by one class, returning the SuperBishop to class 3, and adding the SuperKnight to class 4. Hopefully, its value is close enough to the SuperRook to be playable--exactness is not required, just as long as it is a fair amount closer in value to the SuperRook than to the Cardinal, Chancellor, or Queen. It is an important design goal of mine to have more than one piece in every value class except 1 and 8 (and I wouldn't object to additional pieces in these classes, if any come to mind). Any addition piece suggestions are welcome if there are good numbers available about their values.
I am playtesting the following changes to the Pocket Mutation Chess value classes: Class 1: Pawn Class 2: Knight, Bishop Class 3: Rook, Nightrider Class 4: SuperRook, SuperBishop* Class 5: Queen, Chancellor, Cardinal* Class 6: SuperChancellor, ChancellorRider, SuperCardinal*, CardinalRider* Class 7: Amazon, SuperChancellorider, SuperCardinalRider* class 8: AmazonRider Those pieces marked with * have been move up one class. I have been motivated by H. G. Muller's research which shows a higher value for the Cardinal than Betza's Atomic Theory would predict--it is essentially equal to a Chancellor or Queen, rather that about halfway between a Chancellor and a Rook as Betza suggested. I am contemplating adding a SuperKnight (KN, class 4?) and maybe a SuperNightrider (KNN, class 6?). Any thoughts?
Wand Chess. Pieces have a magic wand, that gives random outcomes.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The rules as given make the answer to the first question clear: checkmate ends the game immediately (if the checkmating move is legal) per the FIDE rules which apply to this game unless otherwise stated; so what would have happened after is irrelevant. Win for the checkmating player. The second is unclear--an already stoned piece ignores the effect of being zapped, but does stoning undo the effect of a wand which the piece had been zapped with on a previous turn? This is not limited to the sickness case. For example, does stoning a pacifist piece allow it to resume capturing after the stoning wears off? I would answer no to the second question, but am far less sure than in the firs question that my understanding of Ralph Betza's intent is correct. If my interpretation is correct, a stoned King will die at the appointed time, as it is now immune to a wand of healing--so the only recourse available to the king's owner is to checkmate, stalemate, or create a second king before the king dies.
Chess on a Really Big Board. Game that introduced rose and knight-camel-zebra...[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There is an error in the initial setup in this preset (taking Betza's page as correct): exchange the k-file bishop with the l-file piece to get the setup Ralph intended.
Fairy-Max: an AI for playing user-defined Chess variants. A chess engine configurable for playing a wide variety of chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A question for you, H. G.: is there a document somewhere describing your latest research into the value of chess pieces? The Excellent is both for Fairy-Max itself, and for your work on Chess engines and piece value.
Fugue. Based on Ultima and Rococo this game has pieces that capture in unusual ways. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yes, in the position cited, either of the the Cannon Pawns on a2 and e2 can act as spotters for Archer on c1 shoots Pushme-Pullyu on c3. No other friendly pieces can spot in this position. Suggestions of how to reword the rule to make this clearer are in order--as well as any other rewording: I plan to revise this page for clarity (no change in substance). Perhaps a general statement before the specific piece description such as "All pieces act on orthogonal or diagonal lines in any direction (though in some cases, limited by distance)." I'm also thinking it might make the capture rule clearer to phrase it in terms of all shots require a spotter, but if close enough, the Archer can spot for itself. Editors, which would be easier for you: to review submissions for revised pages, or to grant me editing rights to my own game pages--I am comfortable with either.
Upgrade chess. Upgrade initially weak pieces by capturing. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]RPG themed chess has been around at least since Betza's Way of the Knight from 1995. (http://www.chessvariants.org/crossover.dir/wotn.html). Like your idea for earning upgrades, which need to be more liberal than those in Betza's game, since his upgrade ranks increase power more with each upgrade. I can't rate this game "excellent" without playtesting it, but a solid "good" for your idea.
I think Joe Joyce's post on "male predominance at chess" make more sense than the study itself. The explanation of gender differences in Chess may be simpler yet. **On average**, men are more likely than women to purse activities that have no social utility apart from the pleasure of doing that activity. Chess is in that category (as indeed are checkers, card games, etc.) No insult intended--I am interested in Chess variants for my own pleasure and no other reason and feel no need to apologize to anyone for that fact, and neither judge nor wish to judge anyone else for doing the same. I have considered that Chess can teach critical thinking, strategic planning, etc. Yes it can, but so can a myriad of non-game things useful in themselves apart from teaching. "Male predominance at chess" is a current fact of reality. I suspect there are males who believe this has 1) always been true, 2) always will be true, and 3) SHOULD be true. A significant number of such males will then reason by analogy about "male predominance in science", etc. I won't touch of the idea of a female human being who argues for "male predominance ...", the very idea terrifies me.
Not-so colorbound cylindrical chess. Game only with pieces, that would be colorbound on normal board. (7x8, Cells: 56) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Excellent thematic variant! I've not seen the idea of imposing colorboundness on all pieces but removing it by the odd number of files on a cylindrical board, thought I recognize component ideas. A small quibble about promotion: Promotion to a Knight is needed in FIDE Chess, as its moves are not a subset of the Queen's move. In some positions, the Knight can checkmate when the Queen can't even check. This factor does not apply to this game; but there is one case where underpromotion to Rook or Bishop in needed (rather than merely allowed) in FIDE--when promoting to Queen would result in immediate stalemate, but the lesser promotion could force checkmate on a subsequent move. With three combination pieces to choose from, it is much less likely in this variant, but analysis is needed to determine if it is possible: if so, underpromotion must be allowed (if and only if stalemate is a draw).
Double Chess. Two sets of pieces on 16 by 12 board. (16x12, Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Assuming that the laws of check follow FIDE rules (which is a reasonable assumption for a variant player by orthodox chess masters) Checking both Kings simultaneously is quite possible by discovery or fork, it is not automatically mate in the case of the fork, as the checking piece is potentially capturable, but cannot be answered by interposition or King move. Discovered check whereby each King ends up checked by a different piece is checkmate: there is no possible way to answer both checks. A line piece can also check by pinning one King to the other, for example Kings on a1 and c1, b1 and d1 vacant, enemy Rook moves to e1. This can be answered by capturing the Rook or interposing on d1 (not b1).
I've been corresponding with Matteo about programming this most interesting game, but I thought I would share with the Zillions programmers among the CV community. I have solved the first problem: rather than using last-to? (which would allow the movement of the same piece on the first and third moves of a turn) I set a has-moved attribute for the piece whenever it moves, and verify that this attribute is clear before allowing the move. After each turn (three moves), I have a random player scan the board and clear all has-moved attributes, so that all pieces can move freely on the next turn. This technique will work for any number of multiple moves. The drops restriction will require a board scan to find the friendly King.
Matteo, I didn't take the fact that Black chooses his arrangement after White is finished with his into account. My error in not noticing this. In this case, if any balancing is needed, limiting White to two moves on the first turn should be quite sufficient. I think my rule is about right for a triple move game with a) fixed setup b) random setup or c) players choose setup by placing one piece at a time in turns.
Congratulations on a fine first effort, Matteo! The triple move idea is untried, so far as I know, and will need play testing to see if it makes the game too explosive. If that is the case, this game should still keep most of its flavor as a double move variant. (Hope triple move works out, I really like that.) In any case, a balance rule to reduce the first move advantage is in order. For a double move game, the rule is well known--White may make only one move on the first turn. I propose a triple move analog to that rule: On the first turn, White makes one move. On the first turn, Black makes one or two moves. On the second turn, White makes one or two moves. On subsequent turns, the player on move makes one, two, or three moves.
Every Man a Pawn. Each piece has the powers of a Pawn (except promotion) in addition to its normal powers. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mr. Zanotelli raises an interesting point. His is indeed a possible way to apply the FIDE Pawn rules to the changed circumstances of this game. But Peter Aronson's way is equally valid. In the case of FIDE Chess, they are equivalent statements of the same rule, as a Pawn cannot make its first move from any place other than the second rank, and a Pawn on the second rank cannot have moved previously--neither of which conditions apply to the Pawn moves of other pieces in this game.
On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]IMHO, Muller's 7 criteria look quite useful for estimating how chess-like a game is--a continuum, rather than a binary is/isn't categorization. They would provide a conceptual framework for observations such as (to intentionally cite an extreme example) Capablanca's Chess is more chess-like than the Game of Nemeroth. Where the line is between chess variant and non-chess games cannot and indeed need not be determined exactly. The question is, is a given game chess-like enough for it to be useful to consider the game a chess variant--can a useful number of Chess concepts be helpful in playing and analyzing the game? But drawing lines can be fun and useful if it isn't absolutized. Approached in a spirit of 'reasonable people can disagree', everyone should be free to chime in. As a starting point for looking at some edge cases, I offer my own game Wizards' War for consideration: 1. It has royal pieces, though capturing them is not the only method of victory. 2. It is entirely pawnless (in the Muller sense--many games are pawnless in the sense of 'this game has no piece that moves like an FIDE pawn'). So is it a chess variant or not and why? Bonus points for citing games that are clearly but not hugely more/less chess-like.
George,is the mate# also one for pieces such as the Amazon which can force mate without the assistance of the friendly King? Is there a need to distinguish these pieces from mate number 1 pieces such as the Rook which can easily force mate with the help of the friendly King but not without it?
Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Note that Xiangqi had no divergent pieces until the cannon was added, in the original version all pieces moved passively and captured in the same way. On the other hand, the Pawn in the various forms of early Indo-Persian Chess has been divergent since the earliest known times. If divergence is an evolutionary change, that suggests that Indo-Persian Chess is older that we currently think it is. On the other hand, it could be an import from some non-Chess Indo-Persian game, perhaps acquired from a Greek game at the time of Alexander the Great. This last factor does not apply at all to China. Note that divergent Pawns are conspicuously absent from Xiangqi, Janggi, and Shogi, but do occur in various SE Asian variants, which have influences fom both China and India. So I would propose the points: 1. Maybe both the Indo-Persian origin theory and the Chinese origin theory are wrong and two different but somewhat similar games were developed independently, perhaps with some mutual influence on one another. 2. My idea could easily be wrong (probably is). 3. So could anybody's idea be wrong, whether they think Chess originated in China, India, Atlantis, or Mars. 4. Documentary evidence is not definitive, nor is it likely to become so. 5. It ultimately doesn't matter, however interesting the question is. 6. It sure as hell isn't worth a. practicing racism, or b. accusing others of racism.
The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Perhaps a rule change for the Go-Away scream is in order. I would suggest something like this: 1. All pushes are executed. 2. Any Human to Zombie promotions are executed. 3. Any effects resulting in piece destruction are executed (engulfment, zombies on ichor or multiple occupancy squares, etc.). 4. Any petrifications are executed. All partial moves under a single number would be deemed simultaneous. Under this proposed rule, the owner of the Go-Away is unable to specify the order of effects. This will reduce the tactical complexity of these moves and hopefully render the programming problem tractable. Whether it would overly damage the peculiar and interesting flavor of Nemoroth is a question I'm not qualified to answer.
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I solved the colorbound pieces on a nine-file board in the early versions of my Colorful Osmosis Chess in exactly the same way--I added a tenth file and filled the square next to King with a piece I called Guard: a non-royal king.