Comments by benr

I filled in the board size metadata as 8x8, but perhaps it would be better as 8x15 (still with 64 cells)?

You should add the western-style piece images for the rest of the pieces in the Pieces section (to align with the interactive diagram).

Snark or not, I agree with H.G. that this is entirely too much art for a piececlopedia page. If you wanted to get feedback on the various outputs you've generated (to decide on one or two for the page), that should've been done in comments.

The promotion zone the article mentions makes no sense to me

Indeed. And the CECV and Moeser both say that the promotion zones are E*5 and A*1. (Not also D*5 and B*1 as you suggest, perhaps just because the pawns there can still advance one more.)

Also, @Fergus, the green version of the item description here is completely unreadable on the new background color of comment headers.

From Jeff's website, in the Torus Games source code zip, there is a Revisions History file that lists Jan 2006 as "Initial Torus Games 2.0 release." I've tentatively set the invention date for this game as 2005.

Hmm, I didn't have the Centaur in mind for this tag, but I guess it fits (Royal Court, Sac Chess). Any opinions about that?

What about pawn compounds (any existing games aside from some absorption games? Speaking of...should Absorption Chess be here?)?

@Fergus, clicking the links at the top of this comment (the link to the tag page or its comment list) doesn't work, again something about the + in the name. I suppose at this point we should just change the name and avoid url encoding characters in tag names?...

@BnEm: this page doesn't qualify for the Chess+Compounds tag, with the unicorn (debatable I suppose) and jester (not debatable, I think).

I've started occasionally getting full-page google ads on my phone when clicking from one CVP page to another (or coming back to a page from a sleeping screen). They seem to be between the two pages: the second page takes a moment to load after I dismiss the ad.

As the author emphasized in their last comment, the conditions apply "After your move".

The chess board is already too small. Why would you make it even smaller?

I particularly like small or mini variants.

• Clarifying the rules on the Pawn's double step that Reiniger mentioned
  • Does the double step for Pawns also apply to White Swans?

This has already been clarified in the page.

• A distinctive piece image for the Black Swan
• The movement of the Black Swan

Black Swans aren't pieces, but one possible outcome (specifically, any outcome with multiple pieces) when revealing a White Swan.

If a White Swan coming from the first rank gets flipped over on the second rank, it can be subject to capturing.

This should be in the Rules section in my opinion, if it is meant as a rule. You may want to be careful with this though, as you may encounter a problem with having to keep track of which White Swan started where, and thus which ones are able to be captured.

Actually, this seems to be nonsense and could just as well be removed. A white swan moving from anywhere immediately gets replaced; since it no longer exists, there's no point in saying anything about its being subject to capture.

But this means that the opponent having more roses isn't necessarily good for you, right? It allows them to win by blossoming more readily (even if it allows you to win by checkmate more easily)?

I think the rules are nearly complete now, with one exception: pawns' two-step. Since they only appear later in the game, do they get one, or no? If they do, does it depend on their location and/or limited to their first move, and does en passant exist?

A White Swan coming from the first rank can be flipped over on the second rank, provided there is an empty square to land on. In that case, any White Swan landing on the second rank can be subject to capturing, but only after being flipped over and replaced by the corresponding pieces.

If an enemy piece lands on a square on the second rank, the White Swans from the first rank can capture that piece by a Pawn like move. If this happens, the White Swan will also have to be flipped over and replaced by the piece/pieces they represent, counting as a single move.

These paragraphs don't seem needed anymore; they're natural consequences of the main rule, right?

How are the pieces introduced to the board? Players alternate turns placing their pieces?

You don't need to separate the pawn and king placements; since they're forced, just place them all at once.

I would create a new page for the modern elephant.

I'd be fine with dropping the Elephant Link entry from this page, if others agree that applying the term elephant to the alfil is outdated (we can always keep a note in the text here and in the new FA page to help direct folks).

This has ended up without a description as I submitted the form in a rush due to some apparently bugged aspects of both logging in and the Submission form (I might describe those further in another comment); the metadata editing form I now have access to was very useful for setting this to be a Piececlopedia page and correctly assigning attribution, but it seems (and I think this has been noted before) it lacks a field for adjusting the Description (as opposed from the, distinct, What's New text); is there any way for me to do this?

Page descriptions can be edited from the editors' Edit Links page ([links]). You should generally modify the Primary link; non-Primary ones are used to display e.g. alternative names in index pages, but are excluded in searches with primarylinksonly=on.

The rules are not clear, and in a similar fashion to mathematichess: you assume too much of the reader to understand what you mean instead of what you write.

As in mathematichess, it would probably help to group the rules into logical clusters, instead of the more-narrative style that's here now.

On to specifics:

1. (Not a rule question) Fisher Random was "unsuccessful" at randomizing chess?? Arimaa is random!?
2. Using "Black Swan" as both piece and event is just asking for confusion; the thematic gain is not worth it IMO.
3. When multiple pieces are revealed, the owner gets to choose their placement?
4. Do swans flip/reveal immediately after any move, or do you get to choose??
   1. If the latter, do you have to on the 8th rank?
   2. If the latter, with multiple pieces revealing on 7th/8th rank, can you place a pawn on 8th? If so, does it promote immediately?

Since Black Swans are flipped over one by one, there is not the risk that the board might be jammed, considering that the occurence of Black Swans (events) is only 4 out of 20.

It might be extraordinarily unlikely, but I think it is possible. Might as well say what to do.