Ratings & Comments

I started on adding an introduction, but it's late, and I will have to wait until tomorrow to continue.

Are there any former NOST members around with back issues of NOSTalgia that could be scanned and put on the internet? The NOST website had only a few of the latest issues. Pritchard sometimes used it as a source for his Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, but his descriptions of games are often sketchy rather than complete.

I have updated this page with diagrams and more detailed descriptions.

Some pieces have been renamed

Van -> Wazir (Movement also changed: D -> W)

Ferz(Sa士) -> Ferz(In刃)

John Leslie noticed some bugs in the previous version, and I found out that the latest version on my computer had already fixed those bugs. So I included it in a new zip file with some changes to the initial comments.

While on its own the original diagram on this page was a bit obscure, in conjunction with Fergus' circular diagrams it really clarifies the rationale behind Nadvorney's interpretation of the diagonal move; a bit of thought also reveals why Miller's reasoning in keeping the bishop on its own colour is flawed: if the bishop stays on its own colour you would expect a rook stepping over the pole to change colour as it does on a normal square‐cell board, whereas here (or on any spherical/Klein‐bottle‐shaped board with a multiple of four files) it doesn't. On e.g. a 10‐file board, Miller's reasoning would line up with Nadvorney's.

As for Chess on the Dot, the change in the diagonal's handedness at the poles also keeps it on one colour (on a board of this parity), but isn't stirctly necessary for a closed loop: Nadvorney's version (as can be seen on its diagram) does it just as well, and even Miller's manages, albeit via a much more circuitous route.

Fwiw, here's the original diagram as salvaged from the Internet Archive:

c7  d7  e7  f7  g7  h7  a7  b7  c7  d7  e7  f7
c8  d8  e8  f8  g8  h8  a8  b8  c8  d8  e8  f8
g8  h8  a8  b8  c8  d8  e8  f8  g8  h8  a8  b8
g7  h7  a7  b7  c7  d7  e7  f7  g7  h7  a7  b7
g6  h6  a6  b6  c6  d6  e6  f6  g6  h6  a6  b6
g5  h5  a5  b5  c5  d5  e5  f5  g5  h5  a5  b5
g4  h4  a4  b4  c4  d4  e4  f4  g4  h4  a4  b4
g3  h3  a3  b3  c3  d3  e3  f3  g3  h3  a3  b3
g2  h2  a2  b2  c2  d2  e2  f2  g2  h2  a2  b2
g1  h1  a1  b1  c1  d1  e1  f1  g1  h1  a1  b1
c1  d1  e1  f1  g1  h1  a1  b1  c1  d1  e1  f1
c2  d2  e2  f2  g2  h2  a2  b2  c2  d2  e2  f2 

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I have assigned the round six games!

Charles Gilman called these Zephyr and Lama respectively, though by his description they cannot make the one‐step move that I'm not sure whether you're including. The latter also turns up as an Osprey in Expanded Chess

What's the Flying General in Xiangqi?

In wikipedia Fairy chess pieces they are the Osprey for DthenB and the Ostrich for AthenR

The Princess' diagram disagrees with the text in omitting sideways moves

Although this is called Chess vs Strong Makruk, all it describes is Strong Makruk.

@Bn Em I meant a piece that takes the first 2 steps like a rook and then towards outside like a bishop. The osprey jumps as a dabbabah and then moves towards outside like a bishop. So they are not the same piece.

Unfortunately Erik has not logged in since May and I don't know how to contact him. Any ideas?

Silverman and Microchess cvc files. Microchess is playable between humans, but crashes the ChessV engine. Not sure why.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8t14o11x6lq5294/AACVwG8aPAtAswr-LUd0EqZDa?dl=0

EDIT: I'm slowly adding small chess variants here.