Game Reviews by Abdul-Rahman Sibahi

This game looks certainly interesting , (and thanks to Jeremy Good for pointing it out for me.)

What I like about it , tho , is not the pieces selected , or the starting position , but rather the Recruitment rule . It certainly could be a mutator , in the same breath as suicide or atomic (but not necessarily as playable with normal chess , think Recruitment Chess .)

However , I doubt that it will make me return to the Chess Variants pages . Even FICS I am playing every now and then with no real commitment . It is refreshing , however , to see people thinking outside the box again , in a very Betza-like fashion . Keep up the good work .

[I took the liberty of moving the rest of your remarks to a separate thread, hope you don't mind. - JG]

I like it ! It sounds very fun and very well thought-out.

The only thing I don't like about it is the Elephant. It probably would be better to have the Alibaba instead. (So that the Courier can be a combination of the Guard and the Alibaba as well.)

I would rename the pieces, calling the Alibaba the Courier (which what it is called in Modern Courier Chess,) and the Jumping General (or Squire) for the Current Courier.

In the preset, you might want to tick the 'Exclude pieces not in Setup' box.


One Question : A pawn on the fourth rank, is it entitled to the double-step, as in Wildebeest Chess ?

Excellent graphics. I finally got to appreciate the starting position (and I just realized that there's no Prince in the starting setup.)

However, I still don't think this game is playable for humans. Not because of it's complexity, but because of the many piece types.

I made an attempt to simplify this game, a whole lot, to make it more playable and closer to Standard two dimensional Chess. I called it the Tower's Game because it's played on a tower-like board.

I like this game !!

I have an observation.

If we merge the board rotated to the right with the board rotated to the left, We get Queens for Rooks, Unicorns (BNN) for Bishops, and NJZ (Knight + Camel + Zebra) for Knights, Queen of the Night (BRNN) for Queen.

Sounds like a nice variant.

If we subtract the original pieces movements from Rooks, Knight, and Bishops, we get Bishops for Rooks, Bisons for Knights, Nightriders for Bishops, and Unicorn for Queen.

This makes a nice CwDA army. Don't you think ?

I will post this into a new page, since it is a very different variant.

Sounds interesting. I wonder, what if one, or both, of the two princes is a Desert King, so to speak (A combination of the desert Wazir and the desert Ferz.)

Knights could also move like the Chinese Mao, but capturing an enemy piece if it happens to be orthogonally adjacent, and they can capture multiple piece at the same turn.

I would like to try the game as it is here. I'll wait for the preset.

You can add the following unique properties for the Rook and the Bishop:
* The Rook is the only piece that has a special move with the King, and 
* The Bishop is the only colorbound piece.

I would personally suggest a neater starting position than the one in use. You have 24 pieces, so it would seem natural to stack them in two 12-square ranks.

I'd suggest tilting the board so it's vertical instead of horizontal. You will have 12 files and 16 ranks. If you want 4 ranks between the two camps then pawns will have to start at the 6th rank. This is my suggestion :


 P P P P P P P P P P P P  6
 T T C C E E E E C C T T  5
 . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
 X X X X X X X X X X X X  3
 G R B S D Q K S D B R G  2
 . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
 
 a b c d e f g h i j k l

Or

 P P P P P P P P P P P P  6
 R C C B S D S D B C C R  5
 . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
 X X X X X X X X X X X X  3
 G T T E E Q K E E T T G  2
 . . . . . . . . . . . .  1
 
 a b c d e f g h i j k l


The X's are Berlin Pawns. They have double-step and may be captured en-passant by other Berlin pawns (and/or normal pawns, if you wish.) Normal pawns promotion rules are as stated in the rules, on the 14th, 15th, or 16th rank. Berlin pawns promote at 11th, 12th, or 13th, with the same promotion rules.


The King may castle with Grand Rooks by moving four squares to the right or the left and the Grand Rook move to the square next to the King. Or with Rooks by moving three squares.

If the removal of the doppleganger pawn was automatic, (not random,) like choosing the closest piece to the captured piece or choosing the closest to the left hand corner, the game wouldn't necessarily be better, but it would be easier to implement in a chess program or a chess server (you have only to make the move, and the program will take care of the rest.)

Just a thought...

I should try this game someday.

an interesting thought, I wonder how the game would play out allowing some mutators? like Suicide, Atomic, Extinction, Alice, Magnetic .. etc ..

I issued an invitation for Suicide Falcon Chess .. just to try it out. I really wonder if there are any lost openings to begin with.

My first impression about this game was the Camel's move. I believe if it was augmented as the Knight was, that is making a (3,1),(2,2),(4,0) leaper called the ENDCAMEL or something, would make things easier to memorize.

The Endcamel is more mobile than the Endknight, yet color-bound. It's also less awkward than the original Camel.

What do you think ?

(I might come back with more thoughts later.)


PS. I can see why you chose the Dicamel; it's the Endknight on the diagonal matrix.

PS2. My apologies, I see you already have invented the Endcamel and called it the Endcaribou.

Sounds like a good game. I haven't played it yet, but looking forward to.

The promotion rules would be easier to memorize if each piece was promoted to the compound piece the does NOT include itself. That is, N to Q , B to M , R to P .

Er.. Also, can the Dragon King and Pope move through check ?

I would suggest enlarging the board a little, just a little, to 11 files x 12 ranks, for the following reasons:

1. dividing the board to three equal areas (The warfield, the white camp, and the black camp.)

2. More importantly, the white squared bishops, in both camps, have quite a field in the opening, which might lead to quick exchanges. Adding a rank would let the white squared bishops from one camp oppose the dark squared ones in the other.

3. The white squared bishop is slightly stronger than the dark squared bishop. (In the current form, a dark colored bishop and a knight can't force mate.)

---
I wonder how the game would be like played with Extinction or Suicide rules.

(It would also be interesting to have a Wildebeest variant.)

---
'the restriction that only if they have at least four of every type can they have more than four of any type.'

I assume that this applies to promotion only ? I mean, if a player has five rooks and one of his knights was captured, surely a rook wouldn't demote ?

Looks like a good game.

However, I would probably like it better if :

* Bishop are replaced by FADs or Omega Wizards (in the corner squares,)
* Lions are replaced by Elephants (Ferz+Alfil,) and
* Gryphon is replaced by Elephant+Scout.

What do you think ?

The Game Courier preset isn't linked to game's page.

In a different note, what if the game was played with Marseillais Chess
style? That is: at each turn, except white's first, the player makes a
move, move a square, than makes another move.

From all the variants listed, I prefer Alethia (Not a big fan of the name
though. I would've liked Wildbeest Los Alamos, 'cause this what it is.)

Wouldn't the Wildebeest be a little dangerous on the small board ?

I love the game. hence the rating.

I might as well make it Excellent once I finish my game.

The thing is, if you divide the playing field to triangles, and play on
intersections, then yes, it IS a hexagonal board.

besides, Xiangqi is playable on a square board. there is a page about ot
somewhere in the site.

The Courier preset :

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MPwalkersandjump

A possible rule to add that when castling normally the king moves two
squares, when castling over the edge the king move three squares.

The notation to this can simply be O-G , O-H , O-C and O-B . It depends on
where the king lands. For discriptive notation : O-KN , O-R , O-B and O-QN
.

I have a question regarding the rules. A Queen may not cross a square
threatened by the enemy, and the Two Queens can't face each other,
because they will both be in check.

What if the Enemy Queen was stuck in the last rank by a Rook or two
Dragons, is it possible to deliver check from a far by the Queen ? She is
not in check because the Enemy Queen can't get there, so I don't see why
not.