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Grand Apothecary Chess-Alert. 
Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]To the editors. Now this article is ready for review.
Asymmetric Chess. Chess with alternative units but classical types and mechanics. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, May 6, 2021 09:19 AM UTC in reply to x x from Wed May 5 10:37 PM:The AI responds with knight to c6, ignoring the check.
OK, fixed. Thanks for spotting this. The problem was in the j prefix for indicating ski-slides. (The alternative definition gyafW did work without problems.) The Betza parser splits such a move into 2 legs, one to jump over the adjacent square, and a remaining normal slide. But it adapts the range of that slide by subtracting 1 (so that jR4 moves 2, 3 or 4 steps.) Infinite range is indicated by 0, however, and this was adapted to -1. Now the move generator of the AI (in contrast to that of the UI) did not interpret the -1 as an infinite slide, but as a slide up to half the board. I now changed the Betza parser such that it refrains from decrementing a range of 0.
View. I just set white to orc, move black king to e6 and move wywern to h3 (as a setup), click play and move wywern to e3 to give check. The AI responds with knight to c6, ignoring the check.
- Ke6 Yh3 2. Ye3 N'c6
H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, May 5, 2021 09:36 PM UTC in reply to x x from 08:45 PM:Thats cool. The AI doesnt seem to understand checks from Wywerns (ski rook) though, it will happily move its king into check from them.
Ughh, the JavaScript from the Asymmetric Chess comment and the CwdA comment had some variables with the same name (because I of course cloned the latter to make the former), and when they are on the same page (as they are, in the comments listing) one uses the variables of the other. With as a result that in Asymmetric Chess there was a second King piece type, which was not considered royal.
Were you playing on the comments page, or did you create a separate page for the comment first by clicking 'View'?
Thats cool. The AI doesnt seem to understand checks from Wywerns (ski rook) though, it will happily move its king into check from them.
Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, May 4, 2021 11:37 AM UTC in reply to x x from 11:14 AM:Oops, I wrote the Q in the move field, instead of the id field, where I had intended it. Thanks for spotting this!
General moves like queen in the Interactive diagram
Elven Chess. 10x10 variant with 4 new pieces, of which one can double-capture. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, May 4, 2021 10:40 AM UTC in reply to x x from 10:15 AM:you cannot chase away werewolf with weaker piece, opponent can just defend and keep the werewolf
Well, if you chase it away with a Pawn, the opponent would lose the piece he defends with for a Pawn, even though he keeps his Werewolf. So it is not that easy. But it indeed upsets the usual assumptions on tactics; there is no penalty on using the most valuable piece first.
I know your werewolf chess variant. You are right that contageon antitrading rule also feels unnatural (you cannot chase away werewolf with weaker piece, opponent can just defend and keep the werewolf).
I guess you are correct that I am not the target audience (I have never tried chu shogi)
💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, May 4, 2021 09:17 AM UTC:An anti-trading rule of this type is necessary to keep the variant Chu-Shogi-like. I admit that for a Chess player these rules are annoying and seem unnatural (like the ban on perpetual checking in Xiangqi). But they are pretty much a defining characteristic of Chu Shogi, and dropping them would completely change the character of the game. I already did simplify them a bit (dropping the exception for adjacent Lions, which would be taken by igui anyway, and dropping the double-capture exception.)
The problem is that the more effective such rules are in preventing trading, the more annoying they will be in the eyes of a player with a Chess background, as it is really the impossibility to disarm the attack by trading that causes the annoyance. I guess the trading problem with pieces like the Lion is much more severe than with the Queen in orthodox Chess (which also dominates the game value-wise) because he Lion is a short-range piece. Queens act from a distance, and tend to exert their tactical threats from behind the front line, to administer the final blow in a longer tactical exchange. Lions have to jump into the melee, and are so powerful that the only defense against them often is another Lion. So they seek each other, where Queens can easily avoid direct contact.
Of course different anti-trading rules are conceivable, but this probably would not solve the annoyance with them, and would just move the game farther away from Chu Shogi for no good reason. And Chu Shogi is a very well evolved game; one can assume they adopted the rule that works best. E.g. one could forbid Lions to capture each other unconditionally, but it would probably make the attacking Lion too powerful, and would not solve the problem of indirect trading. It would be possible to invert the rules: outlaw recapture of a Lion after Lion x Lion, and outlaw other x Lion when a counterstrike against your own Lion is possible. This might favor a defending Lion too much, though.
In Werewolf Chess I used 'contageon' as a means to discourage trading. This feels somewhat less unnatural / arbitrary (to me, at least). But it completely upsets how tactical exchanges work, which can also be perceived as annoying.
Anyway, the goal of this game was to transplant the 'Chu-Shogi feeling' to a smaller/faster and more Chess-like variant, and the anti-trading rules are an essenial part of that. People that are put off by those rules also would not like Chu Shogi, and they are not the audience I target with this variant.
Interesting idea, its a great translation of the lion to "western-like" chess. The piece additions work great to limit the power of the lion a bit, and feel natural. Unfortunately the anti-trading rule is more frustrating than fun. I understand that the Lion is the main attraction in this variant, and that given its power its very likely to be traded, but antitrading rules just feel wrong. Perhaps making lion weaker, while keeping the main draw (moving twice) would be better.
Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, May 3, 2021 05:25 PM UTC:Shatranj
Makruk (Thai chess). Rules and information. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, May 3, 2021 05:04 PM UTC:Makruk
Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, May 3, 2021 08:04 AM UTC:The Silly Sliders
I have an idea for an army themed on a class of pieces not often encountered in variants: lame ski-sliders. The Picket of Tamerlane Chess is such a piece: it moves as a Bishop, but must minimally move two steps. So it lacks the Ferz moves, but the more distant moves can still be blocked on the F squares. (Unlike a true Ski-Bishop, which would jump over these squares, ignoring completely what might be there.)
The idea is to turn all sliding moves of the orthodox Chess pieces into such a lame ski-slide, and compensate them for the lost moves by giving them equally many leaps in other directions. So the Bishop loses its F moves, but gets the W moves instead. This makes it a sliding version of the Phoenix (WA), like the Bishop is a sliding version of the Ferfil/Modern Elephant (FA). I will call it an Onyx. The Rook likewise loses its W moves, and gets F moves instead. It is the sliding version of the Half-Duck/Lion, and I call it a Lame Duck.
The compound of an Onyx and Duck would be a normal Queen, and is not suitable. To stay within the theme it has to lose all K moves, and should be compensated with 8 other moves. The N moves are the obvious choice for this. That makes the Queen replacement a sliding version of the Squirrel (NAD), and I call it a Squire.
The Knight isn't a slider, and its move is already in the game through the Squire. That leaves a lot of freedom in choosing a move for the Knight replacement. A totally symmetric 8-target leaper that (AFAIK) is not used in any of the other established armies is the Kirin (FD). This is a color-bound piece, but the Onyx isn't, so this doesn't seem to be a major drawback. A Kirin easily develops from b1/g1 through its D move, (and the Onyx from c1/f1 through its distant B moves), so that castling is no problem. I am just not very happy with the name 'Kirin', as it has no western meaning, and starts with K, which collides with King. In modern Japanese 'kirin' means giraffe, but that name is already associated with the (1,4) leaper. Perhaps I should call it an Egg, as its moves are a sub-set of those of the Half-Duck, and make a somewhat round pattern. This piece is called 'Diamond' in Jörg Knappen's 'very experimenal' army the Sai Squad, and since this goes very well with the name Onyx (and perfecly describes the move pattern) I will adopt that name here too.
Note that the total set of moves of the army is nearly identical to that of orthodox Chess. The same moves are just redistributed differently over the pieces. The only difference is that there is a D move on the Egg; if that would have been a W move (i.e. if we would have used a Commoner instead), the correspondence would have been perfect. (But there would not have been a color-bound piece then, and perhaps that is worth somethin too.) So I expect the army to be very close in strength to FIDE.
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satellite=silly
graphicsDir=/membergraphics/MSelven-chess/
squareSize=35
graphicsType=png
whitePrefix=w
blackPrefix=b
promoChoice=RBN
lightShade=#BBBBBB
startShade=#5555AA
useMarkers=1
enableAI=2
pawn::::a2-h2,,a7-h7
diamond::FD:marshall:b1,g1,,b8,g8
onyx::WyafF:crownedbishop:c1,f1,,c8,f8
lame duck::FyafW:duck:a1,h1,,a8,h8
squire::NyafK:princess:d1,,d8
king::::e1,,e8
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Abecedarian Big Chess (ABChess). Buy-your-own-army variant on a big board; 26 piece types. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]i vote that missing Y alphabet should be Yaksha from taikyoku shogi
Mainzer Schach. Large variant with Janus, Marshall, and different setup. (11x8, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Grand Apothecary Chess-Classic. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually while testing with the interactive diagram I have noticed some undesired results. So I'm modifying a bit the game. Please allow me some more time.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually while testing with the interactive diagram I have noticed some undesired results. So I'm modifying a bit the game. Please allow me some more time.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Alert. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually while testing with the interactive diagram I have noticed some undesired results. So I'm modifying a bit the game. Please allow me some more time.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Classic. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Grand Apothecary Chess-Alert. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Salmon P. Chess. Huge three-dimensional game celebrating 10 years chess variant pages. (10x(), Cells: 7500) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Apr 24, 2021 01:03 AM UTC in reply to Vibra_nium from Fri Apr 23 11:19 PM:WHAT ARE THE MOVEMENT OF THOSE PIECES?!
This page describes the movements. They cannot be described in Betza because of the unusual board geometry. If you had read this page, and seen the images, it should be clear to you that this game is not actually playable - by design. It is purely an outrageous, humorous artistic expression.
WHAT ARE THE MOVEMENT OF THOSE PIECES?!
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To the editors. Now this article is ready for review.