Sam Trenholme wrote on Wed, Mar 15, 2006 07:43 PM UTC:
Over three years ago, I pointed out that this game is probably too drawish, based on looking at the game mechanics (the king is too hard to checkmate). I'm not surprised that both games of Glinski's Hexagonal Chess played on the game courier server ended in draws.
My Russian isn't good enough to look at all of the games played in tournaments on the Russian page, so I can't get a sense of the draw percentage there, but I will bet you it's a lot bigger than the corresponding FIDE Chess draw percentage.
Here are three ways to make this game less drawish:
The king can only move to one of the six hexes that fully touch the hex the king is on. I proposed this over three years ago. As an aside, a rule like this will also make many 3d Chess games less drawish.
Bare king is a win for the other player; Mr. Gilman suggested this.
My Russian isn't good enough to look at all of the games played in tournaments on the Russian page, so I can't get a sense of the draw percentage there, but I will bet you it's a lot bigger than the corresponding FIDE Chess draw percentage.
Here are three ways to make this game less drawish:
- The king can only move to one of the six hexes that fully touch the hex the king is on. I proposed this over three years ago. As an aside, a rule like this will also make many 3d Chess games less drawish.
- Bare king is a win for the other player; Mr. Gilman suggested this.
- Add Shogi-style drops to the game
- Sam