[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
Well, to damn it with faint (or dubious) praise, it seems reasonable to me,
at least at first blush.
<p>
With forced captures and an attainment goal, the play will not be
particularly Chess-like, I suspect. Not that that's a problem.
<p>
It has some simularities to
<a href= '../diffobjective.dir/giveaway.html'>Losing Chess</a>, but only
in the middle. I do wonder if the board will just become hopelessly
clogged, particularly the middle board. The problem is, pieces
can only be forced to move by offering them captures, and captures can
only be offered <strong>on</strong> the squares you want to be able to
move pieces <em>off</em> of.
<p>
Perhaps some form of capture other than elevation is required for the
outer boards, such as <a href='../difftaking.dir/circe.html'>Circean</a>
capture where captured pieces are returned to their starting square.
ChrisWitham wrote on Tue, May 14, 2002 08:29 PM UTC:What happens if the top squares get filled up? Is the game a stalemate, or is there a way to clear out the top to make room fo the king and queen? Also this has some resembalance to Cheops, in which one of the two objectives is to have the queen on the top level of the pyramidal board.
In order to prevent the upper levels from being clogged up, perhaps I should introduce a gravity rule: before a player moves, all of his/her pieces that both (1) haven't moved in the past two turns and (2) have an empty square directly below them descend one level. Or perhaps, when an elevation isn't possible, a 'captured' piece could be placed on any empty square chosen by the capturer.
4 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.
I've recently had a strange idea for an 84-square chess variant, and I'd like to get some comments on it. I call it Three-Layer Wedding Cake Chess. The bottom layer is a standard 8x8 chess board with the standard chess piece placement. Above the middle 16 squares is the second layer, an initially empty 4x4 board. Above the middle four squares of the second layer is the third layer, an initially empty 2x2 board. The goal is to get your queen and king on the top layer before the opponent's king and queen can reach the top layer. There is no check, checkmate, or any true capturing. A piece (including P,R,B,N,Q, or K) can move onto a square occupied by an enemy piece only if the square immediately above that enemy is empty. When such a move occurs, the enemy piece is 'elevated' to the square immediately above its current positions. If a player can elevate an enemy piece, he or she must do so. If more than one elevation is possible, the player can choose which one to carry out. A player may move a piece to the square immediately below that piece if that square is empty. Pieces move on the top layers just as they do on the bottom layer, except that pawns may only promote on the bottom layer. FIDE rules apply except as I've contradicted them above (so, for example, there are no 3D moves other than the ones given above,). Previous variants inspiring and influencing this one include Bachelor Chess (the wedding theme), Pyramid Chess (board layout), Reenterent Chess (each square on the top two layers acting like a reentering square for 'captures' on the square immediately below), Losing Chess ('captures' compulsory), and Elevator Chess (inspiring the term 'elevate'). I hope you find this entertaining.