Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Earlier Reverse Order LaterLatest
Archchess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Jul 28, 2004 04:31 PM UTC:

ChessV now supports this game. Since some rules are not known exactly, I had to make some guesses based on information on this page. So here you have it:

Castling: Castling is allowed if neither piece has moved previously. The King always slides 3 squares when castling to either side. The King may not castle into or through Check, but there is no prohibition against castling out of Check.

King's Leap: The King may also make a single 2-space leap horizontally or vertically on its first move. You may not leap into Check, but may leap out of it. Attacks on the square jumped over are irrelevant.

Misc: The special 2-space pawn move restriction mentioned here is implemented. Stalemate and 3-time repetition are considered draws. The 50-move pawn rule is also in effect.


George Duke wrote on Mon, Feb 7, 2005 09:09 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
'ABCLargeCV': With low piece-density(40%) and Pawn's needing strengthening by later CV standards, Archchess from about 1683 features a new piece Centurion. Squirrel is now the favoured name for the type of three-directional two-square leaper. One good use of Centurion/Squirrel is 2002 Quintessential Chess. Contrast the power density here with 17th-century Carrera Chess' high power density. Archchess has not so many major pieces and two more rows than Carrera's; both factors contribute to its relatively low PD. The two forms of chess originate in southern Europe which had the best players then.

Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Feb 8, 2005 12:02 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I have played this game many times now, and consider it to be very good. It would rate 'Excellent' compaired to other CVs of its era (I like it better than Carrera's Game.) I think Archchess would be even better, though, on a 10x8 board.

George Duke wrote on Tue, Oct 18, 2016 07:53 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

ArchChess in the 17th century has what we call now Squirrel, D+A+N. Recently there was Hippogriff found in Tamerlane Chess of 14th century, where Hippogriff restricts 13th century Grande Acedrex Gryphon to its distant squares. Tamerlane or Timur's also has Dabbabah, so the Dabbabah had been around for ArchChess to pick up and make the probably first tri-compound it calls Centurion, settled on as Squirrel or Betzan AND today -- the order does not matter in Funny Notation compounds, so long as they are not sequential or double move pieces.

So Quintessential Chess is one new CV using 17th century Centurion/Squirrel, and there are 19th C. games with Squirrel for a continual line of succession.


4 comments displayed

Earlier Reverse Order LaterLatest

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.