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Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jenard Cabilao wrote on Fri, Nov 14, 2014 01:38 PM UTC:
I wonder what will be of the game once the monarch becomes male. Will there be a new game in that case?

George Duke wrote on Mon, Jul 28, 2014 04:42 PM UTC:
Scotland is represented heraldically by Unicorn, it says in the second sentence of Caissa Britannia rules.  Now Scotland may secede this September from United Kingdom, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-13326310*, thus ending 300 years of union since Act of Settlement and 400 years since James VI of Scotland became James I of "Great Britain" after Elizabeth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Settlement_1701.

Scotia needs own CVs, and respectful to C. Britannia well-thought-out Rules, one can be subvariant of Caissa Britannia by taking the Unicorns with them and replacing with four Knights.  So "Caissa Scotia" is the same except not only new promotion exclusively to Knight, but also two Horses per side to start.

There is also Scottish Progressive Chess (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_chess) already existing.  Friedlander's form of Scottish is better, where each sequence ends early upon either Check or move to threatened square, White moving once then Black twice then White three times, and so on.  Scottish Progressive Caissa Britannia may yet save Uni(cor)n, not to have separate Scotland and England all over again. 

It appears too the most prolific CVer of all time Charles Gilman has nary Scottish-themed CV within his river and place series, although Scotland approaches 9% of United Kingdom in population and 33% land area.

[*High "undecided": http:http://whatscotlandthinks.org/opinion-polls]

Samson Marriner wrote on Fri, Jul 25, 2014 08:10 PM UTC:
in reply to J Andrew Lipscomb's comment: thanks, I didn't understand because the page comments that Dragons can efficiently block Queens, but this could just be because Alibabas have restricted Queen-shaped moves.

 The second part was there apparently (literal), I just missed it.

J Andrew Lipscomb wrote on Wed, Jul 23, 2014 09:11 PM UTC:
"Also, do Dragons block Queens as Alibabariders usually move, or can they block Queens on the squares they leap over (As a semi-leaping Queen)?"

As I read it, Dragons have no influence whatsoever on the squares they leap. For example, a Dragon on d1, controlling the line d3-d5-d7-d9, would not stop an opposing Queen moving a6-h6, crossing at odd distance from the Dragon.

"On one other note, why promote your pawns to Knights rather than Unicorns?"

In order to promote to a Unicorn, you must have lost one of your starting Unicorns.

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Jul 21, 2014 03:29 PM UTC:
One way to formulate it is that the royal Queen can be captured 'en passant' by any other piece. This would not preclude it capturing the opponent royal Queen anymore than any other form of protection would prevent it.

Samson Marriner wrote on Mon, Jul 21, 2014 12:17 PM UTC:
The way of taming a royal queen was an excellent idea.

Also, do Dragons block Queens as Alibabariders usually move, or can they block Queens on the squares they leap over (As a semi-leaping Queen)?

On one other note, why promote your pawns to Knights rather than Unicorns?

Gary Gifford wrote on Thu, Sep 20, 2007 12:26 AM UTC:
With a World Chess Championship going on, with its fair share of draws, and with many complaining that chess is over analyzed... well, I thought of Fergus's Caïssa Britannia. I think that game is very rich in possibilities and would make be an interesting game to watch with chess masters sitting across from each other. I think we have a lot of CVs that would fit that bill... but this is the one that came to mind today.

Jeremy Good wrote on Sun, Jul 8, 2007 12:32 PM UTC:
Here is British Chess with Four Dragons. I realize the color pattern is not in keeping with the theme, but my computer is kind of dark and the lighter colors are easier for me to see.

Anonymous wrote on Wed, May 23, 2007 05:22 PM UTC:
Okay, another legal possibility:

W Qa1 Lb1 Pb3 ; B Qb9

Is it legal for the black Queen to capture the pawn ?

(I assume it is not, because it's in the same sense it can't capture the
rook.)

Andy Maxson wrote on Mon, Feb 12, 2007 08:35 PM UTC:Average ★★★
T.R. Dawson didn't invent the leo. You must be confused with the grasshopper

Michael Nelson wrote on Mon, Jan 1, 2007 05:54 AM UTC:
David is surely correct. Black's Queen is not in check so how can moving
it along the shared line of movement with the Lion put it in check? For
the Lion to capture the Queen, there must be a third piece between them to
act as a screen: Qh1, Qi1, or Qj1 being interpreted as check means that
Black's Queen is being used as its own screen.

David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Dec 30, 2006 03:18 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
We certainly have come a long way since Shatranj! This game combines Royal Queens with a fascinating selection of long range pieces. As for the [2006-12-29] question, in my experience a royal piece can legally step away from a Cannon (or Vao or Lion) along the line of attack. Once you pick the royal piece up, it no longer serves as a screen to the attacking piece. The 'britishchess.zip' file should verify my interpretation.

Anonymous wrote on Fri, Dec 29, 2006 02:10 AM UTC:
A legal possibilty:

W Qe2 Le1 ; B Qg1

the squares h1-j1 are all attacked by the Lion. Is it legal for the Black
Queen to move to thes squares ? (Technically, once the move is done, the
square is attacked no more.)

Doug Chatham wrote on Wed, Oct 11, 2006 01:18 PM UTC:
Well, someone's thought of a DaVinci chess problem: http://www.neverendingbooks.org/index.php/a-davinci-chess-problem/

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Oct 10, 2006 11:12 PM UTC:
No, I never saw the Davinci Code.

Abdul-Rahman Sibahi wrote on Tue, Oct 10, 2006 01:19 PM UTC:
I noticed the Chess set too. (I didn't like the movie though.)

Btw, has any one thought of a 'DaVinci Chess' ?)

Claudio Martins Jaguaribe wrote on Tue, Oct 10, 2006 04:19 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
This game, I don't know why, keeps me awake repeating its name in my mind,
on and on.

Just loved it!

Fegus, beware... You are too close from the truth... The Grail... The Holy
Blood! I guess uoy saw The Da Vinci Code in the movies, if you look well,
you'll see at Sir Ian McKellen's house a chess set in the studio where
they explain about the plot. A very nice chess set, by the way.

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Mon, Oct 9, 2006 12:34 AM UTC:
The exception to the restriction on the Queen's movement prevents one Queen from ever being able to check another. The exception is that a Queen may pass over any attacked square in a move to capture the enemy Queen. Because of this, no Queen could check another Queen without placing itself in check. Therefore, there are no asymmetrical checks between Queens in this game.

Abdul-Rahman Sibahi wrote on Sun, Oct 8, 2006 06:06 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
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.

🕸💡📝Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Jun 8, 2006 03:40 AM UTC:
I have come across an interesting curiosity that relates back to this game. I changed how Bishops move in this game to reflect that they are Anglican rather than Roman Catholic. Because of yesterday's date, I have been looking into a particular topic that would be too controversial to get into here, but one thing I have learned in pursuing this topic is that the Roman Catholic Church represents itself with the image of a cup-bearing woman known as Fides, which is Latin for faith. As is common knowledge here, the standard form of Chess is known as FIDE Chess. The coincidental similarity between the names FIDE and Fides at least fits with my original idea that the Bishops in Chess are Roman Catholic, though it's by no means proof of anything. Indeed, it would be nonsense to say that they are Roman Catholic in any absolute sense, since they are game pieces, not people. But in the context of comparing this game with FIDE Chess, the FIDE Bishops are understood to be Roman Catholic, and the similarity between FIDE and Fides reflects this.

Larry Smith wrote on Wed, Jun 15, 2005 04:37 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Looking back over the previous postings, I realized that I had not given
this game an evaluation.

Let me first say that I have a special bias toward the 10x10 field, and
always look for a good game to play on it.  Examples too numerous to list
here.

If all that has been used to judge this game is its Zillions
implementation, a player will not correctly experience this game. 
Zillions has a tendency to over-value a few of the pieces, and its
strategic 'thought' process is quite lacking.  Until someone develops a
decent DLL engine, this game is best played between living opponents.  And
please understand that this is not a negative evaluation of Zillions, a
great game engine that is designed for general game play.

I've had the joy of playing this game against a young relative recently. 
Granted we were not that expert in play and at first got movements of a
couple of pieces confused but we very much enjoyed several games.  It had
a slight XiangQi feel to it, with the whole playing field acting as
the 'palace'.  

[I have several plastic chess sets with pieces trimmed with gold paint to
denote special powers.  We use modified Bishops for Unicorns, modified
Rooks for Lions and modified Knights for Dragons.]

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Tue, Apr 19, 2005 06:15 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
'Since this game is British in theme, the Bishops are Anglican instead of Catholic. Unlike the Catholic Bishops, who took a vow to remain on one color, the Anglican Bishops didn't make this vow'. Not of good taste this description of the piece, but, as a related notice, the new Pope is the ultra-conservator Joseph Ratzinger, from Germany.

Mason Green wrote on Mon, Mar 7, 2005 09:06 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
An excellent game with an excellent theme. Maybe I'll have to do a 'Swedish Chess' (since that's my heritage). Since Vikings once lived in Sweden, I guess I'd have to include elements from Hnefatl (or however that game is pronounced/spelled)...

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Mon, Feb 21, 2005 07:38 PM UTC:
I don't like the name, but it is not so easy a good name for this game.

Larry Smith wrote on Sun, Feb 13, 2005 04:33 AM UTC:
Caissa is pronounced KAH-EE-SAH. BTW, I like the name of Caissa Britannia. Very apropos.

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