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In your version of Bachelor Chess, the Bishops can only reach half the squares --- they both start on the same color. Is this a bug or a feature?
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Symposium Chess looks a bit like a more restrained version of <a href='/play/erf/Identifi.html'>Identific Chess</a> or <a href='../other.dir/potential.html'>Potential Chess</a>, with the ambiguity restricted to the King and Queen pair. I'm wondering if the Potential Chess rule that a piece left in check becomes known not to be a King would make sense in this game.
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The setup for Sinister Queens Chess is found in a number of historical variants. Curiously, I seem to recall that several commentators felt this setup <em>increased</em> White's advantage. Certainly it has been universally abandoned for the current setup.
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A leaperless combination of Bigamous Chess and Episcopal Chess with RBBQKQBBR would probably be closer to Derek's ideal, I would think, and avoid the 'all Bishops on one color' problem of Bigamous Chess.
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You have a missing /DL tag at the end of the 7x8 section.
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Fergus; some thoughts on Bachelor Chess. I went to bed swearing I would not get involved in this, but I woke up thinking about geometry and Bachelor Chess. I believe the geometry of the board is a key factor in any game, the first factor to make or break a game. So, I set up and played your first variant a bit. First, I assumed the board is a checkerboard, with a white square on the white player's right corner, so I covered the original 'A' file and set the pieces up. Both white bishops are on white squares, both black bishops on black; an interesting asymmetry. The white king starts on a black square; and the black, on a white, as are their castling squares. Here are two openings I played: 1) d4 d5 2) f1-e3 e6 rather than c6, allowing check 3) e1-b4 f1-d2 white attempts trade of B for N, black declines, but N placement blocks Bs 4) b3 b7 5) c4 c5 6) Pxc5 Pxc5 7) b4-a5 check e7-b6 if 7) ... d8-e7, 8) PxP PxP 9) NxP check 8) BxN check PxB 9) PxP PxP 10) NxP a8-a6 white may continue by castling or by c1-g5 check, with much the better game The way this played out, I felt black should not directly contest the center of the board with 1) ... d5 The second opening: 1) d4 e3 2) c1-f4 b8-c6 3) c3 d5 4) b1-d2 b6 5) e4 c8-b7 6) PxP PxP 7) f1-e3 c6-e7 8) BxP check KxB probably a serious blunder on white's part 9) c3-c4 a8-d8 10) PxP NxP possibly better if ... BxP 11) NxN check BxN 12) O-O check e8-c6 white has a passed pawn that is going nowhere fast for a lost bishop As I am not the best of players, and cannot play chess against myself, these openings are not of the highest quality - the B sacrifice, in particular, was poor, as it could not be followed up. White may actually have an edge in this variant, but I am certainly not good enough to tell, only to suspect this is the case. However, I do get some clearer impressions of this variant. I think the geometry is important, as I feel these games are not as subtle as FIDE chess. Two of six non-royal pieces can never directly interact*, yet they attack the two most likely squares the opponent's king will occupy. Checks appear to be easier in the opening. I always had the urge to trade one of my bishops for the 'opponent's' knight, believing this is advantageous. I think the openings and patterns of threats are considerably reduced, and less subtle, because of the geometry. The game gives me more the feel of a bludgeon than a rapier. This could be because of my style of play, however. I do believe the knight is worth more than the bishop, and I'd definitely prefer to have 2 knights and 1 bishop against 2 bishops and 1 knight. I would also think this admittedly very preliminary analysis has some relevance for your other 7x8 variants and the 58 square variants, as the geometry is basically similar. I would suggest a variant of this game on a 7x9 board, but I wonder if the draw potential goes up. For what my opinion is worth, I think this is an interesting variant, but FIDE chess is better, and better because of its' geometry. The 8x8 board allows better pawn moves in the opening and balances the bishops. *This would seem to increase the subtlety on the surface, but that's not the impression I got moving pieces. I see Peter Aronson** and Doug Chatham anticipated a couple of my observations. To Doug, I believe the answer to your question is: 'yes'. To Peter, I'm real new at this, could you direct me to your sources? Thanks. **My error on confusing Spinster queens and Sinister queens - apparently Mr. Aronson does not confirm my suspicion that white has the advantage in the 7x8 variants, as Sinister Queens is 8x8.
I wonder how Bachelor Chess compares with <a href='http://www.chessvariants.org/42.dir/bachelor.html'>Bachelor Chess</a>. :-)
Doug, after looking your version over, I think I can safely say that Bachelor Chess is probably better than Bachelor Chess. :-) I played over the Zillions vs Zillions illustrative game. Loved the humor although it hurt my head so much it took me two tries to play through the game. It made me feel much better about the two Joe vs Joe openings. I did push the pieces around some afterwards - is there any decent opening other than 1) e3 c4 ? On a serious note, I think the geometry conspires against the pieces here, and again I suspect white has the best of it. I'd need to find someone other than me as an opponent, though.
'A leaperless combination of Bigamous Chess and Episcopal Chess with RBBQKQBBR would probably be closer to Derek's ideal, I would think, and avoid the 'all Bishops on one color' problem of Bigamous Chess.' ________________________________________________________________ Just my opinion- On an 8H x 9W board, this is the best possible test game of all I have seen proposed if you are willing to admit one more large variant. All credit is rightfully Aronson's.
Doug, a bug is something to debug and get rid of, whereas a feature is something planned. Having the Bishops on the same color is neither a bug nor a feature. It is a necessary evil, a consequence of this method of trying to create a symmetric game that is otherwise as close to Chess as possible. If only because the Bishops do start on the same color, I think it is safe to conclude that Bachelor Chess, Spinster Chess, and Narcissus Chess are all inferior to Chess. Although they gain left/right symmetry, for whatever that is worth, I think it is more important to have one's Bishops on opposite colors.
Peter, I did have Potential Chess in mind, since I was still living in Rochester when David created it, and he told me about it. But I don't remember if we ever actually played it. I'm meaning to elaborate on the rules of Symposium Chess to fill in the details. Regarding check, here's what I have in mind. When both of a player's Monarchs are checked simultaneously, he must move to eliminate one or both checks. If he cannot eliminate either check, it is checkmate. If he eliminates only one check, the one no longer in check then becomes the King, and the one left in check becomes the Queen. If this is done by moving one of the Monarchs, it must move as a King, since this is the Monarch that will become a King. If he can eliminate both checks, such as by capturing a piece forking the two Monarchs, and this does not involve moving one Monarch as a Queen, then the two Monarchs remain Monarchs. If a single Monarch is checked, and it is left in check, then it becomes a Queen, and the other Monarch becomes King. If a Monarch is deliberately moved into check, it becomes the Queen, and the other Monarch becomes King. It is illegal to make a move that puts both of one's Monarchs into check. The general rules are that you cannot do anything with two Monarchs that you cannot do with a King and Queen, no move may treat a Monarch as though it were both a King and a Queen, and when any move is legal only under the assumption that one Monarch is specifically a King or specifically a Queen, then the two Monarchs immediately differentiate into King and Queen. If Sinister Queens Chess increases White's advantage, then that supports the importance of bilateral symmetry over diagonal symmetry. While a leaperless combination of Episcopal Chess and Bigamous Chess might be closer to Derek's ideal, that was never the goal of this project, which is merely to create symmetric variants that are as close as possible to Chess. The idea is to change only one factor, asymmetry to symmetry, and see whether this is an improvement. Removing the Knights would spoil the results of any comparison.
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