Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I'm as much in the dark as Ken is...I play a few games there (ItsYourTurn),
and have had no trouble until this extended outage.  If I hear anything
reliable I'll mention it here.

Glenn Overby
Editor

About the 'vanished' Its Your Turn web site: Since we can't contact the
site to ask what's going in, does anyone know if they have any 'sister
site' or other related site who might know what's going on? Maybe someone
even knows someone in charge at Its Your Turn and can call them (or email
them some separate way) to get an answer. Does anyone know where they are
based?
I've used the Its Your Turn site regularly for over a year, and there were
a couple of times where they had server problems and were down for a
couple hours, but nothing like this. This outage is in its third day now,
with no warning. Maybe they got hacked into or something, who knows?

Its Your Turn update - The its your turn site is back! This is as of about
1 pm Friday afternoon Central US time. There was no explanation on the
site (that I could find) as to what happened. My games seemed to be as I
left them Wednesday (but with no adjustments for time limits).
If anybody knows anything about happened, I think there's a lot of users
of that site wondering.

I confirm Ken's statement...with the added note that those of us who play
fast (28-hour) tournaments saw every game time out.  :(

More on 'Its Your Turn' site outage. Yes, there is an item of explantion on
their site about what happened, but its a little hard to find. You have to
click 'Message Boards' (left column) and then News from the next screen.
Apparently there was a big ice storm in North Carolina that created
mega-problems for several days and huge power outages. Even after several
days, the folks in NC are still not out of the woods and still battling
big problems and continued power outages. So the problems with the web
site are totally understandable! Up until now, I had no idea where the
site was based - now I know it's North Carolina!

They're working hard on making everyone whole.  This is a brief excerpt
from a long explanatory message apparently sent to subscribers in
general...

---begin excerpt---
Any timed-out tournament and non-tournament games since midnight Thursday
will be restored automatically. Also, we will suspend tournament timeouts
until midnight on Tuesday. 

If you are a current member, we will add 2 days to your membership. Please
email [email protected] from the email address registered on your
account, and we will take care of this for you. Please allow a few days
for us to get to this request, since we are frantically trying to address
all the issues relating to this downtime.
---end excerpt---

Stephen Pribut's Rec.games.chess.misc FAQ are actually located at
http://www.drpribut.com/sports/chessfaq.html .

The page http://www.chessvariants.com/xiangqi.html gves the rules of
XiangQi, and works perfectly well with InternetExplorer.  But if I try to
read it with Netscape4, it automatically forwards me to the page 
http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=thechessvariantp&l=st1&search=chinese
chess&mode=books&p=15&o=1, which does not exist.

Nick

Hello to all at Chess Variants,
                               The 2004 edition of the Chesmayne Chess
Dictionary is now back on-line at:-

           http://chess-dictionary-chesmayne.net 


Yours sincerely,

Raymond Reid.

here is a variant of chess:

http://membres.lycos.fr/laurentduboislaurent/zzchess.htm

playing chess on a draught board with the addition of a piece: the
'zig-zag', which can move as many cases as one wants horizontally or
vertically zigzagging.


Cordially
Laurent Dubois
http://www.laurentdubois.com

This is really freaky! I was taught a game by my uncle about thirty years
ago (im 43 now) called Martian Chess. The pieces were a Freezer
(upside-down rook), chamelion (bishop), coordinator (knight), long leaper
(queen), retractor (king) and Flanker (pawn), but all at the same time, no
normal pieces. It was one of the best games I ever played and I even taught
my kid and he thinks it's cool too.

This is the first time I've ever seen anyone that ever heard of this
stuff in my entire life. What a mind-blower!

Sincerely,
Steve

The rating is for the new layout of the page.

One thing I find annoying about it, though, is the way the page instantly
jumps to a certain spot whenever you click on anything.  In my opinion, it
would be easier to navigate if it just sat where it was.

Sweeeet!  All works fine now under IE.  That being said, I have heard so
many people tell me that they are running FireFox that I guess I should at
least look at it.

This new feedback page is excellent.

Browsers running under Windows XP:

Opera 7.51 (my preferred browser): When the content is hidden (i.e. before I select an item or when I select an item which opens a submenu), a small rectangle of the lavender background color (#ddccdd) is visible. When I click on any item which opens a submenu, it jumps down the page, so that the line reading 'Written by...' is at the top of the screen. When I scroll back up and click on any menu or submenu item which doesn't open another menu, the appropriate content displays on the right, with the top of the #fedead-colored box aligned with the top of the screen.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0: As with Opera, a small lavender rectangle is visible, but with a different size, shape, and location. When I click on any menu item, the top of the screen neatly bisects the question 'What do you want to do?' and the appropriate content displays on the right.

Netscape 7.1: Behaves identically to Firefox. Not surprising, since Netscape is essentially Mozilla.

M$ Aieee! 6.0.2900.2180.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158: The full content is visible as the page loads, and instead of the small lavender rectangle seen in other browsers, we have a larger lavender rectangle, whose height always matches the height of the visible portion of the menu tree, and whose width changes every time a different submenu is opened. Clicking on menu items sometimes causes the screen to jump vertically, but only slightly.

Browsers running on a Red Hat Linux system consigned to the 'care' of a Windows devotee:

Netscape Communicator 4.8: Reports two JavaScript errors as the page loads; I assume these are due to an obsolete browser running an obsolete version of JavaScript. The entire menu tree is immediately visible. Clicking on any menu item causes the screen to jump to a seemingly arbitrary point, with an apparent preference for the very bottom of the page. The content which should be associated with the various menu items is nowhere to be found.

Mozilla 1.0.2: When no content is displayed, there is a lavender rectangle at the far right of the screen. This rectangle is equal in height to, and aligned vertically with, the heading 'What do you want to do?'. It is also only slightly wider than this heading, and its width remains fixed when content is opened. Thus the text displays in a very narrow column, with much wasted space in the center of the page. The vertical positioning of the page is exactly as in the Windows version of Firefox.

Konqueror 3.0.5a-0.73.4: The menu tree expands and contracts properly, and clicking on any item causes the screen to jump to the top of the page (which is in my opinion the most sensible place to jump to if you have to jump somewhere). The content which should be associated with the various menu items is nowhere to be found.

General comments reflecting my taste in web design: The fancy JavaScript and CSS stuff would be great, if it worked flawlessly. But if the content can't be gotten to, or if navigating the menus causes jumping to nonintuitive points on the page, it's not worth it. Form should follow function. Also, since so few browsers make a serious attempt to comply with standards, any time you tune something for one or two browsers, you're probably breaking it for the rest.

Now, I only pretend to know HTML, and I know almost nothing about JavaScript or CSS, so forgive me if this is a stupid question: Why are HREFs and NAMEs necessary at all?

I have recently bought a game of Chinese Army Chess from the internet. It consists of 50 tiles 25 which are red and an equal number of black tiles. I have have a copy of the rules, but I have no clue what the Chinese symbols mean on the pieces. Do you know where I can get pictures of the pieces with identity explanation of the Chinese symbols so that I can figure out what the pieces are and be able to play a game? Thanks for your help. John

how do i make the pieces move with my computer

Yeah I have a question.
My sister came home, she has joined the Chess 'Team' at her school
recently, and she told us of this version of Chess she calls 'TAke It'
where the object of the game is to make your oppenent take all of your
peices off the board.
She was rather vague in the rules and its making me a little nuts. I was
wondering if a. you have heard of such a version, b. what it is called?
and c. if perhaps you knew more what the rules where?

Thanks!:D

yes, it is a chess variant, called many names .. Also know as: Suicide
Chess, Losing Chess, Killer Chess, Take-all Chess, Giveaway Chess, Must
Capture Chess .. see here -->
http://www.chessvariants.org/diffobjective.dir/giveaway.html

The only thing related to 'reclaiming a queen' in Chess is the promotion
of a pawn to a queen.  For this to happen, the pawn must reach the final
row of the board, from its owner's perspective - in other words, get your
pawn all the way to the other side of the board, and you can promote it to
a queen.

(Additionally, the term 'reclaiming' is a bit inaccurate here, because
it is possible to get more than one queen by doing this multiple times.)

I am not sure where to put this. My bookmark for the Gothic Chess comment
areas points to dead space. Anyway, here goes:

=============

The 2005 Gothic Chess Computer World Championship will be held online this
year at the http://www.GothicChessLive.com website. Everyone is invited to
watch, and if you have written a Gothic Chess program, participation is
free! We have one candidate from Iran this year, so we can neither charge
an entrance fee nor award any prize money in case this person enters
and/or wins (USA citizens cannot transaction any money with Cuba, Iran,
and a few other countries.) All participants will be mentioned in an
article appearing in the June 2006 issue of the International Computer
Games Association Journal.

The 2004 event was reported on at the Chessville.com website:

http://www.chessville.com/GothicChess/ComputerWorldChampionships.htm

For rules and registration, as well as playing times and login
information, visit:

http://s13.invisionfree.com/Gothic_Chess_Forum/index.php?act=SC&c=5

Come watch the best programs play for the title of the world's best!

My 'Victoria Principal' and i love spending quiet  evenings martinique
style in (jacuzzi), playing chess.
Great Site!
place me on email list
Adam Clore
7459 buffalo Ave
Niagara falls, New York 14304

We don't have an email list, per se, and if we did, we would need your
email address before we could put you on it. We do have a Yahoo!
discussion group, which you can sign up for yourself. You will find it at


http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chessvariants/

If you're interested in participating in the various activities of this
site, such as voting in polls, playing games online, and discussing Chess
variants, you can follow this URL and become a registered user:

http://www.chessvariants.org/onthese/membership.html

There is no such 16 move rule. There is a 50 move rule, however, which says
that a pawn must be moved within 50 moves, otherwise the game is declared a
draw.
--Mats

The 50 move rule is a bit more than what was recently stated regarding pawn
movement.  The rule makes the game drawn, if

the last 50 consecutive moves have been made without the movement of any
pawn AND without the capture of any piece (or pawn).

Thus,when a piece is captured (or a pawn) the 50 move count must start all
over again.

very creative,about hexagonal chess,i am too creative i made a new chess in
which dinnasour will  play a part, as well as  ,i designe a unique karom.in
this regard pl help me from where we can patent?
piyushdadriwala
[email protected]

My question is:

Can a pawn capture two pawns if they are in a subsequent diagonal position. For example if there are 2 white pawns in 2 diagonal spaces can they be captured in one move with the black pawn moving 2 diagonal spaces in one go?

Alison:  No.  The first capture ends the move.  Your question could also be asked of Queens, Bishops, and Rooks
 for non-diagonal (orthogonal) captures)... and even Kings.  In all cases, the single-capture ends the move.

you are on the wrong page, you should read here
http://www.chessvariants.org/d.chess/chess.html

I would like to introduce you  wth a new chess variant and cannot!
here is the web site where you will find information : www.fortuit.fr
best regards to the whole team
Luc Queyrel : [email protected]

Comment posted 2005: any thoughts since?

Dear Hans and colleagues

I was having a game of XiangChi with another member of our club and
dropped by to see what might be new on your site;
I'm so impressed with all the effort you have put in on the content and
quality of this and other games since I was last here.  Keep up the good
work!

I was also vastly impressed with the neat comments system.  Is that
something you've devised yourselves, or a package that you've found
somewhere?  I was just about to sit down with some colleagues here and
try
to implement something similar for our own website at work
(www.sheu.org.uk), but would prefer not to re-invent the wheel if I can
avoid it.  Is the PHP coding something you can point me to, or are
prepared to share?

Thanks very much


Dave Regis

[email protected]

May your pieces harmonise with your Pawn structure and
your sacrifices be sound in all variations

D _
 / '()/~    Dave Regis         &8^D* Exeter Chess Coaching Page etc.:
|| \_/|    = DrDave on FICS   http://www.exeterchessclub.org.uk/
~\   /                      '...what else exists in the world but
chess?'
 _|||__SHEU                  -- NABOKOV    'Contribute!' -- Doug Attig

We have linked to your nice site.

http://www.chessvariants.com/shogi.html

We hope you may link to our site.

If linked, please send mail to us, how to find it.

==================================================================

ƒRƒ“ƒsƒ…[ƒ^‚ð—˜—p‚µ‚½«Šû‚̐¢ŠE The Shogi World with Computer

ŠÇ—ŽÒ –Lãài‚Æ‚æ‚݂݁j webmaster: Toyomimi

[email protected] http://www.specjp.com

==================================================================

Great site but you shoud know that the piece you call Mao is actually Ma. 
Ma is the Chinese word for horse, not Mao which can mean cat, feather or
hair, rivet and thick or dense, depending on the tone.

How does one become a Contributor to Chess Variants?

I have a new Bishop Adjustment Rule that I want to publish (next to Carlos Cetina's BCR rule), and I have 3 news variants that I've created that I also want to publish.

Thanks David.

I did my first contributions, the Modern Random Chess variant:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSmodernrandomch

and the new Bishop Adjustment Rule:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSthebishopadjus

Admins,

Can someone please update the Query page on 'M' items below:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/mainquery.php?type=Any&startswithletter=M&orderby=LinkText&displayauthor=1&displayinventor=1

to include the Modern Random Chess Game Courier preset:
/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DModern+Random+Chess%26settings%3DMRC

Thanks.

Hi Admins,

A corrections for the What's New Page:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/whatsnew.php

For the week ending May 14, 2008 there are two Game Courier Presets entries for Modern Random Chess.

The one that says Author Jose Carrillo, Inventor Gabriel Maura, is actually for Modern Chess (not Modern Random Chess). The other one is OK.

A request: for the informational page for MRC64, can you add the text description 'Modern Random Chess 64' next to the link? (just like it was done for the MRC64 Game Courier Preset entry).

Thanks.

You could not checkmate your opponent while leaving your own king in check.