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Great Shatranj. Great Shatranj. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Mar 1, 2018 08:03 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Another nice Shatranj variant from Joe, this time on 10x8.

I'd tentatively estimate the piece values as P=1; N=3.38(=3.5 approx.); E=Y=2.695(=2.75 approx.); Guard(approx.=K's fighting value)=3.2; HP=MI=7.075(=7 approx.); R=5.5.


Larry Smith wrote on Sun, Apr 26, 2009 04:52 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I am currently playing a round of this game with Joe at the Game Courier. And I really like it.

In its simplicity, it has expanded the strategy needed to prosecute a decent game. A player cannot rely on a single line of assault to accomplish the mate, they will need to think in terms of a series of battles to reduce and penetrate the opponent's ranks.

Without sliders, the players need to closely engage one another. This can create several areas of serious contention on the field. And each might equally lead to success, so that the opponent risks catastrophe if each are not taken seriously(particularly in the opening).

Right now, Joe and I(or at least I am) are testing to determine the effectiveness of Pawn strutures against this large variety of leaping piece. So far, they seem to hold up well. Though the other pieces can quickly bypass them. In itself this is not a bad thing since the opponent can simple maintain a strong defense, and not readily abandon their Pawns.

Those players who are familiar with the Mad Queen variant will find much that is familiar. They will not find this game difficult to learn, though application of the Mad Queen's common strategy may prove disastrous.

John Smith wrote on Sat, Jan 10, 2009 01:31 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I actually thought of the High Priestess myself, calling it a Big Ferz. I forgot the idea, however, when I realized that a not-too-powerful Big Wazir would not be possible.

George Duke wrote on Tue, Nov 18, 2008 07:28 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I think it was Great Shatranj I challenged Joyce that I would find prior use of (NAF) but I was not able to early 2008 to my surprise. (Joyce uses the piece elsewhere too.) And Great Shatranj's High Priestess is actually (NF + slide to Alfil) not FAN herself. So Great Shatranj should be reevaluated as actually implementing a new piece -- really two, see Minister as roughly WDN -- though made of logical Betza triples, except for the one slide rather than leap in each unit's case. Now Templar is February 2006, and Great Shatranj is May 2006, so likely Joyce saw de la Campa's Templar (DF + slide to Alfil). Anyway we rate highest for novelty of piece or mutator, rather than new combinations one after another, so I was wrong before. G.S. will get repeated mention as one of Track One ''NextChess3'' candidates.

Charles Daniel wrote on Fri, Jan 4, 2008 09:18 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

While many variants try to balance the number of leapers with sliders, this game takes a different approach. Every piece is a jumper or a 1 square stepping piece. The Queen is replaced by the General, the rooks with dababbas and bishops with Elephants. Then, the game is expanded to a 10x8 similar to a Capablanca variant. The knight compound added to both dababbas and elephant.

The game starts out slow but gets much more tactical. Orthodox chess players with a preference for knights and for positional play and Indian defenses (moving pawn one step at a time) would love this game. Also the Shatranj reference and ruleset adds novelty to this game.

Some interesting points: the dababbas and Minister can mate with aid of king. (A bit tricky with the dababba) (Of course the General can too) . The dababba starts out as a weak piece but gets stronger as the game progresses.

The pieces may have been used before as pointed out, but this should be expected. I used the ninja guard which is very similar to elephant in Birds and Ninjas

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Wed, Jul 12, 2006 12:09 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
great 'shatranj like' pieces .. concerning rook or dabbaba, both variants would be ok, but i do feel the dabbaba is a cool piece, fits in well with the others, and should not be too weak combined with the other 'strong' pieces.

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