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Simplified Makpong. Makruk variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Henk Drost wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 11:39 AM UTC:

While I obviously like this variant. I've also been thinking about maybe replacing the Rook with another piece.

As the sole long range piece it can feel a little out of place.

Maybe simply reducing the range of the Rook is already enough but one of the pizza king pieces could be cool too: https://www.chessvariants.com/unequal.dir/pizza-kings.html

Even a weird piece like the sausage will be scary in this variant and will keep the battles local.


Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 06:26 PM UTC:

I have not understood if the name of this game is Makpong or Simplified Makpong. If it is Simplified M., what is Makpong?


Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 06:39 PM UTC:

Also, I am not sure to well understand the most important rule:

The King may capture an attacking piece if in range, but cannot capture out of double check.

what means "if in range"? Does that just means that the King may capture an attacking piece? If the attacking piece is not 1-square away from the King I don't see how the K would have been able to capture it anyway.

and what means "capture out of double check". Here I understand that if 2 pieces are attacking the K, he cannot capture both of them. But that is trivial too, no?

So I guess that the important rule is that when a K is under check he can capture the attacking piece but it is forbidden to move the K out of check, to interpose a piece between the K and the attacking piece, or to take the attacking piece with another piece than the K. Is it correct? Or to say that when a K is under check, the only authorized move is if the K can capture the attacking piece.

Would it be possible to re-write this with no ambiguity?

Thank you


💡📝Henk Drost wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 07:11 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 06:26 PM:

I first learned about "Makpong" on Github from this pull request:

https://github.com/cutechess/cutechess/pull/626

The only real problem I have with this is that it still has the counting rule from Makruk. It's a little confusing and I can't describe it very well so I hope this wiki article describes it well enough for you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makruk

With my proposed simplification the counting rule gets removed. The 50 move rule and 3-fold repetition we all know and love takes its place instead.


💡📝Henk Drost wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 07:31 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 06:39 PM:

what means "if in range"? Does that just means that the King may capture an attacking piece? If the attacking piece is not 1-square away from the King I don't see how the K would have been able to capture it anyway.

You're right. The K may only move out of a check if it can capture its (singular) attacker.

If the attacking piece is more than 1 square away, it obviously can't.

and what means "capture out of double check". Here I understand that if 2 pieces are attacking the K, he cannot capture both of them. But that is trivial too, no?

It means that if the K is double checked, it is not allowed to move out of the double check. Not even by capturing one of the attackers.

So I guess that the important rule is that when a K is under check he can capture the attacking piece but it is forbidden to move the K out of check, to interpose a piece between the K and the attacking piece, or to take the attacking piece with another piece than the K. Is it correct? Or to say that when a K is under check, the only authorized move is if the K can capture the attacking piece.

I'll rewrite it to be more clear.

The important rule is that K can't move out of a check, except when it can capture its (singular) attacker. Other pieces are free to move, provided they're legal moves.

interpose a piece between the K and the attacking piece

This is legal.

take the attacking piece with another piece than the K

Also legal.


Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Sun, Apr 11, 2021 08:19 PM UTC in reply to Henk Drost from 07:31 PM:

Thank you. So, I see that I had not understood everything right.


💡📝Henk Drost wrote on Mon, Apr 12, 2021 10:33 AM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Sun Apr 11 08:19 PM:

Maybe an idea if I change the name to reduce confusion in the future?

Also I have already changed some lines to make the rules more clear, but maybe there are some other additions I can make.


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