[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments/Ratings for a Single Item
Suffix Index to Man and Beast. Alphabetic list of suffixes used in the Man and Beast series.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Still looking for original established p-t 'Panda' referred to last comment, this is the useful accompanying suffix index now first noticed to attention. Think of Gilman's useful M&Bs as analogue to scientific latin classification in biology that few will occasion to use at all in favour of popular common name of pieces chosen with more discrimination. Another troubling exclusion is of two classes with members that ought to be considered in the top 100 all-time p-ts. They are Winther's 20 best Bifurcators and Knappen's 7 different Nightriders (one M&B does indicate ''Nachtmahr'' Quintessence in tail-end Notes). Is it because they are already well-named? In this week's revision or indexing, in fact found
Panda_appears_here.
Mixing geometries and nomenclature is disastrous for readership. To become textbook-ready, it is hard to imagine not separating out the different geometries eventually. Some can be dropped of the six or seven. (Actually in a complication, one glaringly missing, Triangles, could be added totally separately of course.) Hex-prism has only few extreme examples of cvs within CVPage, all Gilman's own, and would have no outside interest to play. So few examples mean hex prism and pentagonal are unwise to generalize about and could be omitted here for stand-alone study on cv by cv basis. See M&B01. In original chart at left Tetrahedral
Gilman may not be naming so extensively. Such uneven treatment warrants reduction to three. The only significant geometries would appear to be 2-d rectangles out of squares, 2-d hexagons, and 3-d cubic. And for comprehension they should not overlap in articles. The inessential geometries not those three become distractions; besides original never-before naming at the same time. To expect others to gain any understanding or words for piece-types to catch on, like incorporating these suffixes, the main three should have separate sections and treatment. Obviously, that is not going to be done here in CVPage, because Gilman is already devoted to his M&B Chapter names themselves, let alone reorganization. On account of Murray's style, one Grandmaster said 'History of Chess' is unusable or unreadable, peddling Eales' 'Chess, the History of a Game' as the readier desk reference. However, the inaccessibility of portions of Murray, as of Gilman M&Bxxs by analogy, does not invalidate them just because no one understands exactly what he is always talking about. The suffix index here brings clarity where it was lacking. As well, someone should take these suffixes from ' Alternator' to 'Weaver' and put one sample p-t each suffix on boards to see them in action.
Oddly enough I was thinking of switching the Pentagonal-specific pieces from pages 9 and 13 to page 20 as they do not have square or hex-radial Even Move Directions. The previous comment strengthens the case that I should. Other parts ofthe comment I will deal with once I have had time offline to write up a reply.
Your assessment that I neglect the Tetrahedral board certainly used to be true, but since reading Ezra Bradford's comments I have endeavoured to prioritise it over hex-prism. Man and Beast now includes, I believe, an exhaustive set of Tetrahedral pieces up to SOLL 120, built on their duality with cubic pieces. As regards overlapping, it is a fact that some pieces in more than one geometry are recognisably the same. For one thing square pieces automatically exist in most 3d geometries, and 2d hex ones in Tetrahderal and hex-prism. Therefore when I mention a 2d piece I describe how 32d geometries affect it, rather than reintroducing the same piece elsewhere. Where two oblique pieces, one cubic and one Tetrahedral, can both be defined as an orthogonal and a diagonal piece at right angles I have defined it on separate pages for each geometry as the 'sameness' is not as clear-cut. I do define pieces using root-3 diagonals in all geometries in one page, but that is because radial directions are so few. The one radial direction that is specific to hex-prism I hived off away from the corresponding pages for the more mainstream radials. I am not so much 'devoted' to the numbering of my current Man and Bseast series as resigned to it. There are certainly some pages that I would welcome splitting out into separate pages, but to do so would need a shift in the numbering of later pages. The way that post-your-own is designed does not make that an easy process. My page of modest variant is still indexed as 'Voyager', even though that game was abandoned long ago, and if the editors cannot fix that I don't see how they could enable me to restructure Man and Beast. As everyone will see from my latest update to page 13, complaints about my omitting pieces can bear fruit and are not just a rant into the wind. I have defined a generalised Lemurian compound that can apply to a far wider range of pieces than just the ones in the original game.
(A) Charles, I'll put some of my variant Rooks into cv games first half 2012; also Triangular pieces from ChessboardMath; and other p-ts around not yet M&Bxx-referenced. (B) I was thinking of book version, self-published or otherwise, with re-structuring, not expecting major reorganization here. Jaguaribe asked you about this once.
(C) How about a series using boards from CVs to illustrate each -suffix in
CVP? Take any one of them randomly: find an ''all'' geometries: -Coward. Honestly if I don't know what it is without digging, no one does but you, so half of M&Bxxs becomes your own personal notes. They accused Murray of inaccessibility too for style, and for using several languages french, italian and latin, and mixing time periods or cultures. Even though no one much reads 'HoC' any more, there is still 10 or 20 times the information actually in there of any other Chess book, be it history or play manual. Accurate facts and information too; I got the association of pieces to planets from early Murray chapter and changed them around.
Correction, it was only those Tetrahedral pieces that have duals on a 9x9x9 cubic board that I have covered up to SOLL 120. I can see several whose duals have largest coordinate 9 or more of which only a few have names. The 9:5:4, 9:7:2, 10:7:3, 11:6:5, 11:7:4, 12:7:5, and 13:7:6 all have pure-hex duals - the Suntrap, Gopher, Waxworker, Zemindar, Vacillator, Driberyl, and Gatherer. The 10:1:1, 10:3:3, 12:1:1, 12:5:5, 10:7:7, 14:1:1, and 14:3:3 leapers have duals that could be considered Tetrahedral forms of the Feaster, Broadwayman, Hamster, Upsetter, Whinger, Lounger, and Hobbler. These, however, are a relatively small sample of many other such pieces, even (in the case of the latter group) up to SOLL 120. I mention this to make amends for an ungrounded boast of mine.
6 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.