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TamerSpiel. Modern large chess variant with elements of historic chess variants. (12x8, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Sat, Feb 16, 2008 05:53 PM UTC:Poor ★
Greenwood refers to ''award-winner'' presumably TamerSpiel. In 84-square Contest, among the judges I consistently rated Tamerspiel the lowest, as Peter Aronson in the group may recall. The least reason of all is the style of write-up. It starts ''Hi'', as if Rules thought up on spur of moment, and indeed the Entry just made or missed the deadline. The Rules are in fact still hard to sort out for bad writing. Other reasons generally are overcomplication in promotion rules, unoriginal piece mixes, and that one new Mutator, potentially interesting, not explained. For example, Guard promotes to Champion. Now it says in turn that Champion promotes to SuperCav. So, the intention is that there is double, or second, promotion allowed. First, that is not explained well or at all, and the reader must interpolate. Second, when re-promoting, presumably it must be at the other corner (Citadel) square. So, unfortunate players must keep track of where such pieces have been and are going. What a sorry morass. Contrast is great with nice Renaissance Chess two decades earlier. For all that, major reason to rate Tamerspiel 'Poor' is the ridiculously-high number of piece-types, over 20 counting promotees. Among several hundred rated CVs with specialization in Large CVs, TamerSpiel ranks within the lowest decile (-10%) with Omega. Notice that Game Courier TamerSpiel logs go uncompleted; there were other games of Tamerspiel dropped mid-play in the first year no longer recording, or deleted, as players ask, why be subjected to this? Two 'Excellent's for this game are by Greenwood himself and the 3rd of 3 by non-member ID.

Andy Maxson wrote on Tue, Feb 6, 2007 04:12 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
can tetrachs move into check then swap out?

💡📝Eric Greenwood wrote on Fri, Oct 10, 2003 08:10 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Hi All!

    My present e-mail address is:   *  [email protected]  *    the old
{tankyou}  address is not working anymore, so please send any personal
mail there.    Thank you! 

   Also, thank you to all who took the time to write and comment on here,
and special thanks to those individuals with the complimentary remarks! It
is truly appreciated.  :D

    Eric V. Greenwood

Paul E. Newton wrote on Wed, Jul 30, 2003 04:08 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Eric, 

I wanted to congratulate you on your placing in the 84-Spaces Contest, it
is, in my opinion, well deserved!  I very much enjoy historical variants
and newer variants that have an 'old-fashioned' feel to them, and your
TamerSpiel is a thoroughly enjoyable game!  I like the way the play
progresses and the choice of pieces gives the game a very broad range of
strategy options.  Nicely done!

Tony Quintanilla wrote on Fri, Jul 4, 2003 02:12 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
I am on turn 12 of a very nice game by e-mail. I am a fan of ancient games and modern games with an ancient theme or quality. This is one of them. I really like the use of the Vizir and Firzan in such an active way. It adds a certain depth of the function of the Pawns in the opening. The opening has another dimension before the minor pieces get involved and the game goes into the middle game. The wide board also provides more room for deciding where to focus the attack, King-side or Champion-side! The Lion and the Eagle are nice additions too. The certainly fit the theme, but more importantly, they add another level to the opening and early middle game. Instead of the battle being just between Knights and Bishops, a player must decide whether to commit and risk these stronger pieces--similar to committing the Rook in Chess. I am enjoying the game. Very nice game.

Eric V. Greenwood wrote on Sun, Dec 15, 2002 05:46 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Thank you for your questions!  Let me clarify:

  1. Good catch! In my last-minute scramble to enter, my first letter of
submission got canceled, and missed this in #2 entry!

  Double promotions ARE allowed and encouraged! The catch is, one
promotion per citadel per piece-you must enter the other citadel to get
your piece promoted twice!  :)


  A. Correct interpretation.
  B. Also correct.
  C. Correct--and a correction! (another leftout on the recopy :{ ) :

   Any pawn promoting on b7 or k7 (b2 or k2) has the option of promoting
to Guard--However, no further promotion is allowed for the Guard/Pawn.

  This rule is in place to prevent Stalemates by hiding the king in the
citadel-now the promotion is Checkmate.

  Email address?  [email protected] ALL comments! Nicer comments
are probably more appreciated for some strange reason...


  just had to give it a rating-sorry... :)

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