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Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
JohnnyLuken wrote on Mon, May 28, 2012 07:37 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Fascinating concept, the idea of pieces of homogenous movement
differentiated only by their capture method.

Perhaps not strictly a chess variant, but a unique subgenre in its own
right, & one that I feel deserves more popularity.

As for the game itself, there are some strange imbalances which I find
surprising; why allocate 2 slots for the powerful long leaper but give
pride of place next to the king to the feeble withdrawer as an standalone
piece? This is the kind of imbalance one sees in older prechess variants
but would not expect in a newer variant...

Another issue is the overly defensive nature of the game, with current
setup. Having 2 chameleons with no mutual attack method tends to stagnate
and cluster gameplay in my experience.

Also an issue is the increasing irrelevance of the pawns in endgames. They
of course have no promotion ability, which is not feasible for such mobile
pieces, and offer minimal threat to the FIDE king, due to its residual
ability to capture adjacent pieces.

I propose the following alterations;

1. Replace king movement with that of a knight. This adds variation to the
dynamic of the game and allows the pawns to present a threat to the king,
as they can now be positioned adjacent to it without fear of capture. This
also increases their relevance in endgames.

2. Replace the spare long leaper and chameleon with 2 pieces of offensive
type; advancer/displacer(orthodox FIDE queen)/queen moving cannon etc.

3. Allow the chameleon to capture king and pawns in the manner of their own
capture, but without being restricted to their movement types. This, along
with the inclusion of new powerful offensive pieces, which the chameleon
the acts as a counterbalance to, makes it a much more important standalone
piece, and serves as an important leveller against the power inequity of
different piece types.

4. (optional) Allow the withdrawer to capture from 2 spaces of distance
(this might make it a little difficult to counterract in opening play, but
a far more respectable piece overall) OR merge the withdrawer and advancer,
freeing up another piece slot.

These alterations would, in my opinion, add a much more open, fluid,
balanced, dynamic, and varied mechanic to an already excellent concept...

George Duke wrote on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 06:28 PM UTC:
To go with the current point values for Grand Chess by 'T', and attempted revision at Centennial recently 25 back and with comparison of Michael Nelson's and mine for Rococo recently 50 back, this chart was for Ultima 8 years ago without computer: UltimaValues. All of Rococo, Ultima and Grand Chess should be on all-time recognition list, even if only U. ultimately gets played much, as it was in sixties and seventies. Robert Abbott invented Ultima 50 years ago this fall and he comments at Rococo January 2004. In Ultima Immobilizer may earn 3.0 points over Long Leaper on account of the smaller board.

Matthew Roberts wrote on Sun, Oct 16, 2011 09:03 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Thank you for the visual illustrations. I noticed that the written description for the placement of pieces is not accurate. Immobilizers, coordinators, kings, and withdrawers are pictured on opposite files, not the same files as typed out.

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Mar 21, 2011 08:23 AM UTC:
The set of specially designed Ultima piece symbols is now available as a font, from http://hgm.nubati.net/UltimaFont.zip . When used in WinBoard for piece rendering, it looks like this:

Apart from the Ultima piece symbols assigned to characters KMLXCWPkmlxcwp, it also contains symbols of a square (Ii) and a circle (Oo), which could be useful for other games (eg. Go).


Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Aug 28, 2010 06:39 AM UTC:
In my piece article Man and Beast 21: Lords High Everything-Else I extend the Chameleon concept to 'Naive-Chameleon' pieces which capture an enemy by the enemy's noncapturing move (and can capture each other) and 'Grand-Chameleon' pieces which capture like Orphans (i.e., like any piece threatening them, not just the one being captured). Both kinds of piece have a fixed noncapturing move, which unless otherwise stated is a Queen move on square-cell boards and a Rook move on hex ones.

Doug Chatham wrote on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 01:17 PM UTC:
Statement 2 is the correct one. See the illustration at http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/ultimapieces.html#cham.

Daniil Frolov wrote on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 10:32 AM UTC:
I'm sorry, maybe, this question was already answered in one of previous comments, but i want to ask: how chameleon exactly captures? Wich of these statements is true:
1. It can capture several pieces of different kinds with method of one of these pieces (for example, captures by custodianship 1 pawn, 1 withdrawer and 1 long leaper).
2. It can capture several pieces of different kinds, each with capturing method of that piece (for example, it can withdrawl from withdrawer, moving itself, surrounding pawn, capturing both withdrawer and pawn).
3. Can capture pieces of only 1 kind with 1 move.
Probably, statement 2 is true, as here player never have to choose capturing method to use ater moving chameleon.

George Duke wrote on Wed, Sep 17, 2008 05:52 PM UTC:
No longer listed alphabetically, Optima was by Michael Howe in 1990's. Baroque was Abbott's first and better name. Aronson classes and links Optima with Abbott's Ultima, D.Howe's and Aronson's Rococo, Mike Hutton's Stupid, and Lavieri's Maxima. Michael Nelson's Fugue came later. Optima is the odd man out, because of listing over fifty piece-types. Optima is more prelude to MHowe's Novo Chess, also hard to find and view now. Moreover, Aronson 14.April.2002 in earlier comment system linked below finds also in 'ECV' other Ultima variants: Bogart's Chess, Renaissance, Ulti-Matem, Ultimate Ultima (by Betza and Ishkanian), and Unorthodox Ultima. Renaissance of course is not Greenwood's Renniassance, deliberately spelled wrong. Aronson finds borderline cases: Interweave, Nemeroth. ( Weave & Dungeon beats Interweave hands down. ) Aronson also mentions his idea for combining Ultima and Chessgi and groans, ''Ultigi. Ah, maybe not.'' Hey, Aronson's hesitancy and forbearance already in 2002 are prophetic of widespread angst over fairly-mindless proliferation today. Discretion: valour.

George Duke wrote on Sun, Sep 14, 2008 09:46 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Reexamination of Abbott's Rococo Comment from almost five years ago is placed at Rococo. Tchervenkov shows where to play Ultima online. Crudely estimating, we use in 2004 P1, K2, W3.1, Co2.9, Ca4.3, L5.3, I8.2. Aronson names other Ultima-derived games already by 2003: Maxima, Stupid, Optima, Rococo. The Excellent is for Ultima's standing the test of time after 45 years, despite its problems in gameplay these Comments address, for example, Lavieri's.

George Duke wrote on Sat, Jun 14, 2008 05:06 PM UTC:
Ultima's (1962) theme is that each piece captures in a different way than all the others, and there is no displacement capture except King's. Rococo (2003) recreates the theme. The last Comment suggests Chameleon may capture up to seven(7) pieces at once.

George Duke wrote on Fri, Nov 2, 2007 04:52 PM UTC:
Seven(7). How many pieces at most may the piece capture? Immobilizer 0; King & Withdrawer 1; Coordinator 2; LL 3 (on 8x8); the Animated Illustration shows Chameleon capturing 7 pieces at once on 8x8. An enemy Immobilizer diagonally adjacent to the arrival square makes eight(8) since that is the 'capture' mode of Immobilizer, transferred to the Chameleon.

fans wrote on Fri, Nov 2, 2007 01:16 PM UTC:
A puzzle:
Immobilizer=0,
King=1,
Withdrawer=1,
Coordinator=2,
Pincer-Pawn=3,
Long-Leaper=3,

Question:Chameleon=?

Todor Tchervenkov wrote on Thu, Mar 29, 2007 02:19 PM UTC:
Hi all, fans of ultima!

Here is the only site, as I know, which gives you the possibility to play ultima on-line in real time: http://adage-studio.com:8080/universal. Rules as the official rules, as published first by Abbott. You have to register in order to play. There are also two other ultima-like games: Rococo and Supremo.

I wish know whether you like the site. Suggestions are welcome.

Kristoffer Beder wrote on Thu, Feb 22, 2007 06:38 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

There is a better solution to 'Ultima Problem 9! The variant that I play does not allow for suicide, so barring this, the soluction is simply: White: LL at F8 -> G7, blocking all moves but a suicide, or leaping (LL H8 go have fun!)

White now threatens checkmate with LL G7->G6!

This brings up an important question of mine:

Do pieces in Baroque/Ultima have 'Kill zones' (areas of instantaneous vaporization) - That is, Do they create instant death in their 'kill zone' at all times, or must a piece move into a position to make the kill?

(ie: can my LL G7 move into G6 in above solution?)

Thanks

- Kris


Nathan Lloyd wrote on Sun, Jul 30, 2006 10:57 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Jul 22, 2006 12:39 AM UTC:
Why not include the great sister game MAXIMA in this discussion? Both games are great; and themes from positions in one will likely be seen to apply to the other in many cases.

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Sat, Jul 22, 2006 12:18 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
That's a good idea. We need a new Page, what about 'Ultima Tips'-?. A good theoretical developement may need tons of material; some of us are moderately experienced players, but I�m sure we are not big authorities,and a theory developed by us may be biased, somewhat primitive and far from exhaustive and water-proof. I can do something about it time to time, I suppose that other experienced players here can do something too: Matthew, Antoine, some others and, generally, everybody who visit TCVP can give us something interesting...

Todor Tchervenkov wrote on Fri, Jul 21, 2006 06:44 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Every game should be played by people that master the rules in order to
reach a theoretical depth. It's not serious to have discussion on rules -
this doesn't serve any purpose.

It's impossible to find some real game theory on Ultima in the Internet.
How about having it here, at the chessvariants pages? If there are any
experienced players around, perphaps they would like to gather
observations just in one place?

Roberto Lavieri wrote on Thu, Apr 13, 2006 12:25 PM UTC:
Is there any reference to the so called Hyperchess?. The name has been also used at least once for another completely different variant, but I have not seen the rules for the game you have mentioned, an Ultima variant. I have also doubts about the goodness of those rules, capturing seems to be more difficult, and certain pawn structures can make the game very slow. It must be tested, before a conclusion.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, Apr 11, 2006 11:44 PM UTC:
I learned this game as 'Hyperchess', with some rule differences:

1.  The upside-down rook is the coordinator and the right-side-up one is
the immobilizer.
2.  Pawns ('straddlers') can only capture by trapping a unit between
two
_pawns_, not a pawn and another friendly piece (though a chameleon and a
pawn or two chameleons) can capture an enemy pawn).  They also capture
passively: any enemy piece moving between two pawns dies instantly.
3.  Knights ('Striders') cannot make multiple captures.
4.  The withdrawer can only move back a single square when capturing.
5.  Coordinators can capture passively: the two squares in the rectangle
formed by the king and the coordinator are instant death for enemy
pieces.
 Coordinators can also capture pieces when the king moves.

Overall, I think the main effect of these differences (especially 2 and
4)
is that capturing is much more difficult.  The most noticeable difference
between 'hyperchess' and chess is that capturing is a very rare
occurrence in hyperchess.

Anonymous wrote on Thu, Feb 2, 2006 06:33 AM UTC:
Since the 90 degree angle is of extreme importance to the Coordinator and the way it captures, you could also use a model of a Windmill with four little fans (or 'vanes') attached to the side of an upright cylinder with a segment from a paperclip for mounting purposes. When it comes to symbolism, Windmills are more modern than the brick & stone 'Castle' construction of the Middle Ages, and the Rook in chess. Of course, you might want to call the game Baroque like the rest of the world does.

H.G.Muller wrote on Wed, Feb 1, 2006 09:59 PM UTC:
Done! Look at http://home.hccnet.nl/h.g.muller/ultima.html

Anonymous wrote on Fri, Jan 20, 2006 05:03 AM UTC:
Could you post a picture or two of your chess set somewhere, and let us have a link to see it?

H.G.Muller wrote on Wed, Jan 18, 2006 05:58 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
When I was playing this game I simply could not do it with a regular chess
set. Being a fanatic speed-chess player of 5 min. games where you have to
move mostly as a reflex, the chess personalities of the piece images were
simply hard-wired in my brain.

So I made a separate set of pieces, looking nothing like chess men, based
on a set of checkers chips and other pieces of wood. The pawns were just
plain chips (since I don't play checkers, they meant nothing to me, so
no
harm there). The King could of course still be represented as an ordinary
chess King, since it moves like one. But for the Long Leaper I used a
cylinder (remaniscent of a draughts King), for the Immobilizer a Cube
(looked pretty immobile...), for the Coordinator a checkers chip mounted
perpendicular on another (representing a dish antenna, symbolizing its
action at a distance), for the Chameleon a spere (supported on a chip) to
represent a spherical mirror in which every piece would see itself. The
whole set looked quite nice, with a pretty homogeneous style.

Daniel Smith wrote on Wed, Oct 5, 2005 05:36 AM UTC:
Back in high school (1980s) we had a variant for when we were running
short
of lunch break.  We called it Chultima, and at each move we could play as
chess, or as ultima.  This made for some very short games, and most of us
were howling with laughter at the (in hindsight) really stupid moves we
had just made.

[For some reason we had slightly different terminology:
   Chameleon   -> Amoeba ('changed shape', or similar spurious reason)
   Pawn        -> Roller (because they rolled up and down ranks)
   Long Leaper -> Leaper (could only jump a single adjacent piece like a
weakened draughts/checkers king)

Also, the coordinator could only take one piece at a time: in the useful
direction.]

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