Ratings & Comments

He dropped off without explanation after updating the graphics on his pages to use the diagram designer and shortcodes. He has not been in contact with me, and he has had no known web presence apart from his activity on this site.

Despite a slight revision to it, the interactive diagram is still not working.

This did not go well. So, I reinstalled CentOS 7 and restored the site from backups made on February 26th. I have been having trouble with accessing the database using MariaDB 10.5.9. I have switched to MariaDB 5 to see if it makes a difference.

The database seems to be working now. I have adjusted the time controls for games to give ten extra days to make up for the downtime.

Seems that creating directories for new variants doesn't work right now.

Error message:

Failed to create the directory /home/chessvariants/public_html/play/pbmsettings/cascade_chess.

Hi, when i click on 'what's new' and then 'last game courier move' i get

The Chess Variant Pages: 404 Error - Page not found Welcome to the Chess Variant Pages, a site about games related to, based on, or similar enough to Chess.

We're sorry, but the page https:/​/​www.chessvariants.com/​pbm/​logs.php could not be found.

This page is not listed in our database. The URL may be misspelled, the page may have been removed or renamed, or the page may have never existed.

Here are other pages with the filename of /logs.php:

play/pbm/logs.php

ok, when i click on that i am starting to see games, there is 4 there right now

Oh, I see with the site being down recently some stuff was lost, like my game courier game with Carlos I had to redo a move I already had done. I posted here before it went down about releasing a zrf for this game, and i uploaded the game and some screenshots for the download page, should I do that again.

I'm going to play a game or two of this game on game courier if possible, I notice your comments about this game Kevin, if you want a game you can send me invite, i'll play the black and green side!!

Link is here, i'm giving the link because it is spelt 'chatarunga', not the usual way.

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=4-Handed+Chatarunga&settings=4-handed%20chat%201.00

Of course, if we play this game, we are playing with double mate rules that is on this page :)

Oh, if anyone else wants a game, send me an invite, i'll play the black green pieces.

Seems that creating directories for new variants doesn't work right now.

It should work now that I have put apache and chessvariants into each other's groups.

I still have the same problem that Christine had, when I try to see my (untimed) game with CVP editor Joe Joyce - in fact, I cannot see my own list of games in progress (with invitations included) - I had to try to see the one with Joe by going to his Personal info page, and then trying to see his game(s) in progress - that's when I had the same problem as Christine.

For what it's worth, one of my older friends, who had lived in Japan for 5 years, was laughing his head off at the bath scene back then (a scene which also confirms this is the right show, I guess), along with another friend being doubled over, too. I didn't find the scene necessarily too odd, but rather I thought it was largely irrelevant to the shogi variant game being played - I suppose there has to be some sort of breakaway scene(s) at times from a game, though.

Yeah I also lived in Japan for a few years, and that onsen moment is really funny. The onsen is where you go to have a deep soak, de-stress and forget your troubles -- so seeing both the players in there really underlines how exhausted they were by playing this monstrous game. They're opponents in the game, but united by just being knackered by the whole thing.

The players' comments at the end of the game sum up their feelings pretty well -- the winner says 'I don't want to do that again', and the losing player says 'I have no regrets about losing', with a clear sense that he's just glad it's over!

I make this announcement that would interest a lot of chessvariant lovers. After many years I finally got all booklets written by V.R.Parton. I have edited this work, adding a lot of illustrative diagrams because Parton was simply using a typing machine. I must thank a lot Peter Blommers (who corrected Pritchard's book) and Ulrich Schädler (from the Swiss Museum of Games) for their precious help in collecting the booklets that were not available before. Also Rick Knowlton and Paul Rapoport for their precious help in scrutinising the text to chase errors made by the scanning process. While Parton did not have the good fortune to see his works published, this volume endeavours to correct that omission. Some hard to find testimonies and correspondence are included to help better understand the complex personality of this inventor of games. Parton showed a sincere desire that his studies reach a broader audience, and this is what is accomplished by the present publication. At last, his creations are being made available to future generations, and will not be forgotten. This book (325pages) can be found on Amazon or better on Lulu.com:

https://www.lulu.com/en/en/shop/vernon-rylands-parton-and-jean-louis-cazaux/the-chess-world-of-vrparton/paperback/product-rw99wy.html?page=1&pageSize=4

I'm still having no luck on either count when I try. When I click on 'your games on game courier' via the main menu (item at top is Kevin Pacey) I still get an error message saying connection refused.

When I go to find Joe's games on game courier via his personal info page, I still get a 'Page not found' error message,

Have you tried clearing your cache or using a different browser? When I substitute your userid for mine in the URL I get from the menu, the page does come up without connection errors. Likewise, the link on Joe's personal info page works for me.

The start location of the White Tiger and Blue Dragon is a bit surprising, as their diagonal slides aim towards the board edge rather than towards the center. In Dai Dai Shogi this is the other way around: the Blue Dragon starts on the left.

In one of the comments below the Japanese blog post where this game originated, the inventor states that he deliberately put those pieces in those awkward positions. His reasoning is that we see a similar tendency in Maka Dai Dai Shogi, where the Left and Right Chariots are also positioned awkwardly with their diagonal slides heading toward the edge of the board. He also cites Chu Shogi, where the steppers are stuck on the back line despite being most useful at the front. He believes that placing those pieces awkwardly in the other variants was intentional, so he placed the White Tiger and Blue Dragon similarly (and also the Vermillion Sparrow and Turtle-Snake).

He also says he accepts this might not be correct, and in a later comment says he feels the pieces can be changed around as appropriate, so I think he wouldn't mind if players tried swapping those pieces over.

An interesting and very playable game. The figures are divergent pieces moving as the nominal piece and capturing as Querquisites.

I've done one last (hopefully, for now) update to this page, incorporating H. G.'s suggestion about the ‘Contra‐’ prefix, and a caveat about Mideast Chess' Cavalier. I'll henceforth probably leave this page alone for now.

By trial and error I think I managed to clear my cache. The 2 issues I had went away, though in my game with Joe the position was as it was a couple of moves ago, many days ago, and with it being my turn. I guess he'll play the same reply to my same chosen move as before. :)

OK, I see. Thank you for the explanation. I don't think he is right about the Left/Right Chariots in Maka Dai Dai Shogi, though; These seem well placed. You can move them quickly away from the edge they start, by moving them forward a lot, and then diagonally back. Or, to say it differently: with only their sliding moves they would be able to access (on an empty board) nearly the entire board, except for a small triangle in the corner of their own camp just behind them. Had they started near the other edge, their sliding moves could only access the triangle above their diagonal move (less than half the board, as they start significantly above the main diagonal), and to access the area under the diagonal they would be dependent on their backward step (which would pretty much take forever on such a large board). You see the same pattern for the Quails in Tori Shogi.

Yep, that all sounds reasonable. I really don't have any strong feelings either way, just thought it was useful to relay what he said. Since his comments confirm that these piece placements are purely an aesthetic choice, which the inventor's open to changing anyway, maybe it's worth adding a swap of the White Tiger/Blue Dragon as a suggested variant?

Check the "Your Unpublished Submissions" menu item in the menu headed by your name.

Sorry if I have done something wrong with the download of the zip file, but it doesn't appear to be working, getting error.

Despite a slight revision to it, the interactive diagram is still not working.

Now that we are mostly recovered from the CentOS-8 disaster, perhaps an editor can re-apply the fixes for this Diagram: remove the trailing spaces on the white/blackPrefix and the graphicsDir. And move the K in the description of king to just before the preceding colon, as it is now in the image-name field, while it was intended to be the Betza move description.

Also, the start location of the black Left and Right probably has to be swapped.

I'm working on a php version of control.html a couple of directories lower at /play/jocly/control.php. I added an extra parameter to the query string to tell which directory a game is in. The following URL works:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/jocly/control.php?game=xiangqi&dir=chessbase

Curiously, though, when I reverse the order of the two parameters, it gives me Chess instead of Xiangqi:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/jocly/control.php?dir=chessbase&game=xiangqi

Bearing this in mind, I created a rewrite rule in .htaccess that lets me use the dir value as a directory name before the game of the name. Given that the following URL show the description and rules for the correct game, I can tell that it is being rewritten correctly, but when I use it, Jocly does not work:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/jocly/chessbase/xiangqi

I added some code to pass the PHP variable's value to a JavaScript variable called game, but it didn't help. I also tried GAME, but that didn't help either. Any ideas about what I can do?

In fact, I have seen two names for the (2,4) leaper, the two names are lancer (used by G.P. Jelliss) and Hase "hare" used by German problemists. And there is probably at least one name by Charles Gilman for it, maybe two because his nomenclature has changed over time.