Ratings & Comments

That worked

Looks like you fixed everything, save for the hand spaces of course, but I won't bother you on that too much until you are ready to test the solution.

I would at least like the ones for Hectochess and Seireigi. Ideally, the files should be placed in such a way so that I know which files go where.

You may include Chu Seireigi if you wish, but I am doing one last update to make it easier to defend against a Lion:

• Renaming Prancing Stag to Old Kite (FsW), which promotes to Prancing Stag (fBsRvW)
• Strong Bear moving the same as Chu Shogi Drunk Elephant

I had your Jocly implementation play out several games, and even though it played rather poorly (for obvious reasons), it was clear that there needed to be more defense.

P. S. I'm surprised you changed the Whale's symbol to a trident. I guess it makes sense if you take into account Greek mythology. I think the whale tail symbol you used before would look more accurate, but it really comes down to personal preference here.

I think I fixed the conditional. So try it again.

Happy Birthday.

I'm trying to change the visibility of this page to members-only from private, but it says "you are limited to submitting nine of your games for review and publication at a time" and fails even though I only see that I have two submissions for review. Is the submissions for review page not showing everything?

@ HG: Yes, it seems that the problem is 100% solved. Thank you very much.

This is for the Darker color scheme, which has a black background. Blue will be fine, since it shows up well against black, and it contrasts with another piece being white. The tallest piece in the Dark scheme's logo is 427, and the height of the logo is 432. Without the pieces, the text part of the logo has a height of 415. If I do like I did with the Light logo, a piece height of 285 would work.

I wasn't sure what you'd want/be able to use as far as piece and background colors, so I just played with it a little. I can change them as desired.

Here's the Midnighter and Thaumaturge, for starters.

And I still do like my Phoenix.

I'll get the others you asked about later in the day, once I know your color preferences (other than being careful with reds).

Let's try the cannon, the chancellor, the dragon king, and the phoenix.

276. Grand Vizier. This is yet another intereseting piece from Robert Shimmin's game Scheherazade. It can step to any adjacent space, or leap (1,3) or (2,2). (KAC)

I rather like this piece for slightly-large boards such as the 12x12 one shown here.

This is yet another model that I made after studying historical pictures. I may need to accentuate the sash more, but on the whole I think it came out OK.

My Nightrider and Bodyguard, as promised:

Since Lev mentioned them, the Zip and Torch:

And, just for giggles, my Grandmaster Mage and Anvil:

I can set about making the neutral-background pieces just about any color you want, if there's a preference. I'll assume want just the first two unless you say otherwise (though I may do them all just for the heck of it).

Random Pocket Omega

The author, Lev Grigoriev, has updated this page.

Maybe Archbishop and (sorry but I just suggest) my Zip or (better) Torch?

Both these my pieces have 3D models made by Bob.

I think I've corrected the bugs you mentionned.

If HGM has the time and the possibility to add the parametrisation of the hand space in the drop model, of course I'll use it, but I don't know if it's that easy to do.

I can share a zip if you want, with these 3 compiled games (Hectochess/Seireigi/Chu Seireigi)?

@ Fergus: I can make an image of any 3D piece without any background. Just tell me which one from here if you want to make a test:

https://www.chessvariants.com/craft/a-catalog-of-3d-printable-chess-variant-pieces

Of course, that can be done with Bob's pieces as well.

That's a fair point.

Another option would be to allow the Aviaancas an ifA, and/or the Half-Ducks iffN (or iffN2).

Overall, though, I think your better bet would be to change the Giraffes' CC to C3.

I'm thinking of making a logo specifically for the Darker color scheme using piece designs for 3D printers. However, I want to use images without a background behind them, and I think it would be appropriate to include a Nightrider, though it doesn't look like anyone has made one. Since Bob Greenwade and Jean-Louis Cazaux are the most active in making such pieces, one piece from each might be appropriate. What ideas do you guys have?

Wouldn't that be a free Pawn? The initial setup is like this because this game was inspired by Grande Acedrex, I also like Camelopards starting on file d & i because there they protect each other.

With shuffle.

The author, A. M. DeWitt, has updated this page.

The author, A. M. DeWitt, has updated this page.

Since it's never appeared in any published version of Clue, no, I haven't.

Thanks. Hopefully we can also upload your implementations of Hectochess and Seireigi to the site soon.

I have tested the new moves and will update you on bugs to be fixed. Here are the errors I found as of the writing of this comment.

-------------------------------
Piece Movement/Promotion Errors
-------------------------------

Whale is missing its backward slide

White Golden Bird is missing its sideways orthogonal leaps

For some reason Flying Swallows that are dropped from the hand (not the ones present initially) have their move reversed

-------------------------------

As for the trouble with the hand spaces, maybe ask H. G. Muller about that? He is the one who made the original model if I remember correctly. It shouldn't be that hard for him to figure something out.

As far as I can tell, you should only need a second column of hand spaces on each side, but of course, it's probably not as simple as I am making it out to be.

If that's in reference to your Bullet, I've been thinking about that. Like today's Yey, it'd be an interesting Pawn or Superpawn type piece.

I discovered a bug in the GAME code I added in my attempt to fix the problem. (writing 'task' instead of '#task'). I think it should be solved now.

In that event, if I'm understanding this correctly, moving a Pawn to b7 should also block the Giraffe. In any event, changing the corner piece from Limping Queen shouldn't be the answer (I'd want to leave that move open as a possibility); you could just switch the Zerdinal and Aviaanca, for example, or have the Giraffe start in a different spot where it can't move to a place that threatens the King.

@ HG: thank you for your answer. Indeed, all my other games with King's jump were done without using the PTA, so I cannot make a direct comparison. I think you are right on this.

I have tested. Apparently I get the same. The square of King's jump is highlighted even though the K is in check. But if I do that move, I get a long message with the moves, the code and starting by:

GameEnd That moves through or out of check

Use your browser's BACK button to go back to the previous page, then reload if necessary.

For general reference, here is the complete list of moves:

If I go back with my browser, I get the message "Ce document a expiré" that you understand probably. But even though this is discouraging to continue, there is also a button "retry" and if I retry I finally get the game just before the King's jump. Indeed, it is then possible to continue to play.

So I think that as you mean, the problem is disturbing but rather cosmetic. If they know what is happening, the players can continue to play, which is the major point.

Thanks again.

Extra information about Clue Chess that may or may not be relevant:

• The board is 25x25, with special spaces for the Rooms and blacked-out spaces around the players' starting areas (except in front).
• Similar to regular Clue(do), there can be anywhere from 2 to 8 players.
• There will be only one of each weapon; they start neutral, in starting places on the board.
• When a player captures a weapon piece, that player's King gains the abiltiies of that piece.
  • There will be no limit on how many weapons the King can carry (as of this moment, anyway).
  • I haven't fully decided yet what happens to the weapons when the King is captured. The King itself is returned to its starting square, and I'm inclined to do the same with the weapons, though I may decide on something else.
• It may or may not be allowed to move the weapons as independent, "neutral" pieces. If it is, it'll be move-without-capture only.

Feedback on these rules wouldn't be entirely unwelcome, though for now I want to focus on selecting the eighth weapon.

Yes. The only way to prevent Ga10 is to move the Limping Queen on a-file. I just prefer a setup where white can't force the corner pieces to move from the start since they can castle.

Ishskwaday by Stuart Spence, AKA Zulban

275. Yey. This is another piece that I built based on a letter of the Tifinagh, and it's one that I'm a little surprised I haven't alraedy posted.

Based on the Berber letter ⴻ, Yey moves one space sideways, or leaps two spaces vertically. If the latter move captures a piece, it may then move without capture from there to any adjacent space. (sW[vD?a(b)K])

I think that this would be an interesting piece to use as a special Pawn, promoted Pawn, or "superpawn."

Sorry, I was out of town for a few days, and had no time to figure out the answer on this one.

The presets you compare with were not automated through the PTA, so there is no reason why these should behave the same.

Are you sure the game ends when the King moves out of check? Normally an illegal move should not terminate the game; it should just be refused (in this case with the message you quote), and then through using the browser 'back' button you should be able to retry another move. This is also what happens if you insist moving a piece to a non-highlighted destination.

If this is the case the only thing that isn't working exactly as it should is the highlighting: the King jumps get highlighted even if they are forbidden because of check. But there is no way to exploit this; in the end legality is enforced by refusing the move.

The way the PTA-generated GAME code enforces 'not out of check' rules is by having the potentially forbidden moves generate e.p. rights on the square of origin. Using such a move then would allow the opponent to capture the moved piece (i.e. the King) en passant, making the move illegal.

Unfortunately the 'accelerated check test' used for determining the legality of the moves to highlight (in order to prevent this from becoming excruciatingly slow for large games) doesn't detect this: it generates all opponent moves from the current position to mark squares that are under attack on the board. And then only rejects King moves that go to such an attacked square. And in this case the problem is not that the destination is attacked, but that the origin is attacked.

I suppose I could solve this in the accelerated check test by suppressing the virginity of a King that is in check during the generation of the highlights.

[Edit] I now changed the move generator to suppress initial moves of a piece that should not move out of check, when it is in check during the accelerated check test. Please test if this solves the problem.

Since the fairychess include file uses a shortcode to display pieces, I changed how the shortcode works instead of any code in the fairychess include file. I modified it to include WIDTH and HEIGHT values in the IMG tag when the image is an SVG image. These will be equal to $width and $height when these variables have values, as they usually do in Game Courier, and they will be 50 otherwise.

It looks like replacing the corner piece with Limping Queen allows white to do 1.c6 then 2.Ga10. Looks like I have to change it again.

If this Limping Queen is the one that I posted in PotD a few days ago, I'm sorry I missed it.

(I also don't see how the nature of the corner piece affects the above opening.)

If I remember correctly, the PTA does that for all special King moves, such as castling.

Is it a matter of skill or a matter or perceived randomness?

I would ask that same question about nightriders, but they seem popular anyway. If I'm understanding you, the problem with Jokers is that they're too easy to exchange favorably because they're much stronger at the start than the end. I would expect that to be less of a problem with a very large game, since both players would have more opportunities to use their jokers.

If you're using it in a different armies game, the most important thing would be to have a joker in every army. Do you have an interactive diagram to show an example of a game where this piece might not work?

I repost this message which was probably missed:

@ HG Muller: I have a problem that I can't solve. In many of my variants I have a rule of King's leap to a 2nd square replacing castling. As for regular castling, the King may not leap when it is under check. It works fine for Metamachy, Zanzibar, Maasai, Terachess II, etc. But in Bigorra, the GC would let a CHECKED King leap to a 2nd-square! Actually, it marks the destination square as a possible move, but if the player does it (so, violating the real rule), the game ends with an error message saying the King has moved out of chess.

Why the Bigorra GC is behaving like that whereas Metamachy or Terachess II for example don't have this behaviour, I don't know. I would like to fix that bug in Bigorra GC but I don't know what to do.

I ask you because that GC had been made with the PTA from the ID. Could you please have a look on that GC?

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Bigorra&settings=Default-PTA

Thank you very much

The author, HaruN Y, has updated this page.

I have read Eric Silverman's thoughts on powerful pieces now. Trouble with the joker is that it's value is very volatile. In the beginning it is very powerful though. One could argue that maneuvering him it is a matter of skill. This, actually is my conundrum: Is it a matter of skill or a matter or perceived randomness?

By larger boards I mean strictly larger than 8x8. Even in 10x10(where I have 13 piece types) handling the enemy joker is quite tricky. 12x12 could work, too. But larger boards would make games impossible to play if the joker is present. Just imagine Tenjiku shogi with one or God forbid more jokers.

As I have said in my previous comment I have a large palette of piece types represented. This makes things even more complicated.

It could also be that I worry too much, but who knows.

It looks like replacing the corner piece with Limping Queen allows white to do 1.c6 then 2.Ga10. Looks like I have to change it again.