Ratings & Comments
Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Aug 26, 2019 10:11 PM UTC:If the pawns are called horsemen in this game, does that mean the notation should be "H"?
Finally, just to make 100% sure I understand, the promotion rule is this:
Horsemen MUST promote upon reaching the 8th rank (3rd rank for Black.) They can always promote to Wildebeast. They can also promote to Queen if the player does not already have one.
Is that right?
Bishops Conversion Rule. Rule for variant where bishops start on equal colored squares, with sample games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Aug 25, 2019 02:38 AM UTC:Great, thank you. That is what I had expected. I will update the page to incorporate this.
Hi Greg:
The wording is from Hans based on the info I sent him by email and I admit that it can be somewhat confusing because I really had not considered the possibility that you refer until Mike Nelson pointed out it in a comment wrote on Oct 21/2002.
My answer is that said remaining bishop would have FREE CHOICE to be converted or moved normally according to the color of the square in which it is placed.
Wildebeast9. A Variant of Wildebeast Chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 11:10 PM UTC:Thanks for the clarification.
I was able to re-associate the two existing game logs with your new Wildebeast9 preset and delete the old one.
Greg: Another update to the documentation. FYI. The promotion is to either wildebeast or queen. You can only promote to queen if you do not have one.
Bishops Conversion Rule. Rule for variant where bishops start on equal colored squares, with sample games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 09:53 PM UTC:Question -
This says "for one of the bishops of the player, the first move made with this bishop must be [a conversion]". But what if a player has a bishop captured before either has moved? The wording makes it sound like the other bishop would still be required to convert, but my guess is that is not what was intended. I would think that if a bishop is captured before either has moved, the other one would be able to convert but would not be required to convert. Carlos, can you please clarify?
Thanks!
Wildebeast9. A Variant of Wildebeast Chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg: Done. The game is now Wildebeast9. Can you delete/erase Wildebeast_9? The one with the underscore?
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 05:19 PM UTC:Hi Joe :)
I was able to recover this game. It looks like when this preset was originally created the King was on the right and the Queen on the left as in normal chess. This is backwards for Janus, however, so at some point Jeremy changed the preset. Since there were already games, though, he should have renamed the settings so as not to break all existing games. I made a new settings file called JanusChessRev with the king and queen switched and reassociated this log with the new settings file. Later today I'll try to see if there are others that require the same fix.
Cheers,
Greg
Wildebeast9. A Variant of Wildebeast Chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 03:25 PM UTC:Thank you. This looks interesting. I'll send out a GC invite so I can try it.
I assume by the way the promotion rule is worded that if you do not have a queen you must promote to a queen and cannot choose wildebeast. Is that correct?
Also, I see the GC Preset is named Wildebeast_9 with an underscore. Would you mind saving another copy without the underscore for consistency?
Hello all.
Greg: Correction made on documentation.
Thank you for the rename offer, but I would like to call mine Wildebeast.
HG: Removal of 9x9 on the documentation.
Chris: Xhess correction made.
Erik: I added your game to my introduction
The orthography 'Wildebeast' could be intentional from its author.
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Aug 22, 2019 11:34 PM UTC:And, not to pile on, but it's Wildebeest not Wildebeast. (I can rename the game in the database if you would like.)
H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Aug 22, 2019 09:53 PM UTC:And a Shogi board is 9x9, not 9x10. (Xiangqi is 9x10, but this also doesn't qualify as a Xiangqi board, which has a Palace and a River.)
I think it's a fusion between Wildbeast and Xhess not XChess. XChess is a variation with an hourglass.
Chris
Ben Reiniger wrote on Mon, Aug 19, 2019 04:38 PM UTC:The relevant file seems to be missing. (Also, I don't have Zillions, so another editor would need to verify that the file works should it be uploaded.)
SacriliChess. Members-Only A point-buy chess format that allows promotions for all pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Sac Chess. Game with 60 pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Sac Chess still seems to be holding up well in practical testing on Game Courier, I'm happy to see.
A while back I toyed with the idea of making novel spinoff variant(s) that included the use of N+Guard+Bishop (technically NWB) compound pieces (I've called them Freemasons) and also what I've called Ships, that is N+Guard+Rook (technically NFR) compound pieces (using either an 8x10 or 12x12 board). I had, subsequent to inventing Sac Chess, had the feeling these two triple compound pieces perhaps ought to have been included in a Sac Chess-like game, somehow, as they perhaps logically complete the set of thematic compound pieces added to the standard FIDE piece types. On the other hand, there seems to be no precedent for the use of these triple compound piece types in previously fairly-widely played CVs, e.g. shogi includes the promoted B & R types, at least, while I recall Amazons had been fairly popular, in a variant of chess played in Russia long(?) ago - even centaurs have been employed (Courier-Spiel). So, I don't feel the urge to use the Freemason and Ship compounds as strongly as I once did, as I now see Sac Chess clearly uses the 'classic' compound pieces, as Carlos once put it.
A side issue arising from all this that occured to me is: what values should the Freemason and Ship piece types have? If we note that computer studies place Archbishops (let alone Chancellors) very close to a Q in value, and also place Amazon=Q+N in value (only), at least on 8x8, there doesn't seem much room to put Freemasons and Ships between Archbishops (or Chancellors) and Amazons on a numerical value scale, one might guess (at first thought anyway). I'm not sure what I'd speculate any future computer studies might (approximately) give for the values of Freemasons or Ships, but my own tentative valuation of an Amazon (as =Q+N+P) gives more room to fit Freemasons and Ships on a values scale (e.g. for armies on 8x8 or 10x10), at least. [edit: Fwiw, for 10x10 my own tentative estimates place Chancellor=N+R+P=3+5.5+1=9.5; Amazon=Q+N+P=10+3+1=14 and Ship=(N+F+P)+R+P=(3+0.75+1)+5.5+1=11.25, for example; if I only changed the value of an Amazon, to be equal to Q+N=10+3=13, then its value would seemingly be too close to that of a Ship's.]
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Joe Joyce wrote on Sat, Aug 17, 2019 02:37 AM UTC:This completed game from Game Courier has errored out. Can it be recovered? Thanks, Joe
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Janus%20Chess&log=joejoyce-david_64-2008-52-143
Odin's Rune Chess. A game inspired by Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, runes, and Nordic Mythology. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I am currently playing a game of Odin's Rune Chess, and I really like it, as much the rules and gameplay, as the runic theme. The Forest Ox is a terrific piece, maybe too powerful... I like the rather strong Pawns. I generally appreciate modern variants that use non-conventional Pawns, it effectively renews the dynamics of a chess game. And their initial colorboundness isn't a default at all, for me.
I was wondering if Pawn promotion could be integrated in this game - even if it is not necessary since Pawns can go back and the need for new material is less crucial, since the vulnerabiliy of the Kings without moving possibilities makes situations of insufficent material less likely. Promotion possibilities should be limited, since Pawns can reach the last rank in only four moves; for example, they could only promote to previously captured pieces of his own colour; or there could be limitations to the maximum number of pieces of each type present on the board (4 Valkyries, and 4 Forest Oxen, for example - which is already a lot). One can also think of the opportunity to permit the promotion to King (here too, the maximum number must be limited or promotion be only to previously captured Kings). But the game plays already well, I don't think it needs a promotion rule. I was just wondering how promotion could affect the gameplay, and if it could be interessant as a variant.
Edit: my comment about the possibility of promotion wasn't very pertinent. Promotion doesn't make much sense in this game.
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Wildebeast_9&settings=default
A while ago, one longtime member shared with me an extortion scam email he had received that included his CVP password in it. Today I received a similar email that included my CVP password. If you get such emails, just ignore them. It talks about installing malware on your computer, recording your passwords, recording you through your webcam, then conveniently removing all trace of the malware from your computer. It's just a scam, not a real extortion threat.
I don't think it's a coincidence that the password it included in the email was the one for this site. Until just now, I had not changed it in years, and several years ago, all passwords here were encrypted as MD5 hashes. This is very insecure, because there is a fixed relationship between the original word and the encryption, which allows people to build translation dictionaries that can identify your password from its MD5 hash.
If there were really malware on my computer monitoring my passwords, the hacker could just as easily steal my Paypal password, which would prove lucrative without going through the trouble of trying to blackmail me.
If you have not changed your password in a long time, it will still be encrypted as an MD5 hash. To fix this, sign in and change your password. Your new password will be encrypted in a format that does not have a 1-to-1 relation with the password, and it will be much more secure. While you could keep the same password and just update its encryption, that is what I had done, and this email proved that this was not enough to protect my password. The best thing you can do to protect your password is to change it.
8-Piece Chess. (Queen's Army chess, all 8 Back Rank Pieces different).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]New fairness-based rule to the Randomized version of this game: in the opening setup, the sentry must reside on the c, d, e, or f files.
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I would also like clarification about the promotion rules. The way I interpreted the rule as you wrote it, promotion to queen would be mandatory if you didn't have one, otherwise mandatory promotion to wildebeest. Which bothered me, because in my current game with Greg Strong, in one quite possible line, I would prefer wildebeest to queen. Underpromotion is a great mechanic, so it would be nice to be able to promote to lesser pieces if desired.