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It would be nice if the interactive diagram could be given a "zoom" setting like the diagram designer has.
Maasai Chess. Large CV with 48 pieces per side, of 20 types including Sergent Maasai as improved Pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I wanted to create a new Game Courier preset to play this Maasai Chess. Then, I follow the link to create a new GC preset. But at the end, the process gives a similar template than for a normal page entry. This is confusing.
I expect you followed the link to create a link page to a Game Courier preset. This is what you should do after you have already created your preset.
So, I started from an existing GC preset of my own, I modified it, I renamed it "Maasai Chess", I saved it and I spent my evening working on it. This morning, I wanted to come back on it and continue ... but I can't find it. Where is it?
What you created is a Game Courier settings file. A settings file may be used as the basis for multiple presets with different appearances, or it may be used as a single preset without modification. After you have made your presets, the next step would be to create an indexed link page to them. To find your settings file, look in the menu under your name for "Your Game Courier Settings Files".
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. 
Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]HG, I forgot to say I doubt that I'll find there all the graphics I need. Like the ones for firebird and thunderbird. What is wrong with displaying the text in the browser at 80%?
Maasai Chess. Large CV with 48 pieces per side, of 20 types including Sergent Maasai as improved Pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]True, this variant is quite big and the changed pieces are behind 2 rows of predetermined "pawns", the shuffled pieces will not affect the board in the opening much. I haven’t considered how large this variant is.
Its not completely unreasonable that someone migth derive advantage from playing with more familiar setup (assuming one would play this variant enough).
It is very quesionable, though, whether in a variant this large where the differences in setup are applied somewhere in the rear of the army, that there will be anything familiar at all to the position by the time the battle really starts. Black can force white to start with (some of his) pieces in a certain constellation, but he cannot control what moves white will play afterwards. Most white players would play totally different, and by the time the pieces in the back-rank come into play you would always be in a position you have never seen before. Unless black is playing against the same white player all the time, which would also stick to the single variation he likes. In which case the position would be just as familiar to that white player, and the alledged compensation would go up in smoke.
It can be argued that if chess is a forced draw from opening position, then first move advantage doesn’t exist at all. Yet even if someone showed proof that chess is drawn game, humans would still atribute some advantage to white. Its not completely unreasonable that someone migth derive advantage from playing with more familiar setup (assuming one would play this variant enough). Quantifying this advantage and comparing it to first move advantage is another story though.
I agree that it is exceedingly unlikely that anyone would ever develop opening theory for these games. And of course it is your design, and you can pick the rules anyway you like them.
But what I object to (since your submission is open for review) is your claim that the rule you propose compensates the first-move advantage. Especially if you don't believe yourself that black would ever go to the trouble of developing opening theory, it is a misleading claim.
Seriously, nobody will study the opening theories for my games. If few are just playing, I'll be happy. I still believe that if they are many setups, the impact of learn-by-heart openings will be less important. I like the idea of one player choosing the setup and the opponent making the first move. I understand that other people may like other ideas, no problem.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Maasai Chess. Large CV with 48 pieces per side, of 20 types including Sergent Maasai as improved Pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It seems to me that the black player who chooses the setup has an advantage to his white opponent who doesn't know what will be the setup. It is true that the black player may know an opening theory for his favorite setup but as they are a lot of possible setups, one would have to know a lot of opening theories which is reducing the impact in my opinion.
There is no game-theoretical advantage from choosing btween a number of symmetric, and therefore mostly equivalent start position. The only way black can derive any advantage from this is by having very extensive opening knowledge for the setup he is going to choose. Only white would have to prepare for all openings, if he has no clue what black is going to choose. (Which presumably is hopeless, due to the large number.) Black, however, only has to prepare for one, and can use that one in every game he plays as black. (And even if it is commonly known what he will pick, it is not much help to the white player if he has to play a variety of opponents.)
So I think that rather than doing away with the burden of opening theory, your rules compell the players to study opening theory for black, in order to neutralize the first-move advantage.
I am confused. Yesterday I created a new page for a new entry called "Maasai Chess". This page is now waiting for approval by editors. This is not the problem.
After, I wanted to create a new Game Courier preset to play this Maasai Chess. Then, I follow the link to create a new GC preset. But at the end, the process gives a similar template than for a normal page entry. This is confusing.
So, I started from an existing GC preset of my own, I modified it, I renamed it "Maasai Chess", I saved it and I spent my evening working on it. This morning, I wanted to come back on it and continue ... but I can't find it. Where is it?
When I look under my name to my unpublished submissions, I see the normal page for "Maasai Chess" but for the GC preset I just see the void page I had made, and not the file I had worked on yesterday.
May someone help me?
It seems to me that the black player who chooses the setup has an advantage to his white opponent who doesn't know what will be the setup. It is true that the black player may know an opening theory for his favorite setup but as they are a lot of possible setups, one would have to know a lot of opening theories which is reducing the impact in my opinion.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]They are in the directory /graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG35/ . Don't forget to change to graphicsType=png .
To be honest I did not know about the 35x35 images. What I am doing is to tell my browser to show the page at 80%. The solution you propose is probably better. Do I have all the images this way? How can I do it?
Game Courier Developer's Guide. Learn how to design and program Chess variants for Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have added the ability to use entirely custom piece sets in a game. These are defined in GAME Code and do not use an external PHP file. Here is some sample code I wrote:
// A demo of using multiple internal sets that do not match any set file.
// Name the sets you will use by assigning them to the $groupsets array.
// Use capitalized names for the sets. These do not match any file names.
setsystem groupsets array Abstract Alfaerie AlfaeriePNG Magnetic Motif;
// Define pieces in an array variable called mypieces.
// Start by creating an associative array of all pieces shared in common.
// The key should be a label, and the value should be a filename.
// A single line of code is broken into multiple lines of text for legibility.
set mypieces assoc
K "WKing.gif" k "BKing.gif"
Q "WQueen.gif" q "BQueen.gif"
R "WRook.gif" r "BRook.gif"
B "WBishop.gif" b "BBishop.gif"
N "WKnight.gif" n "BKnight.gif"
P "WPawn.gif" p "BPawn.gif";
// Set the $dir system variable to match the set, and modify filenames as needed.
if == pieceset Alfaerie:
setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/alfaerie/";
foreach (k v) #mypieces:
setelem mypieces #k tolower #v;
next;
elseif == pieceset AlfaeriePNG:
setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/";
foreach (k v) #mypieces:
setelem mypieces #k tolower str_replace .gif .png #v;
next;
elseif == pieceset Magnetic:
setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/magnetic/";
elseif == pieceset Motif:
setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/motif/";
else:
// Have a default set for when the set does not match any allowed set.
// The default is Abstract.
setsystem dir "/graphics.dir/abstract/";
endif;
// Now that the pieces are defined, copy the #mypieces array to $pieces
setsystem pieces #mypieces;
ChessV
. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi Greg, Thanks for the updated version. I received an exception while playing Tripunch chess
Thanks again for finding this. I've found the issue. The next version will resolve this problem in Tripunch and be more resistant to this issue in general. But, in the meantime, you can fix this by going into the ChessV include directory and editing the Tripunch Chess.cvc file in a text editor. Inside the SetGameVariables function, add the following line:
DeduplicateMoves = true;
Then restart ChessV and you should be good.
Maasai Chess. Large CV with 48 pieces per side, of 20 types including Sergent Maasai as improved Pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Why do you say that black's privilege of choosing the initial setup would compensate the first-move advantage? It shouldn't be worth anything, because white gets exactly the same arrangement of pieces. And having one player determine the setup interferes with the purpose of having no opening theory.
Meta-chess Digital Edition. Digital Copy of 'Meta-chess' by John W Brown.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, I admit, I don't know for sure.
From what I had been able to gather, Mr. Brown is no longer active on this site, and the email and physical addresses I have to him are no longer working; the email is deactivated, and a letter I sent to buy a physical copy of the book was returned stating it was "not deliverable to address - unable to forward." I have also not been able to find any info on or about 'Kronschild Publishing' to be able contact them.
I don't know how to contact him, or who could be contacted on his behalf. I would absolutely be willing to discuss with him (or a proxy) about whether he, himself, is okay with this.
So, yeah. I have no clue how to find and get hold of him. Anyone how does know, I would love to hear from.
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A remark that applies to all your recent submissions: don't you think 50x50 piece images are too large for these large boards? People that would want to play against the diagram cannot fit the entire board on their display. I seems much beter to use 35x35 images.
Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I do not know if there is a game with Dabbabarider Fers piece, possible but yeah, I'm not sure. I can't recall seeing one myself.
I never meant for you to change name, I was just giving info. I understand though you might want to change, and Lame Duck is interesting name!!
If I do see a game with the piece I'll let you know.
The Silly Sliders are one of the weirdest Chess experiences I have had. They are so strange: One attacks by retreating and unlocking the far range moves and one escapes from attack by approaching the figures. I'd suspect that the army is a bit weaker than the FIDEs because the ranging pieces can be stuffed. A blocking piece on the ski square doesn't even need protection. The rotated short range moves of the Onyx and the Duck have unusual interactions with the pawn formations.
All in all: A great design worth trying.
Thank you. I admit that of the armies I designed I like the Silly Sliders best, aesthetically. Unfortunately I couldn't do much testing, as my main PC broke down. I would really like to do some testing on the Onyx; in fact that piece is what gave me the idea for this army. I was looking for a non-colorbound version of the Bishop, for measuring whether the B-pair bonus would really disappear in that case. Because there is an alternative explanation for this bonus, namely that two diagonal slides on opposit square shades cooperate exceptionally well. Playing Bishops against Onyxes in pairs or singletons could decide this matter.
A second point of interest would be whether the penalty for a leap being lame depends on whether the square where the leap can be blocked is attacked by the piece itself, or not. In a sense all distant slider moves are lame leaps, but they cannot be blocked without exposing the blocker to one of those. Playing Onyx + Duck vs Bishop + Rook would be a 'low-noise' experiment for investigating this. Between them they have exactly the same moves, which can be blocked the same way, but the Onyx and Duck do not attack the adjacent blocking squares, while the Bishop and Rook do.
Interesting that the name Duck was used for FDD by Jelliss. This has a very similar footprint. Is it known which variant employed this piece? If i is imporant to keep the distinction between these pieces, I could change mine to 'Lame Duck'.
Great work on 'Silly Sliders', new pieces are interesting. Onyx, Duck and Squire are all original are they not.
They are nice. I would say I'd rather have a Squire than a normal Queen, with the Knight jump. The name 'Duck' is used by George Jelliss with his 'All the King's Men' listings though, but this is ok. Duck .... Fers + Dabbabarider.
Have you played it with someone or a computer, I'd say it must play pretty well. Great work!!
Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern. Very large Board variant obtained trough tinkering with known games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]25 comments displayed
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This would be possible only if we use the SVG images directly in the diagram, or when the diagram would directly use the SVG renderer. The latter is obviously already possible, as it is what the diagram editor does: this is based on the normal diagram with the graphicsDir set to the URL of the renderer. But the render is off-site, and so far Fergus did not manage to compile it on the CVP server due to CentOS - Ubuntu differences. So this is not recommended.
As to directly using the SVG: I am not sure if all browsers can do that. Perhaps by now they can. In that case the HTML specifying the image can specify the desired size, and I could have the diagram script include the size specifier. But there would not be any color subsitutions; no way HTML or browsers are going to do that. So it would require the SVGs to be available in both colors. I suppose this is easy to achieve with an edit script.
It won't solve Aurelian's problem, though, which is that the PNG / SVG alfaerie set does not yet cover everything that is available as GIF.
@Aurelian: scaling the raster images makes them more ugly, and the GIF set is quite ugly to begin with. Its use should be discouraged even when no scaling is necessary / desired. Anyway for Grand Apothecary Modern all pieces you need are available, not?
@Greg: We really should continue expanding the SVG set. Perhaps on a demand basis. If Aurelian just needs two or three new images, it would not be that much effort to create those.