Comments by CarlosCetina

@HG

When trying to reinforce the Sissa Chess preset rules using the Play-test applet, I get stuck with the conversion parameter: something is wrong with it. The conversion rule does not fully apply, since if I normally move a bishop, the other would necessarily convert on its first move, which does not happen. The same thing happens in reverse.

Could you please take a look at this issue to try to see what's going on?

You commented on this matter on 2021-12-01:

All that is now required is define the bishop with an extra initial iW move, and add a parameter conversion=N, where N is the number of the piece table of the piece to which the rule applies. (So here N=3). The first moves of pieces of this type are then forced to go to different square shades.

Where does it come from that 3 is the number that corresponds to the bishop?

Thanks in advance for your help.

I think I made the adjustments you indicated correctly, however something must be wrong since the bishops lost the W option when they start on squares of the same color. It strangely happens that after moving one of them, the other can no longer be moved at all.

Now that the Asymmetric-Enforced preset is accessible, it seems that the added code 

set b1 findpiece B first spaces;
set b2 findpiece B last spaces;
if & 1 - file b1 file b2:
  setflag #b1;
  setflag #b2;
endif;
set b1 findpiece b first spaces;
set b2 findpiece b last spaces;
if & 1 - file b1 file b2:
  setflag #b1;
  setflag #b2;
endif;

is not having an effect since the conversion rule is not fulfilled. I await further instructions.

Okay. I have changed, in the two presets that I am using for testings, the definitions of B and b according to your instructions, being like this:

def B cond #0 (cond flag var ori 104 cond == 1 var wstart 104 cond var wstart 124 104) 0;

def b cond #0 (cond flag var ori 104 cond == 1 var bstart 104 cond var bstart 124 104) 0;

I repeat the links to the mentioned presets:

asymmetric-enforced does not have the code you pointed out added; it isn't broken but the conversion rule is not fully fulfilled.

Asymmetric-Enforced does have added the code but it's broken.

I wish Fergus could take a look at this matter.

OK, I found a solution to the shuffle problem. At the end of the PreGame section, add the code

set b1 findpiece B first spaces;
set b2 findpiece B last spaces;
if & 1 - file b1 file b2:
  setflag #b1;
  setflag #b2;
endif;
set b1 findpiece b first spaces;
set b2 findpiece b last spaces;
if & 1 - file b1 file b2:
  setflag #b1;
  setflag #b2;
endif;

This will mark both Bishops as non-virgin in the starting position when their distance is an odd number of squares (i.e. when they are already on different shades). And non-virgin Bishops can never use the Wazir move.

 

Something is still wrong since after adding that code I get a blank page saying only

Please report any bugs or errors to H.G. Muller

I am doing the tests with two settings names:

asymmetric-enforced  does not have the code you pointed out added.

Asymmetric-Enforced does have added the code.

Both have functions B, b defined as

def B cond #0 104 0;

def b cond #0 104 0;

What are we going to do with the following lines?

def B cond #0 (cond flag var ori BBB cond == 1 var wstart BBB cond var wstart WWW BWBWBW) 0;

def b cond #0 (cond flag var ori BBB cond == 1 var bstart BBB cond var bstart WWW BWBWBW) 0;

Will we not use them?

It seems you have removed the lines, and the error has now disappeared. What are BBB, WWW and BWBWBW supposed to be anyway? They did not seem to be defined anywhere; their only occurrence was in those two functions.

I copied and pasted those lines from the following paragraph taken from A Wizard for Game-Code Generation:

Another example where this technique can be useful is the Bishop Conversion Rule. This rule specifies Bishops can move on their initial move as either a Bishop or Wazir, but the two Bishops cannot start in the same way. One way to implement that is by having separate definitions of a Bishop, a Wazir and their compound in the legdefs table, and let the Bishop function dynamically decide for virgin Bishops which of the definitions to use. You would need an extra variable for each player to remember whether one of the possibilities has already been used up by the other Bishop, and if so, which one. If nothing has been done yet, a virgin Bishop moves like the compound. But if a Wazir move was done, it should move like a Bishop, and vice versa. Non-virgin Bishops would always move like a Bishop.

// in the Pre-Game section:
set many wstart 0 bstart 0; // indicate no Bishop has moved yet
// in the Post-Move sections, after the gosub HandleMove
if == B #mover and not flag #ori:                // a virgin Bishop moved
set wstart cond checkleap #ori #desti 0 1 1 2; // 1 = as Wazir, 2 = as Bishop
endif;

That is for the Post-Move 1 section (white moves); in Post-Move 2 you would use b and bstart instead of B and wstart. The 'flag' on a square tells you whether the piece on there has moved before, mover, ori and desti are the label for the piece that moved, the origin square and the destination square, respectively, all left by HandleMove. You can then change functions B and b in the Pre-Game code to

def B cond #0 (cond flag var ori BBB cond == 1 var wstart BBB cond var wstart WWW BWBWBW) 0;

and a similar function for black, where BBB, WWW and BWBWBW are the index of the Bishop, Wazir and BW compound moves in legdefs. The expression between parentheses would return BBB when the flag on the square of origin was set (meaning this Bishop had moved before, so that it should keep moving as a Bishop), or when wstart=1 (meaning the other Bishop has already started as a Wazir). Otherwise, when wstart=0 it returns the index for the moves of the compound (as this then is the first Bishop we move in this game), and if none of that is the case, it moves like a Wazir (as the other Bishop must have started as a Bishop, wstart=2).

 

The error disappear when removing those lines but now the conversion rule is broken. You can check it by clicking here and doing some moves by using the "PLAY someone at the same location" resource.

@HG

Trying to enforce the rules to the Cetina Random Chess preset through the Play-Test Applet I get this warning:

Syntax Error on line 279

Missing both default and case "#rng" in switch

I don't know what that means nor how to fix it. Could you please take a look at it? 

It seems that there is a bug such that the AI does not always make the conversion as can be seen in the following game on move 24 of the blue side:

1.g3 d5 2.d4 f5 3.Bg2 e6 4.f4 Qb4 5.c3 Qb5 6.Nf2 g6 7.Nd3 a5 8.a4 Qc4 9.Nd2 Qc6 10.Ne5 Qb6 11.b3 Nc6 12.Ndf3 Qd6 13.Ba3 Qd8 14.Bc5 Qa6 15.Qf2 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 b6 17.Ba3 Nf7 18.Nxf7 Bxf7 19.O-O Qf6 20.c4 dxc4 21.Bxa8 Qxa8 22.Ki1 cxb3 23.Rb1 Qd5 24.Rxb3 Bd7 25.Rc3 c5 26.Rd3 c4 27.Rd2 i5 etc

Magnificent! I encourage you to publish your Interactive Diagram in the aforementioned apps store since it is a very good showcase to spread ideas, in such a way that a certain number of variants could be played by default (including Symmetric Chess, of course!). I believe that you could get a fair remuneration in money for your work including banner ads. Using the app would be free. What do you say?

Thank you very much, HG. It's a great improvement.

One of my biggest dreams is to see one day in the Google Apps Store one with which this chess variant can be played against the AI. Do you think that the Interactive Diagram software could be used in the Android environment?

Hi Greg,

I can't download ChessV2.3 RC1.zip. The link does not work. Chrome seems to block it. I wonder if it has nothing to do with the fact that this browser wants URLs to be safe and I see that the protocol you use is http and not htpps.

@Kevin:

Tomorrow I will make the correction because now I have no access to my laptop.