Comments by GeorgeDuke
Sissa. Variant on 9 by 9 board with Sissa's. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Kevin is pointing out currently that Gabriel Maura's Modern Chess allows the Bishops both to stay on same color binding. Sissa here also 9x9 requires one Bishop only per color and the other opposite after each has moved. Still a third way to keep symmetrical starting placement, 81 spaces again, and unique handling of paired Bishops is found in George Dekle's Chesquerque. There the Bishops always have wazir-step conversion option as a turn. So, Chesquerque Bishops late in the game can "re-double up" on the same half ( +/- 0.5 ) of the squares -- powerful tool.
Jim Aiken's Double Diamond ( 9x9, 72 squares ) has same anytime one orthogonal.
Another and earlier one Chancellor Chess (9x9) settled on unsymmetrical initial array, so Bishops alway on their own 40/41 "half." Likewise Gilman goes for off-center positioned Bishops for full square coverage in things like Bachelor Kamil ( 9x9 ).
I just changed email now for CVPage, noticing Glenn's commenting on this subject. I had the same two
paragraphs he records, and with successful new email, one of the two paragraphs is removed but not the other
one. Please check if the other paragraph can be removed now that it appears emails from CVP will be sent to new
address. Thanks. Everything else is fine about membership info: Favorites, Invented Games, Old Comments, and so on.
Orwell Chess. Three player variant themed on George Orwell's 1984. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]J. C. Hallman in 2004 'The Chess Artist' interviews Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at his multi-million Chess City, Kalmykia. Then the f.i.d.e. President says to the effect: whatever happens, or even thought of, in the mundane "real world," Chess has already been there, having visited every eventuality. So this Orwell '1984' by Overby.
As in '1984', three players Eurasia, East Asia. and Oceania. Everyone reviewing loved it except Charles Gilman. Maybe he is right one or two of the 7 piece-types could be tweaked. But this is perfectly symmetrical solution to three-player CV.
Three teams ebb and flow constrained from unfair alliance by cylindrical downwards and up, and by Shifting Alliances rule, and by Perpetual Powers rule. Variant pieces go back to year 1283 in Gryphon. King may move into check because the dice may free him. The '3x1's give where the Berolina pawns promote, and the seventh piece is promotee royal Maharajah.
Legler's Chess. Modest 1926 variant using an Archbishop and a Chancellor. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It's hard to tell whether this appeared before or after Capablanca's. Legler a California chess champion puts one RN and one BN on 64.
Here are more CVs that use one Marshall RN and one Cardinal BN, the two deployed as companion pieces pairing one with the other most of the time.
Amazon Grand 1 + 1 + 1 Amazon RBN a.k.a. Maharajah, 100. Bird's 1+1 exact Carrera pieces, 80. Optimized 1 + 1, 80 squares. Demon 1+1+1A, 100. Elite 1+1+1, 88. Energizer 1+1, 64.
Thanks for the insight. What is meant by the sentence with boldface that Fergus quotes is chiefly those CVs that have the exact same pieces as Carrera did by 1615 -- 10 pawns, 2R 2N 2B Q K Marshall Cardinal. It is odd that they get matched together in so many CVs one of each, instead of paired with itself and placed symmetrically in array the usual way, say like two Rooks, one on one side and one other side of K-Q pair. And the way Janus does with paired Cardinal. And the way Gross does with pairs of each. The latter two CVs follow more accepted over-all practice and naturally appealing aesthetics.
The wording could have been better, and even now the clarification is not so easy because there are perhaps two hundred CVs inspired by Carrera. All of the usages are impossible to cast in a few sentences. Ones on 8x10 with the exact personnel are Schoolbook, Gothic, Paulovich's, Ladorean, Embassy, Victorian, Grotesque, Univers offhandedly to name a few. Winther at one time had more than ten additional in differing line-ups separately written up or board-displayed. Now Winther has Capablanca Relocation Chess as essentially 144 unique starting line-ups of again the very same piece mix. Trenholme and I counted 30 different inventors of Carrera-Capablanca form once. Then Capablanca Random may have up to 1000 arrays same pieces. And Carrera-Capablancas are special so that any new starting array or rules tweak is considered to be new Chess variant.
As well 10x10s like Grand have the like peculiarity of one RN and one BN along with normal King-Queen. No automatic disparagement is intended, more like scepticism, just noting the unusual predilection in, well, sarcastic "can't have one without the other."
By contrast, when wanting to use Nightrider, designer probably puts one on c1 and one on h1. Want Unicorn instead? Place them c1-h1 or maybe b1-i1. Leaper Gnu, put one a1/d1 and other j1/g1. But as a rule, Marshall on d1 somehow calls for not another corresponding Marshall g1, but that automatic companion piece Cardinal there instead.
Gilman is exception when using one RN as queen replacement. Also 9x9 Maura's Modern uses one BN with K-Q befitting the nine spaces. And Foster's Chancellor had done the same with nine spaces using King, Queen and one Marshall. So the quite a few examples of one only without the other can be looked at (favorably) in their own light, case by case.
Marshall RN and Cardinal BN are peculiar in that most CV designs do not pair them, but use one of each. Clearly they are two different piece-types. Other long-range pieces get the respect of generally being paired such as NN and the other Nightriders by Knappen, 40 some bifurcators by Winther, Cannon, Unicorn, you name it.
Exceptions that do use two of these same piece-types symmetrically in backrank are Janus Chess having two Cardinals on 8x10 and Gross Chess two Marshalls on 12x12 and also two BN. In CVs paired-piece placement especially long-range is just more aesthetic, when array is fixed. Carrera compounds are great idea from exactly 400 years ago to show how the Queen came about differently as RB (one hundred years earlier). Apparently though to most inventors, RN and BN cannot stand on their own hindlegs, you can't have one without the other. Credit Janus and Gross for not adhering to that philosophy. Another balking at the convention of Carrera types having special need is recently cited Chancellor Chess, which chooses one RN to exclusion of BN. Also Gilman quite often uses one only RN without BN; it seems better to either pair them or choose one or the other.
Schizophrenic Chess has a Left Schizzy and a Right Schizzy one on each side of King, two distinct types connected by different orientation in manner of movement. That's the sort of group Marshall and Cardinal are member of, along with things like Great Herd that just strings one of each kind of different leaper across 8x8, not pairing any of them.
The Carrera-Capablanca RN and BN should be in top twenty variant pieces for historical interest and to ease those addicted to 64 squares to try something radical.
Probably only small fraction of GMs know even what RN and BN are by name. Notwithstanding they get revived the same old way every generation -- chess master Bird in 1870s, Capablanca in 1920s, Seirawan 2000s. Their phony stance that it is something original. This thread 'Fatally Flawed Marshall Cardinal' started with 28 comments earlier same title '1', and this is continuation.
Chancellor Chess. On a 9 by 9 or 9 by 8 board with a piece with combined rook and knight moves. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bird in the 1870s and then Capablanca in 1920s get mention for re-using the Carrera pieces of RN and BN.
Ben Foster designed this 9x9 in the 1880s Chancellor Chess with RN and supported the invention with history and problems. The first link has text from the beginning of the 1889 book. It cites Carrera from the 1610s and Duke of Rutland from the 1740s.
"Steam was old, gravity was old, electricity was old, and printing was old, when Watt, and Newton, and Morse, and Gutenburg applied them respectively for the benefit of mankind." -- 'Chancellor Chess' book 1889
Also there: "weary of the old and monotonous debuts" and "seemingly ugly but very powerful chess piece," and "every player for a while will be put on his own resources."
Regulator Chess. Game on a 35 square board with a 7 square track on which a piece moves that determines how Knights and Bishops can move. (6x7, Cells: 42) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]How to compute piece values here? It's pointless to bother. Regulator move one forward or backward is determined by play on the small board of 35 squares. Too bad no one has experimented with the Regulator band on 8x8 with 7-square streak to the side for neat 71 square Chess Variant, a first for the size.
84-square Fourriere's Jacks and Witches lessens Bishop value to Knight by the 16-square hole in the center -- more detrimental to the Bishop now worth 2.5. Any different board size must affect piece values somewhat. A Fischer Random Chess array NBKRRQBN should benefit Rook to relative downgrading of Knight, maybe 5.3-2.7. But adherents to FRC have not gotten that far yet. So the starting line-up alone affects piece-values. Also do the Rules in and of themselves, such as obvious thing like Bishop one-time Wazir step conversion in some CVs.
Take the simple Regulator embodiment here. Level 6 of regulator makes Knight into Marshall, and Level 3 makes Bishop into Cardinal. If the board were 8x8, it's not definite which in a given game benefits more, Bishop or Knight, because there are going to be enough move- and capture-triggers to jockey the calibration up towards level 7 tactically pretty easily, and keep it there. Over the long haul however, Bishop value is going to show relative increase, on any rectangle 35 to 100. That is because of its compound to BN being in effect 5/7 of the time and the other to NR only 2/7 the time.
Next, there is room for subvariants, that either side can alter the calibration, let's say forward by agreed-on even number of steps across 7 and back to 1 and onward, in lieu of a move. That can include in the Regulator Band not just moving the Regulator but either of the two trigger levels the same way, as not overcomplicated move addition.
New-Chess. Variant on 10 by 10 board with combination pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fifteen years til the first comment and rating now.
Sava made New-Chess by 1973, in time for the second edition of Gollon's book. There are Marshall RN (but not Cardinal BN), Amazon RBN and Gnu N-Camel. Then Betza and Cohen came up with Tutti-Frutti in 1978 with the 'Capablanca two' and Amazon again, this time on 8x8. So it appears Betza and Cohen got some inspiration from then recent New-Chess and thought it important to put their similar piece mix on little 8x8. New CVs were fewer and further between those decades. In fact, Betza always designed 1970s through 2003 on 8x8 with two exceptions. His 'Outrigger' article adds files to get 8x10, and Chess on Really Big Board has four 8x8 boards for 256 squares.*
No allowing in New-Chess for Pawn three-step, but it has perfect implementation of modern free castling with the King moving over 2 or more but not past Rook. Gollon's book has a few dozen CVs exhibited, nothing like the couple thousand of Pritchard 'ECV' twenty years later.
Aronson calls Complete Permutation Chess more flamboyant 'Tutti-Uti-Frutti Chess' in that one's text, and if I had noticed the above sequence more carefully I would have approved TUF over bland CPC. Complete Permutation adheres to idea of using each possible bi-compound once -- originating in Betza & Cohen.
*Betza's Chessopoly and Race Chess are 64-square 4 x 16.
Bomberman Chess. Variant on 8 by 10 board with bombs and diffusers. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]What makes it a bomb? That Bomb's only allowable capture takes itself out too, a one-time capture of up to four pieces. When exploding, it kills the first pieces in each orthogonal friend and foe. Defuser captures regularly as well as taking Bomb without further incident; but Bomb only explode-captures. They have respectively three- and two-step Rook mobility this CV.
Bombing is recursive, so legal capture of Bomb by other than Defuser can set off another Bomb, up to four altogether for two a side if they align right -- taking up to 13 pieces theoretically in a series of explosions. Since any piece-type however it moves, can be given the Bombing characteristic along its pathways, this can be thought of as a Mutator too. Bombing of course is also like later Rococo Swapper suicide mutual destruction. There is some earlier precedent Bomberman is borrowing on, and analogue to rifle capture, which along Queen line can be too strong.
Jacks and Witches 84. Variant on 84 squares with special pieces and special squares. (12x8, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Probably the failing of Jacks & Witches now sixteen years is the weak value of the Jack.
The five paired pieces of Bilateral carry over, with values estimating Pawn 1, Lion 2, Knight 3, Bishop 2.5, Rook 5, King 2, Cannon 6, Witch 7. Nine piece-types on 84 is near routine piece-type density 10%, the way Orthochess has 6 types on 64 squares. Bishop lessens vis Knight for the chopped board. The four transporter squares do not disproportionately affect the p-vs, and power density does appear to be under regular 60% a bit. Not justifying power calculations here, the idea is total piece values to board size -- the way orthodox shows 39/64.
Witch is the great innovation, but Jack needs some work. Being in hand and moving out of its eye are admirable, but Jack's regular movement when not doing Eye mode could just use strengthening rather than any overcomplication. Instead of mere Waz/Ferz, one of Falcon or Squirrel or Bent Hero or something could be nice balance. And at the same time that would up the power density proportion to match the fundamentalist Chess FIDE 60%.
The Game of Jetan. Extensive discussion of various versions of the rules of Jetan. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Raumschach had been invented the previous decade, and T. R. Dawson had devised Nightrider and Grasshopper and Canon.
Jetan is nearing 100 years old, a Martian variety of Chess on decimal board. Edgar Rice Burroughs ran 'Chessmen of Mars' in 'Argosy Weekly' Jan.-Nov. 1921. Then an inmate of Leavenworth Prison,* Elston Sweet, presented a carved piece set, and Burroughs added an Appendix to the first novel edition published 1922, explaining the rules better. Larry Smith here gives further air to the possible different interpretations.
In the story the game is played lifesize at the arena in Barsoonian location of Manator in a fight to the death. In the surrounding culture Kaldanes are mostly brain, and Rykors headless bodies Kaldanes use as vehicles.
Whichever combination of piece move rules are accepted, there are two-step movers and three-step movers, so no long-rangers -- befitting the science fiction hand to hand combat. I hold interpretations of the Rules that give six of the eight piece-types multiple paths, two up to five as it turns out for different pieces, as sliders, bent and not, to arrival squares. It's not the approach Smith and Cazaux take, but it would seem to be vital how many ways each one has to get from departure to target.
Where can it go, and how does it get there? -- is more crucially pre-scientific.
Burroughs says teams are not obligated to wager in play, and Larry broaches the subject in detail for the first time, but it is left mostly for the future. That is, in what form Martian Chess will accommodate allowed wagering.
*While incarcerated in Atlanta Penitentiary socialist Eugene Debs garnered a million votes for President in 1920 -- while 'Chessmen' was running serially. At the Manator arena slaves and prisoners, including nobles, are the pieces.
Sissa. Variant on 9 by 9 board with Sissa's. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Sissa is twenty years old this month. Sissa reaches by two different pathways each Rook square and each Nightrider square. The slides are its own, unlike those of regular R and regular NN.
Neutral Subject Chess. Most pieces start neutral, and players compete to recruit them. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Parton made Neutral King in 1953, where player has own orthodox pieces but the King is co-owned and
yet has to be checkmated. Simple and elegant. Most of Gilman's CVs are hurt by overcomplications in
piece-moves, odd board sizes, too many special rules, or attempt hybridizing Eastern chesses with forced
templates. Once in a while he strikes paydirt such as AltOrthHex idea of splitting up the hexagonal Rook
into two, though nobody has really done anything with that either.
Neutral Subject realizes that Parton's Mutator has wider applicability. Here player only has King and Queen to begin. Neutral pieces get moved and then assigned to one side or the other. The criterion to assign is applied at end of each turn according to hypothetical attack of each 'Neutral' on any piece already assigned. Who wouldn't want more pieces rather than fewer? Many other CVs could be made in this genre of the pieces on board not belonging to either army initially.
Charles' novel CV invention, expanding on Parton, gets somewhat awkward explanation in his essay. Like Aronson and Howe with Rococo, great idea is not followed up with clear summary fully disambiguating.
Still in all, there could be other ways to set up the bazaar of recruitment to build the forces in subvariants and new CVs this type of possible breakthrough Mutator.
Dream Chess 46. 46-squasre variant played from opposite corners of a FIDE board with the other corners removed. (8x8, Cells: 46) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a straightforward CV by Gilman. To suit the constricted board, he decides to use Shogi promotees for Bishop and Rook, adding Wazir and Ferz respectively. Pawns are Centennial-acclaimed Quadra-pawns. Some restriction on Knight at inside corners. That's it. Should be playable enough short games.
But the piece in right corner needs correction to King.
Fantasy Grand Chess: Giant Army. Giant Army. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Collossus is DAN. Titan is TZCH, any square three away: Tripper(3,3) Camel Zebra Trebuchet (0,3). By and large, tri-compounds and up are not much implemented, probably still under 100 times -- counting separately repeat use within the same games write-up.
Jupiter. Huge chess variant on 16 by 16 board. (16x16, Cells: 256) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Typhoon is FA + R3, tri-compound. Emperor of E. has all three of Strong's and Joyce's NWH plus FDATZC, 9-compound reaching everything within the 7x7.
Scirocco (old). On ten by ten board with over thirty different pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This Frog is quad-compound WFTH, that is Wazir Ferz Tripper(3,3) Trebuchet(0,3). Emperor is WDA.
Lioness is quint-compound WFDNA, that Betza already hypothesized in the nineties, all the squares inside 5x5 from a central starting square.
Ganymede Chess. A 12x12 variant inspired by Ralph Betza's Chess on a really big board, Centennial Chess and Adrian King's Typhoon (among others). (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Frog here is NFH, that is tri-compound Ferz Wazir Trubuchet(0,3). Fort here is Rook + Ferz + Tripper(3,3).
Trebuchet(0,3) + Knight is Catapult. Wazir + Knight is Marshlander because the radial and oblique are short-range by Man & Beast 08. Joyce's WNH Gilman could call Wazir Catapult, but it's not that strict. Many bi-compounds he names for the first time he puts in actual CV of his 250.
Staying within approved 5x5 there are thousands of piece-types to generate if including divergent capture, forward- backward- sideways-only, and sequential. Just look at Joyce and Bagley-Jones "Short-range Project" for some. Serious tri-compounds not straying outside that box are done by Hedden, Gilman and Betza a little. Squirrel of NDA is rare case of established-name tri. ( Word 'trebuchet' is used in Chess Morality XI, comparing the weapon to modern rocket, in lead-up to changing scientific 'big bang' to more apt 'glowth'. )
What is the 'H' part? Charles Gilman has over 100 pieces named starting with H in Man & Beast index.
Wazir + Knight + H, if you define H, Gilman probably named, but he may not have. And it probably
does not start with an 'h', whatever tri-compound you are referring to.
Follow-up, okay you must mean wazir knight Hero, and that's optional sequential type Charles did not do in twenty-odd M&B, and all the more Betza did not bother with. It is interesting though: move as W or as N and stop, or continue one more leg in the other mode, if not having captured. There is no formal name for that, so call it what you want. In M&B08 he names W + N Marshlander; the -Landers combine a radial and an oblique.
Poems on Falcon chess: Chess Morality III: Caissa's Comet. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fiction is permitted here such as Glenn Nicholls' 'Fortress of the Witch' or Paul Leno's 'Gridlock' or Betza 'Nemeroth', at the same time representative of actual CVs. The backdrop of Poems I to XX is that Chess changes every 500 years, regardless of technology or other customs.
https://www.chess.com/blog/batgirl/early-modern-chess-writers-and-poets. In primitive Europe 1200-1500,
supposedly the "Chess Moralities" some centuries were the second most hand-copied book after Bible by church scholars.
So it was fun to update "moralities" 2000-2007 on the idea that Falcon, reaching the non-Biship-Knight-Rook squares
is somehow logical sequence. Connection with actual history is that past transitions in Chess were roughly c. 500 Chaturanga, c. 1000 Shatranj, c. 1500 regina rabiosa.
CHESS MORALITY XIV: Pleiadic Dialectic. 14th poem in Chess Moralities series.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In a Chess context, Morality XIV touches on philosophers and immortality of Kevin and
Aurelian dialogue in current Nextchess topic.
Chess History and Reminiscences. Project Gutenberg eBook version of this public domain book (large!).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This book by Harry Bird in 1893 was put up by CVPage in 2002. H.E. Bird (1830-1908) of course revived Carrera's Chess in the 1870s after 250 years, and Capablanca made his version 50 years later. Capa gets the credit because doing more with it in public play and being GM too. Bird's meandering style and coverage of chess history must have influenced countryman H.J.R. Murray's 1913 'History of Chess'.
'gnohmon' is Ralph Betza nom de plume, and Betza weighs in on Bird in this comment under the Gutenburg book :
gnohmon wrote on 2002-04-06 Excellent ★★★★★
'More than excellent, superb! Harry Bird is one of history's greatest non-GM chessplayers. His originality combined with his longevity (he played against Morphy, and he played against Lasker, maybe even against Vidmar, if I remember rightly) combined with his strength (not a world champion, but surely stronger than me) make him one of the more interesting personalities in modern chess history. I have often heard of this book, but was never fortunate enough to find a copy. Now I can read it at last. More than superb, optimal!'
Vidmar (1885-1962), mentioned by Betza above.
[ Use of "meandering" style of Bird and Murray reminds of why rivers meander by Albert Einstein in 1926: Meandering, off topic in that Einstein friend GM Lasker (1868-1941) competed with Capablanca so much -- including Capablanca Chess. Physicist Einstein and mathematician Lasker colleagues: Science/Chess. ]
ChessBase current series starts on early OrthoChess history and origins: https://en.chessbase.com/post/on-the-origins-of-chess-1-5.
Falcon Random Chess. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It is better in principle to protect all Pawns in array. Each of the 96 starting line-ups have a name, some offhandedly sprinkled around comments in several articles. A dozen or two -- they have to be counted up again -- do have all guarded Pawns initially. Of those some are nevertheless ugly with King and Queen in abc/hij files. The two most favored arrays Old-Standard RNBF and Sibahi RFNB do not do so. The first is played 47 times in Game Courier now and second 12 times, and other arrays of the same game 3 more times, a total of 62. However, I have played in all but few of those.
http://www.chessvariants.com/index/listcomments.php?id=17706. Following is reference to arrays that do protect all Pawns:
Pawn_Protect. Somewhere we surveyed the large Chesses and found about 20% of 300 do not protect all Pawns, and am looking for that comment; if not found will cite several examples of respected games with incomplete array-coverage that way.In "91.5 Trillion..." the goal was to avoid prolicificism and to generate millions/trillions of CVs formulaically. It is inelegant to deal in specific write-ups one by one. Many_CVs. There only one of the Mutators hinges on starting set-ups varying.
Insect Chess. On a 12x12 board. All pieces are insect and arachnid representations, with some unique pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Praying Mantis is D+A+F+W, only Mastodon replay. Cockroach is N+W+F. Locust is D+A+Q, a piece-type about Amazon value. Those two Amazon and Locust would be interesting match-up in some Chess Different Armies version of Insect Chess.
Insects. Techies and game geeks in general are relatively unaware for well-educated of the ecological crisis not to say catastrophe under way: Trends.
Forces plan for next year's Chess Championship, Paris 2024 Summer Olympics, and even ten years ahead activity, speculative and problematic that they occur at all. In Tim Bostick's CV Insect, 'Monarch' would be better name and image for royal figure. Tarantula and Black Widow are arthropods but not insects, though can be thought of as "bugs" in rude vernacular.
Short-range. There could be up to a million short-range piece-types that comment claims, and a lot more CVs.
Next Chess has Bifurcators ranked number one. They are the problem theme solution to the OrthoChess crisis in that they have mathematical appeal. At our leisure Joe Joyce, myself, Jeremy Good have made successive nominations, and the target date is 2030. The project for fun is unofficial informal series of threads started in 2008.
#1 Bifurcators including Winther's 40 new ones would need more than Gustavian board, at least 8x10. #2 Great Shatranj actually has debt to Kozune where its compounds were already used and board size does improve to the 80 squares from Kozune's 9x9 attempt. #4 Mastodon takes up with century-old Pasha, appealing short-ranger in being leaper without oblique direction. #5 Three-Player dynamics are not so easily simplified as four-player implementations of Chess.
#6 Unicorn uses the conventional Nightrider together with the Carrera compounds that torture the Knight. Schoolbook is the chosen variant at #10 for those very Carreran Bishop-N and Rook-N, the two most popular fairy pieces, because of Trenholme's detailed game annotations. Big Board of 8-rank is the pre-placement game with all orthodox pieces of Shoenfelder.
#11 Fischer Random, really almost 200 years old now as CV idea, is getting current revival with much chatter at ChessBase about singleminded Fischer himself. #7 Sissa has unique solution in brand new type. Eurasian #9 is perfect Western-pieces implementation of 100-year Dawson Canon, hopper to go with Chinese cannon.
Time Travel #3 is promising wildcard like other 4- and more dimensional games that could be considered. It probably belongs in Track Two with Rococo and Tetrahedral as forever to remain variant not Orthodox.
Nachtmahr. Game with seven different kinds of Nightriders. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There are reams more nightriders mostly unutilized than the ordinary hack one developed by Dawson a century ago. So far they remain in problems and thought experiments. Classic essay here proposes Straight Wide Crooked, Diagonal Narrow Crooked, Diagonal Wide Crooked, and Straight Narrow Crooked. Best of all, the essential nightrider Quintessence. Each one makes better more interesting play than Betzan-tagged 'NN'. Play of that ordinary Dawson nightrider is inferior because it just duplicates successive Knight moves same direction. It is no more interesting than "limited" pieces like an up-to-three-step Bishop or Chess Different Armies Short Rook.
Quintessence itself gets play in odd-shaped 84-square Quintessential Chess, adding also Leeloo compound R + Quintessence.
Quinquereme takes it up to 12x12 with the same Quintessence. Each of the various nightriders in combinations, one and two of each together with some of the other 6 or 8 piece-types in the set, on different board sizes can create thousands, well millions easily, of individualized CVs. Worth exploring in the abstract are the standard boards 9x9, 9x10, 10x10, 10x12, 12x12, 10x16. All the large sizes should have a variant nightrider species for improved implementations. Even rudimentary Dawson NN of such wide appearance is superior to also-overused Carreran BN and RN, four hundred years beat to death.
Poems on Falcon Chess: Chess Morality XI: Pleiadic Dialogue. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Carlos Alberto Colodro's current article reprises symbolism of Lewis Caroll's contribution to Chess literature in fantasy and allegory of 'Through the Looking Glass'. The first sentence mentions Borges: https://en.chessbase.com/post/lewis-carroll-y-su-alicia-jugando-al-ajedrez-por-sergio-negri-2018. Jorge Luis Borges' "The Chess Player" introduces this Morality XI too. Each piece of seven is associated in different moralities with, in turn, solar system bodies, animals, birds, days of week, metals, Wonders -- sets of 'seven' somehow being a popular way to organize the cosmos down through philosophy and religion.
Greek mythology has the Pleiades as daughters of Pleione and Atlas. Pleiades.
Here the seven sisters of mythology, Pleiades, conduct dialogue, each representing a Chess piece with unique perspective. The actual stellar Pleiades of constellation Taurus have had their major stars named specifically after the same goddesses.
Chess Morality X: Seven Wonders. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The twenty Chess Moralities were half complete fifteen years ago this month 2003. CMX associates each basic Chess piece with corresponding utmost construction of Antiquity:
Falcon - Pyramid; Pawn - Temple Diana; Knight - Colossus Rhodes; Bishop - Lighthouse Alexandria; King - Statue Zeus; Queen - Gardens Babylon; Rook - Mausoleum. Falcon Chess was first played December 1992 when adding the option of "split block" two changes of direction to the piece.
A lead-in to this tenth Morality does quote Lewis Carroll, and current Chessbase article by Carlos Alberto Colodro trenchantly places the same 'Through the Looking Glass' in Chess literature, focussing on the game Alice joins: https://en.chessbase.com/post/lewis-carroll-y-su-alicia-jugando-al-ajedrez-por-sergio-negri-2018. .
Chess Morality XIX: Shadow-Chess. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Last month was the eleventh anniversary of this the 19th and penultimate Chess Morality. They celebrate that
there are four and only four fundamental Chess pieces. I may do another series in the twenties upcoming. The original Moralities 1200-1500 were by various authors, John of Waleys, Alexander of Hales, Jacobus de Cessolis. They were based on all six regular pieces but Pawns were treated eightfold as farmer, sailor, smiths, merchants, taverners. Each would actually have two or three tags: Pawn 2 for example "smythis and other werkers in yron and metall."
'The Innocent Morality' attained its final form amplified with other polemics only in 1429 -- and about 60 years later the across-the-board Bishop quickly became part of Chess, not just in the occasional variant where it birthed. In IM, the predecessor "Aufins move and take obliquely because every bishop misused his office through cupidity," but that means only the well-known fixed two-step jump.
Pocket Mutation Chess. Take one of your pieces off the board, maybe change it, keep it in reserve, and drop it on the board later. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]11.November.07 here, exactly ten years ago, I rated Pocket Mutation having played it twice in G. C. It was described as below
poor, worse than poor then, so let's upgrade it to Poor now. This type of CV of too much complexity in implementation is total waste of time. I like the streamlined one-idea concepts like top CV of the nineties decade Hostage Chess. Yet ironic that
Hostage is hardly ever played.
Chess Morality X: Seven Wonders. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The medieval Chess Moralities went on for thousands lines. Chess Morality I to XX here 2000-2007 add another 800. But iambic pentameter is intellectual for being a long thought per line, so am working on crisper version with seven beats for low attention spanners.
Things like: ..../King and Queen and Horse must move/ Each within established groove./Hours well spent and mind engaged,/ Checked and mated when outraged./ Pawns but move one step at time,/ Bishops vowed to turn on dime./ Rooks befall the straightest path/ And only Queen more power hath. ....
The Simpleminded Chess leading site touts a CV last week. http://en.chessbase.com/post/nunn-again-victory-after-38-years. The new piece, owned by both sides, Duck is a blocker like in Eight Stone -- repeating a concept used also in a few other CVs that have been around for decades. But let them of ChessBase think of it as new idea if they want. The concept is related also to the Blue Queen chess forms in that both sides get to move the piece. The best CV developer Parton is cited in the ChessBase article for CV proliferation, but anymore publication in monographs is not everything, so I think legitimately Charles Gilman is five or six times more prolific than V. R. Parton was with CVs of reasonably consistent good quality. Parton's Alice though certainly is one of about ten CVs that are standing the test of time. Specific Duck Chess rates '6' out of a 10. It would grow old quickly with not that much really exciting tactics, nothwithstanding the one good problem presented. The exact Duck Chess embodiment is unique, since of course it takes minimal competence to tweak a rule, or throw together a new combination of pieces, and call it a new CV of one's own invention. (See Aiken's Eight-Stone having several blockers at once not on small 64 squares, but average 72 as 8x9, for more intriguing chess variant in the genre.)
No problem, sorry for the inconvenience that it was doing that. I (practically) never look that email, which is just for games here and Brainking. I always just play in and out G.C.
Interesting, thanks for the links, but "Chess Variant amateur Pages" is just your amateur talk. We know how to change the rules with integrity every step even every five minutes so that nothing you ever develop cannot be smashed our best players.
Which Chess Variants are Best?. Our collected resources for helping you find the best Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]By play here, Latrunculi by Jose and Symmetric by Carlos are way ahead of every other one by modern designers, looking at last year and other lengths. I don't think of Korea, Thai, Chinese, or Shogi as chess variants, because I've always known of them. So that even more puts Latrunculi and Symmetric the top two. If you don't play it, don't rate it used to be the maxim, too. Face it, that any newer CV has long odds to be played formally more than couple of times all of 2017, except by the inventor. There are not just the thousand Game Courier ones, but another 2-3 thousand without presets, and most of my recent 'excellent' to CVP games I notice have no Preset. Then there are generic ways to generate thousands and even millions of CVs. For examples, "Polypiece" by Betza for millions and "91.5 Trillion" for...you guessed it. There are as many rules combinations as possible game scores -- or two different orders of infinity.
In Bob versus Bo 1972, you know Fischer-Spassky Game 6, Spassky stood and joined the audience upon completion in applause it was supposedly so great a game. Yet instead if 15 ...Rxc5, there are 1 0-0 Ra7 or 1 Rxc5 Qxc5 or 1 b4 Rxc1. First impression proposals, correct them if they're wrong. Annotations never seem to have mentioned the obvious. Where is the fallacy that Black now stands better after Rxc5? I would look at programs for Bifurcators or Rococo or Eurasian or Three Player or Time Travel or Falcon Chess, when they exist, but not for peewee famous Game 6 a la Fischer/Kasparov/Carlsen. White's position is not so good and Black has to capitalize immediately.
What do the engines say? Game Six 1972 is considered a top ten sort of game for OrthoChess: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1340520/10-greatest-chess-games-From-Kasporov-vs-Bobby-Fischers-victory.html.
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044366. Throw out the frivolous ones K. versus world, C. versus world, Astronaut versus whomever, and the above is about the best game ever played, but it should never have reached the great finale.
There could be other sequences used for where a radial piece is allowed to stop. A compound piece of pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal and octagonal numbers can move: 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 15, 18, 21, 22 or 28..., keeping to the lower lengths for 30x30 board. Aligning the primes and Fibonacci and Deficient and others pairwise, both orthogonally and diagonally, may discover hidden relationships just by tooling around, for applicability beyond the chessboards. For example, applying some Knights Tour like V. Reinhart mentions. Another piece can have numbers of distinct integral squares dividing a rectangle: 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 18. Call that one Squarec, and it is good piece to cross quickly the boundaries of boards either 12x12 or 16x16. With 15 steps specifically allowed it traverses 16x16 diagonally, or orthogonally, all the way without being just plain Queen
Game 6 routinely gets listed in top 5 or 10 all-time games, 1972 Fischer-Spassky. The position after 15 dxc5:
But instead of Black taking with Pawn, 15 ...Rxc5 stands Black advantage, and nowhere found yet is this annotated (several versions checked back in 2012). See what programs say since I have not bothered yet. The 'Rxc5' was discovered when this thread reviewed all the games in 40-year anniversary 2012 as the day they occurred. Game_6. GMs have observed Spassky's supposed mistake 14 ...a6 instead of 14 ...Qb7, called ''correct." Where is the fallacy? No offense if someone can explain why Black does not easily at least equalize that way -- since we variantists are expert at dozens of games, not just the one peewee 64-version of Fischer/Kasparov/Carlsen. Is there some sure attack against the unguarded Queen -- or Rook -- lurking, or something else?
The maximum number of pieces into which a pancake can be cut with n slices: 1 slice 2, 2 slices 4, 3 slices 7, 4-11, 5-16, 6-22, 7-29, 8-37....
The Lucky numbers in texts come about by striking out every other number, then from remaining 13579... strike out every third number, because that's the next one left. Then since '5' is stricken and what remains is 1,3,7,9,13,15,19..., now strike out every seventh number starting with 19. '1,3,7,9,13,15,21,25,31,33,37,43,49,51....' never get stricken and are Lucky. It's related to the Sieve of Erastosthenes to generate the prime numbers. A Lucky Chess Piece allowing one-step should be Bishop value on 10x10 and up.
Looking back again ChessBase currently runs a 1972 interview before the two-month match.
http://en.chessbase.com/post/bobby-fischer-on-the-dick-cavett-show. Fischer gives a quick television lesson right before the Fischer-Spassky Reykjavik match, "Lose the King, lose the game," but since you cannot capture the King it almost suggests a CV. He uses "straight" for Rook and may not have known the word 'orthogonal' as alternative. Queen "a very powerful piece." His describing Knight as two straight then one straight is inferior to perception of Knight to oblique nearest squares automatically. This is really Chess for Dummies. It is easier for us in wake of Gilman's so many non-radial long-range leapers and also oblique Falcon, claimed first of the four fundamental chess pieces. Fischer says he actually dreams of detective mysteries not Chess. He answers Ralph Nader presciently about Chess live tv events, saying just reduce time controls to avoid 3 hours. Also it is second nature to Fischer already 45 years ago that Chess is finite but "beyond the mind's comprehension," he means all at once.
There are other integer number sequences. You could add diagonal directions and make these sliders too. Then the board could be fixed at 30x30. Huygens is orthogonal leaper but a variant piece would be Queenlike to the prime number squares five and over or more inclusively three and over.
Then there are more pieces to expand the idea to other sequences. Fibonacci moves Queenlike to 3,5,8,13, and 21 distance. Triangular number piece moves along radial lines exactly 3,6,10,15, 21, or 28. Square number piece to 4,9,16, and 25, a weak piece. Deficient number sequence piece (since perfect numbers are so rare) is the strongest going to 4,5,7,8,9,10,11,13,14,15,16,17,19,21,22,23,25,26,27,29. Tetrahedral number 4,10,20, weak mover again. Abundant number to 12,18,20,24 (keeping all these less than 30 to fit the board). Lucas to 3-distance, or 4, 7, 11,18 or 29. Pawns should be Man to all eight directions one or two steps, squares which the mathematical pieces cannot any of them reach from the same starting square.
Lucky number unit can go radially 3 or 7 or 9 or 13 or 15 or 21 or 25 only. Pancake number type moves 4, 7, 11, 16, 22, or 29.
However, never design a chess piece based on Weird Numbers. They are too few and too large. '70' is the first weird number because it is abundant being less than (1+2+5+7+10+14+35, its factors), but no set of those divisors sum to 70 itself. The only other less than 4-digit weird number is 836, and the sequence 70, 836, 4030, 5830 is unsuitable -- except on that infinite board.
Bo the world champion couldn't find a move in a bucket. It was even worse: he couldn't make any move at all. This, though Bo holds rank number one and is defending the televised title. The Committee gave him another opportunity in overpowering forces: 3 Queens, 2 Marshalls(RN) and 2 Cardinals(BN) -- against the like of lower-value Flamingo and Sissa and Vao.
If either Marshall-b4 or -c3 moves, Canon threatens (illegal). If Queen-c2 moves, Quintessence has pathway. If Cardinal-d3 moves Wolf has path. If Cardinal-e2 moves, Sissa can reach King. If Queen-f3 moves, Nightrider at h7 is opened up. If Queen-h4 moves, Diagonal Narrow Crooked Nightrider of j5 prohibits. If Pawn-f4, Camelrider gets the reach. King cannot move because of Flamingo.
"Whoa Bo, pick up the pace! What piece would you be picking up?" choruses the common Foot Soldier.
Bo, the reigning champion, saw no move to make. The tournament committee set up on a larger board ten normal Pawns for each side and two Queens and also two Cardinals for White. Cardinal can move as either Bishop or Knight. Those were strong pieces for White to go with Rook, Bishop, two Knights and Wolf.
Quintessence is on c7. Dragon a6. Fox a5. Cannon e6. Elbow Rook g5. Immobilizer j5. Wolf g6. Sissa h7.
Again Bo was puzzled and embarrassed to find a way, not to say hamstrung, and the championship was at stake. Moving Knight-a1 gives Fox a pathway. Pawn-c3 or the Rook open up for five-step Dragon. Queen move allows Quintessence in. Either Cardinal (aka Archbishop, aka Centaur) brings on Cannon prohibition. Bishop moving gives Wolf its path needed, and Knight does so for Sissa. Unbeknownst the sudden death playoff game has not opening at all possible.
"Hustle up, Bo we're ready to watch. Show us what you got."
Zonal Chess. Board has special `zones' at both sides. Commercial game of 1970's. (Cells: 104) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Before Fischer and Fischer Random Chess, GM Reshevsky endorsed this Zonal Chess. Larry Smith who designed forty CVs of his own in CVPage wrote this, as he did another article about Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian Chess, and also history about medieval Rithmomachia.
ChessBase must be reading Chess Variant Page because instead of a "swink" it's a "swindle." April_1. After 12 or 15 years this is their first departure from fake news on Fools Day. (Actually, not having looked in detail yet, expect one of the puzzles to be rogue or insoluble.) Swink means to swindle in the midwest but it's not here: Swindle? Also appropriate is Liars_Chess.
Wait a minute, isn't this one fishy? F.I.D.E. Arguably also the three top world holidays recognized in the most countries are April 1, May 1, and January 1(near the solstice), since other religious holidays are regional.
April spoof at Chessbase in a few hours, anyone thinking of outdoing them please feel free putting it here. See past examples in this thread from a match on an oil rig to Martian chess. Make up an archaeological find of Neanderthal game artifacts or something. Chessbase April Fool to follow here for sure once they swink everybody again.
Bo, the reigning champion, cried again that White's Pawns were not dispersed. Still squelched towards getting a decisive outcome, the Club in March set out all Berolina Pawns.
Also part of full complement for both forces, there is Flamingo (1,6)leaper b7, Flamingo. Also Cannon d7 and Dabbabah Rider e7, DR_versus_DBT.
Dragon b6 the five-stepper, Elbow Bishop c6, Elbow Rook g5, Crooked Rook h5, Alfil h2, Gnu e4: N+Camel. All Pawns are Berolina.
If Rook moves, Elbow Bishop has path. If P-b4, Dragon. If P-d4 or P-d3, Cannon. If Gnu-e4 to any one of its fourteen(!) available squares, Elbow Bishop again checks King -- making Gnu move illegal too. If Dragon tries moving, Crooked Rook gets pathway. If Pawn-g1, Elbow Rook thwarts. King is unable to move because of the three Flamingo, Dabbabah-Rider and Elbow Rook.
Hurry up Bo? Locked and gridlocked again, the tournament was postponed until April.
The Club met again the next month to settle the championship in one do-or-die game. White is to open the following array.
Flamingo d8 is (1,6)leaper this time. Dragon g6 enforced five-stepper. Scorpion a5 enforced four-stepper. Elbow Bishop e5 mandatory 90d. Elbow Rook e1 mandatory 90d. Grasshopper h5. Wazir e2.
If Knight moves, Grasshopper checks(illegal). If DxD, Elbow Rook has a pathway. Any King move is precluded by Flamingo or else Elbow Bishop. Moving Wazir or Elbow Bishop gives Dragon pathway(s) always combining both orthogonal and diagonal. To move one Scorpion lets in Dragon again, and the other Scorpion admits one Black Scorpion. Trying the White Grasshopper would hopelessly discover both Black Scorpions.
"Hustle up, Bo, make your move."
Dragon on b6 is the 5-square mandatory plural-path slider, Dragon. Crooked Bishop aka Boyscout is described by Betza, and the Elbow Rook always must make one 90-degree turn, and Ultima Immobilizers are common to both sides. Ibis at f8, described by Gilman in "M&B Ungulates" chapter as Namel, is the same earlier (1,7) leaper Ibis.
Both sides have full complement in reasonable CV, but White cannot move. Beyond zugzwang, there can be no play whatsoever. If Wazir-d3 moves or Pawn-d4, Dragon has pathway to check. If Wazir-g2, Crooked Bishop could mate. If Knight moves, the same Crooked Bishop prohibits it. If Ferz e1-d2, Elbow Rook. If Dragon, Rook attacks King. If King would move, Ibis and the Elbow Rook prevent it. Total gridlock pre-existing on behalf of White in 64.
"Would you ...play already?" yells impatient Black.
A Chess Puzzle was to devise a game on 8x8 with no legal moves for White. All 8 Pawns(any kind) and 8 pieces(any mix of types) must start in own half of board, King only required to be within back-rank. Use already-invented pieces and Rules. Describe an initial set-up.
This has Ibis(1,7) on f8, Crooked Bishop f7, Dragon b6, Elbow Rook c6, Immobilizer b5, Wazir d3, Ferz e1 and so on. To follow is the justification that it is solution.
On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Contrary to Kevin, Rococo is the most played not the least played lately in recent finished Games (rhymes with Trump and crowd size). The article is too lengthy for having two inventors. My top CV of all 3000 in sixty words, enough to start playing immediately, the whole simplified rules:
All pieces have to move the same like Queen but land on border square only if/in capturing. Pieces capture along Q lines like in Abbott's Ultima and in Parton's classic CVs. See Advancer, Withdrawer, Chameleon, Swapper, Immobilizer capturing in video. King is f.i.d.e. and the only one moving and capturing the same. Cannon Pawn is specialized one- or two-stepper, also having unique capture.
Partnership Mitregi. Unthemed 4-player variant with most pieces always moving toward or across the River. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yes Charles, I think it would be fine to drop this (he asks advice on this in red). "sidewaysmost, 'Halfcamel', 'skewed Dabbabah', 'Colourbound analogue' and 'river-straddling zigzag' are turgid and off-putting without any of Ralph's deadend tongue in cheek. However other CVs that get deleted also lose the scathing review.
Lene Hau Chess. Pieces take several turns for doing one move, going only one square per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Lene Hau and light slowed to a fraction of 3.00x10^8 m/s, http://www.physicscentral.com/explore/people/hau.cfm, and so this CV by Betza. Rook piece takes 7 moves from b1 to b8 for instance. Also Liar's_Chess and
Jester Chess. Large variant, with four new pieces including Jester that imitates opponents last type of move. (10x11, Cells: 110) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jester mimics method of movement of last opponent's piece moved. Short-range Archer moves without capturing or captures without moving. It is two moves per turn until one's first capture, a rule which could benefit some other large chesses.
Keyles. Large variant with special king capture rule. Variant of Quex. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Quex has to be read too to understand the moves in Keyles. Keyles unique win conditon is to get King across the board. Whenever King is captured along the way, he returns replacing another chosen piece.
Three Player Chess. Commercial Chess variant for three players.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Zubrin got his board patented to show who invented it. Most applications get rejected after year-long background check of "prior art." In informal NextChess project, Three Player has been ranked in the top ten: " (1) Bifurcators > (2) Great Shatranj > (3) Time Travel > (4) Mastodon > (5) Three Player > (6) Unicorn Great > (7) Sissa > (8) Big Board > (9) Eurasian (10) Schoolbook ."
Flipworld. Pieces are on both sides of a disc. (2x(6x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Another interesting circular CV for this week's Pi Day. RNBKQP get two additions, weak Tocop and strong Starman, which could be explained better. The inner circuits will have most of the action. Really the Nexus, or tunnel, or lift, is not common to the different teams Topside and Flipside, because player specifies which it is on if a piece stops there. Tesselations mixed square- and triangle-boards, like Round Table Chess, stretched topologically to over-all roundness, can play with more clarity than hexagonal ones. Yet Flipworld may not have erased all ambiguity about transit through its six Nexus cells(triangles).
Round Table Chess. Chess variant on a board with round and square part. (Cells: 92) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]3-14-17 is Pi Day. This board-variety brings some spaciousness to usually-constricted play on ''round'' boards.
Gess. A Chess variant played on a Go board where pieces are collections of go stones. (18x18, Cells: 324) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Player must keep a Ring of 3x3 made from the stones, and to win is to destroy opponent last Ring. Stones move in 3x3s. This appeared first in Spektrum der Wissenschaft.
Gridlock Chapter 5. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Gridlock Chapter 5 has the Great Diagonal Wall. "The other game promised you up to nine Queens. Did it ever deliver?"
Influence Chess. Pieces on the top or bottom layer influence which chess pieces may move on the middle layer. (3x(4x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A square that a main Middle board piece sits on has corresponding square in Above and Below boards. These locations (departure square) 'influence' whether a move can be considered or not. To make the move, it also must be legal within the Middle board. Sometimes the Above or Below two piece-types move their one- or two-square way, and other times they duplicate a Middle board movement. Rules may very well be interpretable (including moving opponent's piece) in all cases.
Gridlock Chapter 4. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Half of my team eats drinks, and sleeps Gridlock Chess (they are trying to catch up). The other half of the team is the best'.
Giant-King Chess. Kings take up four squares each, all of which must be attacked to check. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Pawns do not promote. The Pawns reaching promotion zone cause other pieces to promote and the Pawn leaves the board. The four-square occupation of King requires all four attacked for mate.
Eight-Stone Chess. On an 8 by 9 board with eight neutral stones. (8x9, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]From 1999 year check out how piece may swap with Stone in place of regular move.
Free Chess. Dissociate movement-abilities from physical pieces. The opening setup is an empty board. (13x13, Cells: 156) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Free Chess is the only game made by Scarmani. There is attribute reserve of 32. A turn player places an attribute or moves a piece. Several may stand on the same square because they may be attributes or combinators. A combinator-attribute may be captured without its even being a piece. One clever rule: an attribute's, placed on opponent's piece, subtracting that one's same attribute. Opawns are 'o'mni-directional.
SuperKing. Kings move like queens and leap over friendly pieces, but cannot move through check. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The SuperKing moves like a Queen but cannot move through check. Gilman clarifies in the one other comment that that means Kings can face each other along radial lines, unlike Xiangqi.
Attrition Chess. Played on an 11x10 board, each player starts with 33 pieces. (11x10, Cells: 110) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In the one other comment here, Charles Gilman liked this year 2000 CV, because of the Bishops. Notice the four Bishops are arranged symmetrically and on opposite color bindings even though there are odd number of files, eleven. Beyond that novelty, the goal of bare King requires each player to give up a piece each turn in addition to regular move. This was a 32-turn contest, and Attrition games run a maximum of 32 moves. Squire has its own move as medieval "Man" and also enhances the side's Knight move two different ways when the two are adjacent (see the effect in Attrition rules). That keeps Knight apace the others on large board without adding some arbitrary Camel option.
Catastrophic 8x8 Chess. Mathematician Missoum gives a new type of chessboard.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The criticism was there are no discernable complete Rules, but Jianying Ji once explained Missoum's intent:
"Rich I think is more correct, this is an attempt to use catastrophe theory to chess. I'm not sure it succeed in anyway. Essentially the author is arguing that if a move is bad if it crosses a fold in the 'evaluation surface', that is the surface created by giving every square a value depending on its importance. The surface is then warped to show moves that would cause irreversible changes in evaluation. Missoum applies this to one move in one game which allows for the nice graphics he drew. However as a general theory I do not see how one would begin to create one. Personally some kind of quantum set theory or more classically combinatoric game theory is far more apt. "
8x8 Hyperbolic Chess. Mathematician Missoum has a board based on hyperbola.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hyperbolic Chess 8x8 was invented 20 years ago 1997.
Sequence of Fibonacci and Lucas Chess Design Games. Variants based on Fibonacci numbers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The only other comment all twenty years(!) on this was actually recent last fall. A. Missoum made these "Fibonacci-Lucas CVs" if they can be deciphered.
Actually I haven't even looked at the Apothecaries properly because there's no write-up, except they have the lead record of most comments by three or four times of all 3000 CVs here. And having noticed Joker. But the Huygens there are two others with prime numbers of interest. Since this tablet is harder to comment on, V R's attention to the other prime, Lucas, Fibonacci etc. CVs will have to be directed in future. Huygens may not be unique, and it has article now to explain that.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/02/health/artificial-intelligence-poker-intuition-study/index.html -- Poker and AI.
Go -- Go and AI is one year ago now. Go_by_Google.
Colour Chess. Pieces paint the squares they leave, allowing other pieces to move as them. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Squares increase in power. Each time a piece leaves it, it leaves a trace, so a square can eventually confer Amazon power even to lowly Pawn when he arrives.
French revolution chess. Advanced pawns threaten the noble pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Another advanced pawn starting formation.
Patt-schach (Stalemate chess). Players start with an illegal move from a stalemated position. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The first move has to be illegal, so Black Pawn cannot on the first move take a White Pawn that has moved 1 P-a2. Since it is legal move for Black, he cannot do so on move 1.
Tryzantine Chess. A three-handed form of Byzantine (circular) Chess. (4x21, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Here is the only 3-handed circular chess so far.
Swap Chess. A move can consist of a series of pieces swapping places. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Swap Chess allows serial swapping as a move along subsequent lines of attack. Swap Chess has never been put up in Game Courier like Switching Chess.
Upside-Down Chess. White starts at the upper two rows, black at the bottom. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]White to Mate in 4. Since Black Queen is on white square, the Black Queen and King have already moved, and it means Black Pawns also have moved. So the present position started from the other side of the board! The board is actually left to right h to a, and up to down 1 to 8. (Dudeney and later Martin Gardner do this problem without the algebraic labelling.) Then White's Mate starts with 1 Nb8-d7. If 1 ...g1-h3, the mate is in two more moves. If 1 ...g1-f3, the mate is in three more moves. In the latter delay of the mate by one move, 2 N d7-c5 N f3-e5 3 Qxe5 4 N c5-d3 #.
White is going north and Black south as usual in the CV Upside Down Chess.
For OrthoChess problem by Lord Dunsany, solve this:
White is to play and mate in four moves. The position is one that could occur in actual play of F.I.D.E. Chess.
The style of commenting here is practically worthless to a hundred casual readers who don't know what Joker or Jester is. The terms need to be put into context over again each time it is brought up or only a few readers get the point. I understand the advertising of this piece and the CVs using it because of knowing so many CVs. Here is contribution to the topic even though this thread is confusing: the Spy from 1937. The Joker or Jester or Fool being talked about moves like the last piece opponent moved. The Spy, http://www.chessvariants.com/wargame.dir/novo/novo.html, from Holland pre-World War II also moves like the enemy piece, but Spy moves like the piece it sits on. Spy has to sit on another piece in fact, friend or foe. There is a family of Chameleon-like piece-types not just Fool etc. (Of course use of Fool is also Bishop in France.)
Altair. Altair is a modern game with an oriental flavor. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Altair is CV where "piece values are not a good indicator of one side's advantage in chess" to use V's current words, because most of the pieces for a move can also be dropped to empty square in rank nearby of the same color. Also they most of them can slide along their rank unimpeded. So if coming up with guide-values for stronger Mage and Lion and Diamond around 7, 5 and 4 respectively, good use of the board itself makes all the pieces closer to heuristic 3.8-4.2 each with only Pawns in some 2.x range.
Muller wrote up problem theme 3Q v. 7N in "Charge of Light Brigade." If you keep 8 Pawns, the 3 Queens versus 7 Knights may go to 3Q by already 8x10 any array, certainly by 10x10. Board used and Rules interact piece values, and cannot really be safely generalized even as to '<' or '>' for all cases; with special rules (or board) we can think of CV where even N>Q one on one!
For ex., make narrow stair step where Q can only occasionally go 3 or 2, but N leaps cross empty space and get values maybe N4 Q3 as convenient.
Man. Moves to any adjacent square, like a King, but not royal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Man/Commoner Sovereign Value is 1: http://www.chessvariants.com/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=SOVEREIGN_P_Ts. That means King plus Man versus King should win, already mentioned here. Bishop S.V. is 2 regardless exact piece value; one Bishop is insufficent material. Knight S.V. is 3, as Knappen clinches from table reference; two Knights are insufficient material. That in itself on smaller 8x8 makes Man equal or greater than Bishop or Rook.
The development, Queen_One, for Q7, Q6, Q5, Q4, Q3, Q2, and Man as Q1 I am only concerned about being off a bit for the last step Man because the next step would be Q0 or some Null piece. So the last Q1 or Man may be too high at 3.6, instead dampened to 3.4 or 3.3, but ahead of Bishop and Knight on the standard little board.
Peasant Revolt. Modest variant with unequal setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]On 30.Jan.2017 H.G. Muller brought up pawn-accompanied 7N versus 3Q: End_Games. Here is where he originally broached researching this match-up among others, http://www.chessvariants.com/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=25357, in several Peasant Revolt statements of different unusual endgames -- because not normal Beginners' Chess piece mixes that get memorized from tables.
George Svokos says too(All Comments PR) it takes K+N+N+N+N to defeat K, that three Knights are not enough. Of course games are won with definitional insufficient mating material depending on the leftover position. Usually you want the best definitions to exclude such cases, but the present example you can arrange K+3N to a mated position (not all of them necessarily Helpmates).
Muller's very insight then that "that the Knights could do better than they do now, with a bit more strategic insight" has parallel in my on-again maintaining that on 8x10 Rook versus Falcon should turn out to be 5.0 to up to 5.75 maximum, if Falcons are instructed to strategically open as early as possible.
Board size almost always factor, and on 8x10 or certainly 10x10, the 3Q will defeat especially 6N more or even most often(majority); on 10x10 the Peasant Revolt mix tilts way towards the Knights and Black. Rules are crucial too raised by Charles Gilman's query, is promotion in yQs v. xNs to Queen both sides, or not?
Infinite Chess. Chess on on infinite board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The most featured Angel Problems are situated on infinite chessboard: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_problem.
The Kremlin towers, http://en.chessbase.com/post/2017-moscow-open-all-for-one-and-one-for-all, look like so many Chess pieces. That is, to outsider superficially who has not been east of Austria myself, just by the photos. Kremlin_Chess. Of course I am always getting new CV board potential, and even variant piece moves in any tiled floor a given day -- like Gary Gifford once described coming up with new CVs while driving.
Not the artistic association of Kremlin to Chess pieces, there is the actual deliberate Chess-building in Kalmykia under Ilyumzhinov inspiration: Chess_City.
My second favorite Chess website, after Chess Variant Page, and well equal to all-purpose ChessBase has been considerably restored since catastrophe. That is Goddess Chess: http://www.goddesschess.com/. Up to half of it may be back, I'm not sure not having checked yet the Archaeology and Astronomy; but not much ongoing, copious Goddess more or less ended around 2012 for new material. Recommended are history articles by our own John Ayer and the original Weave from early internet 1990s. 'Weave' was much inspiration for the twenty, XX, Chess Moralities, all 42 lines long after also 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' and that one's "42" the answer to everything.
Earthquake Chess. An earthquake caused a kind of Z-form in the board. (8x8, Cells: 8) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since the 1820s backranks have been altered to thwart opening theory. Fischer was just as ignorant of chess history as Seirawan in the latter's re-introducing compounds of RN and BN to whatever he calls them in Seirawan Chess. Fischer's re-invention in the recent nineties of up to 960 set-ups led to also variants Slide-Shuffle and Deployment and Free Placement. Randomization of array is Mutator applicable to any CV. Instead at the same time of FRC, Ralph Betza proposed changing connectivity of the once-sancrosanct little 64-board. Besides Betza's two-ranks displacement, here are some other board possibilities: http://www.chessvariants.com/d.betza/chessvar/quake/quake.html.
There are also things like Transcendental, T_Chess where the two sides' initial positions do not have to match, and Chaos Chess in which pieces start dropped to other than only the nearest rank.
Beginners Chess just had one of its big tournaments, http://en.chessbase.com/post/2017-tata-rd13-deserved-winner. Winner Wesley So came in first and in the February elo index ranks second now just a few statistical points behind illiterate Magnus Carlsen.
Man. Moves to any adjacent square, like a King, but not royal.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Waterloo -- better than all-empty-space Grand Chess anyway.
Then this one mentioned as also using Commoner/Man is even better and meeting CVPage standards: Medieval_(europe).
The world expert at values, H.G. Muller joined this discussion, and I still hold out for value of nearer 6.0 for Falcon than Rook 5.0. I just played three Falcon games on Game Courier and early Falcon uses and forks were decisive in all of them whilst the Rooks mostly sat in place. It's matter of teaching programs maybe to open with Falcon; then the gap is filled in value between Rook and Queen, the way Man/Commoner/Guard can fill in between Bishop and Rook lower scale for beginners. (But Muller is right that anything towards 7.0 for Falcon among the four fundamental chess pieces was irresponsibly unsupported.)
Vickalan's point is good one, that better CVs have clear value in exchange. That was recurrent theme for years in our thread on Game Design: Value_In_Exchange. When most though not all pieces have different distinguishable values, there is intriguing Flight and Fight.
Anyway Man is just a Queen, and that's how to get its value. If full Queen is 9.0, then develop method for Queen limited to 6 steps not 7. Then get limited Queen up to 5 spaces, then Q4, Q3, Q2, Man. Since Q6 is near Q7 but others progressively detrimental, it might go: Q6 8.6, Q5 8.0, Q4 7.2, Q3 6.2, Q2 5.0, Man 3.6. No values in isolation since it depends on other pieces as well as array and rules.
Principle of value in exchange is why I dislike all yes all 50 Carrera variants, that three pieces are boringly near-same-valued.
Ultra Slanted Escalator Chess. Game on an asymmetrical board of 84 squares with Crabs and Ultras. (10x9, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I revise/add to my analysis last comment of USEC to include important observation one sentence Bishop. That is, having edited it -- since there are intervening remarks-- Bishop can reach every square! By nature of this board both Bishop and Rook (and everyone else) are not colorbound, neither in general colorswitching even Knight. No explicit Bishop-conversion just full access to every square. Well, it depends on the local environment whether one says colorswitching etc. They would need to be re-defined for specialized board to be completely accurate. Viewers noticed this feature of Bishop during the contest, then forgot about it.
Rather than a calcified Commoner (Man/non-royal King) conversion rule, designers can follow Ultra Slanted and have a whole conversion area available for those lamely you could say limited to (about) half the squares, giving halfway-mobile Bishops in particular full-participatory rights.
Unusual connectivity here in board lacking symmetry made Ultra Slanted the runner-up winner in the 84-square contest over decade ago. Crabs and Ultras and all the pieces are hard to get across to the other side to attack, threading the needle. David Short recommends for best play keeping Knights as 'stay at home' defenders. Without specific color-switching, Bishop is able to reach every square by nature of the board.
If Short won copy of 'Encyclopedia Chess Variants' as stated, notice that can be $1000 online now and hard to find for $100 used.
I noted in other comment 2007 only a little cynically because it is in fact accurate for most designers, the bell-shape output: "Here is record of the years of invention: 1999-1; 2000-2; 2001-3; 2002-9; 2004-1. The typical bell-shaped design trajectory can be detected albeit skewed right by so many in the one particular year."
As player, would you rather have the '2 for 1' transition nearby as for White, or a ways off as for Black?
ACROPOLIS. "For a pair of duals or semi-duals as oblique components I start with Gnu compounds, using the reversed letter pair of the Ace/Acme group. Rook+Gnu=ACROPOLIS, after a lofty stronghold. Bishop+Gnu=ACTOR, which like MAB 06's Clown and Buffoon draws on the Bishop as Fool with a performer. It is worth noting that surnames such as Abbot, Bishop, Duke, King, Pope, and Prince originate in actors typecast in such parts. Queen+Gnu=ACTRESS mirrors the femininity of its radial component." --'M&B8'
Above Charles Gilman has in fact named (Champion(RN) + Camel). ACROPOLIS by Gilman is the same (R+N+Camel) we are calling Trump. From now on TRUMP or ACROPOLIS will do for the piece-type here, Charles would agree, and we can drop the experimental portmanteaus CarShall, CarShill, CamShell etc. (I thought I had seen it but unsure what form.) There is nothing wrong with an occasional "Carshall-Rover" and so on, using the first letters of Camel for clarity since they are perfectly understood, but better is ACROPOLIS-ROVER or TRUMP-ROVER where there is precedence. One good alternate name is enough, when more can be avoided. Charles does approach it from longstanding Gnu(Knight + Camel). (Q+Camel) was already named ACME (and (Q+N) was re-named ACE by Gilman, but most will keep AMAZON). It all shows both the flux and the systemization in nomenclature.
.PUSA_Chess Warren Harding is one more definite Yes contrary to left article. Board.
Okay it turns out Gilman does name Champion(RN) plus Camel! Can you find it in 'M&B8' there before looking at the follow-up comment?
A portmanteau using Gilman methodology for the compound of Champion(RN) and Camel is Carshall coming from Camel and Marshall. By application of the Name List, it can be called Trump too. Carshall, Trump, Car Shill etc. are one and same compound (Rook + Knight + Camel). There is liberty with the name since Charles did not do this series completely.
Then bringing together the Suffix_Index and Name List, there are by extension untold millions of personalized bi-compounds. For example, Trump-Charger is much weaker piece than Trump-Lander, the latter it was seen being omni-directional. All Chargers are Landers by definition, with further restriction of only going forwards, uni-directionally now. Depicting piece as Charger -- already single-stepping or single-leaping by virtue of being Lander -- makes it perfectly Pawn-like. This particular type Trump-Charger then can move forward as Knight, Camel or Wazir, a great five choices for a Pawn. There is no provision for Promotion in the definitional naming itself, but it would be logical as added Rule of the Game.
Let a Pawn be both Berolina and OrthoPawn at the same time, more than doubling its value, and it is accurately described as "Queen-Charger," explaining separately the initial two-step option if wanted.
Differently, how about TrumpRanker? Trump is unambiguous piece though having synonymous names CarShill etc., and "-Ranker" just requires moving more ranks than files. Thus Trump-Ranker is restricted to the narrow Knight and narrow Camel moves forward or backward and only rookwise rankwise (for any distance).
Next, Trump-Filer moves by wide Knight, wide Camel, or Rookwise filewise any distance. Then, Trump-Blinker (or CarShallBlinker etc.) moves as Trump-Ranker but captures as Trump-Filer -- a divergent piece like the F.I.D.E. simple OrthoPawn. CarShill-ContraBlinker, same as Trump-ContraBlinker, moves as Filer any of the compounds three ways (N, R, Ca) widely in the technical sense and captures as Ranker by the same three narrowly.
In another category, non-divergent TrumpRover can indefinitely repeat the Knight legs or the Camel legs, but can only step as Wazir orthogonally. Its purer Gilman name is Carshall-Rover. Still another category by entering another Suffix, '-Switcher' requires odd number of times in one move, so Trump-Switcher goes any of the 20 directions (4+8+8) by stops on the first or third or fifth and so on if board is big enough, whether as Rook, or Knight, or Camel (but not combination) -- nice piece for 16x16 and up.
Yet another group, if ending with '-Snatcher', like Trump-Snatcher (CarShall-Snatcher), the piece-type can repeat a capture in the same direction on the same move (presumably only the very next step or leap). Combining the last two, a Trump-Switcher-Snatcher goes the 20 directions, stopping on odd legs and permitting immediate repeat capture(s) by direct continuation.
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Jumping Chess originates the edge squares that Rococo uses two years later. Bishop captures like International Draughts diagonally and Rook like Turkish/Israeli draughts orthogonally. Except no plural captures, and in JC the line pieces slide any distance beforehand. But no displacement capture at all here. Jumping concepts are bandied about in 'ECV' a few times, but credit this improvement for the rim accessible only capturing.
JC may create too many defensive positions for most aesthetics.
JC year-2000 date of invention harkens to V. R. Parton's booklet 'My Games for 2000 a.d. and After' published 1972. There the CV "2000 AD" sources pieces for 30 years later great Rococo. Firsthand, Rococo is basically a derivative Ultima (1962).
( Contrariwise, Robert Abbott himself weighed in early Rococo comment that no need for border squares, just get rid of them. ) See next how Rococo draws on both Abbott and Parton. 20th century the chief variantists were Boyer, Parton, Betza and Dawson, but Dawson didn't bother with designing actual CVs.
The Rococo pieces straight out of Abbott's Ultima are Withdrawer, Immobilizer, Long Leaper, Chameleon. And the Rococo pieces straight out of 2000 A. D. are Ximaera and Swapper. Ximaera gets re-named Advancer. Finally, Rococo takes its own inventor's border squares from JC and adds that great novelty Cannon Pawn.
Perimeter-squared JC has little play, but Rococo, when adding its subvariants Push-Pull and Mirror, has the same number 10 rank approximately of near-form Ultima at Game Courier. And several ahead of them are a standard Chess form around hundred(s) years. Or combine play numbers of Ultima and Rococo and they are number 3. So arguably derived-form Rococo is a topmost world-class CV. Thanks to contribution of porous out-migration squares from selfsame JC.