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Comments by PeterAronson
84 Spaces Contest. 84 Spaces Contest begins![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have a slight concern that because nothing about the contest was being posted for so long, some people may have thought that the contest itself was on hold, and hence not sent in their entries. If that is the case, then it would, I think, be unfair to disallow them to submit those entries.
<hr>
As an aside, none of this affects me personally as I decided I've won enough contests here of late, and are only sending in non-competing entries.
Colorboundmost and Nearly Colorboundmost Chess. Games with all pieces either completely or almost completely colorbound. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You could have a version of Castlingmost Chess with captures -- when castling with a friendly piece not separated from the castling piece by
friendly pieces, any opposing pieces between them are captured. You may still castle with opposing pieces, just not capture in those cases.
Vierschach. 19th Century 4-player game where allies start off at right angles to each other. (14x14, Cells: 160) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ralf -- what browser were you using when your workstation crashed? I've tried this page with Netscape 4.7 on Solaris and IE 5 on Windows/NT and IE 5.5 on Windows 98 with no problems.
Vyrémorn Chess. Large variant on two overlapping square boards. (Cells: 132) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, the inventor's <em>ISP</em> seems to be missing. Has anyone
heard anything about xoom.com lately? I couldn't find any news articles claiming it had been shutdown or anything, but I could have missed them.
All-mate Chess. Pieces are captured by having them `checkmated'. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Having consulted the Encyclopedia of Chess variants, I think I can answer
your questions:
<ul><p><li>
Yes, you must capture mated pieces.
</li><p><li>
All mated pieces are captured, in the order chosen by moving player.
</li><p><li>
If more pieces are mated (of either side) by the removal of mated
pieces, then those pieces are captured as well.
</li></ul>
My rules don't say, but in general in Chess you are not allowed to make
any move that causes your King to be attacked, so the move you describe
might not be kosher. I don't know.
Whoops! I missed the part about check being ignored. I guess if, by selecting the order in which pieces are mated you mate the opposing King before yours is, you do win. Sorry about that!
I've updated the page, except for the last point,
since I am not 100% sure of that one.
<p>
Thanks for the good questions, Robert!
Vierschach. 19th Century 4-player game where allies start off at right angles to each other. (14x14, Cells: 160) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jörg? Do you agree with Ralf? It's your article, but if you want me to make the change he says is correct, I'll make it.
OK, Jörg the figure is corrected and Ralf's author and reference
information has been incorporated.
<p>
Ralf, I have made the diagrams one over the other instead of side-by-side.
I haven't been able to reproduce your problem, even using a very similar
release of IE, and I suspect the problem lies in the workstation's print
driver. Possibly it was having problems with such a wide page. If so,
this may have fixed it.
Hobbit Chess 
. Two variants, 8x8 and 9x9, using hobbits as superpawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a nice idea, but the pieces you call Hobbits have been around for
a while. For example, John Williams Brown called them Stewards, and used
them in <a href='../large.dir/contest/cenchess.html'>Centennial Chess</a>;
however, this is a nice use of them.
<p>
As for the 9x9 game, I notice that all four Bishops are on White. Now,
some people like it like that -- consider Gabriel Maura's game of
<a href='../large.dir/modern.html'>Modern Chess</a> which also has four
Bishops on the same color -- but you still might want to consider something
like Carlos Cetina's <a href='../varvar.dir/bcr.html'>Bishop's Conversion
Rule</a>, when one Bishop has to change color on its first move.
Ludus Equitum. Dice chess variant, using standard set and two dice, designed in a 13th-century style for the SCA. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I do like to see a good Chess variant with dice once in a while. So many
variant designers and players have an attitude about anything with a random
element which I suspect stems from delusions about the predictablity of
the real world.
Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]What about this situation (white to move):
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
7 |:::| P |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
3 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
2 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
1 |:n:| |:::| |:N:| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
a b c d e f g h
If white b8=Q or b8=R, then stalemate. If b8=B, then I believe there is insufficient material for mate -- thus b8=K. I'm fairly sure that K+N can mate bare N. If not, add a B at g1. Two B on the same color + N vs N is still not promising, but K+B+N vs N is surely enough!
Hmm. A Problem with my previous post -- White could move their Knight, then on the following move promote the Pawn to Queen.
However, this situation ought to do it.
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
7 |:::| P |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5 |:n:| |:::| |:N:| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
3 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
2 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
1 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
a b c d e f g h
Since white better promote the Pawn or black will take it.
According to the Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, in Knightmate a K can mate a N unaided, so my solution to your challenge stands.
Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The real problem in determining which came first, Chaturanga or Xiangqi (or more likely, the ancestors of each) that when you come down to it, historically games have not been considered important enought to be frequently mentioned in the historical record. Last I knew, we had earlier clear mentions for Chaturanga than Xiangqi, but this may not mean very much -- both games could easily have been played for centuries without making their way into a surviving document.
<p>
Of course, there is also the issue that with commerce between east and west, the two games could have 'co-evolved' with <em>neither</em> of them coming clearly before the other.
Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Valid point. However, this version of the problem, with white to move:
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
8 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
7 |:::| P |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
6 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
5 |:n:| |:::| |:N:| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
4 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
3 |:B:| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
2 | |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::|
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
1 |:::| |:::| |:::| |:::| |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
a b c d e f g h
Should do it. After b8=K, black Nb3 is forced. After white Kb7, the black N is pretty well trapped.
I have a few games to recommend, some are mine, many are not:
<ul>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../41.dir/clash/clashrules.html'>Clash of Command</a> by Peter Strob.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../diffmove.dir/chosen-chess.html'>Chosen Chess</a> by Gianni Cottogni.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../41.dir/fastlane.html'>Chess in the Fast Lane</a> by Francois Tremblay.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../32turn.dir/wormhole.html'>Wormhole Chess</a> by Fergus Duniho.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../other.dir/chessonlongboard.html'>Chess on a Longer Board with a Few Pieces Added</a> by David Howe.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../diffmove.dir/augmented.html'>Augmented Chess</a> by Ralph Betza.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../diffmove.dir/golem-chess.html'>Golem Chess</a> by Peter Aronson and Ben Good.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../other.dir/rococo.html'>Rococo</a> by Peter Aronson and David Howe.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../diffmove.dir/separate-realms.html'>Separate Realms</a> by Mike Nelson and Peter Aronson.
</li>
<p>
<li>
<a href='../other.dir/ruddigore-chess.html'>Ruddigore Chess</a> By Peter Aronson.
</li>
</ul>
<p>
And that's 10, but I easily could add another 10, but that would be excessive.
Just commenting on the overlaps, <a href='../41.dir/takeover.html'>Takeover
Chess</a> and <a href='../other.dir/captain-spalding.html'>Captain
Spalding Chess</a> were on my next list, too. And on any given day, which
game is on which list could change easily.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
It's not what you meant, David, but I had a sudden thought of Double-Move
<a href="../other.dir/chessonlongboard.html">Chess on a Long Board with a
Few Pieces Added</a>. I can see players being
<strong>very</strong> willing to expend some material to nail their
opponent's Wall! Might be fun, though.
Captain Spalding Chess 
. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Glenn, what's your rev of Zillions, and what operating system are you
running on? I had problems with the ZRF earlier, but they were fixed by
not combining self-capture and add-partial in the same move.
<p>
As for not repeating the board position, I'm only checking for the simple
case of undoing a previous neutral move -- Zillions isn't capable of
anything else, unfortunately (but then, human players are pretty limited
there too). Actually, I just noticed a slight error in the neutral
move code that if your opponent captures with a Dust Demon, it won't let
you move the Dust Demon back to its previous square right away. That I
can fix.
Revision of the ZRF is now 1.1, and the problem with Dust Demon capture and ko is now fixed.
Zillions of Games. Game package for Windows that allows you to play nearly any abstract board game or puzzle in the world.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I will note that figuring out what pieces are worth in a variant in the first place is often a thornier issue than trying to manipulate Zillions into having the values you want. That's why I have never attempted to tune the values in Interweave or Rococo.
ximeracak.. A leaper-heavy fantasy variant designed for play with a standard set. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Nicely fluidly weird. Normally leapers greater than maybe (3,0) or (2,1) don't work on a board this size, but with <strong>everything</strong> but the King/General and Pawns/Sergeants leaping, this isn't the usual problem.
<p>
One thing I noticed is that it is very common for Pegasi to be exchanged, which is unfortunate as they are interesting pieces. It might be nice to treat them as like Lions in Chu Shogi (or Golems in Golem Chess, which borrowed the idea from Chu Shogi) and not let them be exchanged easily.
Captain Spalding Chess . Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]OK, it simply flatly blows up in Windows XP, then I have something I can tell the Zillions people. I hope they have an XP box in-house!
The following from Jeff Mallett:
<p>
<i><blockquote>
Bad news -- it crashes for me on XP in 1.3.1 (and also crashes when I
tried 1.3). It doesn't crash when I use Zillions 2, which is in
development, so it's a problem already fixed.
<p>
I'm betting the difference is that Zillions 2 has had a lot of its
reading code rewritten to support parsing larger files. The XP
difference is just that some machines need to reallocate memory at
some point in the parsing and others don't. It's this reallocation
that was causing problems in Zillions 1.3.1.
<p>
Your ZRF itself is pretty small and elegant (23K), but when its 28
macros are expanded it is over a megabyte and contains about 175,000
symbols. Is there any way to simplify it a bit?
</blockquote></i>
<p>
I will look at simplifying it, but I have my doubts -- the thing was hard enough to write in the first place.
While I have not made much study of the play of this game yet, it is the sort of game where Zillions (a), needs a lot of thinking time for, and (b), doesn't play particularly well, anyway. The Zillions board evaluation algorithm seems to be primarily material-based, and that doesn't seem to yield good results for this game.
The current release of the ZRF is now 1.2. By rewriting the neutral piece moving code to generate a single looping move entry instead of 64 move entries I have got this to the point where is loads and runs successfully on at least some Windows XP box (I would like reports from people running Windows XP about their experiances). This also has the side effect that the ZRF seems to run a bit faster, and examines more positions in the same time as a result. There turns out not to be an elephant problem as reported earlier -- that was a misunderstanding.
Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]After playing around with this game a bit, it seems to me that the Great
Pajamas are somewhat disadvantaged: the Box can pull out unlimited Bats,
as long as the one per column rule is followed, and the Pajamas can keep
pulling out Elephants, as long as there is only one of your color on the
board at a time, but once the Great Pajamas have pulled out the Great
Elephant, all they can do is generate Dust Bunnies and Dust Demons. It
doesn't seem fair.
<p>
Perhaps the Great Pajamas should also be able to pull out an Investigator
and/or a Cook. Cooks, as we know from Cheskers, are Camels (Long Knights).
An Investigator would be a Nemesis -- a piece that moves like a King, but
only towards the opposing Royal piece. Now, in Captain Spalding Chess that
would be too powerful, so perhaps it could have a Nemesis that moves like
a Wazir, but can only makes moves that would leave it closer to the opposing
Box. If an Investigator is captured, it may be pulled out by the Great
Pajamas again.
Here's a little throwaway thought I had on the morning drive:
<h3>Card Chess Without Randomness or Hidden Information</h3>
People have used cards to add an element of randomness to Chess, probably
for centuries. I have no problem with this, but some people do, a fact
that led me to wonder if an interesting version of Chess with Cards
containing no random elements or other hidden information could be
constructed.
<h4>The Equipment</h4>
Each player starts with 16 cards, 15 of which contain all the possible
unordered combinations of two pieces, and the last of which is a wild
card. Thus:
<p>
PN, PB, PR, PQ, PK, NB, NR, NQ, NK, BR, BQ, BK, NQ, NK, QK, Wild.
<h4>The Play</h4>
To move a piece, a player must have a card with either that piece on the
card or they must have a wild card. Upon moving that piece, they hand the
card they used to allow the move to their opponent, who adds it to their
own cards.
<p>
If a player has no card that would allow them to move any of their pieces,
they lose. Other forms of stalemate are also losses.
<p>
Pieces give check even without their player having a card that would allow
them to move the piece.
<p>
If the King is in check, it may be moved either by playing a card with a
King on it, or by playing a card with a piece attacking the King on it.
If the King is in check and you have no card that would allow it to move,
then it is mate.
<h4>Chess with Different Armies</h4>
This scheme ought to work OK with Chess with Different Armies, although I
am not entirely sure what the consequences are, since the relative
strength of pieces from equivalent array positions differ (for example,
in the Remarkable Rookies the 'Bishop' is Rook strength, and the 'Rook' is
a minor piece; the Colorbound Clobberers are even more oddly distributed).
<h4>Comments</h4>
Since there are plenty of cards with each piece, openings ought to be
fairly standard. Things start to get weird when players lose all of types
of piece. If a player has no Knights, Bishops or Queens, then the cards
NB, NQ and BQ will never leave their hands.
<p>
Possibly there are too many cards with each piece on them.
ximeracak.. A leaper-heavy fantasy variant designed for play with a standard set. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I wonder if this proposed Pegasus/General swap rule ought require the Pegasus to be defending the King. Thus, you could first drive off the Pegasus, then mate.
I like your 10 card set -- it makes card hording more practical, while
allowing the Kings and Pawns reasonably mobile. And with 6 out of 10
cards showing the King, I agree the special King privilege to use the
attacking piece's card when in check is not in necessary.
<hr>
:: Peter, you think too much! :)
<p>
Well, 'Die Gedanken sind frei', I guess :)
An issue has occured to me -- under the rules I've defined, Black will always have one or two cards more than white, which is probably excessive.
<p>
Here's an idea to correct it:
<ul>
<p>
<li>
White starts with 1 copy each of all cards except the wild card, black starts with the cards white does, plus 1 wild card.
</li>
<p>
<li>
On white's first move, they use no card; thus black starts with the wild card and with one more card than white.
</li>
</ul>
Black starting with the wild card offsets white's first move advantage some, hopefully.
Castling as a King move is a good idea, I think. The endgame. Hmm. A K + Q vs K endgame could be stymied by the player with the bare King holding on to the KQ, PQ and (Wild) cards. I wonder if some additional mechanism is called for. Of course, it needs to be seen if this game comes down to situations like that. Pawns are relatively mobile, and because there are many cards that let Pawns move, they defend each other with greater effectiveness than other pieces. It seems to indicate that Pawnless endgames may not be as common as in usual Chess.
Another possibility is to use as a base game where material doesn't decrease over the course of the game, such as Chessgi. Of course, to some extent card hording is a good thing in the context of this game, as it allows some additional tactics, and using Chessgi as a base would decrease the possibility for this.
<p>
One could go for more radical modifications, of course, but they would be less Chess-like. For instance, if a player has no Pawns, and has no cards that would allow them to move any piece but their King, they may drop a Pawn using a Pawn card on any unoccupied square on their 2nd rank. That, combined with promotion, might allow more decisive endgames.
Multivariant Tournament 2003. 2003 Multivariant PBEM tournament headquarters page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mike, Chess with Different Armies had its own tournament last year. Unfortunately, it only got four players (of which I came in last, alas!).
New sets of Exchess (Superchess). Announcement of sets of chess variant pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I fixed the link. For some this page was immune to normal editing, but
fortunately emacs provided a way.
Alfaerie Expansion Set 3. More chess variant graphics based on the Alpha chess font.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Very nice! But if this is expansion set 4, what happened to 2 and 3?
Vincent wrote:
<i><blockquote>
I've considered the vast majority of the chess variants on these pages,
and, after some study, research, and play-testing, I found a grand total
of two that I feel are worth my time to play: Gothic Chess & Omega Chess,
and neither of them are on the list...
</blockquote></i>
Hmm. Tastes do vary. I've only gotten around to playing about 82+- of the
games on this site by my latest count (that is, with people, bunches more
with Zillions, but playing Chess variants against computers is rather
like a [analogy left out as this is a family website]), and I would say
almost all of them were worth my time to play, although some I am in no
particular hurry to play again soon. What is it you were looking for in
a CV? In particular, what were you looking for where you would leave off
Xiangqi and Shogi, games that are far more widely popular than either
Omega Chess or Gothic Chess?
Piececlopeida: Advancer. 
Moves like a Queen, but captures by approach.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Extinction chess. Win by making your opponents pieces of one type extinct. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, this game can be found in the standard Chess ZRF that comes with Zillions.
Alice Chess. Classic Variant where pieces switch between two boards whenever they move. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Whoops! Diagram fixed -- thanks for pointing it out.
Dai Shogi. Shogi variant on 15 by 15 board. (Link.).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Chu Shogi. Members-Only Shogi variant on 12 by 12 board. (Link.).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Things are too quite here, so I'm going to ramble on a bit.
<p>
Orthochess has a piece density of 50% -- 16 pieces on each side, and
64 squares on which to put them. Most variants on 8x8 keep that piece
density, but almost all variants on 10x10 boards have a lower density.
For example, recently Modern Kamil and a set of Chess with Ultima,
Rococo and Supremo Pieces variants have been published on these pages,
all with a density of 40%. This effects play a fair bit.
<p>
It's not just these recent variants, either of course. Grand Chess has a
density of 40%, while Omega Chess has a density of 42%. Of course, those
variants that keep a board of 8 rows, no matter how long, such as Gothic
Chess or King's Court or (David Short's) Double Chess can keep a density
of 50%. But very wide boards increase the power of orthogonal pieces at
the expense of other pieces. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it
has a definite effect on the play of the game.
<p>
One reason for the lower piece density is a certain reluctance to go to
three row arrays. Mind you, Al-Ces has a full three-line array with a
piece density of 60%, but it's a game that takes a very long time to play.
That might be a lot of the reason. I have an unpublished Chess variant
on a 10x10 board that I playtested with Tony Quantilla where each side had
25 pieces (10 Pawns, 3 'Super-Pawns' and 12 pieces per side), and it seemed
like we had a ton of material each. While Tony got the upper hand on me
early on, it seemed like it took forever for him to finish me off. Perhaps
20-22 pieces is right number to have on a 10x10 board if you want fairly
Orthchess-like play.
<p>
The moral of this rambling? Maybe you can't compare densities between
different size boards. Perhaps there is some better measurement out there
(although if you are trying for a game whose play is not much like
Orthochess, then you shouldn't care, anyway).
Michael
<p>
I got a little sloppy there talking about diagonal moves. Indeed a wider
board allows a diagonal moving piece access to a higher percentage of
longer moves. However, consider a 12x8 board. The longest possible Bishop
move is 7 squares, but the longest possible Rook or Queen move is 11. And
while in the opening and midgame those forward attacking moves are the most
important, this is less so in the endgame.
<p>
Your big project sounds reminiscent of Parton's 2000 AD or Royal Fury.
This, no doubt, why you've been playing around with Gorgonas
(what about Gorgons? -- now <strong>there's</strong> a piece to shudder
over!). I'd be interested in seeing what you've got, although I can't
promise to spend much time on it at the moment.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
John
<p>
I think Xiangqi's low density gives the game a lot of its distinctive
character.
Random Wormhole Chess (deleted). Introduces "wormholes" and "toroidal" movement to the game in a fun and manageable way. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A neat concept for light game! A few questions:
<p><ul><li>
Is it allowed for a wormhole to form such
that it causes a stalemate?
</li><p><li>
Assume a white Pawn on a7, and a wormhole on a8 -- if the white Pawn moves
forward, does it end up on a1 without promoting? If so, can it doublemove
from a1? What if it moves to a2?
</li><p><li>
Can a wormhole be <em>removed</em> in such a way as to put a King in
check?
</li></ul>
An even stronger form of asymmetric retreat is the fairy piece the
<a href='../piececlopedia.dir/locust.html'>Locust</a> as used in
<a href='../dpieces.dir/edgehog-chess.html'>Edgehog Chess</a>. It
can only move to capture, and captures by leaping over a piece to
be captured to land on the empty square just past. Thus, while a
Grasshopper can
make a symmetrical retreat after leaping over an adjacent piece,
a Locust could only make a symmetrical retreat if a hostile piece moved
into the square it captured from.
Weave and Dungeon . Abstract game played on a board divided into Weave and Dungeon, with movement following different rules on each part.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Wonderful understated graphics on the ZRF! I'll comment on the game itself
once I've had a chance to play it.
Smess. Produced and sold in the early 70's by Parker Brothers. Arrows on squares determine direction pieces can move. (7x8, Cells: 56) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There are two versions of this game available for the computer game
Zillions of Games (see: http://www.zillionsofgames.com), one by Fergus Duniho (called 'All the King's Men' or 'Ninnychess'), available from this site, and one by Stephen Tavener (called 'Take the Brain') available from the Zillions site. Zillions is currently selling for about $15 dollars when downloaded from their site.
84 Spaces Contest. 84 Spaces Contest begins![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Tandem-84. Variant on two boards of 7 by 6 rows with pieces moving between boards. (2x(6x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a neat idea! I particularly like the care that was taken to avoid
allowing indirect checks by double-moves. (IE, the King being in check by
a combination of both the opposing player's moves.)
<p>
I'll note pedantically that while this game might have been inspired by
Alice Chess, it doesn't have the defining (to me) characteristic of Alice
Chess that moving forces a change between boards. I would describe this
more as a two level 3D Chess variant.
<p>
Chancellor and Marshall are both common names for Rook+Knight. The
common name for Bishop+Knight is Cardinal, although Archbishop and
Princess are used in a fair number of games as well (although Archbishop
is also used for other Bishop variants).
<p>
A game with 6x7 square boards, double-moves and swapping pieces? This
game vaguely resemble a distant cousin of
<a href='..//42.dir/mulligan-stew.html'>Mulligan Stew Chess</a>.
White Elephant Chess. Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A fWA? Interesting piece. It covers more ground than the fWF Elephant,
but on the other hand is somewhat awkward. One of the Sanskrit words for
elephant (and the Elephant piece) is <i>Hasty</i>, which is of course
coincidently identical to the English word hasty. Well, to move hastily
is to move quickly but awkwardly, so I would dub the fWA the Hasty Elephant
or simply Hasty.
Tandem-84. Variant on two boards of 7 by 6 rows with pieces moving between boards. (2x(6x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A question:
<p>
<ul>
<li>May a King move into check with the first move of a turn, if the
second move of the turn removes check?</li>
</ul>
<p>
I'm attempting to write a ZRF for this game (in a case of fortunate timing
I wrote a ZRF for a non-competing entry I'm thinking of making with the
same board), but I'm not sure how close I'm going to be able to get.
Zillions' checkmate handling is hardcoded, and doesn't really work well for
multimove games.
Another question, this time about en-passant captures.
<p>
Just when is en-passant allowed? There are four cases (I'll assume for
discussion that White is moving, and Black is capturing):
<p>
<ol>
<li>White moves the Pawn in the first move of their turn, and Black
captures in the first move of their turn.</li>
<li>White moves the Pawn in the first move of their turn, and Black
captures in the second move of their turn.</li>
<li>White moves the Pawn in the second move of their turn, and Black
captures in the first move of their turn.</li>
<li>White moves the Pawn in the second move of their turn, and Black
captures in the second move of their turn.</li>
</ol>
<p>
Any or all of the above cases could be allowed.
<a href='../multimove.dir/doublemove.html'>Double Move Chess</a>
and <a href='../multimove.dir/marseill.html'>Marseillais Chess</a>
allow cases 1 and 3, with the special rule that if both of White's moves
allowed for en-passant capture, Black may take both of them.
<p>
What does Tandem-84 use?
<p>
Case 3 is the simplest, as their are no intervening 'moves' to confuse the
issue. It would seem to me that given the board width of 7, where a Pawn
making its initial move arrives in position to capture en-passant, making
en-passant too easy would weaken the Pawns.
Wa Shogi. A variant of Japanese Chess on an 11 by 11 board. (Link.).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Rules of Chess: Queen FAQ. Soms answers on questions on the rules of chess, regarding queens.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]While they sound like unlikely questions, it might be nice to add that
you don't have to announce 'check' against Queens (I've been asked that!)
and that Queens don't castle (I've read about that).
Spinal Tap Chess. Variant on an 11x11 board with a once-a-game mass 'Battle Move' of Pawns and Crabs. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Orphan. Moves like a piece that attacks it.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There is a short reference on George Jelliss'
<a href='http://www.bcvs.ukf.net/gvcg.htm'>A Guide to Variant Chess</a>
webpage to Anti-Chess, as follows:
<blockquote><i>
<b>Anti-Chess</b> Any variant in which kings are replaced by anti-kings (which
are in check only when NOT attacked). It requires an initial position with
Ks under attack, e.g. the usual array on a horizontal cylinder.
</i></blockquote>
Which would certainly include what you describe, although the non-capturing
part isn't specified, but then the description is so general that it
includes any game with Anti-Kings instead of Kings.
Oh, wait a minute -- you're trying to end up with your King not attacked. I don't think that's been done.
Weave and Dungeon. Abstract game played on a board divided into Weave and Dungeon, with movement following different rules on each part. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Now that I've played this (Tony Quintanilla and I recently finished an e-mail game), I can say that it plays very nicely, but that the movement of the pieces takes some getting used to. This is not helped by the abstract design of the pieces, but I like the way they look so much that I'd rather not trade them for more helpful ones.
David, I'm not sure how you'd combine checkmate and a rule that moving out
of check wins. It seems to me once check is made, the game is over the
next turn, since the checked King's player either moves out of check, and
wins, or is checkmated, and loses. Now, if a player won, once in check, by
<em>starting</em> a turn out of check, the game would turn into a desperate
series of checks at that point. Of course, this could easily turn into
perpetual check.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
A more dynamic name for Ralph's proposed game might be <u>King's
Escape</u>.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
I threw together a quick ZRF of this game by hacking up the Anti-King
Chess ZRF. Too quick -- it didn't work quite right. However, in the
process I came up with a mild variant. A player won, if after the movement
of their <i>King</i>, their King was not under attack. This had the
interesting effect that a player could leave their opponent's King
unattacked as long as it had no move that would move it to an unattacked
square.
Thinking about this a bit more, it occurs to me that if it is really to
be 'Anticheckmate', then the victory condition needs to be a bit
different. Something like:
<blockquote>
Kings attack opposing Kings, anywhere else on the board. The only thing
prevents the opposing King from attacking your King is if you have a piece
attacking the opposing King. Thus, if your opponent's King becomes
'unattacked', you are in check, and if you can't attack it in your
immeadiately following move, you are checkmated.
</blockquote>
Sonic the Hedgehog Chess. After capturing, the capturing piece bounces off the enemy piece and continues moving. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is interesting (although I'd like to have seen it better developed and more completely written up), but what about the Knights -- which way do they capture?
Battle Chieftain Chess. Warriors and a king fight on a board with walls and holes. (10x11, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This looks interesting, but there's one point of the rules I find confusing:
you talk both about the King being checkmated -- which is generally used to
mean an inescapable threat to capture but not actual capture -- and being
captured. Which is it?
Herb Garden Chess . Variant on 7 by 12 board with additional combination pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Then the ZRF is wrong, too. I'll fix it tonight.
OK, the ZRF and illustration have been updated so that Queens are on color.
The proper ZRF revision is 1.1 (which you can check on any of my ZRFs by
clicking on history under help).
Battle Chieftain Chess. Warriors and a king fight on a board with walls and holes. (10x11, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, I have to disagree about the combination of King capture and checkmate.
<p>
<ul>
<li>First, it occurs in a lot of double King variants where the first King is captured and the 2nd King must be checkmated.</li>
<p>
<li>Second, I think it confusing in <u>Battle Chieftain Chess</u>. At one point you use one mechanism for a situation, and later you use another. It seems gratitiously complicated to me.</li>
<p>
</ul>
Let me explain something about the second point. As well as being a variant designer, I'm a software designer/programmer. I have a real liking for simplicity and consistency. The mottos of a software designer trying for elegant code (as we all should be) are 'when in doubt, leave it out' and Law of the Least Suprise (software should always do what is least surprising to the user). Looking at it that way, the following rule would make more sense to me:
<blockquote>
When the King occupies an enemy attacked square, it may switch places with any Berzerker before the player's move. If a King is captured, the owning player's next turn consists of converting a Berzerker into the new King.
</blockquote>
(<i>Note: in the above rule I wrote a Berzerker switches places with the
King -- this is equivalent to making the King a Berzerker and the Berzerker a King.)
Looking at the rules, it seems to me that the sentence:
<blockquote><i>
No player may end a move on their opponents wall.
</i></blockquote>
Indicates that a piece sitting on a friendly wall is immune to capture.
If that's the case, wouldn't a losing player just move their few remaining pieces onto their wall, and just shuffle between wall squares?
No problem -- I've updated that sentence on the page.
A few more questions (if you're wondering why so many questions, I'm writing a Zillions Rule File for this game, and details have to be nailed down when you do that):
<p>
<ul>
<li>When does a player place their King? Is it a separate move, so that White places their King, then Black? Or does each King place their King, and then make their first move?</li>
<p>
<li>May the King be placed in a square that is under attack?</li>
<p>
<li>When a King under attack chooses to become a Berserker, and another Berserker becomes King, may that 2nd Berserker be under attack at the time?
</li>
</ul>
A more general question: can Kings move to attacked squares? Chess Kings can not, of course, but these are hardly Chess Kings here.
I observed the following behavior from Zillions:
<p>
White would place its King in a square under attack.<br>
Since Kings in check can demote to a Berserker and promote another Berserker without counting as a move, it would promote the Berserker in line with the Black King.<br>
The White King would then capture the Black King -- there is no place safe for a King from another King, as Kings can move through missing squares.<br>
Black would then miss a turn promoting a new King, thus White's King is safe.<br>
<p>
And White can do it again next turn . . .
<p>
Is this legal? Is there anyway to prevent this?
Modern Kamil. Two variants that add the Camel to the standard Orthochess array on enlarged boards. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Quintessential chess. Large chess variants, with some pieces moving with a sequence of knight moves in a zigzag line. (10x10, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A couple of questions:
<p>
<ul>
<li>'<i>Leapers may jump over the missing fields in the corners,
but riders can't ride thru.</i>' I assume that leap-riders can pass
over missing squares as long as they don't need to land on any of
them?</li>
<p>
<li>
If I understand correctly, the Quintessence has 16-paths; that is,
two versions each of all 8 Camel-rider paths. Do I have that right?
</ul>
Battle Chieftain Chess. Warriors and a king fight on a board with walls and holes. (10x11, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Arabian Chess. Large modern variant of historic Shatranj, with more pieces and flying carpets. (11x9, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This looks interesting! A question about promotion: once a Pawn promotes
to a General, can the resulting General then exit the camp and reenter,
promoting to Grand Vizier? Also, if a Pawn or General rides a magic carpet
square to the opponent's back two ranks, does that result in promotion?
Oops -- missed that about the magic carpet squares. Hmm, if Pawns promoted
to Generals can't promote again, it's necessary to distinguish them from
Generals that can promote. They should have a different letter for
notation purposes, and possibly a different name, and of course a different
piece in face-to-face play.
'<i>I do not know how you would show this with a graphic, maybe turn the
General on his head to show it is a promoted Pawn?</i>'
<p>
I'd be more inclined toward something like the promoted Shogi pieces in the
<a href='../graphics.dir/alfaerie/index.html'>Alfaerie 1 Set</a>.
Also in that direction is Fergus Duniho's game of
<a href='../difftaking.dir/shatranji.html'>Shatranji</a>, which is a sort
of cross between Shogi and Shatranj, combining the Shatranj board and
pieces with Shogi-style captures and drops.
Fidchell. A large Great Chess variant with blended historical elements, invented for an RPG. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually the credit for this is all Glenn's -- all I did was ask a question
or two (and for that matter, David Howe pushed this a bit too).
Have you any plans to do anything else with this, Ralph?
Arabian Chess. Large modern variant of historic Shatranj, with more pieces and flying carpets. (11x9, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A couple of questions on movement:
<p>
(1) The rules that no piece may move over the center square -- does this apply to the jumping pieces (Elephant, Dabbabah and Knight)?
<p>
(2) Can you move over the non-squares surrounding magic carpet squares? For example, if Magic Carpets are at a3 and a5 but not a4, could a Dabbabah on a3 leap to a5?
<p>
(3) Does the Knight have a standard path it follows when it moves, such as one square orthogonally followed by one square diagonally, or two squares orthogonally and one square at right angles? (FIDE Chess Knights, for the record, have no path, they just move to a square two squares away that a Queen could not move to.) The reason why it might matter is the effect of the missing center and edge squares -- if they can't be leapt over, then
the path of the Knight needs to be determined.
<p>
I assume that if two Magic Carpet squares are currently adjacent, they may be moved between normally?
Renniassance Chess. With 68 pieces on board of 12 by 12. (12x10, Cells: 120) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Not any more it doesn't . . . (The fix is in!)
L. Fun contest: Help us create a new chess variant by committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]What a wonderful idea -- I <strong>love</strong> this! What fun! Ideas
are already starting to percolate . . .
Arabian Chess . Large modern variant of historic Shatranj, with more pieces and flying carpets.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Whoops! The first posted version (1.0 under history) has a bug -- bare King happens with 3 pieces left! The latest version (1.1 under history) fixes this. Sorry about that.
It still seems to me that if it is called 'Anticheckmate Chess' that there ought to be some form of, well, Anticheckmate with check and all that, not simply you win if not attacked -- that's sort of like anticapture. Confusling it is!
Arabian Chess . Large modern variant of historic Shatranj, with more pieces and flying carpets.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Another bug found (by the game's inventors and by Antoine Fourrière) -- Pawns were capturing with their double-move! Also, the Newtons found that Rooks couldn't use the magic carpet squares. These bugs have been fixed, resulting in version 1.2 of the ZRF (check the history).
Tandem-84 . Variant on two boards of 7 by 6 rows with pieces moving between boards.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll fix the castling tonight. As for adding or removing pieces, yeh,
that's a problem with some games. If you do that with Arabian Nights Chess
or Gothic Isles Chess, for instance, you will likely mess up the bare King
handling (bare King handling counts captured pieces -- the Zillion's
(pieces-remaining 1) construct won't allow baring back for a draw, since
it happens immediately).
Black's castling has been fixed, history revision is now 1.1
L. Fun contest: Help us create a new chess variant by committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It is 'traditional' within the field of Chess Variants that games that are described as 'playable with a standard Chess set' assume the ability to distinguish between two standard Chess pieces of the same type so they may represent two different types of actual pieces. (Colored rubber bands work fairly well for this purpose for most sets.) In general, the exact method used to distinguish pieces is left as an exercise for the actually players.
Abecedarian Big Chess (ABChess). Buy-your-own-army variant on a big board; 26 piece types. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Xebec (<i>zee-bek</i>) is the English word for a type of 3-masted Mediterranean saling ship
with a long, overhanging bow and stern. According to my dictionary, it
probably comes from the French <i>Chebec</i>, which in turn comes from the
Arabic <i>shabbãt</i>.
<p>
If you read fighting sail books, a I believe a Xebec-built frigate shows up in the
first Aubrey and Maturin by Patrick O'Brian, <u>Master and Commander</u>.
Zero Relay Chess. Pieces can occcupy the same square and then relay their powers to each other. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It's always neat when you can combine two ideas that already exist, and
produce something new and interesting! I like the solo Pawn capture
restriction. Tony Quintanilla and I have been playing a version of Relay
Chess by e-mail lately, and it started out as a bloodbath, and by move
25 or so there were no Pawns left.
<p>
<hr>
<h4>Wilder Mildewed Zero Relay Chess</h4>
I'll take a stab at this. The rules have two parts, of course.
<p>
<ol>
<li><b>Wilder</b>: Wild Zero Relay Chess plus Pawns <em>can</em> promote
using relay powers, and Kings give (but do not gain) relay powers.</li>
<p>
<li><b>Mildewed</b>: pieces standing still too long in crowded squares
start growing mildewed, and lose the ability to relay their powers. Any
square that contains two or more pieces continuously for three or more
turns is marked with a mildew chip. Pieces in squares with a mildew chip
do not relay their powers. A mildew chip is removed at any time that the
square contains no pieces.</li>
</ol>
<p>
<b>Archoniclastic Zero Relay Chess</b> would also be an interesing game,
and would not have the colorbound piece issue that regular
<a href='../boardrules.dir/archoniclastic-chess.html'>Archoniclastic
Chess</a> has.
Abecedarian Big Chess (ABChess). Buy-your-own-army variant on a big board; 26 piece types. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I did a search on 'Xebec' on Google, and found
<a href='http://www.geocities.com/xebecinc/gyakos.html'>this page</a>
devoted to the subject. Among other things, the author references a
German monograph on the subject, which reveals that xebec in German
is <i>schebekke</i>.
An EconoSplurge Chess Variant Set. Chess Variant Set.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]That's a really neat set! And felt is available in almost unlimited
colors, so within broad limits you <strong>can</strong> make just about
any board.
<p>
You don't need hexagonal squares for hexagonal games -- just offset the
each row so that the square edges on one row line up with the centers of
the surrounding rows.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
As a comment on the Rococo game pictured (I just couldn't resist!), it
looks to me that your wife's Long-Leaper could be taken by either
<b>d:f0</b> or <b>h:f0</b>, since Cannon-Pawns capture by leaping over
friendly or hostile pieces.
Lilliputian Monochromatic Alice Chess. All pieces are colorbound, and switch boards rather than switching color. (2x(6x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, since none of these pieces ever change the color of squares that they sit on, <strong>all</strong> pieces in this game are colorbound. Just not in the normal sense . . .
<p>
<hr>
<p>
The judge or judges won't have deal with this game, since it's a noncompeting entry. (I won a bunch of prizes in 2000-2001 and am taking a break from competing in design contests for a while.)
Thanks for pointing that out -- I've fixed the illustration.
Two Kingdoms. A decimal variant with a more powerful knight, and an added Archer piece. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll try to fix it when I can, but I may not have a working computer at
home until Tuesday. In the meantime, if you download David Howe's
<a href='../graphics.dir/alfaerie/alfaerie.zip'>Alfaerie I</a>
collection and either copy the wrook.bmp file to the Alfaerie directory
under the Images directory in the directory created when you unzip the
two_kingdoms.zip file. Alternatively, you could copy the whole directory
named Alfaerie that is under the images directory in the directory created
by unzipping the alfaerie.zip file, under the Images directory in the
Zillions of Games directory.
Two Kingdoms . A decimal variant with a more powerful knight, and an added Archer piece.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The missing White Rook has been added -- sorry about that!
This Game is for the Birds. Game where pieces fly past obstacles and some pieces capture by pecking. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a strange and very mobile game, where pieces ghost around freely,
and a Pawn's life is not a happy one. Flamingos and Flaming Cranes in
particular have a short way with threatening Pawns -- the Pawn moves up, and is pecked, and that's that.
A minor question -- if a Crane has not moved, but pecks at a piece from its starting place, can it still castle? Also, when castling long, would a piece at b2/8 still block castling?
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