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Comments by RobertoLavieri
Glinski's Hexagonal Chess. Chess on a board made out of hexagons. (Cells: 91) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have not confident data available, but I have seen a few results in high-level tournaments, by curiosity. I can´t conclude, but it seems, more or less, as drawish as Chess. It means: very drawish, as FIDE-Chess is, when played at very high level of play.
This variant tries to balance the skills of players. It is a very simple idea: A drink can be given to the attacker once a piece is taken. If the attacker has to drink for every piece taken and for every check, the game creates a natural handicap for the more skilled player, as he is going to get drunk faster. Feel free to add as many variations as the game can sustain. Use different amounts or just plain different alcohols for different pieces, and depending on the opponent. As an example, soon you'd begin to identify the bishop with red wine and the knight with a frosty beer. Put the strong drink in the queen as a further reward for taking the coveted most-powerful piece. If you are going to face Topalov, I suggest you select Vodka for him, and orange juice for you, and amounts depend on the taken piece, I suggest you must be widely generous with him. You have only to resist enough, don´t allow a fast checkmate.
About Game Courier. Web-based system for playing many different variants by email or in real-time.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I`m talking about borders around the whole board. I agree that borders around squares are not very nice, regardless you can visualize better the things, but reasonable contrast is, almost all the time, enough for good visualization. Aesthetic is also important, and majority of people would not be gained for such borders in every square. I agree.
I am talking about Ultima boards, but it applies to any other board without borders of any kind
I like there are new (automatic and alternative) boards and sets available, but I have an observation: I think it is much better a (perhaps very thin) border for some of the boards, like the CSS tiled background images and the PNG's. I feel that some squares, more those at the corners, vanishes to my eyes sometimes, producing me a bad sempsation. Well, my case is somewhat particular, I have some known moderate troubles with my vision, I don´t expect it affects other players in any way, but if it is the case, can anybody add a thin border (simple lines can be enough) to those boards and observe the effect?.
I have modified the Maxima Preset for a game against Matthew, using Casaux graphics, because Matt does not like the original pieces in the available preset. I´m not sure what happened, but I see now abstract graphics, and, certainly, not very suggestive. My vision is not very good, so I expect I can play it with almost every kind of icons without noting great difference, it is sufficient I can diferentiate the pieces in a good manner, but I don´t know Matt´s opinion yet.
I am not editor, so I can´t prepare alternative Maxima Graphics for the Preset. If you use other sets editing the actual preset automatically, there are some troubles with the icons for the pieces, because they are not suggestive. But it would be good an alternative Preset using Alfaerie graphics.
K4 
. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It looks very nice!. Comments and ratings after testing (I expect today or tomorrow)
Grander Chess. A variant of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]As David, I´m also mathematician, and I also prefer avoid claims of 'maximal logical consistency', by various reasons, but, fundamentally, because I don´t understand what exactly it means.
And about the case in question, I`m not making comments about the game itself, I have not tested it, but it does not look bad. Nevertheless, I agree: proliferation of variant-numberings is not desiderable in any case.
Well, it is not only a name´s matter. Yes, our site is growing fast, and no one is taking in account that many, many variants can come without any quality control, and the names can be less suggestive than supposed in a lot of cases. Do you imagine series of poorly designed 'Improved Chess' variants?, say: 1, 2, 3, etc, or even worse, with roman numbers.
Today finishes Morelia Tournament, and if you are not following it, I bet you can´t guess what is happening: Topalov is the tail-ender right now !!!. Leko is ahead with an entire point of advantage.
The LOGS for the games of Altair (2 against Carlos Carlos) and the LOG for the game of Great Chess (against Bogot Bogot) are also corrupted. In the Great Chess log are even pieces missing.
The graphics in the Ultima LOG I´m playing with Matthew Montchalin: /play/pbm/play.php?game=Ultima&log=matthew_montchal-cvgameroom-2006-46-987 ARE CORRUPTED. Can somebody give a hand with this?. You can see the position of the pieces, although somewhat distorted, but you can´t see the board. Instead, you see superposed multiple boards forming a wall. HELP, PLEASE!
Yesterday in Morelia Tornament, Mexico, Peter Svidler beated Vesselin Topalov in the first round, in a beautiful and very interesting game.
The Travelers . Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Finally, it is here, 'The Travelers' Zillions rules file. It was not easy: at first, I was unable to implement the Displacer´s capabilities in a good manner. Antoine Fourriére and Larry Lynn Smith sent to me solutions, being that of Larry very nice and perfectly functional for the way I figured the best for the players point of view, so I have chosen it for the project, and many optimizations of the code made by Larry. After that, the ZRF played correctly, but fatally poorly. We have had two problems: The ZRF undervaluated the Displacer´s value, the AI recognizes, for that purpose, the mobility of the Displacer, but it does not consider the moved enemy piece to an usually bad position, I believe this is part of the movement of the Displacer, and a very important part of its power. Undervaluated, the ZRF tendence was exchange the Displacer by a small piece, falling in inferior positions quickly and losing the games without great fight. I have had to inflate the value of the Displacer, but augmenting the number of positions analyzed by the AI a lot; taking onto the balance, I preferred this alternative. But there was another big problem: The Travelers´s tendence was to stay in their initial positions, without clarity on the fact thay it have to advance to the goals if they want a victory. After many ideas from Larry and me, all of them unsuccessful, I ideated a very artificious trick that worked, using some very complex 'win and loss conditions'. The final ZRF is a very, very decent opponent, as you can see. Try it!.
Thanks to Antoine Fourriere and Larry L. Smith, for the valious hand given. Great job, Larry, coding correctly the Displacer´s capabilities. The ZRF is now complete, it is going to be posted here soon...
Hex Shogi 91. A hexagonal Shogi variant on a 91-space board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have tested this variant using Zillions. Hexagonal variants are not of my main preferences, but I have found this variant enjoyable. Nice game play, and the original Shogi flavor is preserved.
I have found this contest in Internet, see the article: “Chess desperately needs some glamour,” says Vladislav Tkachiev, explaining why he hosts World Chess Beauty Contest, 1wcbc.com, a website that ranks female chess players based not on their winnings, but on their looks, reports Dylan Loeb McClain in The New York Times (11/27/05). His website isn’t the only one objectifying women in the name of promoting chess. The Internet Chess Club, chessclub.com, is also known to judge female players based on their looks as well as their moves. And at least one female player, Alexandra Kosteniuk, kosteniuk.com, “uses her website to sell photos of herself posing in bikinis next to giant chess pieces.” Most of this trend emanates “from Eastern Europe, whose players have long dominated the sport and where cheesecake displays are less likely to draw complaints.” Vladislav Tkachiev totally defends it, saying that it’s important for people to realize that brains and beauty are not mutually exclusive: “They think that it is only a game for those who are quite inactive and unattractive and aged,” adding: “There are a lot of attractive people, whether female or male. We decided to show this side of chess.” And, in fact, some of the better-looking players are also the better players period: Maria Manakova “is the fourth-ranked woman in Russia … and is ranked eighth on the Beauty Contest site.” Alexandra Kosteniuk “is ranked fifth in the world among women,” athough she’s only 525th overall. Meanwhile, Jennifer Shahade, 'a two-time United States women’s champion who has published a book about her experiences as a woman playing a game dominated by men,' and declares herself a feminist, says Alexandra Kosteniuk is 'good for chess' but acknowledges that the chess beauty site 'isn’t very classy.' As for the guys, many of whom aren’t exactly beefcake material themselves — some of them complain of being distracted by the growing numbers of pretty opponents. However, Maria Manakova, for one, denies she’s a distraction: 'I don’t need to distract my opponent or do something. I can do it after the game if I want. During the game I just want to play good chess.' ~ Tim Manners, editor
The Cuernavaca Tournament, in Mexico, has finished one hour ago. Ten of the world´s strongest young players were in. Final results for the first positions: 1. Vallejo Pons, Francisco gm ESP 2650......... 6.5 Ponomariov, Ruslan gm UKR 2723.............. 6.5 3. Nakamura, Hikaru gm USA 2644 ................6.0 4. Dominguez, Lenier gm CUB 2638 ...............5.5 This Tournament was horrible for Serguei Karjakin, who finished near the bottom. The other Ukranian, Volotikin, did also relatively poor.
I give up. I´m throwing the towell, it does not work properly with any idea I have tried.
Hello, everybody. I have had big troubles trying to implement the game 'The Travelers' using Zillions Rules File Language, Displacer capabilities is a headache, I can´t find a good way to manage it using Zillions. I could implement tht Traveler movement, but I´m not sure what is the best way to do that. Has anyone idea about how to make a reasonable implementation of the Displacer´s movement and capabilities?. IF someone can give a kind hand in the implementation, I´ll be very pleased. Thanks, anticipated.
It is time to put the Ratings page in a visible sector. Also the next Tournament Page.
A few days ago, I sent a Preset and rules for the game: 'The Travelers', to be posted in Game Courier. I´ll be pleased if an Editor may help me a bit with it, posting the game. Thanks.
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