Comments by jean-louiscazaux
Heavy Shako. 10x10 variant inspired by Yangsi, made by Eric Silverman. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you Adam. As you've seen I'm not a very good player. I'm glad because I needed this game as an example.
Centaur. Moves as Knight or Man. Also known as Centaur.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]@Bob: "I'd go with something like the third image, personally, and also add something to indicate arms". I think it can be investigated with the S shape if the front of the S is going further than where the straight trunk is connected. Also the rear of the S may let think of the tail. Perhaps, the S needs to be flattened, less vertical and more horizontal. To be tried.
"I hadn't thought of it, because a crossless crown is still a crown. Having thought about it now, the cross is the main thing distinguishing the king's crown from the queen's. So, a knight with a crossless crown could easily be confused with an amazon."
I agree. It is what I said too in this thread.
@HG: I have just taken the Bishop's base to have a better Stauntob-look. This is very rough, very very. I could change many things, adjust shapes, soften, etc. but on the overall, what about this very stylised form?
@Kevin: this is in the case "where the idea is to represent the move". It is feasible to do this, I have made some attempts, but practically if you play SAC chess for example, it is not nice to have so many "knights" on board, the regular ones, those topped by a Rook, those by a Bishop's head, those by a King's head, those by a Queen's crown. Moreover, KN, QN and RN are too much similar-looking I can tell. Of course, those in love with horses will be delighted :=)
As this page is under the light, I have several comments. We have a header saying: "The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history". Indeed, the first section is Historical Notes. But, there is almost no history at all in this section, and no scholarship. The minimum would be to give dates of invention to put the information in a historical perspective.
- Courier-Spiel by Albers, 1821: (Councellor)
- Renniassance Chess by Eric V. Greenwood, 1980 (Page)
- Royal Court by Sidney LeVasseur, 1998 (Crowned Knight)
- Cobra Chess by Derick Peterson, 1998 (Duke)
- Jupiter by Adrian King, 1999 (Centaur)
- Fantasy Grand Chess by Peter Hatch, 2000 (Wolf Rider)
- Kung Fu Chess by Tim Bostick, 2001 (Tiger)
Then, why 4 lines talking only about Fergus Duniho's variants? Why these variants would deserve more attention than the other ones?
There are other variants which are using a KN compound. For example Cataclysm (Greg Strong, 2007), Reformed Courier-Spiel (Clément Begnis, 2011, as a Paladin), Sac Chess (Kevin Pacey, 2014, as a Judge). I'll be silent about my own variants.
Second, like HG I think it is not necessary to have a section about "AI Art" here. It completly modify the purpose of this page. @Fergus, I would suggest you write a separate page where you show your drawings made with AI as I have done myself with my 3D-printable creations. Having 1 illustration is one thing, but I do think it is not good that you place your own things in pages which are of general attention. There is some confusion here.
@HG: your post is inspiring. I'll see if I can come to something.
@Kevin: "Such a piece could become royal simply by adding a cross on top, if desired, as Jean-Louis did with an earlier image he gave (except that in that one, the base was not as tall as for a Staunton chess K, if I recall right). edit: another possibility is to use the base of the Man, up to the neck, from the picture in the Piececlopedia entry for a Man, and put a horse's head on it."
If you look at my recent page, the reason why I've made the base of the "Knight with cross" smaller is to avoid the confusion with the Amazon.
Also, putting a horse's head on a Man's base is just the opposite of a centaur, as said by others in the comments. It keeps the idea of mixing horse and man, but on a different order.
In this discussion, my opinion is that a certain level of abstraction is possible, if not desirable, with Staunton style. I imagine if the challenge was to design a Bishop, I guess not many, human or AI, would come to what is a Staunton Bishop today.
Your suggestions are what, these horses with a Louis XIV's wig? I like my abstract centaur as it fits with the rest of my pieces. You asked HG for a better idea. I just answered with my own idea. If you don't like, no problem. I force nobody to like. I just offer my work for free for those who will be interested, if any.
The fact is that if you remove the horse's head, there is nothing more left than what I kept. It is not immediatly seen on the photo but the piece retains the mane of the horse as well. In game play, when hold in hands, it comes clear and straight that the Centaur has the Knight's bottom. So, I am very happy with this, it does match with the Staunton set.
Featured Chess Variants. Chess Variants Featured in our Page Headers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I second Elk Chess.
But, I think that for next month Grant Acedrex has an advance.
And for future months, I nominate Hexagonal (Glinski) chess.
A catalog of 3D-printable chess variant pieces. 
A catalog of 3D-printable chess variant pieces, with drawings, photographs and printable links. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have completed this page presenting a set of 3D-printed pieces. Please review it for publication. Thank you.
Centaur. Moves as Knight or Man. Also known as Centaur.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yes, I wasn't satisfied my self with a crowned Knight like this.
I conceived a Centaur like that:
Patchanka. Decimal variant with several bi-compound pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]@Bob: oh many thanks. I was blind. I had put a squirrel instead. Now corrected, ;=)
@Bob: I missed the Beaver because ... there is no Beaver in this game. :=)
Do you mean the Badger? Me I see the Badger icon. Maybe it had disapeared for a while as other icons while our editors were changing something. Maybe. Have you tried to flush the cache?
@Bob: I missed the Beaver because ... there is no Beaver in this game. :=)
Do you mean the Badger? Me I see the Badger icon. Maybe it had disapeared for a while as other icons while our editors were changing something. Maybe. Have you tried to flush the cache?
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, I don't learn all past comments by heart, and I confess I often don't understand what you write here or there.
What I know is that Fairy chess is a term that we use in // to chess variant or non orthodox chess, etc. It doesn't mean a chess with fairies. I know plenty chess variants, I know none with fairies.
Fairies or princesses, I'm not going to spend time to discuss Disney movies. Everyone has got what I meant, the rough idea. When my daughter was <8 years she was playing with little fairies or princesses some wings. That is not a symbol I was expecting to see on this site. But you never change your mind, you prefer to argue like a lawyer and I don't have the skills in English to sustain this discussion.
And I know what a centaur is. I have some education. I even took the challenge to represent one in 3D with the bottom of a knight and the top of warrior. My result is not a cute as your figurine but at least it looks like a chess piece in the same manner that a Staunton knight looks as a chess piece and not as a horseman figurine.
Vao. moves like bishop but must jump when taking.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you for this information. Did this game had a name and who is the inventor, do you know that?
Territorial Chess (Go-King!). Members-Only "Territorial Chess," a revolutionary fusion of two timeless strategic games: Chess and Go. (21x21, Cells: 441) [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.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]@Fergus: your answer is so personal, I have no doubt that you find a great satisfaction in making those images. The "approach of creation" you describe is very natural in fact. I'm surprised by your self-estimate.
I follow exactly the same path when I create 3D pieces or, even, when I write. I do, change, re-do, re-change, re-write, re-draw until I get satisfied. And we are probably tens of people here doing that in our hobbies, painting, sculpting, composing music, etc. Call it creation, call it art, what matters is the result. Appreciating the result is certainly personal also. Here we are talking about the representation of chess variant pieces, not about getting a nice-looking images. My opinion is that you got very nice results in some cases:
The Dragon on the Dark Welcome Page is very sophisticated, but it does look as a very nice chess piece. The Advancer in the Piececlopedia is excellent. As well as the Antelope. The Camel, the Wildebeest are OK.
Now, I don't like at all the Princess on the Dark Page. First not sure that a Princess is a good target, a name that we rarely use nowadays for CV, second the shape, it won't stand on a board, and last not least, why representing a princess with wings? Princess with wings, this is a Disney cartoon cliché.
The Centaur just looks as a female centaur on a base. A nice female centaur maybe but this is not a chess piece. Similar critic for some other pieces.
Well, I completely disagree with you Fergus. AI art is not art at all.
Vao. moves like bishop but must jump when taking.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]My understanding after reading the other comments of the Chinese page is that the Holy or Sage is moving as FAD in Betza's.
It is a colorbound piece, which is discussed in the comments.
The setup is different from Eurasian Chess.
The name of page is: Improved version of Chinese and Western chess (not sure if it is the name of the game also)
From what I understand, the Elephant 象 plays as International Chess Bishop. Pawn, Rook, Knight, King, Queen are identical to Int. Chess. Cannon is like in xiangqi, and Crossbow, 弩, is a diagonal cannon.
The "Holy", 圣, is not a Bishop. Its move is not clear to me, it is said to attack 12 squares.
Then we have: 3rd rank: 10 Pawns 2nd rank: void/N/Crossbow/B/Holy/Holy/B/Crossbow/N/void 1st rank: R/Cannon/void/void/Q/K/void/void/Cannon/R Both sides mirror each other.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I am on the same line than HG. I was thinking of creating a page for a "catalog" of the pieces I have designed for 3D-printing. I have printed all of them, some several times in order to be fully satisfied.
Would that be useful?
If yes, I imagine I have to follow the same process than when creating a page for a new variant?
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Would it be possible for an editor to turn the diagrams anti-clockwise 90°?