Game Reviews (and other rated comments on Game pages)
When I first saw this game, I didn't think much of it, since I was more focused on larger Shogi variants, especially Tenjiku Shogi. However, now I have a few games against Jocly under my belt, and wow, this game completely blew me away. It is an absolute joy to play, despite its size and complexity (which melts away after a couple games). However, it is not completely flawless.
Some rules, such as the King Baring rule (Uses Shatranj version, K+G vs. K is mentioned in historical sources) and repetition rules (borrowed from Xiangqi) that are currently played by are modern contaminations from other games and/or are warped versions of things mentioned in the historical documents, but I am willing to include these two rules, as they help with decisiveness without being redundant or overly complicated.
However, I am not willing to play by the "Okazaki" rule, and I would never recommend using it, which allows recapture of a Lion after another Lion has just been captured, if said Lion is unprotected. There is no evidence that it was a part of the historical game, and it kind of defeats the purpose of the rule against indirect Lion trading, so why did someone think it would be a good idea to have this? All it does is add confusion and increases the chance of a simplified game, detracting from the playerr experience.
It is also not clear whether a Lion taking a Pawn/Go Between and then a Lion is allowed if the enemy Lion is undefended after taking the Pawn. Both sides have evidence arguing for them (the hidden protector example for yes, a tsumeshogi in Dr. Eric Silverman's Chu Shogi Part II article, explained in the An interesting quirk in the Lion-trading rules section, for no). Personally, I prefer that is is allowed, since no recapture is possible after the move, and there is no specific mention of this situation in the historic rules.
However, despite these problems, Chu Shogi is still easily among the best games of its kind. If you like Chess variants, you should give it a try.
Addendum - An attempt at a drops-playable Chu Shogi variant
Chu Seireigi is an attempt to combine elements of Chu Shogi with the ruleset of modern Shogi. It also has the benefit of not needing any special rules to preserve its quality, fixing all the problems with the modern "innovations" for Chu Shogi that I mentioned above. Players are disincentivized from trading off the most powerful pieces in many cases because they would just go into the player's hands, making them even more dangerous. The repetition rule is simply that of Shogi (draw, except perpetual check loses), and the drops make King-baring extremely rare. However, this comes with the unfortunate downside of having to remove all the multi-move abilities from the game, as otherwise the balancing would be thrown off.
Macadamia Shogi is, by a hefty margin, my favourite Shogi variant of the larger boards to date. Maka Dai Dai was previously the most enjoyable to me, but 400 moves later I'm stil in the middle game and it feels more like committing to a project than playing a game. Macadamia Shogi really helps alleviate this without detracting too much from the main points of appeal of Maka Dai Dai in my opinion. My heartfelt thanks to H. G. Muller for assembling this variant!
I also root for his success with the C localserver project if it still considered in the pipeline.
Admittedly, the main purpose for my comment to this page though would actually be to raise awareness--if it weren't already known--that the kanji character piece set for the js board on this website has sadly seemed to have broken partially, as a few of the pieces may be missing links now, or at least otherwise aren't loading on multiple browsers I've tested with. I was hoping that these could be potentially restored, as they were a much preferred visual setting.
Anyway, thanks again for all the hard work you've done for chess variants and the like, and I wish you good luck with the future endeavours!!
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Smess but you can shuffle the starting position & Ninny can underpromotes to Yahoo
Here's an example:
I had the same idea yesterday, glad to know I am not alone. What about en passant? If introduced, it should be applied "from behind", so e.g. after c4, white could capture its c4 pawn moving b2 or d2 to c3.
KNS is about 11 Pawn.
This looks like a good idea but I am not so sure of its practicality. The board might end up very crowded and we need to see a game simulation before deciding on its "greatness".
The 4 stars are only for the name. I like the idea of using Cleopatra as a seducing piece.
I had this idea of making pieces switch sides for a long time, but I always thought that the person in charge of finances could do this job, which is more realistic.
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Since it's the featured variant for this month.
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How about switching Diamonds & Onyxes? or Onyxes with Lame Ducks? That'll make Onyxes easier to bring to long diagonals.
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With shuffle.
But with shuffle.
Some interesting pieces in this game, I'm wondering if this is the first game with the 'Camelopard' in it.
It's first appearance is as you say from R.J.Darvall. You can see the chess problem here: 'Variant Chess' #2, April-June, 1990, page 20, 'Fairy Chess Review' 1949, R.J.Darvall, mate in 2. Amazing from the year 1949, so yes, this could be the first game ever it is in, if anyone knows another, please say.
Correct me if I am wrong, but the Tribune: (2,0)+(3,3) leaper and the Zerdinal: Slides diagonally, or makes a (3,2) leap are named by Charles Gilman with his thousands of piece creations lol. Is that where you got them from, and if so, are these the first games they also have ever been in. If anyone knows another game they are in, please say!!
Anyway, good work on the game.
Nice to see a game with the Locust in it and it's a great idea too, well done.
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This is a very unusual variant. It appears to work despite the seemingly excessively jumpy Owl. The game is very sharp, which I like. The donkey's feel mostly useless, but that might fit the theme? I wanted to get it working with ChessV but couldn't.
I'm rating it Good (why is there no Average rating option, by the way?) because I like the creativity and emphasis on diagonals.
Life, the Universe and Everything is a Chess variant inspired by the works of the late Douglas Adams. It is a double-move variant with unusual pieces on a board of (of course) 42-squares.
A game with a pretentious title that adds nothing to chess. I don't care how famous the author was. If "the answer to everything is 42", the author refuses to further explain his reason for choosing such a number.
Of course, the elites know what 42 really means, and are terrified.
The setup part says that Banshee is RNN.
I like it too, very much. I agree with Florin that the text is not well promoting this variant. Maybe someone with better English than me could help Lev in re-phrasing his presentation. That game would deserve it.
Круто, прикольно. Что-то в этом есть и от тайских шахмат. Мне нравится такое распределение фигур по цветовым комплексам.
Cool and cute. There’s even a breeze of Thai chess here. I like this management and distribution of pieces on color complexes.
Are people still playing this game? Would love to hear if they are and if anyone would want to play with me? Post on this group and we can make a plan.
I think you're reading a lot into this that isn't there. It just introduces an incentive to make non-obvious moves. Perhaps it could be cumbersome to play, but it's a clever idea.
When chess meets witchcraft. I am against the idea of turning chess players into witches and wizards, but here we are. Sadly, there are lots of similar games that use spells, magic, and predictions. Why do we even call them chess variants?
Thanks for testing my army! Seems like Zen Zebras would be more balanced if they're against my Clumsy Camels.
Wouldn't people who don't know Shogi also wouldn't have no clue what a Shogi Lance is?This army is ready for publication.
This is very fun (but very long!) to play. I like it more than Terachess II because the extra pawn rank allows for more blocking and the very powerful pieces come singly instead of in pairs.
Fabulous FIDEs vs 10-directional Army
I know Eohippos aren't Hippotamus.
I really like this variant. It's simple but adds something new to the game. I think it would also be interesting to add some optional rules:
- A friendly pawn behind its friendly pawn can bypass it by moving diagonally.
- The knight has an additional special move. Special move: The knight can move without capturing an enemy piece two squares horizontally or vertically, provided that there is a friendly pawn between the target square and the knight.
These are my thoughts on this variant. Overall, a very interesting idea.
Is chess [still] important? An older member of my chess club once opined in the new millennium that chess is no longer as important as before. I didn't ask what he meant. To me, chess reached its high mark in the 1970's, mainly with the Geo-political stakes involved in the Fischer-Spassky match, and later the Karpov-Korchnoi one. Chess was also important back then since it was seen as a test for AI whether a machine can beat a highly skilled human player at the game. Chess suffered to some degree because of what followed historically, in both cases.
In the TikTok era Chess is more relevant than ever. In a world were people are increassingly lacking concentration, playing chess can not only help people maintain focus, but also evade the modern insanity.
Two of the pieces used here (Phoenix and Medusa) I will be using in my Titanic Chess but I'll have to use different moving and capturing abilities for that purpose. Since these are mythological creatures I have to disagree with the way they are used to move and capture in this game. But appart from that, this looks like a great game.
A good concept, but it needs improvement. I don't like having only one Bishop, as it can reach only half the cells. It's a colour-bound piece, so we really need two. To avoid attacking non-pawns on the other side, perhaps enlarge the board and put a "hedge" of pawns around each army — I don't see that there needs to be only two of them.
Simplified form of Knight-Relay Chess
Complicated problems most of the time have simple solutions. You could have put both Bishops on one side of the board, and both Knights on the other side. And the opponent will have them the other way around. Simple.
Another solution would be to add an extra piece (A Shield Bearer/Scutier to protect the King) and make the board 10x8.
Four stars for the original chessboard.
This game was very popular almost two centuries ago and lots of famous people used to play it.
It's a shame that great ideas are buried and forgotten. This game has a great potential and I'm really impressed by such a simple idea.
Also, this game deserves a better name.
Interesting concept. It might be more difficult to attack the enemy King from the flank because Bishops will have to travel in zig zag and Knights will be too powerful. But I like the idea.
Here is my humble suggestion on how to improve this game.
Use a 7x7 board.
7x7 = 49.
Add 4 extra squares on the corners.
49+4 = 53.
Add a Jocker to the stack of cards and you are done.
You can also give additional powers to the Jocker and the King cards.
So, what do you think?
Good news! You can play Scramble against Stockfish on Chess.com.
You have no idea just how insane this game is.
Here is how to do it:
- Go to Chess,com
- Go to Learn / Analysis /Set Up Position / Clear Board
- Place pieces on the board according to the rules of Scramble
- Practice vs Computer
- Change Bot
- Play!
These are probably just a bunch of silly ideas. However, some of these variants might give somewhat nice strategic games. I hope I did not offend go players with my unusual description of their game.
This was a good attempt at mixing Chess with Go. However, in my humble opinion, in order to make this game work we need to keep the number of "liberties" to four, not eight, otherwise the game might become unecessarily messy and impossible to finish.
A second rule should be to only keep pieces that move orthogonally only. This means that only Rooks and restricted Kings (Kings that only move orthogonally) are allowed to join the game.
Alternativelly, we can also invent some pieces that move in zig-zag.
Knights can also be included with the restriction that they can only move along empty squares.
This is a fun design. I've made a rules enfrcing preset in case anyone wants to try it.
I think this piece caled Sissa is great, but I would remove acute angles (45 and 315 degrees) and only keep obtuse angles (135 and 225 degrees).
I would also remove the rule that both moves have to be of the same length. This will create a new piece that can make an absolute mess on the chessboard.
I have not played this game personally, but I must say, for a multi-move variant, this game was very well-made.
Also, the new circle symbol in GC for past moves is very nice. However, this functionality doesn't seem to work with hexagonal boards (like Hex Shogi 91's).
An excellent experimental variant. Need I say any more about a concept so simple and brilliant that it works with any practically any board with an even number of ranks, and with odd numbers of ranks with some adjustment?
I echo Michael's sentiment; I think this may be a future Featured Variant.
Those "slashing riders"* are indeed quite interesting. Do their single-step moves capture only the King? (I've never quite understood the k modifier, and I guess now's my chance!)
*That's an interesting term. Has it been used before? If not, I hope it catches on, for any sort of XmXX piece.
Thank you for the clarification. It's obvious in the interactive diagram. Likely on the wording of the rules as given, but capable of being misundertood.
Now I'm certain this is the rule, let me give the game an excellent. The slashing rider moves deep into enemy territory and the defense against such should be a thing of beauty.
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No other differences.
I have tried the game online, and it is really fun, especially on the normal version.
I don't think you need the word retainer in the sentence "Try to complete the King’s tour with the fewest retainer casualties as possible!".
Also, you should clarify that Pawns move upward, not downward, and that they can swap directly forward as well as diagonally forward.
Otherwise, this looks good enough to be approved.
I love it. There are a lot of nice, sophisticated and interesting chess variants out there, but not many variants that I see myself actually playing. But Lighthouse will definitely be in my collection of mini-chess games I play with friends and colleagues. This game perfectly blends fast pace, simple and understandable rules, accessibility and an opportunity to enjoy the special spirit of Shogi.
Great work, Lev.
Hey, does anyone know where i can find an online version of this, i wanna play it online with friends
I had not seen this page for a while. It is quite nice.
Just for information, I've seen 2 small typos: "sqaure" and "matnicore"
It is a very nice and creative take on the chess labyrinth kind of game. I tend to agree, that digital implementation could be the best way to make this game playable - cause it needs some algorithm that ensures that every starting position is solvable. Overall, I think it's a great minimalistic game that can be used in school tactical games clubs or as support material to teach the basics of chess.
Really cool. Didn’t seen these compounds.
Resonates with my idea of pieces with hopping parts (e.g. for my rocket board as well as for normal one).
P. S. I have a better-quality setup image.
Suddenly seen 18.5 years after (so cool that I’ve first seen Russian language version via random game page!) and I have an idea. There’s stated that same pieces can merge, what if they can be upgraded this way? Like Knight to Nightrider, Rook/Bishop to ranger+hopper hybrids, Guard to Torch (slip Queen) or Lion (area mover) ah he can’t.
I didn't notice the three black Bishops on c5. That was a good point, but still, the black player can't win the game.
I have to recalculate the points. Thanks.
That was a good review of the game. Thank you for your time. I have added the repetition rule. As for the territorial merging, it's hard enough to control a single territory and prevent it from invasion. On a bigger territory that will be even harder. You are right about the black King from e5 having the possibility to push the white bishop to c5 but that wouldn't win additional points for black. The "three of a kind" rule should also imply the same colour too. Also, the new territory created at e5 would give the white player even more points.
Astounding. I don't think I'll ever play something so complex, but the concept and work are awesome. The case, when reading about game rules and design, is almost as exciting, as the play itself.
As for myself, I’m not even sure this is a chess variant. Although it uses Chess equipment, it seems to be a very different sort of game than chess.
Though it’s rather good (at least at first glance). Idea is very interesting.
It's basically the idea of the piece Joker, invented by T.R.Dawson but with a lot more constraints. This might be better if there was motivation given for how the extra rules are beneficial. As it is, it occupies the term "Copycat" that might be given better meaning. Sorry.
I like Cetran 3 more than the 8x8 versions. The piece variety makes it much more fun.
Very good article! I really like this variant in this interpretation.
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This is a good idea but I would have included more randomness into it. We are talking about computers beating humans at chess. We need to make the chess game impossible for computers to analyse. If the chess pieces for this game were something Reversi like, where you can flip a piece and turn it into a completely different and random piece, that would flip upside down the entire strategy of chess, giving humans more advantage against computers.
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