Check out Grant Acedrex, our featured variant for April, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Earlier ⇧Reverse Order⇩ Later
Orbiters[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Sep 9, 2013 06:16 AM UTC:
Orbiters In my recent update of Man and Beast 09 I described how, during a single move, colourbound Curved alternators stay a constant distance from a cell not on the path (a Knight leap for the Curved Alpaca, a Camel leap for the Curved Alderney, a Zebra leap for the Curved Qualpaca, a Giraffe leap for the Curved Okalpaca, et cetera). Here is an illustration for the Curved Alpaca: 
- 0 - 7 -

1 - - - 6

- - * - -

2 - - - 5

- 3 - 4 -
I then added that colourswitching Curved alternators stay a constant distance from a position between cells (half a Camel leap for the Curved Rhino of Leaping Bat Chess, half a Zemel leap for the Curved Quagga, half a Gimel leap for the Curved Okapi, et cetera). Here is an illustration for the Curved Rhino: 
- 0 7 -

1 - - 6
   *
2 - - 5

- 3 4 -
The Curved Sprilpaca stays an Antelope's leap from a central cell, but cells a Quibbler's leap from that cell are the same distance from that central cell. This illustration shows th path of the Curved Sprilpaca and the extra cells that get added by replacing each Bitrebuchet leap with two Camel leaps to get a Fiveorbiter: 
- - - - - + - - - - -

- - 0 - - - - - 7 - -

- 1 - - - - - - - 6 -

- - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - -

+ - - - - * - - - - +

- - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - -

- 2 - - - - - - - 5 -

- - 3 - - - - - 4 - -

- - - - - + - - - - -
Likewise the Curved Springbok stays half a Namel's leap from between 4 cells, but vcells half a Quitter's leap from that cell are the same distance from that central cell. This illustration shows th path of the Curved Springbok and he extra cells added by replacing each tripper leap with two Knight leaps to get a Root12½orbiter: 
- - - 1 8 - - -

- + - - - - + -

- - - - - - - -

2 - - - - - - 7
       *
3 - - - - - - 6

- - - - - - - -

- + - - - - + -

- - - 4 5 - - -
The question is, are these mixed oblique and radial Curved movers worth considering in more depth, perhaps even adding to Man and Beast? I can also imagine orbiters at distances from central locations of the square roots of 65, 32½, 85, and 42½.

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Sep 14, 2013 06:13 AM UTC:
I am disappointed not to get an response on this. Have I made my descriptions of the new pieces too complex to understand? The Fiveorbiter can also be seen as a Macel (Curved Camelrider) with Ferz steps inserted into its path to smooth off its sharpest turns, and the Root12½orbiter a Rose with Wazir steps inserted into its path to smooth off its sharpest turns. i hope that this helps.

Jörg Knappen wrote on Mon, Sep 16, 2013 09:52 AM UTC:
I like the idea of circular riders moving on exact circles, and the generic
name Orbiter is a good fit. In particular, I find those orbiters
interesting that have more squares on their circle than just the minimal
number (4 for straight or diagonal distance, or 8 for skew distance).
Unfortunately most of them are much too large to play well on usual
chessbords (eben 16x16 is small for them). And it needs some training to
visualise their possible pathes. They have so many directions to go!

P.S. A less symmetric version are orbiters orbiting around the center of an
edge, the simplest variant has four squares marking a rectangle.

P.P.S. One of the orbiters (the circular King) is alreay found in Betza's
article here:

http://www.chessvariants.org/d.betza/chessvar/16x16.html

Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Sep 19, 2013 05:46 AM UTC:
Well one Root12½orbiter path just manages to fit on an 8x8 board, as the diagram shows, and it looks a strong enough piece even with he restrictions of that board. It might be a bit too strong if anything. I now notiec that a full Fiveorbiter path requires a Nearlydouble Chess board. I was aware that the piece in the second diagram has been used many times under many names (someone else called it a "Mini-Rose"), but it is John Savard's use of it tha I most remember - partly because it drew my attention to the connection with the corresponding Crooked piece.

4 comments displayed

Earlier ⇧Reverse Order⇩ Later

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.