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Ok, here's my entry.<p>
<h4>Chess-Hex</h4>
The board is a standard 11x11 Hex board. Blue and Red each have a set of pieces from Glinski's Hexagonal Chess. Play is like Hex, except
<ol><li>Players place pieces instead of plain stones (Note: Pieces don't move once placed.)</li>
<li>two friendly pieces are connected if one(pictorially) guards the other and is within three hexes</li>
<li>if two pieces are adjacent, they are connected</li>
<li>a piece is connected to an edge if adjacent to it</li>
<li>if the players run out of pieces without either winning, the game is a draw</li></ol>
Here's looking forward to something better!<br>
Doug Chatham
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Jul 25, 2004 01:12 AM UTC:<h3>Entry 2: Chaining Chess</h3>
<p>Players start with the normal Chess setup, except that there are no Pawns. The remaining pieces move just like they do in Chess, except that they cannot capture. Since there is no capture, there is, of course, no Check or Checkmate. I don't know if it's even possible to get into a Stalemate situation or not, but if you are stupid enough to do it, you lose.</p>
<p>A player wins by forming a chain from rank 1 to rank 8. One of the player's pieces must occupy rank 1, and another must occupy rank 8. The player wins, if he also has other pieces 'chaining' these two together. Two pieces are chained if either can 'cover' the other by the rules of normal Chess capture, and are within a range of 3.</p>
Ok, let's try something different:
<h3>Entry 3: Splendid Isolation Chess, or</h3>
<h4>Separate the Kids!</h4>
Setup like ordinary chess. Pieces move as in ordinary chess, except pawns can move backward and there is no capturing, check, checkmate, or promotion. A player wins if and only if all of his pieces are separated from each other i.e. if none of the player's men is adjacent to any of the player's other men.<p>
Here's a non-contest version for those who like capturing and promotion:<br>
Setup like Chess. Pieces move as in Chess, except (1) the king isn't royal and can be captured like other pieces and (2) capturing is compulsory as in Losing Chess. A player wins if and only if his pieces are isolated. Note that a bare king is a win in this variant.
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Jul 25, 2004 05:48 PM UTC:Hmmm... very interesting idea, but I don't think that this can happen. Do you mean just not orthogonally adjacent? Otherwise I don't think there's enough squares to achieve a win ...
Oh, there are enough squares to separate 16 pieces. For instance, if we can get one player's pieces onto a1 c1 e1 g1 b3 d3 f3 h3 a5 c5 e5 g5 b7 d7 f7 h7, then they'll be separated.<p>
However, 8x8 doesn't seem like enough room for a <b>playable</b> game of SIC. Allowing diagonal adjacency would help a little, and so would extra ranks and/or fewer pieces.<p>
If anyone tries my SIC ideas out, let us know how it goes.
Dough, interesting ideas, but, as you can see, it is not easy!, I have tried some ideas before writing this comment-'Contests'-, and I were somewhat discouraged. Is it possible a very playable and very nice game with these rules, but a game with great essence of a chess-like game?. Checkmate is a valid rule!.
Roberto,<br>
Castlingmost Chess (or OOmost Chess) by Ralph Betza <i>almost</i> qualifies for your contest, except that he keeps pawn promotion. Has anyone playtested that game yet?<p>
Doug
I have not tested this game, in fact, this is the first time I hear about it. I´ll take a look, many Betza´s games are impressively good.
OK, here's my entry:
<H2>Bifocal Chess</H2>
<P>It is the opposite of V.R. Parton's Neutral King, where both teams try to mate the same King. Here, most pieces threaten both Kings:
<BR>Something like (on a 9x9 Board):
<P>White
<BR>King e1, Man e2, Firz d2,f2, Wazir c2,g2
<P>Black
<BR>King e9, Man e8, Firz d8,f8, Wazir c8,g8
<P>Red
<BR>Rook a5,i5, Kan(n)on b5,h5, Falcon c5,g5, PS-Bishop d5,f5, Immobilizer e5, Knight a1,a9,i1,i9
<P>The Kan(n)on is a convergent, Korean-like, version of my Can(n)on. It moves as a jumping Rook or a jumping Bishop, and can change orientation at each move.
<BR>The Falcon is George Duke's Falcon in Falcon Chess.
<BR>The PS-Bishop moves as a Bishop or a Wazir.
<P>The Immobilizer doesn't affect the Kings, but it does freeze any other adjacent piece.
<P>The Man - a non-royal Chess King, the Wazir and the Firz aren't restricted to empty squares. They can swap with any adjacent Man, Wazir or Firz of their color. (Thus the Firzes are not colorbound.)
<P>The Kings move more or less by igui, that is, they are allowed a double step in any direction, but they cannot pass through a square which is threatened by a neutral piece. (Like castling, or Fergus Duniho's royal Queen in British Chess.)
<P>You must checkmate your opponent's King with a neutral piece. The Kings are weak, because they cannot capture (and it is not easy to get rid of an adjacent PS-Bishop). The Immobilizer and the non-neutral pieces do not put the Kings in check, but they stand in their way like anyone else.
<P>You cannot move the neutral piece your opponent has just moved, and you cannot move the Immobilizer if you moved it at your last turn.
Roberto,<p>
You forgot to limit us to two entries, so here's my third, which is Tony Paletta's Zoo Chess with a few changes:
<h3>Tag Chess</h3>
Setup like FIDE. No pawn promotion, no capturing. Instead of capturing, a player marks or 'tags' an enemy piece within range of one of his pieces. A tag counts as a move; the player cannot move a piece and tag in the same move, nor may the player tag more than one piece in the same move. Tagging has no effect on the enemy piece. The goal is to tag one member of each of the opponent's species,before the opponent does it to your species (so the King, the Queen, one Pawn, one Rook, one Knight, one Bishop). If you want to have checkmate in the game, say that the King can only be tagged if checkmated.
<p>Cheers!
Tag Chess and Bifocal Chess looks very well!. I´ll try to auto-play these games in a physical board to see how playable they are, but my first impression is very favorable. I am going to try the other entries too, this weekend. Prize to the winner?. A ZRF of an unpublished game, for collection (it is not going to be published for a while).
I have tried briefly oo-most chess, and I don´t like it too much, the game tendence seems to be for relatively short games, without great solid strategic concepts involved. But this game does not apply for the Contest, though. Promotions are valid moves in this game.
DICE-MATE CHESS improved CONTEST ENTRY--now 18 pieces only 1. No Promotion,Demotion,Capture 2. Array: White Ra1,Nb1,Bc1,Kd1,Fe1; Black Kd8,Fe8,Bf8,Ng8,Rh8 Pawns: White 4 only: a3, c3, e3, g3; Black b6, d6, f6, h6 3. No more than two friendly pieces may be adjacent to King. This prevents walling off King. No more than two enemy pieces may be adjacent to King. This prevents withering attack. 4. The precise winning condition is variable and unknown until the Roll of Dice after a Check. So any Check may become Mate: Once checked, the King cannot move OUT OF it, unless invalidated by opponent's Roll of Dice--as it usually is, as follows. One number gives piece, P1, N2, B3, R4, Q5, K6 approved. With good play there may be two or more prospects in multiple checks. Other gives direction of check/mate with orientation always White side: 1N,2E,3S,4W,5NE/SW,6SE/NW. Roller takes numbers in either favorable order: a 1 in 18 chance for mate per check. If you don't have a check, don't roll the dice. Anyone wins with cheap check and lucky throw. 5. K may move INTO check. N can check/mate from either of its two into K. K may not move to corner square. 6. If Dice do not match attack conditions, play just goes on until Checkmate validated by Dice. In long run should be strategic
Interesting game with some random elements. I have to see what is the relevance of the probability in this game, but at first I think that the strategic reasoning should be at least 75% of the things that are needed for a good game.
Dice-Mate Chess revised is strategic because checks are to be thwarted by positioning, and
the better play may net many times more checks, then to be dice-validated, or not. Giving check even when not awarded checkmate, is alternative measure of good play, and DMCh counts it toward decisive result with no draws
Okay, I know this isn't official at the moment, and there's really no point to this, but hey. Chebble Play on a Scrabble board. Each player has four each of Rook, Knightrider, and Bishop in hand, as well as one King. Kings start in opposite corners. Play Scrabble as usual. Before making a play, you must move a chess piece. Scrabble tiles may not be played to an occupied space, and chess pieces may not move through tiles (although Knightriders may leap them). Besides moving, a player may spend points they have accumulated to drop a piece adjacent to their King. It costs 10 points to drop a Knightrider, 20 points to drop a Bishop, and 30 points to drop a Rook. It costs double or triple points to drop on a premium square, depending on the premium (double word or letter costs double, triple word or letter costs triple). You may not drop a piece into a position from which it immediately gives check. Kings may remain in check, but cannot be mated. Instead, a player receives a point bonus for each piece of theirs checking their opponent's King at the end of their turn. You receive 5 points for checking with a Knightrider, 10 points for checking with a Bishop, and 15 points for checking with a Rook. Any checking piece on a letter premium square receives an appropriate multiplier which is applied to its checking bonus. Any checking piece on a word premium square similarly multiplies all checking pieces. It is of course possible to have a checking piece have its own multiplier as well as one or more other multipliers granted it by other checking pieces. Play ends when the game of Scrabble is over, after which the player with the highest score wins.
Jared proposal is very imaginative. I don´t still know how good or playable it is, I have to test it, but at the moment I have not a Scrabble set in my hands. Well, this Contest is unofficial, but I have had fun reading many of the very good ideas around this topic, that I considered difficult, but I have seen that people can give good things regardless the difficulty degree of this 'contest'. I must admit that I have not had satisfactory ideas, at least from my point of view, and other ideas of the people that made the attempt to do something are superior to my two thought games with the stablished rules, my ideas were somewhat frustrating, and my games are not very playable.
TAG Chess needs some rules avoiding 'cities' protecting the untagged pieces, if not, the game may not end. Separate the Childs Chess looks very nice, but it mau be thought another initial setup, making the tactics more interesting, I think it is possible. Bifocal Chess and Dice-Mate Chess seems very good games too, I am going to try these games on a physical board with the help of my son, but I´m so impressed with Jared´s original proposal (Chebble looks fine!) that I told a friend of my son for a Scrabble set (well, it is in Spanish, but it is more or less the same) and I´ll see this weekend how well it works, I expect I´m going to test all the proposals on Saturday, I´ll be free to do that. To the others interested in the theme: all of you can give me a hand with your opinions and 'votes?'.
About fixing Tag Chess:<p>
In Zoo Chess, the player is only required to capture members of 4 of the 6 species to win. Perhaps if tagging 3 or 4 species was a win in Tag chess, 'cities' wouldn't be a problem.
Tag four species seems to be enough. The game evolves in a good manner, and it is interesting.
I have received BIFOCAL ZRF. I have not open it yet, may be I am going to do it today. Thank you, Antoine!. All the entries are interesting and more or less playable, perhaps with very little details. I have to decide a winner (unfortunatelly, I´m the only member of the jury), but my preferences may not coincide with others, so it is possible I´m going to send the 'prize' (well, I´m not sure this is the correct qualificative, it depends on what good are the games to others), a ZRF of an unpublished and, at least, collectable game (I´m the author, of course, and I have three BETAS in hand to decide, but I have not games on the theme of the contest) to all the participants.
Bifocal Chess ZRF has some bugs, and it is not working properly... Please revise it, Antoine, when you have some time to do that. On the other hand, the game is good!.
Just wondering.. http://www.chessvariants.org/contests/ are any designing contests going to be held any time soon ?
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