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Modern Chess. Variant on a 9 by 9 board with piece that combines bishop and knight moves. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Max Koval wrote on Thu, Mar 9, 2023 08:43 PM UTC:

I don't think that dark-squared bishops are a problem here. On the contrary, it is rather something that makes this variant interesting, considering the fact that a bishop is stronger than a knight on large boards. It would be great if someone could actually calculate which one is actually more valuable here. This game is intended to represent chess in a modern condition, apart from the introduction of the minister, where the influence of religious institutions, represented by bishops, is diminished, and it is logical that the other part of the board is no longer under their control.


Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Mon, Jan 23, 2023 08:04 PM UTC:

It has been brought to my attention that the name of the author of this game is not correct. The full name is Gabriel Vicente Maura. From the examination of several sources, it appears that Gabriel is the first name and Vicente Maura is the family name. As it is usual in hispanic mode, Vicente is the father's name and Maura is the mother's name. Vicente also being an usual first name, a confusion has arisen.

In his Spanish book "Evolucion del ajedrez, 40 siglos" (Madrid, 1980), the prologue mentions "esta obra de Gabriel Vicente Maura", then simply "este libro de Vicente Maura", "el labor de Vicente Maura". In the acknowledgements, the author thanks his son, Carlos Gabriel Vicente Vega. He is also named his son as Carlos Vicente Vega at several instances in the book. On p212, the author mentions his niece, Marissel Velazquez Vicente.

From all this, it is certain that Vicente is not the second given name of the author, but his main last name, the one inherited from his father. The inventor of Modern Chess is Gabriel VICENTE MAURA, Mr. VICENTE.


Greg Strong wrote on Thu, May 23, 2019 05:50 PM UTC:

According to Pritchard's Encyclopedia, it was dissolved in 1984.  I tried some Google searches, English and Spanish, and didn't come up with anything.  Apparently, like many variants, it did died out once the inventor was no longer promoting it.


Aurelian Florea wrote on Thu, May 23, 2019 05:24 PM UTC:

Does anyone now if there still is a world federation of modern chess?


🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Jun 30, 2018 10:48 PM UTC:
It works when I use it. What exactly are you doing when it doesn't work right, and what exactly does it do when it doesn't work right? I need detailed bug reports if I'm to figure out what is happening and how to fix it.

Jeremy Good wrote on Sat, Jun 30, 2018 02:00 AM UTC:

Hi.

i believe the personal invitation feature for game courier simply hasn't been working for some time now.

Only public invites are working. 

Nonetheless: Thanks for all your great work on the website, Fergus. 


John Lawson wrote on Thu, Jun 28, 2018 04:50 PM UTC:

Kevin,

I have a Modern Chess set, so I checked the official rules. They state that the game be played as it is set up. That is, one player has two bishops on white, the other had two bishops on black. The author seems to think this is better. The inventor permits, with prior agreement of both players before the start of the game, the "Adjustment of the Bishop".  Each player may swap one bishop with either neighboring piece, providing neither has moved.  This expressly forbidden in the official rules.


Kevin Pacey wrote on Sat, Jun 23, 2018 09:02 PM UTC:

This may be a question with an obvious answer, but I was wondering if either side can commit to playing the whole game with two bishops on the same coloured squares (not including any promotions to a bishop). As there is nothing I can see that's against this possibility in the rules, I'm assuming it's allowed.


Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Mar 1, 2018 08:47 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Interesting use of the BN piece type combo in a variant.


Simon Jepps wrote on Thu, Feb 11, 2010 04:11 PM UTC:
Thanks, Jose. ;)

Actually another option would be to place the Minister where the King side Bishop usually stands - since it is also a Bishop you wouldn't be changing anything - then you would have the opposite coloured Bishops.

You then put the King side Bishop where the Queen is and put the Queen on the other side of the King as in normal Chess.

So like this:
R N B Q K B M N R

But yeh, 9x9's are irritating. lol.

George Duke wrote on Thu, Dec 3, 2009 05:54 PM UTC:
When they refer to ''Modern,'' and ''make it Modern,'' casual-like make it a martini -- as if everybody understands it to mean Joyce's recent medley -- the real Modern Chess to a whole region of the world in the 1970s is Gabriel Maura's here. By itself Modern was having had more tournaments than CVPage has conducted for all its 3000 CVs. Tournaments in Caribbean, Mexico, Venezuela til Maura died in 1980s.

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Fri, Aug 14, 2009 02:09 PM UTC:
Sorry, it seems to be working now.

Jose Carrillo wrote on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 12:04 AM UTC:
Here is a Modern Chess preset that doesn't enforce the rules:
/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DModern+Chess%26settings%3DAlfaerie2

Antoine,

The Preset you previously created has a bug in the Bishop adjustment. If a Bishop moves first (not adjusted), the 2nd Bishop is not allowed to adjust (which it should!)

Can you check it? 

Thanks.

Jose

John Smith wrote on Sat, Jan 10, 2009 09:38 PM UTC:
Symmetrical centre Pawn play gives White the centre. If there was mirror symmetry White could get all the possibly better central rank squares he wanted, but he does not because of rotational symmetry, which gives duplicates of each one, except the centre. Why didn't he make the Bishops able to move one square orthogonally without capturing once in the game? What's this Bishop Castling crap? Also see Mats Winther's comments. The board colours are imbalanced as aren't used in the same way. This is especially true in the original game.

Jose Carrillo wrote on Sat, Jan 10, 2009 07:09 PM UTC:
John,

>>White has the advantage of a more quickly promoting centre Pawn but it is balanced somewhat by the reverse symmetry.

White has no advantage other than the first move, just like in Orthodox Chess. Not sure where you get that the reverse symmetry somewhat balances the 'more quickly promoting centre pawn' theory of yours.

>> The imbalance between the colours, both in terms of the board and the armies, makes the game ugly,

What imbalance of armies are you talking about?

>> as does the Bishop Adjustment Rule.

Won't argue this one. There had to be a way (perhaps ugly) to solve the problem of the initial Bishops on the same color squares.

Jose Carrillo wrote on Sat, Jan 10, 2009 06:30 PM UTC:
Hi Simon!

I'll try to answer your questions:

>> 1. Are there any websites dedicated to Modern Chess...

No, other than here at Chess Variants, I do not know of any othe websites dedicated to Modern Chess.

>> I mean do people actually play it?

Yes, still in Puerto Rico (where the game was invented in 1968), but not as much anymore.

You can't find Original (brand new) Modern Chess sets anymore.



I got this original (used) Modern Chess set last year while visiting Puerto Rico.

>> 2. It's tempting but I don't like the Bishop adjustment thingy.

It's the only kind of obscure rule, but it was the creator's way of solving the problem of Bishops starting on the same color (which the creator actually didn't see as a problem).

>> Unless perhaps, would giving the Bishop the option to utilise one opportunity per game to move one square in any direction be good?

I guess one can use it as an option or alternative to the original rule. It must agreed before the start of the game to use this variation of the rule.

>> 3. Is it one sided playing an odd number of squares? Does Black or White have a distinct advantage on a 9 x 9 square board?

No. There is no advantage for either player, other than for white having the first move (just like in Orthodox Chess).

>> 4. Where can I buy a 9 x 9 board?

You can try:

Ministers Chess (9x9) at http://www.corinthiangames.com/

or

International Chess Variants Board (10x10, and you make it smaller) at http://www.modern.chess.variants.tripod.com/

In Europe you should be able to get other 10x10 International (Polish) Checkers (draughts) boards, which you can customize to 9x9, and use your chess pieces from a couple of Orthodox Chess Sets.

I also found last year a copy of the Spanish version of the game inventor's book in a library of rare books in Spain.


John Smith wrote on Thu, Jan 1, 2009 11:19 PM UTC:Poor ★
White has the advantage of a more quickly promoting centre Pawn but it is balanced somewhat by the reverse symmetry. The imbalance between the colours, both in terms of the board and the armies, makes the game ugly, as does the Bishop Adjustment Rule. This is one of the reasons I created Modern Makruk. The most obvious solution would be to include a Marshall, but that would just be another Carrera variant, which may be one of the reasons for the creation of this. I, however, consider the Marshall the lesser of the two evils. Shogi does not suffer from either of these flaws because symmetrical centre Pawn play is disadvantageous for the first player and the Bishops are naturally unbound both by promotion and drops.

Simon Jepps wrote on Thu, Jan 1, 2009 10:11 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
I was wondering:

1. Are there any websites dedicated to Modern Chess... I mean do people actually play it?

2. It's tempting but I don't like the Bishop adjustment thingy. Unless perhaps, would giving the Bishop the option to utilise one opportunity per game to move one square in any direction be good?

3. Is it one sided playing an odd number of squares? Does Black or White have a distinct advantage on a 9 x 9 square board?

4. Where can I buy a 9 x 9 board?

George Duke wrote on Sat, Aug 16, 2008 07:27 PM UTC:
Here is where all the '9x9's are recently listed at prior comment. So, to add to ones at Coherent are Bifocal, The Travelers, Achernar, Canonical, 9x9 Squares Rotating, Chesquerque, Chancellor, Symmetric Sissa, Nine-Square, Rotary. [Shogi is the only bad 9x9.]

Jose Carrillo wrote on Sun, May 11, 2008 01:44 PM UTC:
I have developed a more generic Bishop Adjustment Rule for the new Modern Random Chess variation.

My new Bishop Adjustment Rule also applies to Modern Chess:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSthebishopadjus

Jose Carrillo wrote on Mon, Apr 28, 2008 02:19 AM UTC:
Can one of the admins for the site update the links at 

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/mainquery.php?type=Any&startswithletter=M&orderby=LinkText&displayauthor=1&displayinventor=1

to include a link to the Modern Chess preset for Game Courier?

The Modern Chess preset's link is:
/play/pbm/play.php?game%3DModern+Chess%26settings%3DAlfaerie

The 'See Also' page for Modern Chess:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displayitem.php?itemid=Modernchess

needs also to be updated with the link to the Chess Courier preset above.

Thanks in advance.

George Duke wrote on Wed, Apr 9, 2008 10:47 PM UTC:
It is interesting Maura has old tome 'Mathematical Thesis For Modern Chess'. Maura seems to be reacting against 9x9 Chancellor Chess' unbalancing Bishops in keeping them on same colour instead. '9x9' is not that popular size in number of attempts and seems awkward. Yet most games turn out well (better than this Modern) on 9x9. '9x9' must have the highest percentage disproportionately worth 'Excellent' of any particular size-grouping. Who knows why? Maybe because Shogi is so bad from a worldwide perspective, and anything else on 9x9 has to be improvement. Some Excellent CVs on precisely 9x9: Weave & Dungeon, Altair, The Travelers, Coherent, Bifocal, Sissa, Hanga Roa. Good or Very Good CVs on 9x9: Achernar, Kristensen's, Melee, Canonical, 9x9 Squares Rotating, Rotary, Chesquerque, Symmetric Sissa, Three Fat Brothers, Nine-Square. One and all size 9x9 and well worth manufacturing.

Jose Carrillo wrote on Sun, Apr 6, 2008 11:58 AM UTC:
Thanks for updating the Modern Chess page with the Bishop Adjustment rule.

I found two typos.

1. The notation for the Bishop and Minister's Knight example is actually
B=MN (I made a mistake before with B=MK).

2. The international organization created that arranged tournaments and
world championships for Modern Chess was FEMDAM. (not FENDAM as Pritchard
incorrently quotes in his book).

FEMDAM = FEderacion Mundial De Ajedrez Moderno

which is Spanish for 'World Federation of Modern Chess'

Can someone please update the two typos in the Modern Chess page? 

http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/modern.html

[All fixed, I think. DH] [Yes. Thanks. JC]

Jose Carrillo wrote on Mon, Mar 24, 2008 06:24 PM UTC:
Thanks Antoine!

Can you update the Modern Chess webpage to include the 'Bishop's Adjustment' rule?

http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/modern.html

Below is my English interpretation of the rule, which appears in Spanish on page 32 of Gabriel Maura's 1973 'Tesis Matematica del Ajedrez Moderno' (Mathematical Thesis for Modern Chess):

==

The Bishop Adjustment Rule

It consists in exchanging the square of one of the Bishops with either of the adjacent major pieces - the Queen or the Queen's Knight on the right, or the Minister or Minister's Knight to the left - as long as neither of the pieces being exchanged has been moved from its original square.

The player would have four ways to do the adjustment, but he is only allowed to do it one time throughout the game, if he wishes to. This adjustment counts as a move, just like castling. The notation for it is: B=MN (example for the adjustment with the Minister's Knight).

Antoine Fourrière wrote on Mon, Mar 24, 2008 11:44 AM UTC:
Thanks for discovering the bug. I've replaced f8 by #roo.
I don't think there is presently a way for users to upload include files. I guess you can write your functions in the pregame field of your presets for debugging sake and send me include files when you're satisfied with them.

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