Ratings & Comments
Sac Chess. Game with 60 pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Sun, Sep 25, 2022 05:27 PM UTC:I like the abstract pieces a lot and I use them when playing Gross Chess. But the farther you go from the standard types, the less well I think it works. In this game, you have Dragon King, Dragon Horse, and Amazon, and I don't think the abstract pieces are particularly effective.
I am disappointed to hear that Fergus requested you to use his graphics. I think it's fair to say that, while they may be good, they are decidedly non-standard. I do not think it helps our cause, (encouraging Chess enthusiasts to explore Chess variants), to make things appear more alien. Personally, I consider the standard for this site to be the Alfaerie graphics. Each contributor can, of course, choose whatever they like to represent their game.
What I think would be nice is to have buttons over the graphic which switch all page graphics between the options. I think H.G. has done this on some of his pages, but I don't know how it works. If it is not hard to do, I may start updating pages. OTOH, an argument can be made that the main diagram should be one of his interactive diagrams. Personally, I prefer to put the interactive diagram down in the "Computer Play" section, as I have done here, But that may be because of my own biases. The way I have the "Setup" section on that page is how I like to do it, largely because that's how it has been done here for a very long time (although I added the Initial Setup FEN.)
Thanks Greg.
While I find abstract diagrams sometimes not the easiest on the eyes, Fergus requested I use such for the Sac Chess Rules page (it was my first submission). H.G. thought the Alfarie figurines were more easily recognizable, too, but Fergus stated he himself was biased (having created the abstract figurines himself, I suppose).
For what it's worth, I prefer using the abstract pieces when playing Gross Chess, as I find the Champion piece type more recognizable when as an abstract figurine than as the helmeted figurine of a Champion in Alfarie. Maybe a similar story for the Vaos and Cannons, too.
I understand the logic of the diagram with abstract pieces, but for me it requests a supplementary mental effort to figure out which one is what. IMO it works fine with the 6 standard pieces, but in this case with all combinations it is an extreme, and not really needed, difficulty. I believe that adding a conventional diagram would help the recognition of this game. I have one ready that I can post or send.
Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 24, 2022 11:43 PM UTC:I have updated the diagrams. In the abstract-all piece set, the code for the chancellor is 'RN' not 'MA'. Perhaps it was changed at some point, but that's not something that should happen, as it would break things.
Jetan: The Martian Chess of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Book about jetan. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 24, 2022 11:35 PM UTC:Thanks, Fredrik. I have reclassified this as a book and published the entry. Congratulations on writing a formal book about Jetan. I look forward to reading it.
Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 24, 2022 10:40 PM UTC in reply to David Haft from 08:08 PM:You can play this with the latest ChessV release candidate: ChessV 2.3 RC2
Just unzip and run the EXE.
Jetan: The Martian Chess of Edgar Rice Burroughs. Book about jetan. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is not a game in itself, but a book about a game. I found no other way to create a page about it, so I hope this works out. Let me know otherwise.
The Fairychess Include File Tutorial. How to use the fairychess include file to program games for Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Would it be possible to add a Wildebeest (=Knight+Camel) to this fairychess? Thank you
Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The ZoG file doesn't seem to work, giving error 'The following bitmap couldn't be loaded: "images\boards\rwb10x10bmp" '
If you could advise on a fix, I'd love to play this
Avatar Chess. Game with avatars that can assume any piece of chess, depending on the fields of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Testing the game first with actual play, say using a preset on this website's Game Courier, would give players and viewers much clearer ideas about how any complex strategies might unfold in typical games.
Because the game is not played on a board that uses plain graphics (like a chess board), you (or someone else) may need the help of a CVP site editor or the webmaster to get the graphics of the board onto this website, for subsequent use on Game Courier when you (or someone else) will go about making a preset.
I would like to see similar discussions around 'AC'.
Sac Chess. Game with 60 pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'd hoped that castling would often come in handy, but there have been a couple of games, so far, where my opponents have dropped their K back a rank against me (likely after an Amazon move to third or second rank - one possible drawback might be if said Amazon ever has to retreat somewhere with loss of time). Castling kingside followed by shifting my K sideways one more square is something I often do, though maybe out of habit from chess (somewhat unrelated, Play Tester recently championed the idea of quickly charging the pawn in front of his Sailor on the kingside, even before either side may have castled).
The more space you have control of on a side of the board, the safer it is to castle there, I suppose. If Black plays a French Defence analogue, for example, then kingside castling seems nice enough for White. Not only that, but if a centre file is about to get opened early, castling may be a good idea. Sac Chess is still relatively unexplored, of course. I thought I'd sensed some unexpected defects to its design (compared to chess, at least) since inventing it, but at least it's being played more often again lately (though I'm always one of the players). Bishop(s) (and later Missionaries) flying out to the edge of the board, especially of the queenside, for example (the Sailor pawn charge may be another).
I'd also hoped when designing the game that the Judges (Centaurs) on the wings would help to guard a castled K for a long time. Castling queenside seems like it's usually quite unsafe, even compared to chess. The K is still likely unsafe in the middle for a couple of moves at the least. I'd secretly hoped to be the first one to castle queenside in a Sac Chess Game Courier game, but Fergus beat me to it when playing someone else. It's also easier to discourage or prevent castling queenside in the first place than in chess, it seems.
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Sep 24, 2022 02:33 PM UTC in reply to Kevin Pacey from 01:21 PM:I guess the diagrams are generated 'on the fly'. So probably the image file for the chancellor was renamed.
And now that you are here: I have been commenting a Sac Chess game for Jean-Louis' new book, and I noticed that after castling the King is really still very unsafe. Because it is still directly behind the Pawn shield. So castling really seems a bad idea. It seems much better to quickly move out an Amazon to f3/f8 or e2/e9, and then hide the King away on g1/g10. The Rook is then not trapped, and can get out once the minors are developed, and the Sailor can be moved to i2/i9 to protect the Pawn Shield. The Judge, Archbishop and Chancelor can then get out over h1/h10, g2/g9 and h2/h2, respectively.Leaving the King behind an enormous 'wall of power'.
Does that make sense?
Hi H.G.:
I didn't change anything for the longest time in the diagrams on the Sac Chess rules page. I assumed the chancellors disappearing might have resulted from something Fergus (or someone else) changed on CVP website, Game Courier or the Diagram Designer. Right now I haven't tried to edit a rules page myself for so long (if that's what needs to be done) that I'm afraid I might make things worse.
Interactive diagrams. Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I think the most general solution is to point out both moves and then add a simple "c" for example.
Well, I'd like to point out the grand apothecary chess games where you may castle in four ways with 2 different pieces!
💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Sep 23, 2022 06:30 AM UTC in reply to Greg Strong from Thu Sep 22 11:09 PM:To solve the ambiguity problem in 1-step castling (or in other castlings where the castling piece can also move multiple squares on its own, such as that silly 'guarding' of the Queen in Enhanced Omega Chess), the Diagram uses the tilde instead of the hyphen (or nothing) as connecting sign for indicating castlings, like K~d1. But I like to stick to conventional SAN where this is possible.
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 22, 2022 11:09 PM UTC in reply to Daniel Zacharias from 09:17 PM:You could just use O-O for everything along with the king's destination square, like O-O b1
You could. But, at that point, I would ask what value the "O-O" is bringing. Wouldn't the more standard "e1b1" also accomplish that? Although, I guess this would address the issue with (e.g., Wildebeest Chess) where the King can move a single space and still castle. Perhaps if either "O-O" or "O-O-O" is followed by the notation of a square, it would mean castling to that square (and there would be no difference between "O-O" and "O-O-O")
You could just use O-O for everything along with the king's destination square, like O-O b1. If you want to preserve O-O-O, it could be understood as referring to the left half of the board from White's perspective, while O-O refers to the right half.
Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Sep 22, 2022 03:06 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 09:50 AM:I don't think the O-O, O-O-O thing scales very well. What about games with an odd number of files and the King starts in the middle?
💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Sep 22, 2022 09:50 AM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from Mon Aug 15 06:36 AM:I have somewhat of a dilemma concerning the move notation for castling in the Interactive Diagram. Normally King-side castling is O-O, Queen-side castling is O-O-O, both for white and black. This then corresponds to short and long castling, respectively.
But what if the Kings start closer to the a-file? Would it still make sense to keep calling the a-side the Queen side, and use O-O-O for that castling. I know that the official notation for Chess960 does this, but that is really another case, because the King there can start anywhere, but at least ends on the c-file, like in orthodox Q-side castling. So it is indeed like a long castling, only with messed-up initial position because of the shuffling.
But what if the King in a-side castling ended on the b-file. Does it still deserve to be written as O-O-O? I encountered this problem in Elven Chess, which is unusual in that it has rotation symmetry rather than reflection symmetry in the initial setup; usually variants that have that do not have castling, but Elven Chess does. The white King starts on the f-file, and moves 3 spaces to i1 on the 10-wide board. So it would be normal to call that O-O, and the castling to c1 O-O-O.
But now what for black? His King starts on e10, and castling would bring it to b10 or h10. I would be inclined to call the castling to b10 O-O now, not O-O-O.
Any ideas what we should elevate to standard here?
That sounds plausible.
Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Sep 20, 2022 05:18 PM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from 04:25 PM:By the way, details about programming are not clear for most people. How to deal with it?
I don't think there is any "fix" to this issue. I am not sure there is any issue at all. Some conversations are going to involve things other people don't understand. That said, the talkchess forums are the usual place for these kinds of discussions, but I am happy to have some discussion here as well. Some people who are not chess programmers may still be interested in whether the new neural-network techniques being applied to orthodox chess can be applied to chess variants.
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How should the pieces in this game be annotated? Eagle and Elephant both begin with 'E' and Camel and Cannon both begin with 'C'. The Game Courier preset has the eagle as 'G' (since it is usually called a Gryphon) and the camel as 'M' (don't know why). Is this what you would like for the "official" notations?