Comments by DavidHowe

I believe he's saying that the height of the squares is greater than the
width.

Fergus, the summary prefix is used for entries such as "The Last
Mourning". The summary is set to "Last Mourning" and the summary prefix
is "The". This allows entries to be listed in proper order. There is no
good reason for the prefix field to display after the summary field, and I
cannot remember why I did it that way. In any case, please feel free to
change it if you'd like.

Fixed. It was an "include_once" issue.

We're currently in the process of improving the CVP web site. This
includes using single sign-in sessions, ability to use OpenID to sign-in,
and an improved comment and rating system. This work takes time, so please
be patient. The indexing and current commenting/rating system will be in
various states of change over the next several weeks. We will try to keep
things usable, but just keep in mind that all this work is done in our
spare time.

The current commenting and rating system needs some attention, but for
minor problems, we will probably wait until the improvements are
implemented to fix them. If there are problems that are inhibiting their
use, we'll give them higher priority.

Thank you for your patience. I think the improvements that Fergus is making
will be well worth the wait!

Fergus, if you need any help with the SQL end of things, please let me know.

There are two existing rating and commenting systems. I will refer to the older (and heavily used) system as the rating and commenting system. The newer system, which is not used to any significant extent, I will call the newer rating system.

I agree that the newer rating system is not used (much to my chagrin, given the work I put into it) and should be wiped from the site. The older rating and commenting system seems to work acceptably, although it has its issues and limitations. I agree that we shouldn't toss years of valuable comments/ratings.

So my feeling is that we should have a single, consistent commenting and rating system. Having two parallel systems is confusing and inelegant. That said, I am at a loss for how to proceed. Somehow, we should keep what we have, but also add desired functionality, but as a single, comprehensive system.

I suppose we could export the existing comment and ratings into the proposed new system, and have a unified and elegant commenting and rating system. That will take more effort, but may be worth it.

Just my 2 cents. Please let me know if I can be of any help on the PHP or SQL end of things. I really hope we can achieve a more effective and elegant system than the existing one.

Here's my take after a little thought. The point assignments probably need work.

A game which is a form of chess, is one which includes all of the following properties:

1. A game of movement and capture, rarely of placement (2 points)
2. Bilateral symmetry and equality of material (1 point)
3. Functionally differentiated pieces (2 points)
4. Capture by replacement (1 point)
5. Win by capturing a definitive singleton (royal piece) (3 points)
6. A Turn-based game (1 point)
7. A Two-player game (1 point)
8. A game of Complete information (1 point)
9. Played by moving pieces between discrete positions (2 points)
10. The players can move one piece per turn (1 point)
11. One piece type is more abundant than the others, quite weak, moves uni-directionally and can promote (1 point)


[1-5 (but not the point system) taken from: Parlett, D. S. (1999). The Oxford history of board games. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 277.]

[6-11 (but not the point system) taken from H. G. Muller's post on chessvariants.org commenting system.]

Suggested terms:

Chess-game: 16 points (all properties)
Chess-like game: 10-15 points (many properties)
Chess-related game: 4-9 points (some properties)

Note that many chess variants are (according to this scheme) chess-like or chess-related games.

Examples:

Go                = 0 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 +0/1+ 1 + 0 = 5/6
Checkers          = 2 + 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 0 = 9
Losing Chess      = 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 13
Extinction Chess  = 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 +0/1+ 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 13/14
Ultima            = 2 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 0 = 14
Progressive chess = 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 0 + 1 = 15
Grand chess       = 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 3 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 16

Hi all,

At the author's request, I have removed the page for Jeppseirawan. This
automatically removes all comments and ratings for this game. If you still
would like to read them, please contact me.

Let's all try to be civil and constructive when commenting on others'
work. Let's also try to not take ourselves (and others) so seriously. CB-J
is a prime example of using humor and friendliness to help avoid
unfortunate results.

Thank you.

Hi all, I hadn't seen this thread before. I found it while looking for a
place to propose my extensions to Betza's funny notation.

I feel that Betza's funny notation is a good place to start for defining
a
standard since it has been in use for many years, and seems to be
functioning as an 'undeclared' standard.

I would like to propose an extension to Betza's notation that perhaps
could be agreed upon by a group from the CV community and then published.
Obviously, such a standard will not be easy to agree upon, which is why I
am posting this as a proposal.

If any one is interested in forming a group with the purpose of attempting
to establish a move notation standard, please post here. Thanks!

http://chessvariants.org/dictionary/BexNotation.pdf

Thank you. I used an Excel spreadsheet in combination with MS-Word mail merge to generate the web pages and index. As you might imagine, collecting, editing and generating the results took many months. After realizing that I could be working on this for years, I decided to just stop and get it out there.

Now I will be collecting suggested additions and modifications in preparation for the next version. Thanks for any feedback you can provide and Happy New Year to all!

While there is no detailed policy governing the editorial standards of this discussion board / commenting system, I'd like to remind everyone that we should try to be respectful and polite, even when disagreeing. It is easy to take criticism the wrong way, especially if it is couched in a somewhat condescending tone. We should also avoid the use of derogatory terms in our postings.

We have a lot of great postings and discussions. Let's try keep it polite and respectful.

Thanks!

Mea Culpa. I have been terrible about processing email for the past few
months. I plan to start catching up soon. Apologies to all who have written
in and have not received any response. IMO 'old style' pages that need
updating should be converted to member submitted pages. I am not aware of
issues with updating the newer member submitted pages. Perhaps they've
been emailed to me and are sitting in my in-box right now. In any case, I
will be getting to the email soon. I promise. It's one of my many unspoken
(until now) new years resolutions.

By the way, if any one out there is interested in assisting with the site
as a volunteer, please let me know. This site runs on pure volunteerism. I
pay for the hosting and domain names, although this gets supplemented with
income from ads (another aspect I have been neglecting).

Let me wish all our readers, our active community of commenters, our Game
Courier players, our designers and authors, and our volunteers a very Happy
and Healthy New Year. We are a small community, but active and energetic. I
am glad this site can provide a focal point for discussion, design,
creative expression, exploration and playing.

What were you trying to change? I made some test changes to your 12# Chess
page at:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MP12chess

I was able to edit the contents with no problem.

Already available:

Elephant, Canon, Guard, Ferz, Wazir, Giraffe, Camel, War machine, Various
pawns, Shogi pieces

Desired:

Animal forms:

Lion
Wildebeest
Zebra
Bird

Knight forms:

Nightrider
Marshall: combines Rook + Knight
Cardinal: combines Bishop + Knight 
Amazon: combines Queen + Knight

Inverted forms:

King
Queen
Bishop
Knight
Rook

I don't see as much need for Camel forms. Let's get the basics first!

Sorry about the delays Mats. I am back in school and things are very busy
for me. I will try to get to this in the next few days. Sorry it's so
frustrating for you. Keep in mind, this site does not have any paid staff.
Just volunteers.

It's always nice to hear John William Brown's name mentioned. He is a true innovator and I highly recommend his book Meta-Chess to any chess variant designer. Adjectives for the book: well thought out, imaginative, innovative, and methodical! One of these days I'm going to get my copy of Meta-Chess bound as a hardcover (it is currently comb-bound).

On that note, I will also say that I do not know if and when his updated edition of Meta-Chess is coming out. Anyone out there know?

Mats, what browser and OS are you using?

One of our loyal readers has written to tell us that there is a shareware (Windows) version of this game available at: 

http://www.vector.co.jp/soft/dl/win95/game/se094801.html

It is all in Japanese however.

Click on the download link (ƒ_ƒEƒ“ƒ[ƒh) for the game.

To play against the computer, choose the second option from the first menu.

Mats, I just created a link item and did not experience any problem. Could
you email me step-by-step details on what you did? Thanks!

Yu Ren Dong,

Could you provide romanized titles for some of the books you mentioned. I found the ones for which you gave an ISBN, but for the others, I cannot read their titles or authors because the characters aren't displaying properly. Many thanks!

I have changed chessvariants.com to point to the new site. The change may
take up to 48 hours to propogate.

Should be fixed now. There is currently no way for users to rename a
thread. If you want one renamed, let me know and I can make the change.

Try this:

   /play/pbm/index.html

Looks like it may be that the cause is the .htaccess file. I will look
into it.

I'd be willing to spend $100 or so.

re: emailing all cvp members

I do have a list, and would be willing to send out an email (probably
emails, since I'd have to break it up into sections). I try not to send
emails out very often, but am willing to do so in this case. Just let me
know what you'd like to be in the email. Thanks!

See:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/shopitem.php?itemid=CECV

>> How do we propose graphics for inclusion in the set? I have been modifying some of the alfaerie graphics for some of the diagrams I have made on my computer, and I think they could be useful.

Please email them to me, and I will consider them for the next expansion set! Just click on my name and mail to the displayed email address. Thanks!

chessvariants.org scripts are unable to send email. I have contacted our hosting service, but so far have been ignored. 

User id pleyades21 should now be registered, and I have emailed that user a new password. Sorry about the continuing problems with email...

FIDE laws of chess:

3.9  The king is said to be 'in check' if it is attacked by one or more of the opponent's pieces, even if such pieces are constrained from moving to that square because they would then leave or place their own king in check. No piece can be moved that will either expose the king of the same colour to check or leave that king in check. 

http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101

I've been thinking lately that we should expand our 'recognized
variants' system to include people and software. As an editor, I will
refrain from making suggestions, but if enough of our readers feel a
particular person or program deserves recognition, please post something
under this subject. Thanks!

Once you finished registering, you should be able to post your own games.

If you post it as a game, I'll change it to an article.

ð

Anyway, it was expanded into an HTML entity character sequence, which my script doesn't handle well. Sorry about that.

Thanks Joe. I hadn't realized I had to approve new members. I've set up the site so that a password can be used so that new members can avoid waiting for me to approve them. The password is cvp2007

The proposed chessvariants wiki is at:

   http://chessvariants.wikidot.com/

It is not intended to replace chessvariants.org, nor is it intended to replace the chess variants section of the wikipedia.

3 people have joined up so far, but couldn't do anything because I hadn't approved them.

Many thanks also to our volunteers, which includes our entire staff. Being a volunteer here is a practically thankless job (except perhaps once a year!), but we do find it rewarding to be able to support this site, and help foster an interest in chess variants all over the world.

Fergus, I cleaned it up. Editors: please do not categorize a variant of
chess as 'chess'. The 'chess' category is reserved for FIDE chess
information only. There are other categories for slight variations on FIDE
chess (ie. the chess variants using standard FIDE chess equipment
categories).

'...Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)...'

Hi Joe,

>> Next, how do I sign up?

Go to any of your game pages (the quickest way to do that is to go to your
information page, and click on the 'Items this person invented' link. Any
of the items under the 'Game' section can be submitted for entry in the
rating system. Just display the web page for the game you want to submit,
and you'll see near the bottom, right above the author/inventor line, a
link to 'Submit this game to be available for rating!'. Click on that
link and follow the instructions. You have 7 games you invented, so it
shouldn't be too much of an effort for you to submit them individually. I
just hope Ralph Betza doesn't try to submit all his! ;-)

Note that only GAME pages may be submitted for rating. If you have a game
courier or zillions item that you want to submit, just create a game page
for it first, and then submit the game page. I am limiting ratings to game
pages to avoid one person rating game X's zillions page, while another
person rates game X's game courier preset and yet another person rates
game X's game information page.

All for now. Please continue with the feedback, and thank you for the kind
words. My experience tells me I will be making lots of changes to this
system, so don't be shy about suggestions.

Another possible system might involve awarding points over time (everyone gets N points every M days). The points would be of the 'use it or lose it' type, so that point hording would not be possible.

Or perhaps a 'free market' system, where each rater starts out with N points, which the rater uses to 'buy' the right to rate a particular entry from the entry's owner. Eg. Dave has 10 points. He buys the right to rate Peter's Anti-King Chess, which Peter is selling for 3 points. Dave now has 7 points left, and Peter has 13 (assuming he had 10 before the transaction).

The down side to these schemes is that they discourage free expression by putting certain artificial limits on expression.

>> 4. not sure about this, but maybe another idea for a game could be 'bizzare' ... of course 'bizzare' games can be completely serious, still, it could be an idea.

How about:

0 Poor
1 Below average
2 Average
3 Good
4 Excellent

As with any rating system, it will only be as good as the quality of its
inputs. If people are generally thoughtful, honest and objective, then I
think the system will work well.

As others have said, the more valuable input is the more qualitative vs.
the quantitative, although quantitative input can have some value that
qualitative input does not have.

So the more ways we give people to give feedback, the better. I do hope
that people will avoid abusing the system for personal gain. Such acts
decrease the value of the system overall and are damaging in the
long-term.

Subject-based comments were not being blocked. However they should be now.

I never met him personally, but we corresponded via postal mail while he was in the process of compiling new entries for the next version of the ECV.

Perhaps it makes sense for our site to have recognized people in addition to variants? If so, David Pritchard would certainly be on that list.

In any case, it seems obvious to me that you feel slighted, and that's unfortunate. Please have patience with we mere mortals. We do try...

As far as letting other people use my code for the commenting system -- I certainly have no objection. I shall work on packaging the code and documenting how to use it. Perhaps I shall even clean it up and make it more generic. However, that is all in my spare time, of which, I seem to have less and less these days.

My apologies to all the people I haven't gotten back to. Believe me, I still intend to get back to you all. Perhaps over the holidays! ;-)

As far as letting other people use my code for the commenting system -- I certainly have no objection. I shall work on packaging the code and documenting how to use it. Perhaps I shall even clean it up and make it more generic. However, that is all in my spare time, of which, I seem to have less and less these days.

My apologies to all the people I haven't gotten back to. Believe me, I still intend to get back to you all. Perhaps over the holidays! ;-)

Michael,

Just go to the 'upload files' link on your page, and upload your
graphic. After your graphic is uploaded, you will be shown some html code
to add to your page to make your graphic show up. Let me know if you run
into any problems.

Upload file link for your page: 

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/memberupload.php?itemid=MSnovachess100

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displayperson.php?personid=matthew_montchal

I wanted to let everyone know the developemnt of the series has been delayed due to the death of my 17 year old son in aug. 2004, he was in an automobile accident. He was helping me write the series (we had come up with over seventy different battlefields at that time). His death was a shock to me and those I was working with at Strategy First, we were under the gun for a november 2004 deadline on a third party developent aggreement, I'm sorry for those who were waiting, I couldn't cocentrate, I now plan on developing the games myself and dedicating the series to the memory of my son Philip. I'm looking for programmers and artist as well as a ai program. Christine, your comments attracted my atention please email me at [the email address specified on my information page].

Yes, I have, for the time being, removed the code that gets executed at the bottom of each page, so comments and 'see also' sections will not be displayed. You can use the 'More Information' link at the top of the page to see comments and 'see also' information. I will be bringing back this functionality gradually, so that we can control our resource usage on our host server.

The site is back up, although not everything is working. Please be patient
with us over the next week or so as we fix up our site-move related
problems. Thanks!