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Comments by GlennNicholls

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Glenn Nicholls wrote on Wed, Apr 18, 2007 11:59 AM UTC:
Regarding comments by M. Winther, Mark Thompson & Graeme Neatham – There
have been some very interesting comments recently about the future of
(western) chess particularly in connection with what is being termed the
problem of  “scrabblization” and the possible solution by the use of
randomisation.  I am not myself keen on the idea of randomisation and I do
not think this is the long-term future of chess, at least as far as being
the standard form of the game.  There is another way to overcome this
problem, however, and it was partly with this problem in mind that I wrote
the game of TigerChess.  In this game there are in all probability many
billions of viable opening lines and possibly many more than this and
together with the greater possibilities of middlegame tactics and
strategies the problem of scrabblization should be permanently solved. 
The game also keeps alive something of the game of checkers.
G. Nicholls

Dragon. Missing description (9x15, Cells: 135) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Mon, Dec 17, 2007 11:21 AM UTC:
A reply to Charles Gilman: Whilst I do not intend to go back over ground already covered, it seems that you are wondering about one or two things…..

I wrote this game (with reference only to the standard games of Western and Chinese Chess) in its basic form several years before I was aware that this website existed, and the first I was aware of another game/article featuring Forest and Storm pieces was in your comment.  I do not know whether you thought of these names before myself and I do not even know in which of your many games/articles they appear.

If you are saying, as you seem to be, that Sultan’s Elephant Chess is not a spoof then why should Dragon be so.  Or, put another way, if you think Dragon is a spoof then surely you must expect such thinking about Sultan’s Elephant Chess.

Presentation is largely about form only and is a matter of individual style and preference.  In any case it is always possible to re-write such games in a different format or order.

💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Thu, Dec 20, 2007 09:05 PM UTC:
A reply to Charles Gilman & George Duke:  Thanks for the comments which have proved helpful and I can see why words such as satire and theme heavy came about.  Obviously nobody wants their page to be awkward to read but there is a reason why the game was written in this manner – let me explain.  There are a number of popular novels which feature within them the playing of chess, a chess variation or a complex board game; they are generally science fiction or fantasy and range from the Dune novels to the Harry Potter books.  Broadly speaking we therefore have in these novels the playing of a war game within a war story.  What I have attempted to do with the game of Dragon is, of sorts, to reverse this by having the story within the game such that the playing of the game enacts out the situation as described by the outline story.  In order to do this it is necessary to bring the pieces and the board to life and the so the pieces must be given characters and sufficient descriptions and the board must be given sufficient terrain details and they need to look realistic and be on a large board – standard Staunton pieces or symbolic Chinese Chess discs have to be forgotten here as does the size of and form of their standard boards.  These additions to the game, of course, substantially increase the length of the page and may at times cause the reading of the rules to be harder.
Probably the easiest way to learn the game is to start with the naval chess side of the game; once the ideas of embarking, passage, boarding, sinking and disembarking are grasped the rest of the game falls into place much easier.
The presentation of the game does not have an obvious order, arrangement or format (that I can see) which gives the best way of learning together with all the rules, prelude and details fitted alongside in a tidy way.  I am sure anybody with good writing and presentation skills could present the game in a much better and more readable way than I can, but for the time being  I will have to give this some more thought.

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Fri, May 30, 2008 11:51 AM UTC:
George, I am told that Bridge, fine game though it is, is also in decline;
and a visit to a tournament will often see screens erected in front of
players to prevent cheating by the use of signalling – a poor sight
indeed.  Western Chess may be (slowly) dying but so too will Contract
Bridge.

G. Nicholls

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Fri, Mar 6, 2009 10:12 PM UTC:
Hi Joe

I'm having trouble with my email so I'm using the comments page
instead.

The names LancerChess and LeopardChess are just alternate names for the
same game as the form for the zrf submission said that LancerChess had
already been used though I couldn't see where.  If you tell me what to do
next I'll try to do it.

Thanks

Glenn

Spartan Chess. A game with unequal armies. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Tue, Nov 16, 2010 11:39 AM UTC:
With regard to the business side of variant chess.  Yes, the actual market for chess variants is currently very small, but no, the potential market is very large.  Hundreds of millions of people play chess and are very enthusiastic about the game and I am sure a good percentage of these players would find preferred games amongst variant chess; unfortunately most (virtually all?) are not aware of alternative variant games and this, I think, is what is holding back progress. How to solve this problem I do not know, but I think it is necessary to gain the attention of large numbers of players - If, for example, the next edition of the largest selling chess software, Chessmaster, were to include a few good variants properly programmed then this might start some momentum.  There are other possibilities but they would require the interest of the right person(s) and this is very difficult to bring about.

G. Nicholls

Glenn Nicholls wrote on Tue, Nov 16, 2010 11:55 PM UTC:
To H.G. Muller - Do you know roughly how many people have installed XBoard, WinBoard or Fairy-Max?

G. Nicholls

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Mon, Jul 4, 2011 02:14 PM UTC:
I was under the impression that Lasker suggested reversing the initial
positions of the Knights and Bishops, not Capablanca.  Can someone please
confirm which of these two suggested this.

Introducing Economy in CV's?. Several chess variants based on economic principles.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Fri, Nov 11, 2011 04:48 PM UTC:
Hi Joe

Winning by territorial gains seems rather similar to what I wrote a couple of weeks ago under 'TigerMarks'.

Regards

Glenn Nicholls

Springboard. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sat, Nov 26, 2011 11:22 AM UTC:
Charles Gilman
  I think we have had some discussion before on presentation and I recall saying then that this is a matter of personal style and preference; nevertheless there is always room for improvement and here are the reasons to answer your points. 
  The page that these CVs derive from is a Word Document which has formatted and coloured headings etc. which obviously make reading the page easier, but all this seems to be lost when loading onto the Chess Variant Pages;  if there is a way to keep the colouring and formatting etc. I would appreciate knowing how. 
  In all my variants the names I use are never duplicated for different pieces and are always chosen to suit the particular game they appear in.  
  The reason for the changing of roles for the Royal Couple is as I pointed out years ago in TigerChess i.e. the idea of a medieval King sheltering in a castle whilst his Queen goes into battle is not sensible and also the standard names of some pieces such as Rook and Pawn I simply find out of keeping with the idea of Chess and so I never use such names. 
  The gaps between the diagrams have come about because each diagram uses one page on my Word Document and the text then continues overpage.  I would be quite happy to reduce the gaps but the original images have them so as to expand to fit on one page of my Word document.

💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Wed, Nov 30, 2011 01:41 PM UTC:
Charles Gillman

Referring back to your original comment that you fully understood the page after three readings, this seems entirely reasonable to me, how long did this take? About an hour or so I would guess and again this seems entirely reasonable: it is not unknown for a player to take this long making a single move in a game.

I have had another look at the page and the presentation again seems entirely reasonable bearing in mind that I am not by profession a computer expert.  The gaps after the diagrams take a second to scroll through, if that, and the whole page can be scrolled through in twenty seconds. I have tried to reduce the gaps even so but this unaccountably leaves a red line beneath the diagrams and so I am going to leave them as they are.

I am puzzled as to what the problem could be that has this second response of yours which also answers another person (Frank) and which veers about from mostly one irrelevance to another, but then (and you seem to be inviting criticism) the same could be said about much of the Man and Beast series.

💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Thu, Dec 1, 2011 12:31 PM UTC:
Charles Gillman

The 'Ironic' comment was, as I have already pointed out, made by another person called 'Frank'.

💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sat, Dec 3, 2011 12:13 PM UTC:
Charles Gilman

I have now noted the correct spelling of your name.  Thanks for pointing this out.

By way of constructive criticism I would suggest you answer comments by separate people separately yourself, this ensures there is no confusion or obfuscation.

TigerPad. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Fri, Nov 13, 2015 07:37 AM UTC:
I know what you mean but all my games link together and so my pages cannot properly be read in isolation.

If you want to make a start the best place to go would be my page titled Games by Groupings.  From here there is a heading for a group of games called Springboard which lists the more basic games roughly upwards in order of difficulty. From here go to a page called Summary of Game variations, Clock times.....where each individual game is listed roughly downwards in order of difficulty with basic information and a note on the page in which a full description can be found.

Thank you for your interest.

Glenn Nicholls

💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sun, Nov 15, 2015 08:55 AM UTC:
Yes, its a good idea to change this to a reference page as they are clarifications and add-ons. Actually the pages titled "from Stalemate to Checkmate" and also "Summary of Game Variations.........". are also more like reference pages and I wonder if you could change these as well and TigerMarks is actually a Game page not a reference page-is it possible to change this. Also I will add references in TigerPad to the games they relate to.

Thanks for your help.

Glenn Nicholls

Tiger's-eye Opera. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝Glenn Nicholls wrote on Tue, Nov 24, 2015 07:10 AM UTC:
The moves of the Sky-Prince are set out towards the end of my page titled Jewel: A Linked-Series of Games, though these moves are in turn referred to my page titled Dragon and they are chess-like moves.  To find out more about the wider aspect (chess is a representative game in my opinion) of the Sky-Prince you would need to read about the "Alternate bonuses" for the Jewel Series which are summarised in a table in the page; but really it would be best to read this entire page.
The weaknesses (vulnerabilities) of the Sky-Prince are connected to the wider aspects of him and these are set out in this page (Tiger's-eye Opera) under the section titled "Flash seven:  Crystal of Doom - the Emerald Variation".

Posting a word document[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Thu, Oct 20, 2016 08:09 PM UTC:

I have a page nearly ready for posting but it is a word document.  How do I keep the formatting when posting it to the Site.


Glenn Nicholls wrote on Fri, Oct 21, 2016 11:16 AM UTC:

Thanks, I'll give this a try and see what happens.


Uploading images[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sat, Nov 26, 2016 09:17 PM UTC:

Is there a problem with uploading images?  I have one or two to upload but I can't seem to upload them.


Glenn Nicholls wrote on Thu, Dec 1, 2016 06:25 PM UTC:

I am still unable to upload images to my pages.  Surely somebody must be aware of this problem and others will find the same problem.  Someone must know the answer surely.


Happy Holidays![Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sun, Dec 25, 2016 05:34 AM UTC:

Best wishes to the Chess Variants site and its Editors


Glenn Nicholls wrote on Sun, Jan 1, 2017 05:03 PM UTC:

Thanking the hard working editors of CVP and wishing them a happy new year.


Most popular pieces[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Tue, Jan 10, 2017 08:25 PM UTC:

I find it very interesting that the most popular pieces for Chess Variants appear to be the very old "Capablanca" compounds.

Perhaps then Capablanca Chess is amongst the most popular of Chess Games (let's drop the word variants - this game is still Chess).

Most popular games[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Wed, Jan 11, 2017 03:16 PM UTC:

Despite it all, it seems to come back to Western Chess, Chinese Chess and Capablanca Chess.


Most popular pieces[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Glenn Nicholls wrote on Wed, Jan 11, 2017 08:00 PM UTC:

But the Chancellor and the Minister are still the most popular of variant pieces and I would ask why people can all be so wrong?


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