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Comments by MatsWinther
It seems like people get no response when they apply for membership on the Chess Variant pages. Why can't this be automatized instead, so that people can get a permanent password by themselves? http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=29216 /Mats
George, after 25...Kg8 26.dxc6 black has sacrificed the knight at c6 and white is winning.
/Mats
/Mats
The rules button is not visible anymore in Game Courier. This means that players cannot easily go back to review the rules of the game, which is bad, since all the rules aren't always easy to memorize when you are trying a new game. In the Game Courier presets one always inserts a link to the rules, so that the players easily can view the rules. But the button has disappeared, it seems. This is a high priority bug. /Mats
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The rules button is not visible anymore in Game Courier. This means that players cannot easily go back to review the rules of the game, which is bad, since all the rules aren't always easy to memorize when you are trying a new game. In the Game Courier presets one always inserts a link to the rules, so that the players easily can view the rules. But the button has disappeared, it seems. This is a high priority bug. /Mats
Regardless of the exact values, it seems like many very fine strategical qualities are lost on the 9x10 board. The space factor, so important in Fide-chess, has taken on a completely different meaning. Suddenly there are large areas of space always available. Of course, there are new aspects of the game, such as the enormous tactical capacities of the super-knights. This is great fun, but many important factors are lost, too. However, with the Gustavian board they are retained, while new tactical qualities can be added. I don't repudiate the Capablanca variants; they are an interesting complement. But I don't think they will ever become popular. Seirawan Chess implements the super-knights on the 8x8 board, however, they are introduced in an erratic manner. To place them on the extra corner squares of the Gustavian board is much more to the taste of the modern player, I think. Gustav III's Chess, with Amazons on the extra squares, is actually a very good game. A preset is here: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MPgustaviiisches /M. Winther
The point is that the game is perfect. If black plays 26...Kg8 instead of 26...Qc8 he also loses:
26... Kg8 27. Nf6+ Kf7 28. Rxh7 Kg6 29. Rh6+ Kf5 30. Rg1 Ng6 31. Ng4 Nxf4 32. Ne3+ Ke4 33. Bxg7 +-
/Mats
26... Kg8 27. Nf6+ Kf7 28. Rxh7 Kg6 29. Rh6+ Kf5 30. Rg1 Ng6 31. Ng4 Nxf4 32. Ne3+ Ke4 33. Bxg7 +-
/Mats
The reason why the Capablanca big-board variants haven't caught on is because the board alters the relation between pieces. There are now ten pawn, a fact which affects the pawn value. The center of the board isn't sharply defined anymore. The knight is worth a pawn less than a bishop. The rook is now worth equally much as a bishop + knight. There is now plenty of space on the board, so one is unlikely to achieve spatial advantage. All this means that important strategical themes are lost, especially the important relation between knight and bishop, and it's hardly possible to sacrifice a rook for a knight anymore. However, the Gustavian board retains all the relations of Fide chess. There are only eight pawns, and the relation between knight and bishop is retained. Possibly, the knight value increases slightly because of the extra corner square, which makes it easier to maneuver with the knight. The queen is probably somewhat more valuable since it can now invade the enemy position via the extra corner square. I hold that the 68-squared Gustavian board is much superior to the 90-squared board, although it also depends on the rules of the game. However, if we simply add the chancellor and the archbishop to the Gustavian board, we get a much better game than Capablanca Chess or Gothic Chess. This is because all the fine nuances of Fide-chess are retained. http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/gustaviii.htm /M. Winther
Kramnik rates this as the best game ever, with Swedish GM Gösta Stoltz as white: http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1152958 Gösta Stoltz on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6sta_Stoltz /Mats
Fairy-Max: an AI for playing user-defined Chess variants. A chess engine configurable for playing a wide variety of chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Indeed, Game Courier runs on Android. It would be neat if one didn't have to scroll every time when making a new move, because the board doesn't fit in the window. I am curious how much money the Android app developers earn, when selling their programs on play.google.com and elsewhere. The apps are cheap, but sometimes there are half a million downloads, because Android is so widely used. Many of the apps have glitches that are very, very frustrating. It is not possible to download a decent painting program, for instance. If it's possible to earn some money, it could motivate that one learns Android programming. /Mats
Maybe it is time to create variant software for Android, too, because it us used so widely, today. Soon Android will be in every TV set, too, and people will surf the web on the TV. Today, there are apps for chessbase online database (a remarkable tool) and Playchess.com, ICC, etc. It would be great if an Android version of game courier could be created, too. /Mats
Aha, I can always turn down the volume. What does it mean that "Chess for Android" can run your FairyMax engine? Are chess variants playable on Android? http://www.aartbik.com/MISC/eng.html /Mats
H.G., I noticed that it's you who have made the engine for HD Chinese Chess or Action Chinese Chess for Android. I like the program, but I hate the sound effects. They are really disturbing. I turned off the music, which is absolutely horrible, but the sound effects are still there, and they hurt my ears. Could you see to that they are altered? Moreover, I would much prefer another skin than the metallic. /Mats
Seirawan Chess
. invented by GM Yasser Seirawan, a conservative drop chess (zrf available).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Matteo, it is the search tree which is the heavy operation. The problem is here that the king search is involved in the search tree, which has thousands of branches. You should consider changing the rules a bit to make it easier to program, until you know how to do it. Anyway, these 'create' and 'capture' commands do nothing if not followed by an 'add'. After the last 'create' there is no 'add', so it won't happen. You probably only need an 'add' in the last position, and that cascade seems superfluous(?). You don't need to 'capture' the king-check piece. It is superfluous. You could also use 'change-type' instead of 'create', to avoid a capture sound. /Mats
Matteo, sorry for the belated reply. Of course, you must jump out of the loop as soon as you find the king, so you should write:
(while (and (on-board? next) (not-flag? found))...
The parse error is that you write (verify found?). It should be (verify (flag? found)).
/Mats
(while (and (on-board? next) (not-flag? found))...
The parse error is that you write (verify found?). It should be (verify (flag? found)).
/Mats
Matteo, with this solution you don't account for the case when the king is in check and the king can be protected by the capture of a pawn. I suppose you must enforce the pawn capture in this case, too. So "normal moves" might protect the king without capturing the pawn, although there is such a possibility.
So perhaps you should try the solution I suggested. Add yet another move-type, the highest of the three. To verify that the king is in check you could do like this, for instance (at least if it's white's move) :
a1
(while (on-board? r) ;correction: r
(if (and (piece? King) friend?) (verify attacked?))
r  ;r is the same as direction e except that h1 is connected with a2, etc.
)
/Mats
So perhaps you should try the solution I suggested. Add yet another move-type, the highest of the three. To verify that the king is in check you could do like this, for instance (at least if it's white's move) :
a1
(while (on-board? r) ;correction: r
(if (and (piece? King) friend?) (verify attacked?))
r  ;r is the same as direction e except that h1 is connected with a2, etc.
)
/Mats
Sorry, I didn't know that it worked that way. It is generally recommended for newcomers to Zillions programming to begin with a simpler game. This is a very, very, complex game. I suppose, the simplest way to solve this is to introduce yet another move-type which has the highest priority of all. This move-type is exactly the same as the normal moves (where pawn capture is not enforced). The only difference is that you must verify that the king is threatened before execution of this move-type is allowed. So you must loop through the board squares until you find the friendly king, and verify that it is threatened. Thus, only if the king is attacked, this priority move will be executed, and the player can thus make a move that is the same as a normal move. Should there be no move that can save the king, then Zillions will signal mate, which is correct. However, for the king itself, it's not necessary to make this loop, because you can check (verify attacked?) where it is placed. /M. Winther
In that case, provided that you have win-condition checkmate set, you don't need to check whether the king is checked, because Zillions does that automatically. Zillions forces you to make a move that protects the king, and you cannot make another move. So it is easy to enforce the rule that an enemy pawn must be captured. Simply add another "move-type" in every piece definition. This move type is exactly the same as the normal move-type except that (1) it is set to higher priority (2) you must verify before the move is executed that an enemy pawn is captured: "(verify enemy?)(verify (piece? Pawn))". This will enforce the capture of an enemy pawn provided that the king is not in check. It will still enforce the capture of a pawn if the king is protected thereby. However, this technique will increase the value of the pieces relative to the pawns. So you need perhaps to tweak the value of the pawns (and other pieces, too) by increasing the number of "adds". You could use my technique of "tweak-shift", which is simple. Zillions tries to evaluate the pieces, but this is highly complicated, and it is necessary to improve this evaluation by tweaking the value of pieces. This improves the playing strength very much. My version of Chinese Chess beats the Zillions standard version every time. It is much better only because I have given the pieces a more appropriate value. M. Winther
If you want to know whether your king is threatened, you'll have to search
out where it is, and then check this square with the "attacked?" command.
But if you only need to know whether a certain enemy piece is attacking your
king, you could perhaps use the same principle as I use in
Coordinator Chess, for instance. I have added a "king gaze" move to the king's
definition, at a lower priority than standard moves, so the king never
performs them. Other pieces can then check if the king "sees" an enemy piece on the
diagonal or the orthogonal, or the knight jump.
M. Winther
out where it is, and then check this square with the "attacked?" command.
But if you only need to know whether a certain enemy piece is attacking your
king, you could perhaps use the same principle as I use in
Coordinator Chess, for instance. I have added a "king gaze" move to the king's
definition, at a lower priority than standard moves, so the king never
performs them. Other pieces can then check if the king "sees" an enemy piece on the
diagonal or the orthogonal, or the knight jump.
M. Winther
This is a remarkable slideshow of medieval chess images. I didn't know that
the motif of chess was so popular in medieval times.
medieval chess motives
/Mats
the motif of chess was so popular in medieval times.
medieval chess motives
/Mats
You should not put the game in a self-extracting archive (exe) because people don't know what it is and won't download. Browsers warn against downloading files such as these. Put it in a zip file instead. /Mats
I hadn't seen this one before. Spassky, and his predecessor Petrosian, are two of the most creative players in the modern era. /Mats
No, you guys have to give up the idea that the perfect position is the
perfectly equal position. You sound like feminists. The FIDE position
is particularly good, better than any of the FRC positions, just because
it gives white a slight first move advantage.
In this way an energy gradient is created in which good defensive and
attacking play can take place. It is a challenge to try to utilize this little
tactical or strategical initiative and transform it into a winning position.
To black, it is an interesting challenge to defend the position, despite
white's advantage. If there were no first move advantage, then the theorists
would soon work out how to create equality for black. 90% of the
GM games would end in a draw, and people would loose interest in the
game. The first move advantage vouches for a popular game. The problem
is the obverse. It is becoming more and more difficult to procure
an advantage among GM:s, on account of theoretical developments. One
solution is to introduce higher complexity, like adding a new pawn
move (Valiant Chess), or changing the castle rules slightly (Castle Chess).
M. Winther
perfectly equal position. You sound like feminists. The FIDE position
is particularly good, better than any of the FRC positions, just because
it gives white a slight first move advantage.
In this way an energy gradient is created in which good defensive and
attacking play can take place. It is a challenge to try to utilize this little
tactical or strategical initiative and transform it into a winning position.
To black, it is an interesting challenge to defend the position, despite
white's advantage. If there were no first move advantage, then the theorists
would soon work out how to create equality for black. 90% of the
GM games would end in a draw, and people would loose interest in the
game. The first move advantage vouches for a popular game. The problem
is the obverse. It is becoming more and more difficult to procure
an advantage among GM:s, on account of theoretical developments. One
solution is to introduce higher complexity, like adding a new pawn
move (Valiant Chess), or changing the castle rules slightly (Castle Chess).
M. Winther
Chess Genius is a very strong program for Android. http://www.chessgenius.com/android/index.html /Mats
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