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Comments by RobertoLavieri
Chess/Xianqi/Shogi Tournament #1. Enter the First Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Game Courier Tournament![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have been looking some of the games played, and some of them are very interesting. Nice Tournament. Congrats for all the players, I suppose you have had fun with it, gentlemen. Aaah... Special congrats for Antoine, I`m not talking about Chess, it is Soccer. What a game France-Brazil!. Zidane?: of other world!, what a classy player!, one of the best of all times!. Sorry, brazilians,you have played fatally, nobody could be sure you were playing there... all your millionary superstars have played below everybody expected. Are going to be les bleus in the final?. Perhaps, against Azzurri team, am I wrong?. Who is going to use the blue shirt in that case?.
Poll number Approval Poll for Game Courier Tournament #3. Vote for which games you want in the third Game Courier tournament.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]We need a Preset for Connected Chess, and I encourage W.D.Troyka to add a Page for this excellent game. And for the votes, I´m a bit surprised by the fact that Omega Chess is ahead of Grand Chess, but it can happen. Some new games have merits for a higher votation, like Christine´s SKY, actually with 5 votes. Aaah, Christine: Congrats, In the FIFA World Cup Australia is in the last 16, the game against Croatia is one of the best I have seen in the cup, regardless the arbiter (with his help the result was 2-2, but Australia could win 4-2 with a correct arbitrage). Australia is a good team, much better than I have had suppose. The next time Australia is going to face...ITALY!. Cherry, I can´t say to you 'good luck' this time, sorry.
Chess with Promoters. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks, Fergus. There is an error in the Page´s setup description. Knights and Bishops positions are as usual in Chess.
Yes, this is the game, by W.D. Troyka, year 2001. Simple, elegant and very nice to play, I find it much better than usual Chess, strategy is different, tactics are much more rich, and the ends of game are incredible, I highly recommend it to all players. Try it, you are going to be greatly surprised. Brilliant!, for me, one of the best games of W.D. Troyka, perhaps the best, and I have to say he has a lot of good games.
There is an old game by D.Troika called Connected Chess, and in zillionsofgames.com you can find an outstanding zrf for it. This game is amazingly good, you have to play it to see. Excellent!
Sky 
. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks to Christine and gary. And about the World Cup, Brazil is not unbeatable, of course: this is Soccer, and as in Basketball, Baseball or another field sport, another good team can beat them, but it does not seem very easy, in the majority of cases. But, on paper, this is the best brazilian team presented in a World Cup in the history, and the odds in the betting houses confirm this appretiation, every other team you bet, you are going to gain some money, if they succeed... so it is not a bad idea going for two or three European teams, you must remember that the games are going to be played in Germany, and, apart from the quality of a few European teams, fans on the tribunes are also a factor. Good luck, Italy, although I am not extremely optimistic. USA?: They have made progresses in this sport, but not enough, there are much more popular sports in USA, and this is also a factor.
We need a 'Soccer Chess' variant, I don´t know whether it exists. The World Cup begins tomorrow, my sentimental favourite is Italy, regardless some lack of beauty in the pragmatic style of the Italian team (I suppose that Antoine prefers France and Andreas would like a German victory, although I doubt that Christine thinks about a real chance for Australia). But I´ll be honest: if you are not blind, you must admit that the archi-favourite is Brazil. All the team is composed by the world´s top superstars. The rest of the teams are going to play Soccer. Brazil is going to play something a bit superior, called also Soccer, but I imagine you are going to see the difference.
Final standings, women (first 5 places): 1 Ukraine UKR 29.5 2 Russia RUS 28.0 3 China CHN 27.5 4 USA 24.5 5 Hungary 24.5 Great performance by the USA and China teams in men and women. Relatively modest actuation of Russians in both categories. Anand is going to lose around 30-40 ELO poits after this olympiad (incredible!), but he is still second in the world. Topalov consolidates his first position in ELO ratings augmenting a lot his advantage (he has not played with the Bulgarian team, i don´t know why).
The '37° Olimpiade degli scacchi - Torino 2006' has finished minutes ago. Surprises. Armenia was gold medal, China silver, Russia fall down to 6th., Topalov´s Bulgaria was 10th. and the third seed, Anand´s India, finished around the 30th. position, with a poor actuaction of Vishy, who even lost against a canadian player >300 points below in the 11th. round. Final (unofficial) positions, after tie-breaks: 1.- Armenia----------36.0 2.- China------------34.0 3.- USA--------------33.0 4.- Israel-----------33.0 5.- Hungary----------32.5 6.- Russia-----------32.0 7.- France-----------32.0 8.- Ukraine----------32.0 9.- Spain------------32.0 10.-Bulgaria---------32.0
Three Elephant Chess. War Towers destroy 3 spaces at a time - protect your elephants while capturing your opponent's. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This game seems to be very strategic, perhaps a bit slow, but it does not affects the fun, this game, as is, seems to be very interesting. My experience with stones is not negative, I like these pieces if you want a less tactical and a more strategical game, but I admit that it can slow the game. I need some tests to evaluate better this game; for a while, a 'good' rating.
I don´t believe that Walmart has the game, perhaps ToysRus on line, but I have my doubts, this does not seem to be a child´s game. The problem with Evolver is: There is not a 'help text', so if you don´t know how to play it, don´t try the program, or you are not going to be able to know what´s going on, even with all the players managed by the AI. But the rules are easely available in many sites. In boardgamegeek there are a few files for download with detailed rules in English, butI consider it would be better learn with the board game in hand, there are several special buildings (tiles, in the game), I´m not sure, but there are around 12-14 in the game, and many actions depend on the buildings 'powers'. Once initiated, a typical game flows with naturality and actions are very intuitive, so the main effort for learning it is in the first 20-30 minutes, enough for assimilate the rules. Yesterday, I played the game my first time; today, I tried Evolver. I was brutally demolished by the program the first times, but I believe I have learned a bit more after 5 games: the gap is being reduced after each game I play against it, playing moderately fast games of around 30 minutes each. Draws?: very rare in this game.
'Puerto Rico' is produced under license in USA by a company called 'Rio Grande Games'. Many online stores sell the game (it is not very cheap, around 50 US$), by example at Funagain games, but it appears it is not easely found in some popular stores, the game does not seem to be taylor-made for the American taste, surely by some reasons I have briefly shown, between other reasons. It is a 3-5 players game, but there are unofficial rules for 2 players. The game feels different whne you play it with 3, 4 or 5 players, strategy must change according the number of players. The rules in English can be downloaded at boardgamegeek.com, in the section 'files' of the Puerto Rico page. At this site, you can also download a very, very strong free PR program called 'Evolver', wrote in EXCEL!, although with crude but decent interface, and with AI based on genetic programming techniques, it learns in each game it plays, so it is desiderable to keep the growing database of the excel program. To run it, you must weaken the Excel controls over macros, the macros need to be habilitated for proper run. This is the section where you can download the amazing Evolver: http://www.bggfiles.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=8766
'Puerto Rico' may be offensive for many players, but also Chess: it is a war simulation in which you use your mind trying to surrender the other player, and in which at least the Pawns die, they never return to the game. If you are thinking that 'Puerto Rico' is an unknown game that moves in the shadows, sit down: It is one of the top sellers in Europe and it is perhaps the most awarded game in the history of board games: Deutscher Spiele Preis 2002, Essen Feather 2002, Strategy game of the year in USA 2003, International Gamers award 2003, actually ranked number 1 in the Internet Top 100 list -everybody can vote- (GO is number 68 and Chess is number 242), and PR is ranked number 1 in the independent BoardGameGeek list, etc... The ideas behind some aspects of the game may be vomitive, but, being absolutely objective, considering its abstract value as game, I have to admit that it is really good.
Yesterday, my son and friends invited me to play a german board game called 'Puerto Rico', a complex multi-player game with the theme of colonial economy. My first impression, after three games, is that, regardless the set-up time and some details explained after, this game is one of the best I have played, considering it as a game for serious players. There is a random factor in a little segment of the game, but it mainly adds diversity, this game is 95-99% strategic and tactical, and extremely deep. The learning curve and time to mastering seems to be relatively high, but you can play it decently soon. But there is a detail I have to mention in the game: Some pieces, called 'Colonists' are used in the game, you must place them in plantations and certain buildings for activation purposes, plantations can´t produce without 'Colonists'. The case is that 'Colonists' are represented by dark brown disks, they come into the game through a 'Colonial Ship', and in the Expansion Set of the game, it appears a building called 'Black Market', in which, apart from other possible actions, you can exchange 'Colonists' for money. If you have two fingers of head, you can understand, inmediately, that such 'Colonists' are not other thing than slaves...
Joost, You have made a difficult question. Not answer yet. Are you trying a zrf?. It does not look a hard job, stacked pieces are, each one, a piece with a particular movement, the difficult task is that Zillions can play it decently, I have my doubts. There are not many free (or not) DVONN programs around, I have found only one, in French. Follow the link: http://www.nivozero.com/
Go. Preset for Go and Go-Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Go is not a Chess variant, but it is a very deep and interesting classic oriental game. We have in Courier an amazing collection of chess variants, with the add of a few of other great games, like Amazons and Go. Some other mind-burning games may be missing in the list, but if I have to add new games, I would suggest Lines-Of-Action 10x10 or 12x12 (much more interesting and deep than the 8x8 version, The difference in game play and fun is notorious, I have made some tests in both 10x10 and 12x12, and I have not doubts... I believe this is also the case with 12x12 Amazons vs. the 10x10 version, although I have not tried it yet), and DVONN variants (the commercial board is too little).
Sudoku War . A fight that takes place in a Sudoku.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Really nice, but strange game play. I`ll need a few more test games for a better 'feeling' of the essence. I think I like it.
Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Is there any reference to the so called Hyperchess?. The name has been also used at least once for another completely different variant, but I have not seen the rules for the game you have mentioned, an Ultima variant. I have also doubts about the goodness of those rules, capturing seems to be more difficult, and certain pawn structures can make the game very slow. It must be tested, before a conclusion.
Are the drops independent for each player?. How is the dropping mechanics?.
DVONN is not a chess variant, but it is a very interesting and deep game, very different from other known strategic games, and the rules are extremely simple. You don´t need purchase the game to take a first look, you can play it just using coins or disks with three colors and you can draw by-hand a primitive board on a paper, as I did. Making a ZRF looks easy, I´m not sure I´m going to do that, because my time is limited in this times, but I can´t discard the project, perhaps in a couple of weeks. DVONN is a copyrighted game, and by this reason I´m not going to distribute the ZRF, in the case I take the project seriously. For the rules, you can find it in many places in Internet.
Tournament over. Morozewich finished in the first place in 'blindfold' and 'combined'. Anand was first in 'rapid'.
Two round remaining in the tough Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament, here are the positions in combined. Standings after round 9: 1. Anand, Viswanathan 12.0 Morozevich, Alexander 3. Vallejo, Francisco 10.5 4. Grischuk, Alexander 9.0 Leko, Peter 6. Gelfand, Boris 8.5 Topalov, Veselin Van Wely, Loek 9. Aronian, Levon 8.0 Svidler, Peter 11. Ivanchuk, Vassily 7.0 Nielsen, Peter Heine
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