Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Sep 15, 2008 06:28 AM UTC:
As someone with a special affection for Ganesh as a character (hence my references in pages 2,3, and 6 of my Armies of Faith series), I am delighted to see him given such prominence here, but I am slightly puzzled about how the piece relates to him. It seems odd that a deity
'of Intellect and Wisdom'
should have moves including
'Like a Fool'
. Admittedly the piece described is more widely known as a Joker (perhaps to distainguish from the Bishop whose French and Greek names mean a fool), but even that name is more suggestive of a trickster deity, which I am not aware of Ganesh being. The Joker is not even the natural counterpart of the Friend: that rôle falls to the Orphan, which moves as any piece attacking it (including to capture such pieces). Did you know of the Orphan? My instinct is to rate this variant as Average but I have deferred rating and will gladly rate higher if there are reasons for the selected combination of moves that I have overlooked. Incidentally, a tip for using Seirawan sets: you can use Hawks for the extra Pawns.
Where I am on safer ground is in reporting that undeed
'apart from the King (and Ganesha) these values are actually FIDE official.'
but only on the FIDE board. On a 10x10 board Bishops outperform Knights (the reverse would be true on 6x6). You cite the shape of Seirawan Chess pieces as an inspiration, but that variant has an 8x8 board precisely because
'the size of the board affects the relative value of the pieces, the most obvious example being that a larger board decreases the power of the short-range knight and king relative to the other pieces'
Oddly enough, the thought of a Ganesh piece has given me an idea for pieces having a special power alluding to his 'remover of obstacles' aspect. This would be the power allowing a piece of the same army, and normally blocked by intervening pieces, to pass over both it and any other pieces in its line. Thus in
the White Rook cannot Check the Black King or capture anything, but in
where the elephant represents any 'remover of obstacles', the White Rook can Check the Black King by passing over every capturable piece (but capturing none), or capture any one Black piece by passing over everything in between.
should have moves including
. Admittedly the piece described is more widely known as a Joker (perhaps to distainguish from the Bishop whose French and Greek names mean a fool), but even that name is more suggestive of a trickster deity, which I am not aware of Ganesh being. The Joker is not even the natural counterpart of the Friend: that rôle falls to the Orphan, which moves as any piece attacking it (including to capture such pieces). Did you know of the Orphan? My instinct is to rate this variant as Average but I have deferred rating and will gladly rate higher if there are reasons for the selected combination of moves that I have overlooked. Incidentally, a tip for using Seirawan sets: you can use Hawks for the extra Pawns.
Where I am on safer ground is in reporting that undeed
but only on the FIDE board. On a 10x10 board Bishops outperform Knights (the reverse would be true on 6x6). You cite the shape of Seirawan Chess pieces as an inspiration, but that variant has an 8x8 board precisely because
Oddly enough, the thought of a Ganesh piece has given me an idea for pieces having a special power alluding to his 'remover of obstacles' aspect. This would be the power allowing a piece of the same army, and normally blocked by intervening pieces, to pass over both it and any other pieces in its line. Thus in
the White Rook cannot Check the Black King or capture anything, but in
where the elephant represents any 'remover of obstacles', the White Rook can Check the Black King by passing over every capturable piece (but capturing none), or capture any one Black piece by passing over everything in between.