Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 08:34 PM UTC:
Vitya: OK, looking at Joe’s postings, he’s proposing Modern Shantraj, not Modern Chess. That in mind, we only have two submissions that enforce the rules in game Courier: Eurasian Chess and Balanced Capablanca Chess.
I think it’s very important all submissions use a Game Courier preset that enforces the rules. This raises the bar and makes it so people who really want to see their variant in this tournament need prove it by working at getting it here.
Someone wrote:
George is very right about the minor fudging of pieces and/or places in the initial setup not being actual variants.
That said, I agree it isn’t very original to simply rearrange the pieces in the opening. That said, the Capablanca setup I’m proposing is one which I decided to use after having my computer analyze various Capa opening setups for about a week.
In terms of what’s a variant, I could just as easily say that “all games that Fairy-Max can play are pretty much the same” or even “all games that Zillions can play are pretty much the same”. As I’ve pointed out before, there really not that many different types of Chess pieces out there (or, at least, Chess pieces with a simple move) and Betza covered pretty much all of the possible pieces in his 1990s research.
Indeed, I see Chess, Capablanca Chess (Janus Chess, Carrera Chess, Schoolbook Chess, etc.), W-rider chess and what not as different versions of the same game.
I think it’s very important all submissions use a Game Courier preset that enforces the rules. This raises the bar and makes it so people who really want to see their variant in this tournament need prove it by working at getting it here.
Someone wrote:
George is very right about the minor fudging of pieces and/or places in the initial setup not being actual variants.
That’s a subjective, not an objective judgment. Indeed, the Wikipedia article on Displacement chess calls rearrangements of the pieces in the opening a variant or variation. We have pages for a number of different opening setups using the Capablanca pieces, for example, as well at least one Grand Chess alternate setup. Each different setup has a different opening book and different themes and motifs.
That said, I agree it isn’t very original to simply rearrange the pieces in the opening. That said, the Capablanca setup I’m proposing is one which I decided to use after having my computer analyze various Capa opening setups for about a week.
In terms of what’s a variant, I could just as easily say that “all games that Fairy-Max can play are pretty much the same” or even “all games that Zillions can play are pretty much the same”. As I’ve pointed out before, there really not that many different types of Chess pieces out there (or, at least, Chess pieces with a simple move) and Betza covered pretty much all of the possible pieces in his 1990s research.
Indeed, I see Chess, Capablanca Chess (Janus Chess, Carrera Chess, Schoolbook Chess, etc.), W-rider chess and what not as different versions of the same game.