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Recognized Chess Variants. Index page listing the variants we feel are most significant. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Sep 14, 2004 06:21 PM UTC:
<p>IMHO, Star-Trek Tri-D Chess, and Los Alamos chess, are the two obvious ones that don't belong, for the reasons you mention. I agree that it makes sense to create a 'historical interest' category as well, for games like <a href='/historic.dir/chaturanga.html'>Chaturanga</a>, <a href='/historic.dir/chaturang4.html'>Chaturanga for Four Players</a>, <a href='/historic.dir/shatranj.html'>Shatranj</a>, and <a href='/historic.dir/tamerlane.html'>Tamerlane Chess</a>. Whether or not Star-Trek and Los Alamos belong even here would be a question for the community.</p> <p>As to the proposed process of weeding, I would agree that some weeding should occur, but I don't like the threshold of exactly ten for all categories. I think the threshold for weeding should be larger for the lower categories. The bottom category, the Acclaimed games, in particular, should be allowed to grow rather large; I think even 40 or 50 in this category wouldn't be unreasonable. This site has hundreds and hundreds of games. I think many people who like to look through, and read the rules for games just for fun, would appreciate having a listing of those games on the site that have actually been playtested and enjoyed. And I would hate to see that list limited to any small number. For the Popular and Vintage categories, a threshold of 10 might be reasonable.</p> <p>For the top level classification, it seems to me that an exact definition of what's in and what's out is in order, so here's my humble suggestion: <blockquote>A game that is played <i>exactly in its current form</i> by at least one million people, and has been played by at least one million people for at least one hundred years.</blockquote> Of course, this would also include <a href='/oriental.dir/koreanchess.html'>Changgi (Korean Chess)</a>, along with Fergus' great three, but I see no reason for it to be excluded. This definition also sets the exact conditions for games to fall out of the list as well ... If the game is ever played by less than a million players, then it has lost too much popularity, and should be dropped to the next lower bracket (Vintage.) The other possibility is that the game mutates, i.e., the rules of the game change and fewer people are playing with the old rules than with the new rules. In this case, the game should drop to Vintage, and the new version won't qualify for Classic status until the new version is dominant for at least one hundred years.</p> <p>As for those you list as Popular or Acclaimed, may I humbly suggest that <a href='/unequal.dir/cwda.html'>Chess with Different Armies</a> be Popular, and <a href='/3d.dir/dragonchess.html'>Dragonchess</a> be Acclaimed. <a href='/3d.dir/startrek.html'>Star-Trek</a> and <a href='/small.dir/losalamos.html'>Los Alamos</a> should be in the new Historical Interest category, or none at all. I have no opinion on the others you leave open (Magnetic, McCooney's Hex, and Wildebeast.)</p> <p>Thanks again for your great work on these important classifications, Fergus!</p>