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Up for Replacement[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Sep 17, 2014 06:05 AM UTC:
Since bombaring followers of CVP message threads with a long list of variants of mine that I was considering replacing with newrer and hopefully better-thought-out ones, I have now got it down to a short list of 9 that I would be especially keen to drop. I have even mentioned ny reservations about keeping them in the introductions. They are the following:
3 to the 5
3 player Dabbaba Qi
Epping Forest Chess
Half Shoxiang
Hex Dabbaba Qi
Kamil Crater Chess
Maharajah's Well Chess
Neutral Subject Chess
Sultan's Elephant Chess

Of those nine I would be especially interested to know which ones other CVP members think should go, as well as any that you think I have been too harsh with and should retain.


Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Sep 17, 2014 09:18 AM UTC:
May I ask you to specify the problems about these variants? For now, I'll
abstain from talking about eight of these, but I will approve replacement
for Dababah-Qi if it would change board, opening position and palace, and
not set of pieces, because I like how it adopts Xiang-Qi, but board could
be better.

John McMahon wrote on Wed, Sep 17, 2014 01:25 PM UTC:
sure thing.

Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Sep 17, 2014 03:07 PM UTC:
Don't you think the better place to post this would be page of your own
game?

Charles Gilman wrote on Fri, Sep 19, 2014 06:11 AM UTC:
Actually I was thinking not of minor improvements, which I have carried out on many of my variants, but with completely new variants unrelated to the ones that they would be replacing, much in the way that my page of modest variants replaced Voyager. Sorry if I did not make this clear. The reasons are now included in the pages for the individual variants, and in those marked * below I had placed the theme too strongly ahead of creating a worthwhile and playanble game. In addition:
3 to the 5 was intended to showcase pieces now better showcased by a more recent variant.
3 player Dabbaba Qi and Hex Dabbaba Qi were steps along a path culminating in the much better Trebuqi.
Epping Forest Chess *, Ksmil Crater Chess *, and Neutral Subject Chess are memory-heavy.
Half Shoxiang had a poor response for the original variant and no counterbalancing response for the supposedly better one.
Maharajah's Well Chess * has a very unorthodox board.
Sultan's Elephant Chess * looks like a spoof and coined "Sultan's" piece before I devised a piece actually named the Sultan.

I have wondered about replacing Maharajah's Well Chess with a modest Maharajah v Sepoys variant in which a piece making a long-range move is "in a well" in the sense of creeping back one rank immediately after its move, but am unconvinced of the merits of such a game.


Daniil Frolov wrote on Sat, Sep 20, 2014 12:00 PM UTC:
Well, if these replacements are completely different, I don't see much reasonship in removing the older pages. Anyway, they are a kind of personal history.
But I could suggest to unite related games in one page (e.g., place Dababah-Qi and Trebu-Qi in one page, titled as "None-straightforward hex Xiang-Qi variant" or some another common title; perhaps, in reversed order, as last one is the best).

Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Sep 23, 2014 05:52 AM UTC:
The reason why I want to get rid of the listed variants is decluttering - clearing out variants that I feel lower the reputation of my contributions overall. They might be part of a personal history but they are not a very interesting or edifying part of it. Grades in internal exams at secondary school are part of people's personal history, but who knows or cares a decade later what anyone's such grades were, however great their later achievements?

The Trebuqi page mentions, and always will, that there were precursors to that game and might even give their names, but I see no need to include the rules of the older games. Most of the rest do not resemble any later or better variant, because they were never even suited to leading to such games.


Jeremy Good wrote on Wed, Sep 24, 2014 03:00 PM UTC:
I would like to do some de-cluttering, or at least consolidating, too, for
my own variants. Can relate.

Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Sep 25, 2014 06:09 AM UTC:
It appears that at the time I launched this thread I had not posted the "Up-for Replacement" explanations in the introduction to each variant. Sorry for the mix-up, I had edited the master documents but forgotten that I had not uploaded them. I have now posted them and you can all read them on the pages to which the original comment lists links.

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