Check out Symmetric Chess, our featured variant for March, 2024.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Earlier Reverse Order Later
Logical Hexagonal Chess[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Rich Hutnik wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2014 10:51 AM UTC:
I did a blog post on this:
http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/34884/logical-hex-chess

The basic point is that I don't believe that normal attempts at having a
chess game on a hex space are logical.  I believe, to make sense on a hex
board, in order to not have weird knights and bishops that become leapers,
pieces are restricted to these core move types:
- Move one space adjacent.
- Move in a straight line a number of spaces, without changing direction,
capturing an enemy piece or being blocked by a friendly piece, or stopping.
A piece would be able to move in 6 directions, one per side.
- Leaping in a line one or more pieces, ignoring occupied spaces. A piece
would leap in one of six directions.

Pieces can be formed out of a combination of these move types.

Anyhow, I would be interested in discussing this further.  Please comment
below.  I am thinking of working on my own hexagonal chess variant, after
observing a Chinese Checkers board (particularly the inside part that
isn't the bases), is sufficiently large to support a number of games.

Thank you for your time...

George Duke wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2014 04:00 PM UTC:
Don't you think it's important to use AltOrthHex, http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSaltorthwithfur, splitting the six-way
into two three-ways as logical development?  The underpinning of Gilman's
discovery is clarity for humans or other sentients.  Units that go six
directions are a bit much.  Then start to do away with opaque Knights and
so on of Glinski and McCooey both.

"Logical" is priniciple when Vera and I developed Falcon in the nineties on squares.  That is, anything can be made up.  Yet Falcon has compelling logic with respect to regular Knight, Bishop and Rook two-fold:  each mutually exclusive arrival squares and second each different own unique movement mode. In the end, three-way least-path Falcon is first among four equal simple Chess pieces because it has elements of the other three embedded.  

But Clarity should be first principle on Hexagons, being slightly difficult to visualize compared to squares; therefore two three-ways.  Result is Hexagons have two basic types not four of squares.  Then only cautiously add anything not along
 the six radials, if at all, 
 and jumping along them a la Hutnik is more natural for a couple of subsidiary piece-types than "oblique" Knight/Bishop of McCooey, Glinkski, Gilman, Larry Smith.

Rich Hutnik wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2014 05:33 PM UTC:
George, thank you for the article, as it would be worth reading more on, to
do research.

In regards to splitting the 6 movement in any way, I am not sure that is a
good idea.  I believe it mutes clarity, which you talked about.

3 comments displayed

Earlier Reverse Order Later

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.