Game Reviews (and other rated comments on Game pages)
Alfilrider appeared in Skip Chess, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17. Alibaba appeared in 4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj, Alibaba Chess, Fantasy Grand Chess: Giant Army, Interdependent Chess, Leap Chess, Modern Courier Chess, The Pattern Game, Shatranj al-Sultan, Pocket Polypiece Chess 43, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Dealer's Chess, Convoi exceptionnel II, Convoi exceptionnel III, Play against Popo, Trifecta. Alibabarider appeared in Skip Chess. Auroch appeared in Dealer's Chess. Barc appeared in UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Crab Chess. Champion appeared in Omega Chess Advanced, Apothecary Chess-Modern, Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern, Gross Chess, Parity Chess, SOHO Chess, TenCubed Chess, WAD Chess, Wide Nightrider Chess, Wide SOHO Chess, Wormhole Chess, Mĕirìqí, Yangsi, Hectochess, Omega Chess Extended, Omega Chess Semi-Advanced, Omega Chess Extreme. Crab appeared in Amazon Army II, DemiChess, Half Chess, Halfgi, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Shatranj With Different Armies, Aquachess, Crab Chess. Dabbaba-Wazir-Fers appeared in Chess++, Cobwebs. Dabbabarider appeared in Skip Chess, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, XChess. Problems with Dabbabarider: -Nils Adrian Bakke 153 feenschach 36, p. 374, 11-12/1976 -Theodor Steudel 63 feenschach 162, p. 217, 12/2005 Dabbabarider-Wazir appeared in Traffic Calmed Borders. Duck appeared in Scheherazade, Colorbound Chess, Major Star. Duke appeared in Grand Betza, Short Sliders, Zwangkrieg, Uneven pieces chess, Patchanka, Constabulary Chess, Constable-Spiel, Med Chess, Accelerated Constable-Spiel, Accelerated Constabulary Chess, Futashikana Shogi, Ryugi, Mosaic Chess, Chu Seireigi, Minjiku Shogi, Tengu Dai Shogi, Chu Kagamigi, 4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj, Dai Seireigi, Nutty Shogi, Macadamia Shogi, Kirin-Spiel, Mitsugumi Shogi, Kuuzen Dai Shogi, Cashew Shogi, Bureau-Spiel, Silly Sliders, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Dealer's Chess, Weirweb, Crow chess cheap copy. Ferfil appeared in 3D Great Shatranj, 4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj, Champagne Chess, Courier Chess (modified), Enhanced Courier Chess, Fearful fairies, Hannibal Chess, HyperModern Shatranj, Maasai Chess, Metamachy, Mir Chess, Teramachy, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Constabulary Chess, Constable-Spiel, Bureau-Spiel, Simi Grove, Simi River, Wukong. General appeared in UC-170-13, UC-170-17. Griffon appeared in Apothecary Chess-Modern, Europan Chess, Ganymede Chess, Grand Apothecary Chess-Classic, Grand Apothecary Chess-Modern, IO Chess, Mosaic Chess, Tigrey, Gryphon Aanca Chess, Frog/Hannibal/Waffle chess with Gryphon, 4 Linepiece Fusion, Expanded Chess, Royal Lion Chess, Abecedarian Big Chess, Universal Chess, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Dealer's Chess, 15 Random Bent Riders Chess. Impala appeared in Dealer's Chess. Christopher John Feather 7 Fairings 14 01/2011 features Impala. Knight-Alfil-Wazir appeared in Scheherazade, Strategists' nightmare. Knight-Dabbaba-Fers appeared in Strategists' nightmare. Lynx appeared in Lynx Chess. Mao-Bishop appeared in Paradigm Chess30. Squirrel appeared in ArchCourier Chess, Archchess, Carrousel Chess, Courier Chess (modified), Fantasy Grand Chess: Giant Army, Grand Ducal Chess, Renniassance Chess, Samarcanda, Trophy Hunt, Alibaba Chess, Timurid, Fantastic XIII, Obento Chess, Cincinnati 4-way Chess, Heavy Shako, Bigorra, Archabbott Chess, Timurid Babur, Chess Empire, UC-170-13, UC-170-17, Dealer's Chess, Strategists' nightmare. Toad appeared in Chaturanga with minor changes.
ATTENTION EDITORS: the applet wants to play the illegal move 17... e7-e5 in the game below, ignoring the White Rook on e6. I wonder if two-step initial pawn moves were coded as leaps here. EDIT [10/22/2024] Thanks for all your work on these applets. The game now correctly ends with *** stalemate ***
1. h4 d6 2. Nf3 Bh3 3. Rxh3 Nc6 4. g4 Nd4 5. Nxd4 Kd7 6. Nf5 Ke6 7. Rc3 Kf6 8. Rxc7 Kg6 9. Rxb7 h6 10. Rxa7 Kh7 11. Rxa8 Nf6 12. Rxd8 Kg8 13. g5 Rh7 14. h5 Kh8 15. g6 Ng8 16. Rxd6 f6 17. Re6
At first glance, the final position arrived at might appear impossible, so I decided to provide a complete game, which can be copypasted into the chess applet here. Such "blockade stalemates" are highly unusual, but need to be kept in mind whenever you are writing brand new rules for a chess variant.
super, super brilliant
I would like to nominate this game as the featured chess variant for the next month. There are some rules I disagree with, but nevertheless, this remains a great game.
This looked like a great chess variant and got excited about it until I reached the rule saying "Capture is mandatory", which changed this great idea into a different version of "Antichess".
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Ultima introduced a lot of novel mechanics for a chess game, some original and others from other games. To be honest, these novelties are a more valuable contribution to the Chess Variant world than the actual game in my opinion
If you actually play the game, it's clear that it can be quite flawed, in many cases due to overcomplications in the application of its rules. The inventor itself has even written an article about this.
Despite its flaws, it's clear that Ultima has something going for it, and I believe it was ultimately a net positive for the Chess Variant world.
Woah, somehow you got it!!!
really one page instead of six is what I suggested much time ago. Well done!
Only flaw is that some pieces are linked to Piececlopedia while others aren’t.
World Rhino Day is September 22!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Replacing the Crabinals with Barcinals is desirable.
Because black have a Royal Archbishop.
The August 3rd comment is very interesting, but it appears that WHITE has been stalemated for more than one move. Another attempt:
WHITE TO MOVE - - - FIDE Chess allows 1.Ka1 a3, 2.Kxa2 stalemate
Since 2.Kxa2 is an illegal move in Sittuyin, it follows that 1... a3 stalemated WHITE.
Since 1... a3 is an illegal move in Sittuyin, it follows that 1.Ka1 stalemated BLACK.
Since 1.Ka1 is an illegal move in Sittuyin, a different move has to be played.
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Hardly understandable but so interesting.
Cool, thanks;) noting that Queen and Oracle are pretty equal.
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Hello.
I think it's a very nice take on the mini-chess, that feels different from Diana, Mallett, or Los Alamos variants. I believe that the closest relative of this variant is 5x6 chess, with the same feel of all possibilities of orthodox chess, but faster and less complex. This variant is definitely going to take its place in my game library. Thank you for sharing!
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After fifteen years I finally decided on an excellent rating. One contributing factor was the Checkmating Applet telling me that a King and two (improved) Knights can checkmate a lone King in 33 moves or less on the 10x10 board.
Estimating Pawn=1, Knight=4, Bishop=4.5, Minister=5.5, Rook=6, Queen=10 points. I started with my usual values on the 10x10 board, then added 0.5 to the Rook and 1.0 to the Knight (8 more moves) and Bishop (4 more moves, plus no longer colorbound). Now a Queen is only worth as much as a Rook and a Knight.