Ratings & Comments
Capablanca Random Chess. Randomized setup for Capablanca chess. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]But why the limitation to set up queen and archbishop on different coloured squares, when they can change the square colour by moving like rook resp. knight?
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Dec 2, 2021 08:23 AM UTC:The re-definition of the piece images is at the bottom of the Pre-Game section in all these presets. Somewhat further down in this discussion Aurelian posted a link to an ongoing game with this preset, where the problem manifests itself.
@Fergus, Thanks for taking the time!
In the following preset:
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Grand+Apothecary+Chess+1&settings=Applet
the pictures are not shown properly.when playing in online mode. In the local play mode things are fine.
In two other very similar presets:
https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Grand+Apothecary+Chess+2&settings=Applet https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Grand+Apothecary+Chess+3&settings=Applet
things work properly. Nor I or HG could figure it out. Maybe you can! I don't know how to reproduce it besides looking at the proper preset.
I have been busy with other things. What is the specific issue you are having, and how can I duplicate it?
Symmetric Chess. 
Variant with two Queens flanking the King and Bishops Conversion Rule. (9x8, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Very good, having cleared the cache and deleted the cookies, the AI no longer commits the illegality of not converting the bishop. Now it plays 24 ... Qc4. Continuing the game it developed like this:
1.g3 d5 2.d4 f5 3.Bg2 e6 4.f4 Qb4 5.c3 Qb5 6.Nf2 g6 7.Nd3 a5 8.a4 Qc4 9.Nd2 Qc6 10.Ne5 Qb6 11.b3 Nc6 12.Ndf3 Qd6 13.Ba3 Qd8 14.Bc5 Qa6 15.Qf2 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 b6 17.Ba3 Nf7 18.Nxf7 Bxf7 19.O-O Qf6 20.c4 dxc4 21.Bxa8 Qxa8 22.Ki1 cxb3 23.Rb1 Qd5 24.Rxb3 Qc4 25.Rd3 b5 26.axb5 Qxb5 27.Qa1 i5 28.Rb1 Qd5 29.Bc5 Qa8 30.Qa4 c6 31.Bb6 Bd8 32.Bxd8 Kxd8 33.Rdb3 Qa6 34.Rb6 Qa7 35.Qxc6 h5 36.Qd6 Qd7 37.Rb8#
Thanks for showing me the solution. So when will we see the Interactive Diagram offered on the Google Apps Store?
H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Dec 1, 2021 09:41 PM UTC:When I paste that game up to move 24 back into the Diagram, and then play Rxb3, it doesn't reply with that same Bishop move. And when I play the (illegal) move Qa6 instead of Rxb3 it doesn't capture the Queen, but plays Bd8. Did you flush the browser cache, (Shift + reload in FireFox) to make sure you are using the latest version of the diagram script? You might have been using the old version where I hadn't implemented the rule yet. If you are sure you have flushed the cache you can paste the moves 1-23 back in the Diagram (in the dashed text box below the navigation buttons), and continue the game from there.
It seems that there is a bug such that the AI does not always make the conversion as can be seen in the following game on move 24 of the blue side:
1.g3 d5 2.d4 f5 3.Bg2 e6 4.f4 Qb4 5.c3 Qb5 6.Nf2 g6 7.Nd3 a5 8.a4 Qc4 9.Nd2 Qc6 10.Ne5 Qb6 11.b3 Nc6 12.Ndf3 Qd6 13.Ba3 Qd8 14.Bc5 Qa6 15.Qf2 Nxe5 16.Nxe5 b6 17.Ba3 Nf7 18.Nxf7 Bxf7 19.O-O Qf6 20.c4 dxc4 21.Bxa8 Qxa8 22.Ki1 cxb3 23.Rb1 Qd5 24.Rxb3 Bd7 25.Rc3 c5 26.Rd3 c4 27.Rd2 i5 etc
Magnificent! I encourage you to publish your Interactive Diagram in the aforementioned apps store since it is a very good showcase to spread ideas, in such a way that a certain number of variants could be played by default (including Symmetric Chess, of course!). I believe that you could get a fair remuneration in money for your work including banner ads. Using the app would be free. What do you say?
H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Dec 1, 2021 03:55 PM UTC in reply to Carlos Cetina from 02:33 PM:Do you think that the Interactive Diagram software could be used in the Android environment?
I know that for sure. It is browser-based, and every OS nowadays has a browser that understands HTML and JavaScript. So you don't need a separate App for it. (Of course the browser is also an App, but I assume everyone already has that.) It works fine on my Samsung Tablet.
Thank you very much, HG. It's a great improvement.
One of my biggest dreams is to see one day in the Google Apps Store one with which this chess variant can be played against the AI. Do you think that the Interactive Diagram software could be used in the Android environment?
H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Dec 1, 2021 10:13 AM UTC:I have implemented the bishop conversion rule now as a standard feature of the Interactive Diagram. So that it is now also possible to play Symmetric Chess against the AI (for which the trick of changing both bishop's piece types when one of them moved did not work). All that is now required is define the bishop with an extra initial iW move, and add a parameter conversion=N, where N is the number of the piece table of the piece to which the rule applies. (So here N=3). The first moves of pieces of this type are then forced to go to different square shades.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fergus, Are you here?
Play-test applet for chess variants. Applet you can play your own variant against.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Nov 29, 2021 06:43 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 04:41 PM:How to remove a piece from the diagram. For example if I want to put the King on another square than those on which they stand by default?
You can move the pieces over the board, just like you can when you use the diagram for playing. If you want to remove a piece that you selected by mistake, but do not want on the board after all, it is a bit more tricky: you would have to capture it with another piece, and the Diagram only accept attempts to capture if they are pseudo-legal moves (i.e. when the piece to capture gets highlighted when you select the piece you are going to capture it with.) Best way is just to move the piece next to the opposing king (moves to empty squares are always accepted, even when not pseudo-legal), and then capture it with the king, and finally move the king back to where it belongs.
Also, how to use "paste an existing diagram". For example, I want to create a play-test for Shako. What can I paste in that box, an image? the link for the shako page? something else? I don't know how to use this?
That box is for pasting diagram descriptions of the type you get when you press the 'Show HTML' button at the bottom of the article. It is intended for trying out diagrams that you modified by editing the text of their description, e.g. to implement some features that the Play-Test applet would not allow you to switch on. Such as Shogi-style promotion. You can then first make the Diagram without that feature, ask for the HTML, paste it in a text editor to modify it, and copy-paste the modified version back into the diagram. Or when you get a Diagram from another page (by asking for 'Page Source', and copy-paste from there. (I discovered that also there you have to paste it into a text editor first; directly copying from the Page Source seems to leave in all kind of invisible formatting information the Play-Test Applet chokes on.)
E.g. when you want two promoting piece types, you would have to add the line maxPromote=2 to the Diagram description, otherwise only Pawns will promote.
[Edit] I forgot to say: there is also a button for creating GAME code for automating a Game Courier preset. Originally the paste box was added to make it possible to convert an Interactive Diagram that you made before and posted somewhere else to GAME code. Without the need to entirely recreate the Diagram through the Applet. Which for large variants would be more cumbersomet than just copy-pasting an existing and well-tested Diagram into the box, and pressing the GAME-code button.
How to remove a piece from the diagram. For example if I want to put the King on another square than those on which they stand by default?
Also, how to use "paste an existing diagram". For example, I want to create a play-test for Shako. What can I paste in that box, an image? the link for the shako page? something else? I don't know how to use this?
Thank you
Play-test applet for chess variants. Applet you can play your own variant against.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you, I got it working
H.G. Muller, thanks for the comments. I've also been doing some testing in ChessV.
- White: Queen, Black: Queen
- White wins: 94
- Black wins: 93
- Draws: 113
- White: Griffon, Black:
- White wins: 177
- Black wins: 48
- Draws: 75
I'm currently running test on the Archbishop and Chancellor.
The Queen-Griffon was matchup is fairly lopsided in the simulations, but its close enough that that I still found it fun to play myself. I haven't tested the Griffon-Lion matchup yet either in the computer or over the board, but your results for the KaFafsW Lion make me think that it could be unplayable. I will run some tests with the Q2afsW after my current games finish running and see if this tones down the Lion sufficiently.
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Nov 28, 2021 07:29 PM UTC:I see that the Lion now has become a regular 2-step area mover. I tested a Lion that was blocked more easily (KaFafsW), because it was missing the Moa path and lame Dabbabah (nD), so that only the D move was multi-path (reachable in 2 ways), by pitting it against a Queen in Fairy-Max. To my surprise the lameness did not weaken it that much compared to a KNAD: it beat the Queen by 63% in 200 games, which is only slightly smaller than the Pawn-odds score.
The balance could still be improved a little by making every square on the 'second ring' reachable through a single path only. E.g. the A squares through the F squares, (as they already are), and all others through the W squares. So that it becomes a compound of a range-two Queen and a Xiangqi Horse (Q2afsW). That would most likely still leave it stronger than a Queen, while all other replacements are weaker than Queen.
I also tried the WyasW against a normal Griffon. It was only marginally stronger. I guess it suffers a lot from the fact that the paths cross on the F squares, which means that there now are 8 squares where two of its arms can be blocked. This makes the detour over the W squares nearly as much as a liability as an asset. Furthermore, it made the piece very difficult to develop; the initial F step is really useful for sneaking between Pawns. This was quite annoying, so I would not recommend use of this piece. and stick to the regular Griffon.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ok, thanks HG! Fergus if you can help?
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Nov 28, 2021 07:54 AM UTC in reply to Aurelian Florea from 12:12 AM:Well, like you said, there is nothing for me to see. The GAME code looks OK as far as chanģing the piece set is concerned, and does work on the first ply. It was not changed between the first and second ply. This is a general Game Courier problem that only Fergus can shed light on.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]@HG, Have you had time to take a look at my preset?
Terachess II. An unrealistic summit on a very large board of 16x16 squares and 128 pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've been playing a lot of this game recently (via Ai Ai), partly for my own enjoyment and partly as inspiration for my own 16x16 experiments. There are relatively few modern Chess variants played on 16x16, and for me, this game is the best example thus far.
The variety of pieces presented here is at first intimidating, but one soon realises there is a logic to everything presented here, and shortly thereafter you'll find the piece movements become natural. The balance of the initial position is excellent, with every piece finding its way into the fight without too much awkward development. Games are long -- against AI at 2 minutes/move my games take at least 400 plies, with my longest so far at 695 -- but as a large Shogi variant fanatic this doesn't bother me at all. Throughout those long games one will find drama, excitement, and plentiful opportunities for subtlety and subterfuge.
If I were very picky, I might say that I'd like to see the Rook + Camel/Bishop + Camel compounds in here, which I find really fun on a large board. Also the basic leapers -- Camel, Giraffe, Knight -- feel less impactful in a game this size. Having said that, everything works well together, and I enjoy this game tremendously.
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The rule of castling is not correct as far as the Rook is concerned. When castling, the king moves three squares when castling short and four when castling long. The rook jumps to the immediate square on the other side of the king.
This will be corrected in future editions of A World of Chess, by JL.Cazaux and R.Knowlton.