Rated Comments

When I first saw this game, I didn't think much of it, since I was more focused on larger Shogi variants, especially Tenjiku Shogi. However, now I have a few games against Jocly under my belt, and wow, this game completely blew me away. It is an absolute joy to play, despite its size and complexity (which melts away after a couple games). However, it is not flawless.

The Lion-trading rules are a bit complex, and making the Lion contagious (Like Maka Dai Dai Shogi's Deva, Dark Spirit, and their promoted forms) would make the rule much simpler while also achieving the same effect. However, this isn't really much of a problem, and may in fact be the better choice.

The real problem that I have with this game is that modern "innovations" have made the game more complicated than it needs to be. The repetition rules are quite complex, so much so that most computer programs for Chu Shogi that I know don't implement them, which is a trait borrowed from Xiangqi. The King Baring rule is completely unnecessary, as it does not add anything to the game that the combined effects of the other rules do not achieve. There is no evidence that it existed in the Edo period, so I'm not sure why someone thought it would be a good idea to mention this.

However, despite these problems, Chu Shogi is still easily among the best games of its kind. If you like Chess variants, you should give it a try.

Chu Seireigi combines elements of Chu Shogi with the ruleset of modern Shogi. It also has the benefit of not needing any special rules to preserve its quality, fixing all the problems with the modern "innovations" for Chu Shogi that I mentioned above. Players are disincentivized from trading off the Lions in many cases because they would just go into the player's hands, making them even more dangerous. The repetition rule is simply that of Shogi (draw, except perpetual check loses), and the drops make King-baring extremely rare. However, this comes with the unfortunate downside of having to remove the multi-move and orthogonal step from the Lion's move, as otherwise, it would be too strong, even if only the multi-move was removed. To compensate for this, the Lion also moves as a Bishop (in effect making it a Bishop+Squirrel compound).

Rhino: (afz)W
Snake: (afz)F
z stands for zigzag & it's repetition depend on the board size. This page is about XBetza notation, not Betza notation.

Some interesting pieces in this game, I'm wondering if this is the first game with the 'Camelopard' in it.

It's first appearance is as you say from R.J.Darvall. You can see the chess problem here: 'Variant Chess' #2, April-June, 1990, page 20, 'Fairy Chess Review' 1949, R.J.Darvall, mate in 2. Amazing from the year 1949, so yes, this could be the first game ever it is in, if anyone knows another, please say.

Correct me if I am wrong, but the Tribune: (2,0)+(3,3) leaper and the Zerdinal: Slides diagonally, or makes a (3,2) leap are named by Charles Gilman with his thousands of piece creations lol. Is that where you got them from, and if so, are these the first games they also have ever been in. If anyone knows another game they are in, please say!!

Anyway, good work on the game.

Nice to see a game with the Locust in it and it's a great idea too, well done.

This is a very unusual variant. It appears to work despite the seemingly excessively jumpy Owl. The game is very sharp, which I like. The donkey's feel mostly useless, but that might fit the theme? I wanted to get it working with ChessV but couldn't.

I'm rating it Good (why is there no Average rating option, by the way?) because I like the creativity and emphasis on diagonals.

I second NRC and SoAC and nominate every variant I favorited that are qualified except of course my own variants which I shamelessly favorited.

Life, the Universe and Everything is a Chess variant inspired by the works of the late Douglas Adams. It is a double-move variant with unusual pieces on a board of (of course) 42-squares.

A game with a pretentious title that adds nothing to chess. I don't care how famous the author was. If "the answer to everything is 42", the author refuses to further explain his reason for choosing such a number. 

Of course, the elites know what 42 really means, and are terrified. 

As this page is under the light, I have several comments. We have a header saying: "The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history". Indeed, the first section is Historical Notes. But, there is almost no history at all in this section, and no scholarship. The minimum would be to give dates of invention to put the information in a historical perspective.

• Courier-Spiel by Albers, 1821: (Councellor)
• Renniassance Chess by Eric V. Greenwood, 1980 (Page)
• Royal Court by Sidney LeVasseur, 1998 (Crowned Knight)
• Cobra Chess by Derick Peterson, 1998 (Duke)
• Jupiter by Adrian King, 1999 (Centaur)
• Fantasy Grand Chess by Peter Hatch, 2000 (Wolf Rider)
• Kung Fu Chess by Tim Bostick, 2001 (Tiger)

Then, why 4 lines talking only about Fergus Duniho's variants? Why these variants would deserve more attention than the other ones?

There are other variants which are using a KN compound. For example Cataclysm (Greg Strong, 2007), Reformed Courier-Spiel (Clément Begnis, 2011, as a Paladin), Sac Chess (Kevin Pacey, 2014, as a Judge). I'll be silent about my own variants.

Second, like HG I think it is not necessary to have a section about "AI Art" here. It completly modify the purpose of this page. @Fergus, I would suggest you write a separate page where you show your drawings made with AI as I have done myself with my 3D-printable creations. Having 1 illustration is one thing, but I do think it is not good that you place your own things in pages which are of general attention. There is some confusion here.

The setup part says that Banshee is RNN.

Did someone say March 25th is International Waffle Day?

Despite this game is something like a prototype of the final game, I'd be glad to do that. I'll send the rules by e-mail later, with some explanation about those comments and some further info.

I like it too, very much. I agree with Florin that the text is not well promoting this variant. Maybe someone with better English than me could help Lev in re-phrasing his presentation. That game would deserve it.

Betzan Benders

Army with Bent Riders invented by gnohmon.

Круто, прикольно. Что-то в этом есть и от тайских шахмат. Мне нравится такое распределение фигур по цветовым комплексам.

Cool and cute. There’s even a breeze of Thai chess here. I like this management and distribution of pieces on color complexes.

Are people still playing this game? Would love to hear if they are and if anyone would want to play with me? Post on this group and we can make a plan.

I think you're reading a lot into this that isn't there. It just introduces an incentive to make non-obvious moves. Perhaps it could be cumbersome to play, but it's a clever idea.

15 Random Bent Riders Chess

Some pieces are named by me.

Thanks for testing my army! Seems like Zen Zebras would be more balanced if they're against my Clumsy Camels.

This army is ready for publication.

This is very fun (but very long!) to play. I like it more than Terachess II because the extra pawn rank allows for more blocking and the very powerful pieces come singly instead of in pairs.

Looks pretty innovative.

Fabulous FIDEs vs 10-directional Army

I know Eohippos aren't Hippotamus.