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Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Tue, Oct 4, 2022 11:04 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

File Manager do not work. I have unpublished Orthodia and all pieces’ images are here. But my image of board below the diagram of this board is missing. So before this it wasn’t missing by more than one time. I open File Manager for this page and see “File manager submitted item” — and nothing more! Please fix. Other inserted files of this page are safe and sound. Thank you very much!


A Western Xiangqi Board. Proposal to play Xiangqi on a `westernized' board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yevgeniy Sova wrote on Fri, Sep 30, 2022 12:27 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Added Westernized board and pieces for Xiangqi to the Wikipedia article.


Tridimensional Chess (Star Trek). Three-dimensional chess from Star Trek. (7x(), Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Jim Tinsmith wrote on Tue, Sep 27, 2022 02:23 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

The premise for tri dimensional chess set's presence on federation star ships was to teach three dimensional combat tactics, which is something the Bartmess and Meder rules patently fail to do, by blocking circumventing moves.
The rules presented here, on chess variants, are not complete and lack rules for castling but also advocate inverted attack boards, which, if nothing else, are highly impractical.
Not only were the World Tri Dimensional Chess Federation rules written by a fighter pilot, to teach three dimensional aerial combat, which is more in keeping with the original theme, they also start the king and queen in the centre files and provide the most reasonable method for castling, as the attached images demonstrate.

King's side castling
Tri dimensional chess kings side castling
Tri dimensional chess king's side castling
Queen's side castling
Tri dimensional chess queen's side castling
Tri dimensional chess queen's side castling


Al-Ces. Variant on 10 by 10 board with 30 pieces per player. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Sep 13, 2022 06:44 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Inspiring game, yet it seems the action may take a while to get going

I don't yet get how to mobilize in the opening smoothly when playing this CV, at least when I tried to do so in my first game (with White, no less). After I moved the pawn in front of my king two squares, for example, I wanted to develop my knights to my fourth rank, towards the centre, in natural fashion. Yet that would allow Black to develop his deves (camels) similarly, and then to take my knight(s) almost at will - perhaps clearly at least a slightly worse exchange for me, since my pawn structure might be compromised without sufficent compensation when I recapture, and by my valuations (though tentative) a Kt is worth more than a camel on 10x10 (maybe even by as much as a pawn).

As my game (with arx) went on, I found my gold and silver had a hard time being deployed usefully for quite some time - an issue since they can get in the way of other pieces. I also had mobilization issues with at least one of two of my bishops, especially concerning if assuming castling is desirable in general. The assassins I had a hard time valuing, but guessed one could be worth as much as a queen. Maybe the inventor intended that mobilization be slow in playing this CV, I don't know.

@arx: I've sent you a personal invite to a Sac Chess rematch, in case you missed it, and wish to play.


Avatar Chess. Game with avatars that can assume any piece of chess, depending on the fields of the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Tue, Aug 30, 2022 12:00 AM UTC in reply to Gerd Degens from Mon Aug 29 07:24 PM:Excellent ★★★★★

Hi Gerd, hope your fine and well. I'm sure you haven't upset or hurt anyone!! I understand what you said, and it is extremely interesting idea indeed how you describe your game about the board etc.

I don't want to go on about the pawns, but still, I have to say, the game would maintain your 'theme' even if the pawns remained pawns. However, the game as you have it must have a unique feel and play to it!

Would be fun to see the game in action.


Enhanced Courier Chess. Courier Chess with the weaker pieces enhanced.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Mon, Aug 29, 2022 02:41 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Should play well, it's nice to see you didn't 'overpower' it.


Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
CSS Dixieland wrote on Wed, Aug 24, 2022 02:18 AM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Tue Aug 23 05:27 PM:Good ★★★★

Mon Admirable Monsieur Jean-Louis Cazaux,

Je parle assez couramment la belle langue de Racine, même que je ne l’aie pas parlée depuis des années, mais veuillez me permettre d’offrir les informations suivantes dans la langue de Shakespeare, comme une aide pour ceux qui peuvent avoir des difficultés à lire Votre langue.

Le sujet est déjà suffisamment complexe en l’état tel qu'il est.

The player whom You refer has nothing less than 43 games hanging in Game Courier. The oldest is hanging since 29th June 2021 (a frightening 421 days as of 24th August 2022), the newest since 15th August 2022.

Of those 43 games, 7 games are waiting for his move and 36 are waiting for the move of his opponent. All sorts of Chess varieties are represented, out of the thousands of varieties that exist here in Game Courier. Even the most exotic and flamboyant varieties, are represented amongst his 43 games. Very few appear more than once, the vast majority appear only once. The pattern here is clear: a player who experiments with every variety that has existed, exists, and will exist, in the whole History of Chess. But also a player who does not care much about the results of his games, nor about a minimum respect for his opponents.

And of those 43 games, only 3 are timed (one with Ye, the other two with Mister Daniel Zacharias), while the other 40 games are untimed. The game that he is 'playing' with Ye was posted to the public room for any player to accept, but here it is not a question of who sent the invitation and who received or accepted the invitation. It is rather a question of DISRESPECT for the opponents, and to some extent also of abusing the resources offered by Game Courier. About technical resources the problem is trivial, because the data base of Game Courier can handle many more games than it handles now, but about the lack of respect for opponents, the problem becomes much more serious. You already know, Sir, my recommended solution.

Then, let me please proceed to explain how You can apply the solution, hopefully catering to Your personal preferences or needs. I hope to avoid too many technicalities, but pray forgive me if I dive deep into waters technical, and You find it difficult to bear with me. I am at Your disposal for answering relevant questions.

Sophisticated time controls were incorporated to Game Courier over eighteen years ago, in February 2004.

The idea was to make the Play By Mail system capable of handling games in a single session, also known as 'one sitting', or 'real time', or 'face to face', or by other names, and in several or many sessions for the same match, likewise called 'extended period', or 'delayed time', or 'correspondence', or by other epithets.

It was for that reason that complex time controls were introduced. Complete, exhaustive, flexible, with rich possibilities for any situation that could possibly be imagined. Then a manual was written and made public detailing how Game Courier can be correctly operated. GAME Code is full-fledged programming language, full of resources for implementing almost any board game in existence, short of boards of infinite extension or hyper boards of N dimensions. Naturally, the time control system had to accompany that sophistication.

It was hoped that the manual could answer almost any doubt. And in fact IT CAN answer almost any doubt, but it is easy for programmers to say that. The uninitiated may find certain explanations somewhat cryptic.

The manual assumes a certain level of Computing literacy, but any technical system offered to the public is a trade-off between technical sophistication, and usability. The most perfect computer in the World, but with the technical manual, every instruction, and all characters on screen written in Sumerian, would be useful only to those who can read Sumerian. And to a team of top-level specialists in several disciplines who would need years for deciphering the text or for discovering how the computer works by very careful process of trial and error. And even so, there is a high chance that not every feature would be discovered.

In Your specific case, which may also be the case of a number of our Esteemed Members, it seems to me that the best approach at the moment is to solve Your immediate problem, instead of delving into a rich plethora of concepts and definitions, but let me briefly inform that there is not a single method for timing competitions of Chess, or of other games, sports, or contests. Be it championship, tournament, single match, or some combination of them, various timing methods have been devised throughout History.

The first truly international Chess Tournament, organised by Mister Howard Staunton and other prominent British players, played in London in the year 1851, and won by Herr Adolf Anderssen, had no time controls whatsoever. As a consequence, some players took an exceedingly long time for their games. Twenty hours for only one game, or even two hours for one single move, were recorded for the amazement of posterity.

You will understand that under such conditions, more than a mental sport, Chess becomes a sport of pure physical resistance. The most suffered and ascetic hermit wins the game. After that horrifying experience, time controls by need had to be introduced in Chess competition. First the clepsydra (also called sand glass or hour glass), later the analogue mechanical clock, then the double clock originally invented specifically for Chess (later applied also to other competitive activities), and in the XX century the digital double clock.

Besides physical devices, diverse methods of timing or winning have also been experimented with variable success. There is the fixed maximum time per turn, fixed maximum time per game, increment or delay by Fischer or Bronstein Method, the Sudden Death, the tie break by points or by Armageddon, and others.

It would be my pleasure to go on describing how Chess and its ancillary equipment evolved in the course of years and of centuries, but if I continue, then this short introduction will become a book. Thus, without any further immersion into the History of Chess that I love, I am going to offer presently a concrete instruction that, as it is my hope, will be understood and put in effect without need of previous technical knowledge:

Go to a working preset that You would like to play, against a specific player or offered in the Public Room.

Activate the link that reads 'Invite'. In another page You will see "Invite Someone to Play (Name of Preset)"

Fill the relevant fields and leave the others as they are. You have already done it, so You know what I mean.

I strongly recommend that You activate the two check boxes labelled 'Rated Game ?' and 'Timed Game ?'

Once in the time controls, You set the third of seven boxes (upper right box) called 'Min Time' to 40 days.

I repeat, because this is the most important detail of the whole operation: SET MIN TIME TO FORTY DAYS.

Be careful for not setting it to 40 weeks, 40 hours, 40 minutes, nor 40 seconds. It must be for FORTY DAYS.

You leave all the other time control fields as they are: ZERO. Then You activate the link marked as 'Invite'.

I sincerely hope that the unavoidable technical complexity of the lines above have not been too confusing.

As example, You have received an invitation from me for playing Maidens Chess, a Chess variety of my own invention. The set is identical to Standard European Chess as per FIDE rules, therefore if You prefer we can play normal Chess instead of Maidens Chess. My preset does not enforce rules, neither shows legal moves.

I request the Honour of playing this game with Your person, Monsieur. Accompanying my invitation to play, You have also received from me a formal request that I include in the following lines. Good luck, Monsieur.

Mon Respecté Monsieur Jean-Louis Cazaux,

Je demande l’honneur de jouer à ce jeu avec Votre personne. Nous pouvons le jouer comme des échecs européens normales, en suivant les règles de la Fédération internationale des échecs, ou nous pouvons le jouer comme des échecs de jeune fille (Maidens Chess), une variété d’échecs de mon invention.

Le préréglage n’applique pas les règles. Le délai est exactement de 40 jours PAR COUP (entre un mois et deux mois, comme Vous l’avez demandé). Bonne chance, Monsieur.

Dixieland for ever ! P. A. Stonemann, CSS Dixieland


CSS Dixieland wrote on Tue, Aug 23, 2022 12:36 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Wed Aug 17 09:38 PM:Good ★★★★

Distinguished Monsieur Cazaux:

At the end of the rules for my preset of Constructing Chess You can see my brief instructions for erasing an untimed game, and my warning for not proposing or accepting untimed games to or from unknown players:

"Either of the two players can erase the game from the data base of Game Courier at any stage during current play, or can erase a finished game. The operations of drawing or of erasing a game should be done only by AGREEMENT between the two players, or in case of one player having disappeared for a long time in a game without time limit".

"Players should not propose or accept games without time limit, except to or from players whom they know very well".

I only play untimed games with players with whom I have already played many times, players with whom there has been satisfactory conversation via Game Courier or other manners of contact, and players of whom so far I have no justified reason for doubting of their gentlemanship, honesty, and sportive spirit.

Otherwise there is risk of meeting some stupid who may keep an unfinished game hanging, because he is losing, and in his small mind he is not man enough for accepting his defeat. Even with perfectly trustable players, I prefer to avoid untimed games unless there be justified reason. Unreliable Internet, for example.

A game may hang for a month or more due to cause of force majeure. The other player may be suffering some tragic, unforeseen, or overpowering circumstance. He may have had a serious accident and be in hospital. Or in prison. Or in cemetery. Or fighting the War for the Glorious Cause of Independent Ukraine.

Such events happen. In the first case he may be absent for months. In the second for years. In the third, for ever. And in the fourth, I patiently wait for the return of the Hero, if I do not join the Heroic Struggle myself.

For preventing a long waiting time, players are advised not to play untimed games with unknown people.

There is no need of modification to the algorithm of Game Courier. The solution is as simple as avoiding untimed games, except in cases where the other player is fully trustable, or if there be a justified reason.

Or else, erasing a hanging game. But for this, players should make a reasonable effort to ascertain that a long time has passed without reply from the other player, whose whereabouts are completely unknown.

Such cases are rare with me, but they occasionally happen. Fortunately they have not happened to me in Game Courier so far, but they have happened for untimed games in other servers. I follow the policy of waiting for a maximum of about twenty days. Then I try to make contact with my opponent, if possible.

If I have no way to contact him, or if after a few more days I do not receive any reply from him, then I take the game out of my list of current games, if possible I erase the game from the server (in Game Courier it can be done by either of the two players), and I include the name of the missing player in my black list.

If I receive a reply, then my decision will of course depend on the content and trustability of that reply.

After all those important considerations, Monsieur Cazaux, if You honestly believe that a game has been hanging for too long without conclusion, and You have no way to contact Your opponent, or no reply from him, or the reply have not been satisfactory, then You are undoubtedly entitled to follow this procedure:

List all games played in Game Courier by Monsieur Jean-Louis Cazaux (nom de guerre 'timurthelenk'): https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/logs.php?userid=timurthelenk&age=0&sort=age&stat=actfin

You will see that most games are finished from 28th April 2020 to the end of 3rd August 2022 (server time) but there is an untimed game of Fantastic XIII that has been hanging since 31st July 2022. Make a serious effort to contact the opponent and tell him that You are still waiting for his move. If You have reply, then use Your best judgement as to Your correct action. But considering that twenty-four days have already passed, if You have no reply in a few more days (or if You have no contact with him at all, in this case without need of further waiting), then continue to the sad but necessary method for solving these fastidious situations.

Activate the hyper link at the right side that reads 'Delete'. You will see a warning for not deleting a game in progress without a justified reason. If You honestly believe that You have justified reason (and I personally believe that You have), then proceed to delete the game from the data base. For that You will need to enter Your identity or be logged-in, and Your password. Then You will have made a favour to Game Courier. Then You should include the offender in Your black list. Then You should NEVER play an untimed game without a very powerful reason to do so. Finally, You should continue honouring Game Courier with Your presence.

Dixieland for ever ! P. A. Stonemann, CSS Dixieland


ABC Chess. A variant with 8 armies of pieces generated by combining 1, 2 or 3 simpler pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Andrew L Smith wrote on Thu, Aug 18, 2022 02:10 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like the idea of making an army using various combinations of a few building blocks, though I do have two critiques.

1: Balance. A combination piece is usually wirth more than the sum of its parts (eg: a Queen is worth more than a Rook and a Bishop; a Mann is worth more than a Wazir and a Ferz) which means an army with A+B+C=7.75 is likely to be completely overpowered. For example, look at army 1:
BNW=10, NW=5.25, BW=5.25, W=1.25, B=3.25, N=3.25, BN=8.75 (total: 37).
This is over a full Rook stronger than the regular chess army.

The more equal the components are, the more powerful they are when they work together. For example, army 2 (where one component has most of the value) is only about 2 pawns stronger than the regular chess army. So, armies with wildly unequal component strengths will need to have stronger components than more egalitarian armies to compensate for this.

2: The components should be versatile enough to be fun to play with on their own. For example, an Alfil can only reach 1/8 of the board which is un-fun to play (both with and against). One solution to this would be 'ABCD' chess, with 4 components arranged like this:

AB  CD  AD  ABC   K   BC  BD  AC 

By adding an extra component, one can eliminate the need for components to survive on their own, and can make weak components without having to worry about un-fun Alfil play.


How to Design and Post Your Own Game. A reference for those who want to post their own games here.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Viswesh Srinivasan wrote on Mon, Aug 15, 2022 05:51 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I have a new chess variant idea. 
Before I send it across to you , I have a few questions:

1) If my variant idea becomes popular, is there any way I can get paid for it ?

2) Can chess variant idea be patented ? Can I apply for a patent before sending it to you ? How many chess variants in your site are patented ?

Courier Chess. A large historic variant from Medieval Europe.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Todor Tchervenkov wrote on Sat, Aug 13, 2022 06:15 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Would it be possible to provide a rule enforcing preset that begins with the "rational" setup with all Pawns on the second rank?


Empress Chess. Members-Only Help your Empress win her battle. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Feedback to the Chess Variant Pages - How to contactus. Including information on editors and associate authors of the website.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Diceroller is Fire wrote on Mon, Jul 25, 2022 01:38 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I have a code to create Piece in Piececlopedia. I’ve taken your template and written my text.


Mirodoly. Members-Only Piececlopedia: Mirodoly. Some theoretical principles of the analysis of pieces, both for classical chess and for modern chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Marseillais Chess. Move twice per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Vighnesh Jadhav wrote on Sat, Jul 16, 2022 02:43 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Marsellais chess has a rule where each player moves 2 pieces in the same turn. Castling is considered a single move. All other castling rules apply.

The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Jun 7, 2022 07:11 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Thu May 26 09:33 AM:Excellent ★★★★★

Some Nemoroth pieces are 'color blind': they capture or otherwise affect friendly and enemy pieces in exactly the same way. The only effect of their allegeance is then which player is allowed to move them. But when they are petrified neither player can move them, and in effect they become neutral. An alabaster and an obsidian Leaf Pile are really the same piece, from a game-theoretical point of view, and that also holds for petrified Wounded Fiends. Likewise petrified Go Aways are all the same. And since they lose their special power on petrification, they are also the same as a Mummy. And they only differ from petrified Humans when we adopt the rule that petrified Humans promote to Zombie when pushed to last rank. Which would also make it necessary to distinguish petrified Humans by color.

Petrified Basilisks remember their allegeance because of the Basilisk's asymmetric move, which is preserved in the way it sees. Ghasts have a more severe effect on foes as on friends.


Azgoroth wrote on Thu, May 26, 2022 02:28 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Just over twenty years after the initial publication of this page, the first ever computer implementation of Nemoroth is live, complete with a basic alpha-beta pruning AI. You can play in your browser at this link: https://azgoroth.itch.io/nemoroth

The only thing I haven't implemented is the Go Away push order, which I've been putting off due to how laborious the UI considerations are. As a placeholder, Go Away pushes are clockwise from top.

I originally wrote this implementation in TypeScript, but the AI was too slow and I ported it over to C++ using WebAssembly. I plan on open sourcing it eventually once I have more opportunities to clean up the code. This is one of the most difficult software projects I have ever worked on; I have known about Nemoroth since around 2013 but was not a strong enough of a programmer to pull it off until now.

I found a number of ambiguities in these rules, which I have tried my best to address reasonably on the linked page. Some have been covered in this comments section, some not (for example, if a Wounded Fiend leaves an already ichorated square, does the ichor stack to 11+ plies or max out at 10?).

The AI is surprisingly dangerous. It mobilizes the Ghast immediately and WILL advance it to d4/d5 if you let it, usually costing you the game. I have managed to beat it a few times, but it's tough as nails for how crude the programming is. Beware!

Ralph, if you're out there, thanks for this amazing variant. I tried to email you to get permission to make this but alas, I never heard back.


Archchess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Parker KH wrote on Sun, May 22, 2022 05:05 PM UTC in reply to Daniel Zacharias from Fri Nov 27 2020 09:04 PM:Good ★★★★

i think so


ArchMage Chess. 10x10 30v30 Fantasy Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Samuel Trenholme wrote on Thu, May 19, 2022 04:17 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

I think one thing the author may do until when and if this variant gets formally published here is to make a Zillions of Games implementation of it, then send an email to Ed van Zon to get the implementation published. There can be a long delay before a submission and its publication here, but Ed’s pretty good about publishing a submission within a week of its submission.

The hard part is taking all these rules and converting them in to Zillions’ quirky language. I enjoy doing it myself; it converts rules in to unambiguous machine-readable rules, and it allows people to play the variant themselves.

I would also change the name of the summoned pieces in to something like, oh, Dragon Horse and Dragon King, the Anglicized form of these pieces’ names in Shogi. I like the summoning tactic, but it’s an open question whether having it makes the White advantage overwhelming. People seem to enjoy Crazyhouse a lot over at Lichess, so I think this summoning mechanic can be very usable.

(I should also point out that Betza called what is the Jester here the “Waffle”)


Very Heavy Chess. A lot of firepower with all compounds of classical chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, May 17, 2022 11:07 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

The Heroine and Popess piece types in this variant arguably (nicely) complete the combination of compound pieces I used in my own (earlier) 10x10 Sac Chess variant.

On the topic of piece names, I've noticed that in some languages the name for a chess rook translates to ship (or to boat, also). Thus 'Admiral' (or my choice of 'Sailor', in Sac Chess) gets bonus points as a choice of name, perhaps (for the piece type in question, a promoted rook in shogi), i.e. a person who uses a watercraft's power.

Maybe there's a slightly related argument that a real-life knight, in the past, is a person who uses a horse (arguably knight is a more elevated title than horseman, which would also work).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rook_(chess)#Name_translations


Complementarity - Part I. With Short Range Project in mind, list of a highly specific set of pieces defined by simplest compounds.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Samuel Trenholme wrote on Sun, May 15, 2022 09:50 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

A while ago, I looked at 31 possible short range pieces. I have now expanded this research.

I have written a small C program which looks at all 16,777,215 possible leapers that move at most two squares. Some findings:

  • I expected around half of all possible pieces to be colorbound in some way. Wrong. 16,452,080 (over 98%) pieces are not colorbound.
  • There are 104 non-colorbound pieces with three moves, 2,512 pieces with four moves, and some 2,696,337 pieces with 12 moves.
  • Only 2,944 possible pieces are Bishop colorbound: These relatively few pieces can go to the same 32 squares a Bishop can go to.

With some 16,452,080 non-colorbound pieces, if we replace the knight, bishop, and queen with a random non-colorbound short leaper, that gives us 4,453,099,898,116,838,912,000 which is, what, 4 hextillion possible variants, and that’s keeping the king, pawns, and rook.

OK, if that’s not enough possible variants, we can also add the ability for a given random piece to be able to be a rider in any direction it can leap (e.g. a fers-rider is our bishop; a wazir-rider is a rook, and a knight-rider is, well, a knightrider), where we randomly choose, from all the moves a given leaper has, for it to be able to ride in a random number of directions. For example, if we look at the wazir, then randomly choose which directions it moves like a rook and which directions it can only move one square, we get 16 possible pieces. If we do this for all 16,452,080 non-colorbound short range pieces, we get some 282,232,643,280 possible pieces, just over 2 to the power of 38 (2^38 or 2 ** 38 in Python notation).

This means an 8x8 board with random non-colorbound pieces and using a standard chess set has some 6,344,961,231,517,063,209,074,884,200,517,463,972,290,560,000 possible variants (the pawns and kings can keep their moves), just over 2 to the power of 152.


ChessVA computer program
. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Samuel Trenholme wrote on Wed, May 11, 2022 08:21 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I don’t know the correct procedure to file a bug report for ChessV, so I will just note the bug here.

Description of bug

ChessV does not use the standard Chess960 numbering scheme for opening setups. See https://chess960.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/chess960-starting-positions.pdf for the reference of correct number to starting position. In particular, ChessV is off by one (Position 0 in the official spec is position 1 in ChessV, etc.)

Steps to reproduce

Open up ChessV. Choose Fischer Random Chess. When it asks for an expected setup, choose setup #692.

Expected results

The opening setup should be RBBQKNNR (Mongredien chess)

Actual results

The setup is BRQKNNRB

Notes

Position 693 is the Mongredien setup in ChessV, so one just needs to add 1 to the official position number to get the corresponding position in ChessV.

Position 518 (519 in ChessV) is the standard chess starting position.


Samuel Trenholme wrote on Sun, May 8, 2022 07:00 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

https://samiam.org/chessv continues to host the ChessV software, and, indeed, has been updated to have version 2.2 of ChessV. Should chessv.org ever go down, this is an alternate download link.


Play Nadvorney's Spherical Chess on Game Courier. Play Nadnorney's adaptation of Chess to a spherical board on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Cannon wrote on Tue, Mar 29, 2022 12:18 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

I love the concept of spherical chess. I think one thing needs to be changed, however. Chess is already drawish enough on a square board, and more so on a round board. On a spherical board, where pieces move in all directions, draws may become the overwhelming norm. That is not my preference.

So, on a board like this, I would love to see something done about that. Possible ways to do it would be to put some restrictions on the movement of the King (as in XiangQi and Janggi), or to immobilize the King when in check, or to take away the King's ability to capture pieces, including attacking pieces.


Dou Shou Qi: The Battle of Animals - The Jungle Game. Simulated conflict between animal kingdoms. (7x9, Cells: 63) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anon wrote on Wed, Mar 23, 2022 11:43 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

The Wolf is ranked higher (stronger) than the Dog.

https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/鬥獸棋

象>獅>虎>豹>狼>狗>貓>鼠

Elephant > Lion > Tiger > Leopard (Panther) > Wolf > Dog > Cat > Rat

I played this since childhood. This is the proper ranking of the animals.

The confusion about Dog > Wolf happened because on some of the cheap chess pieces, the wood carving of the Dog and the Wolf are almost identical.


Ito Shogi ZIP file. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡Jonathan Rutherford wrote on Sat, Mar 5, 2022 07:12 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Big thanks to Malcolm Webb for programming the zrf for this game! I would like those who download this to know that as of this date in 2022, I have updated the rules to Ito Shogi drastically, while the rules of this zrf file are based on the 2007 rules.


Hero and Superhero Chess. The King's Pawn is replaced by a Hero (moves like any other piece on your side on the board) or a Superhero (improved Hero). (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Baseball Chess Baseball Chess Set wrote on Wed, Feb 9, 2022 03:34 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

great article, this is definitely one of the easiest strategies for young chess players to skim through and learn. Might also interest for more Superhero Chess Sets see this page [spam url deleted].


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