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Alfred Pfeiffer wrote on Thu, Jan 19, 2006 09:01 PM UTC:
Dear chess variant friends,

now I querried in my old magazines and found the relevant text:

Panos Louridas: 'Eine Skala der Intelligenz', ROCHADE 3/1998.

Here I summarize some facts from the article:

Inventor: Panos Louridas (also known as problem composer)

First(?) public presentation: 1985 in the chess club 'Aachener Schachverein 1856'

Rules: The text does not contain a formal listing of rules, but describes the essential ideas with examples.

The pieces in this variant (execpt the King and the Pawns) exist in two states: the 'real' and the 'virtual' state.

The King and the Pawns are real pieces always.

At the start of a game on the board virtual pieces are on the places where in an orthodox game the other real pieces stand. (A common hint is to use checker disks for the virtual pieces)

The potential pieces for the changing of the virtuals are outside of the board in reservoirs for each player.

If a virtual piece moves it becomes a real piece. Each virtual piece can move like each potential piece of its player that is still outside of the board. The player who moves one of his virtual pieces replaces this (while or after the move) by one of the potential pieces (from the outside of the board) that can move in this manner so it becomes a real piece. For example: If he does a diagonal move he may take a Bishop or Queen (assuming both are still available) from the outside to replace the disk (virtual piece) with the choosen piece.

If a real piece on the board will be captured, it is out of the game (means it does not go back to the reservoir outside of the board, also it does not become a potential again).

If a virtual piece will be captured, the owner of the captured virtual stone must assign a potential piece from his reservoir (outside) that then is removed from the game.

So always the number of potential pieces (in the reservoirs) match the number of virtual pieces on the board for each player.

If the last virtual piece of a player disappears (by moving or because captured) then this event ends the actual cycle and a new cycle starts with virtual pieces for both players. This means following: All real pieces on the board (of both players) goes to their reservoirs (outside of ther board) and on the board they will replaced with virtual stones.

But there is a relevant exception: If a player owns only pieces of the same type (only Q, or only R, or only B, or only N) then he will not switch to the virtual state. (The case what will happen if in a such situation one of the player's equal pieces is still in the virtual state remained undiscussed.) Also: cycling take effect only to players with more than one kind of pieces.

Castling: Possible with the usual conditions, here for the Rook this means, that the virtual piece in the corner never moved and a player's Rook is still available in his reservoir outside of the board. Of course when castling this virtual piece then becomes a real Rook.

The article does not contain remarks about promotions.

I propose, if a Pawn promotes it becomes a usual real piece, and this piece should go into the virtualisation also when a new cycle occurs. In this manner also a player who for lack of pieces did no longer take part in the recyclings can get back this special feature of Bario.

I hope I could help,
Alfred Pfeiffer


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