Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
Bn Em wrote on Tue, Sep 5, 2023 09:31 PM UTC:

I am not sure whether [allow[ing] moves of one piece to be relayed from Friend to Friend through moves borrowed from another piece] was the intention of the original definition

It seems none of the info on the CVP, including Orphan resources (which could in principle provide analogous situations) such as the Helpmate problem and the (Wayback Machine copy of) the Torsten Linss problems (linked from the Piececlopedia article), is able to clear this up, and short of finding back‐issues of the British Chess Magazine info on the web seems very elusive

The only other source I could find offhand was Die Schwalbe's glossary, which also doesn't really clear anything up (though it does give rules for initial pawn steps, at least for Orphans: an Orphan may make a double step from its second rank, but only a single step from its first)

Among the freely available Schwalbe issues, a few feature Orphans but apparently none feature both multiple normal pieces that could relay distinct moves and Orphans on both sides that could chain. Friends seem to be completely absent from these issues (indeed, any of the issues whose indices are available), though still present in the Glossary (which clarifies that, at least for the Schwalbe, the Friend explicitly can't promote with a pawn move to the far rank)

Would be interesting to see whether the BCM or Brown's own problem collection made any use of this that could clarify this, but access to either is probably a pain :‌/

It would probably be better to use a 'static' definition, like "when it would be able to capture the Friend if that had been an enemy pawn".

If only direct move pass‐through is allowed as you suggest, this seems uncontroversial; in the case with indirect relay I'm not sure whether that makes the non‐reciprocal passing on (assuming it remins desired — I quite like it myself) more complex to formulate correctly than reciprocal passing on. In principle that same question arises for the Orphan too, though I imagine the chances of finding a problem that relies on either of those possible behaviours is incredibly slim

[The Ghost] captures by "passing through" an adjacent square on its way to the next square beyond

From the diagram I take it this is allowed only when moving to Alibaba destinations?


Edit Form

Comment on the page "Friendly" Game of... Chess?

Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Avoid Inflammatory Comments
If you are feeling anger, keep it to yourself until you calm down. Avoid insulting, blaming, or attacking someone you are angry with. Focus criticisms on ideas rather than people, and understand that criticisms of your ideas are not personal attacks and do not justify an inflammatory response.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.