Game Reviews by CBagleyJones

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.

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.

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

Very interesting game, i have never noticed this before.
It appears to me the pawn is checking the King, and also attacking the pawn on a2.
It would be good to know what the author says about the Knight. Hans says 'The rules do not state exactly the way knights move. One could assume a knight moves one square orthogonally, and then one square diagonally, skipping again attacked squares.'
This is one way to describe the Knight move, but some people describe it as moving 2 squares orthogonally then 1 to the side, or even moving 1 diagonally and 1 orthogonally outward. If you assume it moves like Hans says, then it does appear it is checking the King.

Hi all, I dont think there can be much advantage having first move, not
with so many armies on such a big board.

Yes 'Qin' have the dream start, most space around them, 'Chu' and
'Yan' have next best start.  I dont think this gives an advantage though
really, because of the nature of multi player games, anyone that is looking
stronger than the others will naturally become a target for everyone else,
hehe.

Interesting pieces 'crossbowman' and 'archer' and 'cavalry'.  I dont
know if i have seen such pieces before. 
 
Also the start position is interesting for 'Qin' in relation to 'Yan'
but mostly because of 'Chu' with 'crossbowman'.

Oh, do you have link to wiki site, i cant seem to find it.
http://chessvariants.wikidot.com/

The 'Queen' in this game moves like an 'Alibaba'.
It does say there is a special rule about queen capturing another queen and 
to look in 'rules' section, but i can't seem to see anything.
Edit: oh capture might be 'concourse of queens' rule.

Anyway, would this be the first appearance of an 'Alibaba' in a game?
Anyone know of an earlier game with the 'Alibaba', or, any old game it 
plays in?

The 'Bishop' in this game moves as a 'Ferfil', and the 'Councillor' moves 
like a 'Centaur' (knight, wazir, fers).
Would this be the first appearance for these pieces?
Anyone know an earlier game they are in, or another old game anyway. 
I know 'Ferfil' is in the game 'Shako', 1990, by Jean-Louis Cazaux.

Nice big board shogi like games, wonderful array of pieces.
Goldpashtun and Silverpashtun great pieces. Lots more, have not looked at fully but i will, just thought i would post first off anyway. Congrats.

You can speculate all you want, but in the end, it is all speculation. What governs what is considered the 'oldest' chess is what records are the oldest found, that is it. I dont think this is correct of course, so much records of the ancients has been lost. 
I consider it unclear where chess began, no one can say for sure. An earthquake could happen in China revealing an ancient tomb and chess writing 2,000 years ago are discovered, then chess would be said to have come from china.
The idea that chess always evolves to something better also is debateable. People love inventing things and trying new things, it does not mean the newer idea is a progression. There is no reason to consider that the modern pawn, moving 1 square forward and capturing diagonally could not have been the first pawn to exist.
One thing i can't help thinking, the date we give as chess beginning, seems to me to be highly unlikely, i feel chess is much older, in India, 
China and Japan. The ancients were NOT stupid. They were highly advanced. To think that all they played was a 'race game' .... well, really?
Look at the mahabharata verse, where Yudhisthira talks about 'delighting the king with his play' ... he is going to delight the king with his play in a race game? Come on ... Chess most likely has been around in India and China and Japan for thousands and thousands of years.
But of course, this is speculation.
It's interesting what you saying though, don't get me wrong.

This looks a great game, love the dragon piece, also i think the extra side squares are useful, i'm sure they will be used.
Site loads fine to me.

Do the knave and debtor move the same as in Charles Gilman's game 'Knavish Chess'. I first thought these pieces moved fully as a knight with one piece having the horizontal dabbaba leap and the other the vertical dabbaba leap. 

oh don't worry, i see that they do, these pieces are better than i thought!

Yeah i like the pieces too. I'll be releasing something to showcase over 200 fairy pieces (not a game), i'll add these 2 pieces.
I don't mind the 10x10 board, and as far as it making most pieces too slow, i think that really is a matter for personal taste. I do think though the piece density might be a bit heavy.

Great game Mats, congrats. 
The pyrrhus, what a piece, i found it really painful at first, lol, i thought it's power of paralyzing pieces was too much, the knight being the only piece that could attack the pyrrhus! I wondered if the pyrrhus's range should be 'cut down', like say paralyzing 4 or 5 squares range on the queen lines. However, once i got used to the piece, it seems to me the game is very smooth and heaps of fun and very nice. I think the way the pyrrhus is is the best.

The knight in this game is actually a pretty powerful piece, much more powerful than the bishops and probably more powerful than the rooks too, because it can attack the pyrrhus. If both pyrrhus's are paralyzed, you wouldn't want to have two bishops against two knights, lol, that's for sure.
I'm rating excellent.

Oh i notice you have a 10x10 game with two pyrrhus's a side, how does that play compared to the 8x8 do you think, i'll have to check it out.

Hey this game looks great, love the big board and not too many pieces added, really like the 'duke' too. I will have to check out the game courier logs, i like this type of game because one can learn more about gameplay with fairly short range type pieces on a very large board. Great stuff.

Heya Fergus, after our talk last week about pawns i thought i'd check out your game here. And i must say, it's been a lot of fun!!
Now, if u don't know, i am a big fan of the more 'chaturanga, shatranj' etc etc styled pieces, and have only played games with these 
kind of pieces for years now. So, this game, looked very daunting to me, to say the least, as i pondered my first move, hehe.

After the first couple of games, i was all over the place, the game seemed hard the manage, very dynamic and nearly chaotic. But 
then, after a few more games, i started to get a feel for it, and i had some wonderful games. I'm rating 'excellent'.

Nearly right from the start, the game seems dynamic to me, and it stays that way throughtout the game, but there seems to be a 
steadiness of play, the 'chaotic' i felt at first, was 'controlled', still there, but it's balanced and 'held' in the game. 
The Cavlier's i think put a uniqueness to the game. They do act as 'pawn's' but they are more flexible than a pawn, and 
when they get to the 8th rank they are in striking distance of promoting.

Nice piece placement for the opening, and great seeing the 'nightrider' playing too. Sometimes, in a somewhat wild position, it 
was interesting playing a cavlier non-threateningly up the board and feeling it was safe and the best move.
I really feel the cavlier makes this game unique and exciting. Great work.

hey, u would have to walk on the board to make move would u? (lol)
love how big it is, probably would be hell to play :)

what is the difference between 'step' and 'slide', is 'step' different from 'leap', i dont kinda understand.

this game is so bent i can't understand it at all, but it reads extremely
interesting, to say the least .. check out here, direct link to game
explanation - http://www.geocities.com/chessdp/ttchsrules.htm
now how bizzare is this explanation of the game!
How can i rate a game i can't understand, pfft, it is so easy :))

hmm this place is a bit frisky lately, anyway, i'm going to rate some
unusual games, and what better place to start than here. 
This is an amazing game, no need to say anymore. Highly original,
strikingly beautiful concept.

Well i think this looks great, it has my fav pieces. With promotion zone
last 3 ranks and game played with drops, play should be fast paced. It has
a nice shatranj feel to it.
Even though i most likely prefer promoted pieces reverting back to pawns,
i think it is interesting and fun the way it plays in this game. For sure,
when promoting, you would have to consider things differently.
Gary, i was going to say, defence will be important, because pro zone is 3
ranks, pawn drops will be deadly, and wazir and fers could often be hard
pressed to defend, and just before i looked at your game going at the
moment on game courier :)

yes this is a great game, David and i had a game on game courier, it is
nice playing with the general (dragonhorse) and cannon, combined with rook
knight and elephant/fers (which i like to call 'ferfil').
Opening pawn set up is very interesting too. All these things makes for
open and exciting play. Cool game. (David, i was trying to email you, but
there is a prob)

looks terrific, interesting pieces, i like the way you have the 'grand
chess' set up, and great to see 10 pieces only in total on a 10x10
board.
some people go crazy with the amount of pieces they use :))
lol

ahhhhhaaa well i trust your opinion you know :) .. have to decline game
offer, not starting any new games at the moment, i was just interested to
know how the 'spider' play-tested, if it slowed down the game, but
looking more at the rules, and it finally sinking in, i like how the
spider/crab/etc don't move on fide board, and how they go from fide board
to x board. i see that dimension x is going well in score count for
up-coming tourney, so i think we shall see this game play-tested well, i
look forward to seeing the games.
anyway, looks terrific to me, well done.

i have only just recently played this game, the 'templar' is a great
piece, it plays well with the normal chess set-up (adding dabbaba move)
the board is great too with the added space at the back.
cool game.

ok i have my rating cap on :)
well this game is a legend in chess variant world, so i'll start here,
great fun with different armies :)

hey this looks good, i like the idea of these pieces dropping pieces the
further up the board they go, should make for interesting chess, well
done.
(zrf?)

wow this game is stunning. it's hard to find words to describe properley,
but, it really is unbelievable, a work of art.
apart from the 'displacer', all the pieces move fairly simply. But the
gameplay is far from simple, it is extremely complex, rich in depth. Beautiful game.
Roberto and i are playing 2 games on game courier for anyone interested in
checking it out. It would a major disappointment if this game does not make
it's way to zillions.

wow, your really 'out there' blackie, trippy game, well done. 
(probably the 2 ratings you got were a bit premature, so lets *bump* it)

looks brilliant!!
where is the zrf!!!
lol :)

american chess, how can i praise this game enough. stunning, highly 
original,beautiful game. love the soldier, colonel, artillery, missile, 3
kings, the rule about having to have a king in the 'zone', and pieces
promoting to kings on final rank. 
also the 50 move rule is soooo cool. the missile ... ooooh baby, lol, what
a piece, awesomely powerful, yet it is totally playable because it can't
hit the final rank. as someone said, you can feel the power of this piece
throughout the game. best game i've seen all year i would say. 
well done andy, and supreme thanks to larry for making this a zillions
game.

ahhhhhhhhhaaaa lol!!
so, SRC is funny and on the level wow, didn't see that coming :)
only one thing to do now, give it an 'excellent' :)
god bless SRC, and please forgive all those doubters he he (*whistles*)
(oh btw, pretty cool idea about the rules being mysterious)

actually the case of kings on a1 and c2 pawn on a2 is a success for
showdown chess because it makes a win for black instead of a draw, which
would happen in normal chess after white plays Kc1 (this is a replacement
for normal chess not shatranj).
Black must of played the brilliant (he he) ... a3-a2!! thus winning the
game. You are just looking at the 'normal' rules if you are disappointed
at 'having' to move your king away, you should not of got yourself in
that position.
Of course, i don't like these attempts to make chess with less draws, i
am in favor of giving (as far as tournaments go) either no points for
draws, same as losing, or 2 points for wins, half for draws, but best
would be to come up with a different chess altogether ha ha, but not those
variants with rook/knight and bishop/knight combo's. Terrible pieces :)
we should go back to good old 4 handed chaturanga :)
anyway, showdown chess is at least an attempt to somehow address the major
promblem of the terrible state of draws in modern chess, i don't think it
deserves a 'poor' rating so i will throw in a 'good'.

Crazyhouse is not a recognized variant of the month?
i don't know how that could be, it shouldn't even have to be voted on,
not a hour goes by on the planet where a crazyhouse game is not being
played, and that is a conservative estimate.
you should make crazyhouse a recognized variant along with whatever other
game you recognize in a future month

yes this game can't have a 'poor' rating, it's fantastic :))
it would be even better with the cannon prob fixed, but even still, that
can't make it anything less than .. fantastic :)

yes, i can see what you mean, but, the 'unrecognizable' is at the moment
being played on game courier, and also has this page, and others pages
also yes?, if you make it 'unrecognized' but keep this page and others
.. that just doesn't look professional to me, this great site, having
info about chaturanga but deeming it 'unrecognized'.. a game which i see
as the 'mother' of chess. i can't see how it hurts keeping it
'recognized', i think 'recognized' means more than just being able to
see all the rules etc