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Zen Zebras. (Updated!) A team for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Zebra. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 23 04:42 PM UTC:

I guess the ASCII diagrams aren't terrible. The interactive diagram helps a lot.


Sorry, King!. (Updated!) Two parallel games of Chess and Sorry (Ludo) influence one another. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Mar 22 07:36 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Sun Mar 17 08:49 PM:

I am mostly referring to the physical game.

My reasoning is that if the two sides are indistinguishable, or there is no other way to tell which checkers have made a complete tour, then a player could easily mistake a checker which made a complete tour for one that had not and bring said checker back into the game.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Mar 17 05:55 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from 04:52 PM:

In that case, the two sided checkers would still be helpful, as they tell you which checkers are out of the game, by having the checkers that have completed the tour have one side up, and all other checkers having the other side up.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Mar 17 02:53 PM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Sat Mar 16 05:04 PM:

I have moved the standard piece values to the Notes option as an additional variant to make it clearer which value set you are using.

red square. The checker pieces have to make a complete tour of the board. Their

I have removed the underlined sentence, as it doesn't really say anything.

  • At least four checker pieces per player make a complete tour

I probably should have touched on this earlier, but I think this rule seems like another random addition. However, I do think it can work with the right tweaks.

First, the checkers should ideally have two sides, like with some checker sets that use a star for a Checker King. That way, you can flip the checker (or "promote" it, so to speak) when it makes a complete tour around the board.

Second, if a promoted checker gets captured, it would make more sense to keep it promoted, since otherwise, this condition is too unlikely to happen.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 03:25 PM UTC:

This is certainly a novel idea. However, I would like to throw in a few important points:

Each player has a complete set of Chess pieces and seven checkers, or pegs.

  • No more than 5 checker pieces per player are allowed on the board at the same time. 

If no more than 5 checker pieces can be on the board at the same time, then just have the players start with 5 checker pieces each.This eliminates the need for the 5-checker limit in the first place.

Players will get an extra point if the checker piece that is to be moved stands on a row/column in which that player has superiority. 

The superiority of a row/column is determined by adding together the value all chess pieces of the same colour and compare it to the enemy pieces. If the points ratio is at least 50% + 1 that player controls that row/column.  In this case, the standard chess values are used.

This rule seems to be a random addition, and appears to have little impact on the game, except for adding an extra bit of distance to a checker's move. It seems to be a lot of effort to calculate something that wouldn't impact the game all that much. Plus, I don't imagine many Chess players enjoy doing math.

Checker pieces, when captured by other checker pieces, will move to the starting position. If that square is already occupied they will enter the game on the next turn. 

Do you mean that they will enter the game as soon as their red square is not occupied by a friendly checker if one is available? This would line up with what you say in the Rules section.


Equalized Shatranj. (Updated!) Basic weak moves of ancient pieces are compensated by their numbers. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 01:22 AM UTC:

What happened to the Knights and Rooks (more accurately their Shatranj equivalents)? Those were in the original, not the Dabbabah or Wazir.

Regardless, the page is good enough to be approved.


Zen Zebras. (Updated!) A team for Chess with Different Armies based around the moves of the Zebra. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 01:19 AM UTC:

This page would greatly benefit from having a setup image, as well as actual diagrams in place of the ASCII Art. Here are some tools to help with that:

Diagram Designer for Chessvariants.com

Musketeer Chess Board Painter

H. G. Muller's Interactive Diagrams (Has the bonus of being able to move the pieces)

ASCII Art is considered outdated by most.


Fergana. (Updated!) The clash of empires on Fergana Valley. (Cells: 168) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 01:11 AM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Tue Mar 12 03:41 PM:

Is the double/triple move of the back row of Pawns also subject to en passant capture?


Sacrificial Chess. (Updated!) Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 12:59 AM UTC:

What happens in mutual stalemate, where a player makes a move that leaves both sides unable to move?


HnefaChess. (Updated!) The best combination of Chess and Hnefatafl. (Cells: 228) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 16 12:50 AM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Thu Mar 14 11:30 PM:

Both Berolina and Chinese Pawns are omnidirectional Pawns. They move orthogonally (one square only) but capture diagonally.

If these two Pawn types are essentially the same, you might as well replace both with Stewards, which have the same move (move without capturing one square orthogonally, capture one square diagonally).

The Kings can not move into check or be checkmated. 

Does that last part (or be checkmated) mean that other pieces cannot put the King in check?

Guards move one square orthogonally and diagonally in any direction. . 

I assume here you mean "Guards move one square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction, akin to a non-royal King."


Interactive diagrams. Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Thu, Mar 14 09:18 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 08:15 PM:

Let's not forget about betzaNewer.js (the one with the experimental Shogi promotion system).


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Thu, Mar 14 07:25 PM UTC:

It would be really nice if you could deselect a piece that you have just selected in the holdings. Currently this is not possible without selecting another piece in the holdings or dropping the selected piece on the board.


Tenjiku Shogi. Fire Demons burn surrounding enemies, Generals capture jumping many pieces. (16x16, Cells: 256) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Thu, Mar 14 01:20 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Wed Mar 13 08:24 PM:

Much better.

However, I did notice a bug that causes the promotion choices to replace pieces on the squares they are shown on if you select something other than a promotion choice.

Replication Example: Have a Rook General capture the opposing Rook General, and then when the promotion options show up click on any occupied space other than the highlighted squares.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Mar 13 05:31 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 12:52 PM:

Hmm...I think simply showing the promotion options with a highlighted background is better. The plus and minus don't really tell me what my choices are (they are basically covering up the images), but do better at showing that a promotion option exists.

Personally, I'd omit the markers and highlight the background with the same color that is used for Chess-style promotions (#8080FF), while also showing instructions at the top (e.g. "Click icon of piece of choice").

Perhaps the color for promotion highlights could even be set with a parameter (e.g. promoHighlight=#8080FF) in case the selected board shades are too similar to the default color.

P.S. Also, it would be really nice to be able to deselect a piece in the holdings like you can with pieces on the board. Currently, this is not possible.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Mar 11 03:18 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Sat Mar 9 09:43 PM:

I think the new system is much better, but some instructions at the top would also help (e.g. "Click on icon of piece of choice" for the current system).

It may also help to have a unique highlight color for the promotions in the current system, such as magenta or the blue you use for Chess-style promotions.


Torus Chess (The Shape of Space). (Updated!) Chess on a torus from the book "The Shape of Space". (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Mar 8 04:08 PM UTC:

What if you turned the one bishop into an Anglican Bishop, which moves as a Bishop or moves without capturing one step orthogonally? This allows it to reach all squares on the board while keeping its attacking range the same.


Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Mon, Mar 4 05:13 PM UTC:

The Review new submissions seems to have losts its style sheet for the text fonts. All the last action text has the same color.


Fearsome Chess. (Updated!) Fear is the main rule. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sat, Mar 2 02:13 AM UTC in reply to Florin Lupusoru from Fri Mar 1 03:15 AM:

Pieces can be blocked from reaching a certain square, don't they?

Being blocked doesn't necessarily mean that a piece is unable to reach a square.

Now that I think about it, I guess the inability to reach a square part refers to the predators, and not the moving piece.


A. M. DeWitt wrote on Fri, Mar 1 12:07 AM UTC:
  • If these pieces still have natural predators on the board but they are unable to reach these red squares

It feels like there is something missing here.


Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Thu, Feb 29 02:05 PM UTC in reply to Fergus Duniho from 01:53 PM:

You haven't turned off all the changes though (transparent menu background). May I suggest you work on this in the .org site to not affect users until you're ready with the changes?

Yeah, the current transparent background for the top menus looks terrible. Doing these tests on the .org site would be way better.


Heavy Shako. 10x10 variant inspired by Yangsi, made by Eric Silverman. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Feb 28 05:31 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 04:20 PM:

Challenge accepted.


Chu Seireigi. Variant of Chu Shogi playable with drops. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Feb 28 05:15 PM UTC:

I have decided to rename the Free Pup to Whale, to include a marine animal and balance out the number of dog and cat piece types (bears are dog-like).

This change also applies to Dai Seireigi.


Heavy Shako. 10x10 variant inspired by Yangsi, made by Eric Silverman. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Wed, Feb 28 12:35 AM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Tue Feb 27 09:50 PM:

@Adam: it is strange to say "Heavy Shako is a 100 square variant inspired by Adam DeWitt's Yangsi." I think this game was more inspired by Shako, as the initial setup and the name of the game say.

A link to Shako would be nice to have here.

Eric Silverman explicitly said in this comment that this game was at least partially inspired by Yangsi. I have included a link to Shako.

It would be nice if I could update the description of the game on the site, but I can't.

For the GC, would it be possible to use the wildebeest icon, and not the ram icon, for the Buffalo. This would be consistent with other games that use this piece and also with the page presenting Heavy Shako itself.

Unfortunately not for this page's diagram of the game, as the set that is being used does not have a Wildebeest icon. However, I could rig a custom set for the preset, which I have done successfully.


Yangsi. A very playable chess variant with 12 different pieces on a 10x10 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Feb 27 09:32 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from 10:43 AM:

Whoopsie.

Should be fixed now.


Play Chess Variants with Jocly. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Tue, Feb 27 09:26 PM UTC:

I think the best answer to this whole debate is that there is no right or wrong answer as to whether color-based pictograms or orientation-based kanji are better for Shogi variants.

However, I would never EVER recommend using orientation-based pictograms, unless they either:

  • all have some universal defining feature that makes it easier to tell each side apart, like the wedge shape with the kanji Shogi sets.
  • are mnemonic representations of the piece moves and are also color-based, like with the mnemonic Shogi variant sets.

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