Comments by David Cannon

Tony,

This PARACHESS board of yours is one of the best I've seen!  I've long
been a fan of unorthodox varieties of chess, and have been fascinated by
hexagonal, circular, and three-dimensional boards.  Your Parachess board,
however, has a special quality that all others I've seen lack : it
bridges the two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds, something I
thought impossible.  A piece riding on WAVES, for example, would bear a
striking resemblance to the Unicorn of some 3-D variants.

Keep up the good work, Tony!

The Zebra actually exists as the SAHNG (Elephant) in Changgi (Korean
Chess).  Korean Chess greatly resembles Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) except in
two basic ways.  One of these concerns the move of the Elephant.

Chinese Elephant - moves like an Alfil (but without the jumping power) -
and cannot cross the river.

Korean Elephant - moves like the Zebra described on this page - except
that it is not a leaper : there must be an unobstructed path from the
origin to the destination.  Also, unlike its Chinese cousin, it is not
barred from crossing the river - as there is no river.

I would like to see something added about the difference between the
Elephant in Xiangqi and the Elephant in Changgi (Korean Chess).  The two
varieties of chess are almost identical except for three things, one of
which is the move of the Elephant.

Xiangqi : the elephant moves two points diagonally (non-leaping) and
cannot cross the river.

Changgi : the elephant moves like a ZEBRA in some chess variants (i.e.,
one square orthogonally followed by one square diagonally, or vice versa)
- except that it is not a leaper; there must be unobstructed access
between the point of departure and the point of arrival.

Also, there is no 'river' in Changgi, so the rule about not crossing the
river is not applicable.

The movement of the Cannon is one of three significant differences between
Xiangqi (Chinese Chess) and Changgi (Korean Chess) [the other differences
concern the Elephant and the design of the board - Changgi has no river).

The Koreans have somewhat simplified the movement of the Cannon.  Unlike
its Chinese cousin, the Korean cannon moves as it captures : it cannot
move at all without flying over a 'screen' piece.

The effect of all this is that the Korean cannon tends to be an immensely
powerful piece in the early and mid-stages of the game, equal or superior
to the CHA (rook), but practically useless in the endgame, when there are
few pieces left to leap over.  Part of the strategy of Changgi is knowing
just when to exchange the Cannon for another piece.

Another distinctively Korean feature of the Cannon is that, unlike its
Chinese counterpart, it cannot capture an enemy cannon, or leap over a
fellow-cannon, friend or foe.  Shades of blood brothers?

Hi Graeme!  I'm delighted to see this variant.  I've been mucking around with a few trigonal boards myself, so I'm glad to see you cut the trail for me.  Just one comment: I notice that you've made the Queen a combination of Spire and Bishop.  That makes the Queen scarcely more powerful than the Tower (a Rook-like piece).  Have you considered a Spire-Tower combination for the Queen?  That would make a much more powerful piece worthy of the name, in my opinion.  You could still keep the present Queen, but perhaps change her name to something else.

And by the way, could we get a Zillions program to play this game?

Keep up the good work!

I'll add graphics later on.  I've exceeded my upload limit (on another game) for today:-(

A Zillions of Games file is in the pipeline and will be available soon.

Charles, have you considered including a reference to the KAIFENG in your game?  

KAIFENG is a city in China with a long Jewish history - it goes back many hundreds of years.  There is still a small Jewish community in the city, I believe.  Kaifeng Jews look Chinese, and differ from occidental Jews in that they trace descent through the father's line, rather than the mother's.  

I think some reference to Kaifeng would help to cement the connection I think you are making between China and Judaism.   Just a thought:-)

David.

1. Mark Colebank's INFINITE CHESS website has the original game.

2. I don't think I fully understand the movement of the pawns in your Fivequarters game. If I may summarize the pawn movement in a nutshell, each pawn moves in the direction indicated by its positioning - i.e. those shown 'right side up' move 'north' while those 'upside down' move 'south.' On reaching the so-called 'enemy zone' (the first rank reached beyond the diamond where the two circles intersect), a Pawn morphs into a Steward and can move passively in any orthogonal direction, and can capture in any diagonal direction. But to answer your question, no. No matter where on the board a Pawn may be, it may capture on either of the diagonals adjacent to the cell on which it would move orthogonally.

3. I would suggest downloading the link to the zillions file I programmed and play one or two games with it. You'll see the Pawn movement very clearly.

Cheers!

David Cannon.