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Poll number Poll for October 2004's Recognized Variant of the Month. Vote to select the Recognized Variant of the Month for October, 2004.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Sep 9, 2004 12:26 PM UTC:

Fischer Random Chess is already the 'Recognized Variant of the Month for April 2002.' Progressive Chess is already the 'Recognized Variant of the Month for July 2002.' Check the web pages: http://www.chessvariants.org/diffsetup.dir/fischer.html http://www.chessvariants.org/multimove.dir/progressive.html

Cavalier. Piece from RennChess that steps one diagonally then slides orthogonally, or steps one orthogonally then slides diagonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Sep 10, 2004 03:31 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Apparently Wayne Schmittberger describes a piece called the Octopus with a similar movement diagram, in some unpublished material on a game concept called 'Generalized Chess'. Adrian King writes: 'It wasn't clear from Wayne's description whether his Octopus could actually move one space diagonally or had to move at least as far as a Knight, so I split the difference and allowed the Scirocco Octopus to move like a Firzan but not to capture like one.' However, King says nothing about this piece having multiple paths to its target and the Octopus piece in his scirocco.zrf is precisely a Griffon which lacks the ability to capture on adjacent squares.

Duke. Piece from RennChess that steps one orthogonally then slides diagonally, or slides diagonally then steps one orthogonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Sep 10, 2004 03:38 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Continuing my comments to the Cavalier article. Adrian King writes: 'The Spider is the diagonal counterpart of the orthogonal Octopus, and like the Octopus, was taken from an unpublished piece by Wayne Schmittberger.' King allowed the Scirocco Spider to move like a Wazir but not to capture like one. The Spider continues on to move and capture on the same squares as the Duke. As in the case of the Octopus, King's scirocco.zrf verifies that this piece traces a single path to its target. Adrian King's 16x16 variant 'Jupiter' inspired Mark Hedden to create Ganymede Chess (12x12), Europan Chess (14x14), and Io Chess (16x16). Io Chess contains a Spider piece, which can both move and capture like a Wazir. To quote Mark Hedden: 'It is, simply, the diagonal equivalent of the griffin.' Hedden allows this piece to promote to the Tarantula, which combines the moves of Spider and Bishop. The Wing Chun piece in Tim Bostick's Kung Fu Chess (2001) also moves like the Spider and promotes to a piece which moves like a Tarantula.

Kung Fu Chess. On a 14x10 board, the pieces in this variant are based on Kung Fu martial arts styles of combat. (14x10, Cells: 140) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Sep 10, 2004 03:42 AM UTC:

I finally remembered some old material related to the Bruce Lee and Wing Chun pieces. Mark Hedden's Io Chess (1999) contains the Griffin and its promoted form - the Hippogriff. He also has the Spider (the diagonal equivalent of the Griffin) and its promoted form - the Tarantula. See the Piececlopedia article on the 'Duke' for more background material.

Quantum Chess A game information page

. Commercial variant with new pieces on 10 by 10 and 12 by 12 boards. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Sep 11, 2004 12:06 PM UTC:

Gone

The requested resource

is no longer available on this server and there is no forwarding address. Please remove all references to this resource. EDIT [June, 2007] the pages are back up.

Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Sep 15, 2004 05:54 PM UTC:

Uwe Kreuzer has won a game of 'Omega Chess 10x8' each morning for the last three or four or five days. Possible bug in the program?

Chancellor. Moves like rook or as knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Sep 17, 2004 12:56 PM UTC:

The Encyclopedia Britannica (1911) says: 'The chancellor of an order of knighthood discharges notarial duties and keeps the seal.' Sounds good to me - and we all agree on the spelling! Can anyone give references for the noun (not the proper name) 'marshall' before, say, 1940? Looks like the dates for Carrera's Chess and The Duke of Rutland's Chess are switched above.

The Game of Jetan. Extensive discussion of various versions of the rules of Jetan. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Sep 17, 2004 07:27 PM UTC:

Jetan is a fascinating chess variant. I am used to Jens Markmann's Jetan.zrf, which uses the same (I think) rules as the Variant 'Chained Wild Jetan with Wild Thoats' in ChainedWildJetan.zrf from jetan_erb.zip. The 'Jester' in Sidney LeVasseur's Kings Court variant moves the same as the Free Padwar, except that the Jester is allowed an initial Alfil-jump in the game. The Jester and Free Padwar appear to be the weakest 'multiple path' pieces used in chess variants.

Carrera's Chess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Sep 21, 2004 08:05 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

'Carrera Random Chess' - all your variants in one game!

The game starts with only the pawns on the board. Each Player divides the remaining pieces into five pairs: R+R, N+N, B+B, K+Q, and C+A (using the names Chancellor and Archbishop). White begins by choosing a pair and placing them somewhere on the first rank. Black copies this placement on the eighth rank and then places another pair of pieces somewhere on the eighth rank. White copies and then places another pair. Black copies and then places another pair. White copies and then places the final pair. Black copies on the eighth rank, resulting in an opening setup with every Black piece on the same file as the corresponding White piece. No castling allowed and no need to place the rooks on either side of the King. The only special rule is: Bishops must be placed on squares of opposite color. Naturally this also means you are not allowed to fill all the available squares of one color before the Bishops have been placed. The game should be played with the modern rules for pawn movement and capturing. Promotion to Archbishop, Chancellor or Queen works perfectly. Back on August 18, I discussed the myth of underpromotion in games with this piece set - see the Comments to 'Mainzer Schach'.

David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Sep 21, 2004 08:09 PM UTC:

My favorite opening setup in 'Carrera Random Chess' is: CRNBAKBNRQ. To be frank, I prefer it to any variant with rooks in the corners invented in the last four hundred years. Might put a strain on the royal marriage, but we do not have to worry about that kind of symbolism here. How do we deal with a computer program that insists on a single piece drop by each player per move? Suppose, in a game that resulted in CRNBAKBNRQ, White started by placing the knights and Black replied by placing the rooks. Start recording the game as follows: 1. Nc1 Nc8 2. Nh1 Ri8 3. Ri1 Rb8 4. Rb1 Nh8. Black has simply delayed the required second knight drop until both rooks have been placed, thus creating the illusion of alternating single moves. Problem solved.

Cetina Random Chess. Play with a sissa and a chancellor from a randomly generated setup.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Sep 21, 2004 08:14 PM UTC:

Carlos Cetina has produced many interesting ideas. This variant deserves further exploration.

Grotesque Chess. A variant of Capablanca's Chess with no unprotected Pawns. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Sep 22, 2004 01:25 PM UTC:

Andreas, you have just become the latest victim of Capablanca's Curse! Five hours before this variant arrived, I posted two comments on the 'Carrera's Chess' page. Carrera Random Chess actually uses a five-step procedure where both players have a hand in determining the final setup. No dice - no castling - no former world champions.

Chess 2000. Chess on 8 by 8 board with knight/rook and knight/bishop pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Sep 23, 2004 01:53 PM UTC:

Legler's Chess, also called Neo-Chess, deserves mention as the earliest known variant (1923) with these pieces on an 8x8 board.

Camel.

An elongated Knight making a (3, 1) leap.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Sep 23, 2004 02:06 PM UTC:

The camel continues to fascinate game designers! Daniel Brown calls it the Jester in his 80 square variant J-Chess. The initial setup is:
 P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P | P
 R | N | B | J | Q | K | J | B | N | R

Treeleaders Chess. Large variant with non-similar armies. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Sep 25, 2004 07:25 PM UTC:

In 1889 Ben Foster wrote a book 'Chancellor Chess.' The game is played on a 9x9 board, with the setup RNBQKCNBR. All the pawns are defended and the Bishops are on both light and dark squares.

In 1983 Carlos Cetina proposed 'The Bishops Conversion Rule', which has its own web page on this site. Briefly, one of your Bishops makes its first move in the game: exactly one square horizontally or vertically.

Two games with 11 columns take a new approach. Mainzer Schach places Bishops on the c-file and d-file, and Knights on the h-file and i-file. R. Wayne Schmittberger's Wildebeest Chess has White Bishops and Black Camels on the c-file and d-file, because the setup reverses the placement of the Black pieces.

Cavalry Chess. A once popular variant from the 1920's where every piece has additional jumping moves. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Sep 30, 2004 02:28 AM UTC:Good ★★★★

Around the same time later Hugo Legler invented a simpler variant with knight-bishop and knight-rook pieces. Alexander Alekhine lost a game to E. W. Gruer in a San Francisco simul (1929). The 'Chancellor' in Sidney LeVasseur's Kings Court (1997) moves like the King in Cavalry Chess, while the 'Buffalo' in Jean-Louis Cazaux's Gigachess (2001) moves like the Knight.

Feeble Chess to Weakest Chess. Some Chess variants with weaker pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Sep 30, 2004 08:37 PM UTC:

Chris Witham asked 'Closer to the subject, what about strongest chess? A CV in which the pieces are as strong as posible while still being playable and resmbleing normal chess.' Cavalry Chess (designed by Frank Maus in 1921) uses the the standard chess pieces, but with greatly increased powers. The knight in this game moves like a buffalo: the knight - camel - zebra compound. The game description page also includes a brief essay by Fergus Duniho comparing Cavalry Chess and his own Cavalier Chess.

Dabbabante Chess.. Played on a 10x10 board with Super Dabbabah pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Oct 8, 2004 06:14 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Since source code like ../lib/javascript/ffen2diag.js is completely invisible on my primary computer (with custom security settings) I would like to thank you for mentioning 'the above graphic'. That way I can at least know that I am missing something. NOTE: I can't actually tell you what my security settings do, besides shut down all JAVA, because my external security program currently denies me access to the MSIE 'Internet Options' tab.

Makruk (Thai chess). Rules and information. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Oct 15, 2004 08:23 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Jean-Louis Cazaux has a page on 'Ouk Chatrang, the Cambodian Chess and Makruk, the Thai Chess' on his web site. Cazaux has a personalid page here, giving the current address of his web site.

Rules of Chess: En passant capture FAQ. Answers to some questions about the en passant capture rule.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Nov 3, 2004 08:19 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

You write PxP e. p. in the old descriptive notation. But in the modern algebraic notation (see game below) no 'e. p.' is added. On move 12 the White Pawn on c4 captured the Black Pawn on d5 and then a Black Pawn moved from c7 to c5. On move 13 the White Pawn, now on d5, captured that Black Pawn en passant, by moving it back to c6 and then taking it. The brief notation '13. dxc6' is all that is required to describe the move. To answer Gabe's question, this game shows that there are no special restrictions on en passant capture. And to answer david's question, any Pawn capture is a diagonal move which cannot be affected by a piece orthogonally in front of the attacking Pawn. Unless some other rule happened to apply, such as the case when that piece pins the Pawn against its own King. Tigran Petrosian - Mikhail Botvinnik, 13th game of the World Championship Match (Moscow 1963) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Bb7 5. Bg2 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 Ne4 8. Nxe4 Bxe4 9. d5 Bf6 10. Ne1 Bxg2 11. Nxg2 exd5 12. cxd5 c5 13. dxc6 dxc6 14. Qc2 c5 15. Rd1 Qe8 16. Bf4 Nc6 17. Bd6 Be7 18. e3 Rd8 19. Bxe7 Qxe7 20. Nf4 g6 21. Qa4 Ne5 22. Rxd8 Rxd8 23. Rd1 c4 24. e4 b5 25. Rxd8+ Qxd8 26. Qxb5 Qd1+ 27. Kg2 Qf3+ 28. Kg1 Qd1+ 29. Kg2 Qf3+ 30. Kg1 Qxe4 31. Qd5 Qxd5 32. Nxd5 Nd3 33. b4 cxb3 34. axb3 f5 35. b4 Kf7 36. b5 Ne5 37. b6 a5 38. Kf1 Ke6 39. b7 Nc6 40. Nc7+ Kd6 41. Na6 a4 42. Ke2 a3 43. Nb4 Nb8 44. Kd3 Kc7 45. Kc2 Kxb7 46. Kb3 Kb6 47. Kxa3 Kc5 48. Kb3 Kd4 49. Kc2 Ke4 50. Kd2 Kf3 51. Ke1 Kg2 52. h4 Kf3 53. Nd3 Nd7 54. Kf1 1/2-1/2

King's Court. Variant on 8 by 12 board with Chancellors and Jesters. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Nov 4, 2004 06:49 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

This variant has an interesting selection of pieces. Back in September I added a comment to 'The Game of Jetan or Martian Chess' comparing the Jester to the Free Padwar. The Chancellor is a very powerful short-range piece. But I personally would prefer the idea of a noncapturing 'king’s flight' move. No such restriction is stated in these rules. I have also tested the Zillions game file rules by adding White Chancellors to the squares e6 and i6, then playing:

1. Chancellor i6xh8 check, King g8xh8

2. Chancellor e6xf8 check, King h8xf8

Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Mon, Nov 15, 2004 01:25 PM UTC:

I would like to see an automatic game backup feature for the Game Courier. Moves have been lost in both of my games of Fisher Random Chess. I was expecting move eleven today from Matthias Brendel and instead received a repeat of move seven. See also the entry '13... e7-d6 // The game seems to have skipped back two moves.' in Marc Wakeham - David Paulowich, recorded as pircman-cvgameroom-2004-227-741

David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Nov 16, 2004 03:37 AM UTC:

Fergus - all I am looking for is an internet chess site that does not require Java, ActiveX, or an email account that is working every month of the year. FFEN diagrams simply do not exist for me. I can play back the moves of a game in your Game Courier Game Logs, but not one of the 'saved games' elsewhere on this site. My old email address ceased to exist on Oct. 31 and I am now enjoying my anonymity. That address now exists only on my 'personid' page here (apparently removing it causes Game Courier to refuse to make any moves in my games) and in the phoney return address lines on various SPAM emails.

I assume Matthias Brendel sent move eleven shortly before 01:00 on Monday, Nov 15. What showed up here was a repeat of move seven. As in the case of 'Marc Wakeham - David Paulowich', this represents a trip back in time of at least four days. I suppose the email related to Brendel's move may have been returned to this site, but I really have no idea. Sorry that I cannot offer more help.

Games for Game Courier. The many games you can play online with Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Nov 25, 2004 04:58 PM UTC:

Greg, is anyone still working on an Omega Chess Preset? That variant also has three-step initial pawn moves and en passant capture.

Recognized Chess Variants. Index page listing the variants we feel are most significant. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Dec 1, 2004 03:06 AM UTC:

Robert James 'Bobby' Fischer (USA 1943 -) rating 2780. Robert Fischer (USA 1960 -) rating 2170 in 1999. Roger Fischer (GER 1973 -) rating 2130 in 1999. There are several R. Fischers playing tournament chess. I would not even try to estimate the number posting on the internet!

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