[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments by DavidPaulowich
Triumvirate Chess. Uses three Knights. The last remaining opposing Knight must be checkmated as the King. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Starting the game with 3 Caesars for each side is a facinating idea. The Crowned Knight image in the Alfaerie graphics is perfect for the Caesar, as it starts the game moving like a knight and (often) ends up moving like a king. But, after playing a game on PBM, I must disagree with the special Caesar-capture move of the Centurion. It discourages the players from using their Caesars to attack, while serving no useful purpose.
Unicorn Chess. 
10x10 variant with a new piece that moves as a Bishop or a Nightrider. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Lions and Unicorns Chess: Inventor's Comments
The Game of Jetan or Martian Chess is highly original. I was especially impressed by the way 8 'Pawns' (Panthans) and 12 stronger pieces were placed in the initial setup on a 10x10 board. Eventually I came up with the idea of placing the Knights on a2, j2, a7, j7 on a 10x8 board. This gave me room to place LRCBQKBURL on the first and eighth ranks. While the Knights may take longer to reach the central squares, they do have the option of leaping to the fourth rank on their first move. Castling still involves moving the king two squares towards a rook and then leaping the rook over the king. But there really is no safe place for your King on the board when the opposing army has 4 powerful leapers added to the standard 16 pieces! You can expect short games with sharp tactical play.
Piece values will be different than those I proposed for Unicorn Great Chess, as the board is smaller. Pawns are more dangerous when there are only eight ranks. I have decided to limit Pawn promotion to Chancellors, Queens, and Unicorns (only) in all three variants with Unicorns. PBM presets for Unicorn Great Chess and Lions and Unicorns Chess are available for use. Enjoy!
Rollerball. Chess race fight on board formed by removing 3 by 3 square from center of 7 by 7 square. (7x7, Cells: 40) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Perhaps he meant to say: 'Perpetual Attack is a draw.' There is a discussion on the difference between perpetual check and 3-fold repetition on this page:
<p>http://www.chessvariants.org/d.chess/eternal.html
Game Courier Logs. View the logs of games played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'I have made some significant changes to how loops, conditionals, and
subroutines work. Let me know if these changes result in any bugs.
Parse error: parse error, unexpected ')' in
/home/chessvar/public_html/play/pbm/gamecode.php on line 590'
Was the message I received the first time I tried to send move 29 (Black)
in my game of GrotChess. When I look at the page now there is a long list
of Debug links, ending with:
405 [2:if]: endif
406 [1:sub]: endsub
DEBUG scope:
1
DEBUG ifhead of scope:
sub
581 [0:main]: end
DEBUG label:
Array
(
[postauto1] => 5
[postauto2] => 205
)I am seeing 'has won' results without any name attached on Fri, Dec 17, 06:15 and 10:12.
Sanctuary Chess. Archbishop and Swiss Guard replace Queen and King; no checkmate. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The Swiss guard is identical to the Squire from Renniassance Chess, invented in 1980 by Eric V. Greenwood. This powerful short-range piece is not yet in the Piececlopedia. NOTE: I believe the name 'squire' is also used in some variants for a non-leaping piece with a range of two squares.
Hans Bodlaender resigns as editor-in-chief. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] XYMYX. Players make their moves at the same time. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In September 2004 a link was posted to Synchronous Chess:
<p>http://www.hexenspiel.de/engl/synchronous-chess/
<p>In that variant two pieces moving to the same square will both be destroyed.
General and Arch-General Chess. Variations of Birds' Chess. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Peter: your 'EITHER-OR' checkmate proposal raises many interesting possibilities beyond this page. Since games will often be won by forking your opponent's two royal pieces, you can consider variants where both royal pieces are powerful. For example, remove the Kings from FIDE chess and give two royal Queens to White and two royal Chancellors (R+N) to Black. A royal Chancellor may turn out to be slightly stronger than a royal Queen in this game.
<p>This sort of rule is completely different from the 'checkmate the last surviving royal piece' rules in variants like Triumvirate Chess.
The Birth of Fischer Random Chess. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Tim Krabbe wrote: Possibly the first time the shuffling idea was mentioned, was in 1792, in the first original Dutch chess book by Philip Julius, Count Van Zuylen van Nijevelt, a Dutch army general, senator of the French Empire, and one-time Napoleonic governor of Amsterdam. He did not like the openings with their boring repetition of patterns, which enabled weaker players to memorize moves with which they could beat stronger ones. He suggested determining the places of the pieces by lot, 'because the positions can then be changed infinitely, and it will certainly not be possible anymore to study them beforehand.'
<p>See his OPEN CHESS DIARY # 123. Fischer Random Chess is at least 200 years younger. See Eric van Reem's introduction and history of the game [link on this Chess Variant Page].
Fischer Random Chess. Play from a random setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg: I intended to add a comment about Count Van Zuylen van Nijevelt's 200 year old variant to this page, but I had too many windows open and it ended up on Eric van Reem's introduction and history of FRC (link near the top of this page). You should check out van Reem's page anyway.
<p>Leo: For me, nothing beats the challenge of playing a six hour game of chess against a 2100 level opponent. But winning the CWDA PBM Tournament here three years ago came close! Giving history lessons to the people on this web site is very low on my list of priorities. Anyway, I will give it one more try. The Carrera/Bird/Capa line of variants goes back four centuries. 'Carrera Random Chess - all your variants in one game!' goes back to my September 2004 comment on the Carrera's Chess Page. Nowadays I call this variant by the more accurate name of 'Pairwise Drop Chess' - latest version of the rules to be added soon, as a Carrera's Chess Page comment.
Carrera's Chess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Carrera Random Chess' has become 'Pairwise Drop Chess'. Two games were played on the CV Game Courier in December 2004. You start a game by choosing one of five pairs: R+R, N+N, B+B, K+Q, Archbishop+Chancellor and placing the two pieces on your first rank. Bishops must be placed on opposite color squares. Each player copies the opponent's drops, placing pieces on the same files, and then chooses another pair. This process uses up the first three moves of the game.
Each king may 'free castle' once in the game with either the nearest rook on its left side or the nearest rook on its right side. This variant idea comes from the Kibitzer web article 'Bring Back Free Castling!' by Tim Harding. Note that free castling simply switches the King and Rook, if they are adjacent at the start of play. A Pawn promotes on the last rank to a Chancellor, Queen, or Archbishop of the same color. Nothing else.
Thanks to George Duke for reminding me of The Kibitzer #31, in his 2004-09-24 comment to Grotesque Chess.
Duke. Piece from RennChess that steps one orthogonally then slides diagonally, or slides diagonally then steps one orthogonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The following endgame position leads to two different forced mates in three moves.
WHITE: King(c2), Duke(c6). BLACK: King(a2), Pawn(a3).
1.Db4 check Ka1 2.Kc1 a2 3. Dc2 mate will work for a duke using only the 'Step one square orthogonally, and then slide any number of squares diagonally' rule. You can also substitute a knight for the duke.
1.Dd4 check Ka1 2.Kc1 a2 3. Dc2 mate will work for a duke using only the 'Slide any number of squares diagonally, then step one square orthogonally' rule. You can also substitute a transcendental prelate for the duke. See Tim Harding's web article: The Kibitzer #31 'Bring Back Free Castling!' for the transcendental prelate, invented by George Botterill in the 1960s.
Cetina Random Chess. Play with a sissa and a chancellor from a randomly generated setup.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Legler's Chess or Neo-Chess (1923) may be the first variant to try replacing one rook and one knight in each army. This may be the first shuffle chess variant to have chancellors on the board. I have never been able to make up my mind whether the sissa is a good idea or a bad idea for a new chess piece. But I can definitely give Carlos full credit for inspiring my variant 'Carrera Random Chess' and its revision 'Pairwise Drop Chess'. See the Comments section on the Carrera's Chess page for the game rules.
Grotesque Chess. A variant of Capablanca's Chess with no unprotected Pawns. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Reply to the 2004-09-24 comment by George Duke: Thanks for reminding me of The Kibitzer #31 'Bring Back Free Castling!'. I have used that article to add some improvements to my comments on the Carrera's Chess page. Also to comment on the Piececlopedia article on the 'Duke' (the piece named after you).
<p>PAIRWISE DROP CHESS: free castling and no dice required!
Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ralph Betza: FIDE Master
<p>I believe that his title requires a previous FIDE rating of 2300 or more. Search the forgotten corners of the Web and you may still find a copy of the 1994 USCF ratings list, giving his national rating as 2330. Ralph was kind enough to play a few chess variant games with me by email in the late 1990s. Currently he is mostly invisible, apart from the odd post on the newsgroups by 'gnohmon'.
Ralph Betza in Japan: October 1997
<p>After examining my old email files, I can state that Ralph was playing Go in Tokyo at that time, but not Shogi. Even then he was 'semi-retired' from chess (and variants). Too bad he never had the chance to play in some sort of 'IRON MAN WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP' - involving equal numbers of games of FIDE Chess, Shogi, and Xiangqi. Perhaps www.chessvariants.org should arrange a triple-variant ladder tournament for those interested.
Fischer Random Chess. Play from a random setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Reinhard: The Cetina Random Chess page (June 3, 1998) on this site is the original source of my interest in shuffle chess variants, which eventually led me to a diceless chess variant. I wish you well with your Capablanca Random Chess project.
George: Betza tends to call Chess With Different Armies 'just plain chess' and reserve the term 'chess variant' for something as different as Shogi. This can be confusing to us mere mortals. I have added a few comments concerning his rating(s) to the Chaturanga page.
Shogi. The Japanese form of Chess, in which players get to keep and replay captured pieces. (9x9, Cells: 81) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Repetition
<p>If the same game position occurs more than three times in a single game, the game is declared a no-contest. The same position means, same players turn, same disposition of pieces on the board and in hand. If a repeated position occurs as a result of repeated checks, the player giving check must not do so a fourth time otherwise that player forfeits the game.
<p>This is a quote from: Shogi - Japanese Chess by Roger Hare. See the sidebar above.
Game Courier Tournament #2. Sign up for our 2nd multi-variant tournament to be played all on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greetings from Canada! Planning to attend Swiss system tournaments in three provinces this spring, so I am unlikely to find the time to play in this event. I do have a few suggestions to make.
<p>Regarding Chess with Different Armies: Back in 2001 we used the format [1] Black chooses an army [2] White chooses a different army [3] Tournament Director sets up the game.
<p>Marseillais Chess and Wormhole Chess are very complicated games and deserve more time - perhaps play one less move per week. Note that these games normally end before move twenty.
Roberto: it has been a long time since I qualified as a new player - I was playing here back in 2001. See the webpage for '1st Email Championship Chess with Different Armies'.
Omega Chess. Rules for commercial chess variant on board with 104 squares. (12x12, Cells: 104) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg: Grand Chess and Shako also bring the two armies closer together, but still on a 10x10 board. This is the approach taken in my 'TenCubed Chess' entry for the Contest to Design a 10-chess Variant. Each player has an entire Omega Chess army, plus an Archbishop (B+N) and a Marshall (R+N).
Coherent Chess. Variant on 9 by 9 board with special knights. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Carlos Cetina's ideas are always interesting. I am not sure if his triangular setup works or not, but it is a contribution to chess variant theory. There is a minor problem with any variant having Bishops on a 9x9 board. One Bishop travels on 41 squares and the other Bishop travels on 40 squares. These two pieces are not quite equal in value. Later that year he posted Symmetric Sissa, a 9x9 variants with no colorbound pieces.
George: You may be interested to learn that (mostly anonymous) comments and ratings were posted on many variant pages, under an previous system. Here are two web pages
[1] Recent Ratings and Comments by Title (2001 to 2002)
[2] Ratings and Comments for: Chaturanga - one of the pages referenced there - which contains the memorable line: 'this is completely in error, chataranga is a four player game pre-dating crist, you dopes'. Well, not every posting is worth reading.
25 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.