Check out Modern Chess, our featured variant for January, 2025.


[ Help | Earliest Comments | Latest Comments ]
[ List All Subjects of Discussion | Create New Subject of Discussion ]
[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]

Comments by DavidPaulowich

EarliestEarlier Reverse Order LaterLatest
Marseillais Chess. Move twice per turn. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Feb 16, 2005 02:06 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
'The reason the Queen is worth more than the separate Rook and Bishop is that she gets a bonus from having 8 directions of movement.' - Ralph Betza, who also writes '... the Queen is worth a notable amount more than the separate R and B, but this seems to be mostly because pieces that concentrate great value are as a general rule worth more than their separate component pieces (more forking power).'

To paraphrase Betza, the Queen's ability to do 'two things at once' makes it worth a Pawn more than a Rook and a Bishop. My last game of Marseillais Chess leads me to the opinion that Q=R+B exactly in this variant, as the two separate pieces can both move in the same turn. The subject of Marseillais Chess piece values deserves further study.


Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Feb 16, 2005 03:06 AM UTC:
Andreas: Elephant=1, General=2, Knight=4, Rook=6 is my (uneducated) guess for middlegame values. Never forget that the Elephant visits only a pitiful eight(8) squares on the board. But I am comparing these with Pawns that vary in value from 0.8 (a- and h-files) to 1.6 (d- and e-files). The ancient Arab chess authors were less inclined to use an average Pawn value, which is around 1.2 here. <p>'Thoughts on Chess with Different Pawns' is a recent Ralph Betza web page, where he has a lot to say about Shatranj piece values. For example: al-Adli thought a Knight was worth five(5) times as much as a Rook's Pawn, which is consistent with the values I gave above. See: <p>http://www.chessvariants.org/piececlopedia.dir/chess-different-pawns.html

Chigorin Chess. White has knights instead of bishops and a chancellor for his queen; black has bishops instead of knights. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Feb 18, 2005 04:22 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Dave McCooey - Fairy endgames with 3 pieces (8x8 board)

Amazon(R+B+N), Queen(R+B), Chancellor(R+N),

Unicorn(B+NN): a Bishop-Nightrider combination.

||||| Longest Wins for the Strong Side (WHITE) |||||

||||| (strong side has 2 pieces, weak side has 1 piece) |||||

Three-------------Number---Type-----------------------------------Side Piece-----Half------Of------Of-------------------------------------To

Endgame---Moves--Positions-Win------Example Position--------------Move

KRRvKQ-----30-------14 f-captr WK(c8) WR(h2) WR(g8) BK(a1) BQ(d1) WHITE

KRRvKU----202--------4 capture WK(b8) WR(d5) WR(h8) BK(d7) BU(e1) BLACK

KRRvKC-----87--------9 capture WK(d6) WR(a6) WR(a7) BK(g6) BC(d3) WHITE

Queens and Chancellors have good chances of drawing by

perpetual check. If they fail, then the game ends fairly quickly.

The Unicorn has little chance of drawing, but it can drag

the loss out to an incredible 101 moves.


David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Feb 18, 2005 05:00 PM UTC:
My previous comment attempts to copy the format of Dave McCooey's very informative pawnless endgame tables. These are actually 5-piece endgames, counting the Kings. The headers should read: Three Piece Endgame, Half Moves, Number of Positions, Type of Win, Example Position, and Side to Move. <p>P=100, N=300, B=300, R=500, C=850, U=875, Q=900 are endgame values I devised several years back (8x8 board). I was mostly thinking about how each piece performs against a Rook, or a pair of Rooks. But these quarter-pawn differences can mostly be ignored in the heat of combat. Victory will go to the player who best understands the unique properties of each piece.

Contest to design a 10-chess variant. Cebrating 10 years of Chess Variant Pages with a contest to design a chess variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Feb 18, 2005 11:12 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
TenCubed Chess has ten kinds of pieces on a 10x10 board. Players use an entire Omega Chess set, plus an archbishop (B+N) and a marshall (R+N) for each side. I have been playtesting the TenCubed.zrf for a week. Of course, I can always change the name if anyone is planning a 3D variant with 1000 cells!

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Feb 18, 2005 11:32 PM UTC:
Peter: Murray Lions make interesting 'short-range Queens'.  And four of
them make sense, as each Murray Lion visits only 16 squares on the board
(until it captures on an adjacent square).

Contest to design a 10-chess variant. Cebrating 10 years of Chess Variant Pages with a contest to design a chess variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Feb 19, 2005 12:39 AM UTC:
Roberto: I named the variant TenCubed Chess because the number 10 occurs 3 times in the description. I could have used other people's trademarks and called it 'Grand Omega Chess'.

Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Feb 20, 2005 01:21 AM UTC:
http://www.chessvariants.org/d.betza/pieceval/fig2key.html <p>gives P=7, E=8, G=12, N=21, R=35 after multiplying Betza's 'standard values' by 4. Compared to my comment three days ago, the Elephant and General now add up to almost the same value as a Knight. P=7 is an average pawn value - central pawns are worth much than a-file and h-file pawns.

Chess. The rules of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Feb 20, 2005 03:17 PM UTC:

Mark: I would guess that 16 games between two evenly matched grandmasters usually results in 9 points for White and 7 points for Black. That would represent a 50 point rating advantage, under the former Canadian system. In the New York 1924 Tournament the players with the White pieces scored 28-27 in the first half and 33-22 in the second half. White's total score for this 11 player double round robin was 61 out of 110, or 55.45 percent.

The statistics button in Chessbase 8.0 informs me that White scored +123, =137, -71 in the 331 games played in 17 world chess championship matches from 1886 to 1937. That is 57.85 percent for White. I count 536 games played from the 1948 tournament to Kramnik - Leko (2004), leaving out all the FIDE events after Short and Kasparov left. White scored +140, =325, -71 or 56.44 percent. Draws are getting more common at the highest level - but that is another topic.


Symmetrical Chess Collection Essay. Members-Only Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.

Pocket Mutation Chess. Take one of your pieces off the board, maybe change it, keep it in reserve, and drop it on the board later. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Feb 23, 2005 08:54 PM UTC:
Michael: The Queen, SuperRook, SuperBishop, and SuperAlibaba pieces all include the commoner(WF) move, which gives them immunity from the enemy King approaching them. They also have the choice of up to three different promotion squares, when sitting on the player's 7th rank. 'Commoner Power' may not be as flashy as 'Nightrider Power', but it has its uses.

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Feb 23, 2005 09:08 PM UTC:
Greg: back on 2004-08-28 I proposed adding the SuperAlibaba (WFAD) piece to Class 4. Could I trouble you to calculate the stats? Looks like the usual 6.56 for Average # Directions Attacked and 11.69 for Average Empty Board Mobility. <p>NITPICKING MATHEMATICIAN ALERT!!! Your FAD and Half-Duck values of 8.31 and 8.56 for Average # Directions Attacked result from errors (or a different philosophy from mine). Those two pieces have up to 12 moves, but go in the same 8 directions as the SuperAlibaba.

Eurasian Chess. Synthesis of European and Asian forms of Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Feb 24, 2005 06:22 PM UTC:
Fergus, when you update the rules description on this page, please add a note on stalemate. Same request for Yáng Qí. In fact, I cannot find 'draw rules' on either page.

Capablanca Random Chess. Randomized setup for Capablanca chess. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Feb 24, 2005 06:34 PM UTC:
'The champion has the combined moves of rook and knight. The centaur has the combined moves of bishop and knight.' - D. Pietro Carrera, 1617 <p>So the earliest variant gives the name Centaur to the other piece! Also, many people here follow Adrian King in calling the man-horse piece (K+N) a Centaur.

White Elephant Chess. Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Feb 24, 2005 09:25 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Dr. Peter Nicolaus writes in BURMESE TRADITIONAL CHESS:

'The Myin moves as the modern knight. The Sin moves one square at a time either diagonally or forward. It seems that Myin and Sin are of equal value. Nevertheless Burmese players appear somewhat reluctant to exchange a Myin against a Sin.'

Roger Hare writes on his Chu Shogi page: 'The old texts say that a kinsho and osho against a bare osho wins.' I assume this means that a King and Silver General can force a 'stalemate position' and then capture the enemy King after it moves. In White Elephant Chess it would seem that a lone Black King on the first rank can achieve a stalemate draw against these two pieces. [EDIT] Kinsho = Gold General in Shogi. I suspect that it is not possible to force stalemate with King and Ginsho = Silver General against a lone King.


David Paulowich wrote on Thu, Feb 24, 2005 11:22 PM UTC:
Pawn=7, Alfil=8, Ferz=12, Silver General=20, Knight=21, Commoner=28, Rook=35 <p>are my working values. I started by multiplying Ralph Betza's 'standard values' by four. The Commoner can move like a Wazir or a Ferz, and has a higher value of four Pawns in his more recent writings. I simply averaged Ferz (12) and Commoner (28) to get 20 for the Silver General. Perhaps the modern Bishop should be 22. Like the Commoner, the Great Elephant is more than the sum of its parts. I estimate its value at 32 to 36. Time to stop juggling numbers and make a concrete proposal. <p>WHITE ELEPHANT CHESS V: Replace the White queen with a mammoth (rook plus forward bishop). Replace the Black bishops with elephants and the Black rooks with great elephants. Each army is no more than one pawn weaker than the FIDE army. I suspect that Black has a tiny material advantage over White.

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Feb 25, 2005 06:10 PM UTC:
The Eccentric Elephants: a new army for Ralph Betza's 'Chess with Different Armies.' Replace the Bishops with Elephants, the Rooks with Great Elephants, and the Queen with a Mastodon, a piece combining the Rook with Ralph Betza's Bede (Bishop plus Dabbabah). Even though the Mastodon can jump like a Dabbabah in all four directions, I think it is worth no more than a Queen plus a Pawn. This should balance out the army nicely. There is no need for a special castling rule for this army, as the Great Elephants are not colorbound. Note that each Great Elephant has a single orthogonal jump in the initial position, just like each Bede in the Colorbound Clobberers.

Capablanca Random Chess. Randomized setup for Capablanca chess. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Feb 26, 2005 01:23 PM UTC:
Sometimes I wish Christian Freeling had used 'Marshalls' and 'Capablancas' in Grand Chess. Naming the pieces after two grandmasters would save us from endlessly debating the spelling of Marshal(l).

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]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Feb 26, 2005 06:38 PM UTC:
Looks like you will be conducting a 10 player round robin - starting off with something like four games for each player. I can email a 6.5 kilobyte PDF file containing the official Canadian 'Round Robin Pairing Schedule', for anything up to 18 players. Consider numbering these players from #1 to #10, in order of estimated strength. You could simply fill in the top four positions according to their scores in the previous tournament. It is then a simple matter to start off with pairings in which the top four players do NOT meet each other. Two benefits: [1] they do not have to start off playing the 'same old faces' [2] the deciding game between tournament leaders will probably happen later in the event.

Odin's Rune Chess. A game inspired by Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, runes, and Nordic Mythology. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Mon, Feb 28, 2005 08:44 PM UTC:
How can one describe the (colorbound) Pawns of Odin’s Rune Chess? Well, a Silver General in Shogi has 5 of the 8 moves of a King. A Pawn in this game has 5 of the 12 moves of a Jester in Sidney LeVasseur's Kings Court Chess. A truly exciting innovation.

White Elephant Chess. Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Mar 4, 2005 02:03 PM UTC:
The Ginsho (Silver General) is a tricky piece. I am curious as to how it works in variants like Peter's Gothic Isles Chess. My first question is: If we drop the 'bare king' rule, can we find a forced stalemate victory in the ending King + Silver General versus King? I have tried running a Zillion - Zillions match for over 250 moves, at one minute per move, with no success. CORRECTION: my first 2005-02-24 comment included a quote concerning the Kinsho (Gold General). I confused this piece with the Silver General, and drew some false conclusions.

Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Mar 8, 2005 04:06 AM UTC:
BLOCKADE STALEMATE IN 20 MOVES:

Using Zillions, I played out this sample game, which ends with the 4 remaining Black Pawns blockaded by 4 White pieces, while a Black King, Chariot, Knight, Counselor, and Elephant are locked in behind the Pawns. Even if this was a variant allowing Kings to move into check and be captured, Black would still have no legal moves in the final position:

alf-chaturanga.zrf
VariantName=Shatranj
1. Pawn h2 - h3
1. Pawn a7 - a6
2. Pawn h3 - h4
2. Knight b8 - c6
3. Chariot h1 - h3
3. Elephant c8 - e6
4. Chariot h3 - f3
4. King d8 - c8
5. Chariot f3 x f7
5. King c8 - b8
6. Chariot f7 x g7
6. Elephant e6 - c8
7. Chariot g7 x h7
7. Chariot a8 - a7
8. Chariot h7 x h8
8. King b8 - a8
9. Pawn a2 - a3
9. Pawn b7 - b6
10. Pawn a3 - a4
10. Knight c6 - b8
11. Pawn a4 - a5
11. Pawn b6 x a5
12. Chariot a1 x a5
12. Counselor e8 - f7
13. Elephant c1 - e3
13. Counselor f7 - e6
14. Elephant e3 - c5
14. Counselor e6 - d5
15. Chariot h8 x g8
15. Counselor d5 - c6
16. Chariot g8 - g5
16. Pawn e7 - e6
17. Chariot g5 - e5
17. Counselor c6 - b7
18. Knight b1 - c3
18. Pawn c7 - c6
19. Knight c3 - e4
19. Elephant f8 - d6
20. Knight e4 x d6
diagram

[EDIT 10/22/2024] H. G. Muller posted an applet in the Comments (May 3, 2021). You can click "Play it!" and copypaste the following (eighteen move) game. Clicking "Move" at the end makes the applet appropriately respond with *** I resign! ***

1. a3 a6 2. a4 b6 3. a5 b5 4. Ra3 Ra7 5. Rh3 Be6 6. Rxh7 Kc8 7. Rxg7 Kb7 8. Rxf7 Ka8 9. Rxf8 Bc8 10. Rxg8 Rh5 11. Nc3 Qf7 12. Rg5 Qe6 13. Rxh5 Qd5 14. Nxb5 Qc6 15. Nd6 Qb7 16. Be3 c6 17. Bc5 e6 18. Re5


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]
David Paulowich wrote on Tue, Mar 8, 2005 04:46 AM UTC:
Fergus: both the no-contest and forfeit rules seem to apply to the same position happening four (4) times. Turning to another topic, the internet is flooded with statements like 'There is no stalemate in shogi.' Some people support this claim by stating that you actually win a game of Shogi by King capture, and that it is actually legal to move your King into check. This may be true for some of the older variants, such as Chu Shogi. But my BLOCKADE STALEMATE IN 20 MOVES example (see Shatranj Comments - today) demonstrates that even King capture variants may reach a position with no legal moves for one player. As for the modern shogi rules, here is a post to the Newsgroup fa.shogi, dated 2000/04/12. <p>'Stalemating your opponent is extremely rare but it *can* happen in shogi (especially when larger handicaps are used) and it has the same result as a conventional mate. In fact, there is a very cute stalemate tsume where the player who delivers the stalemate has only his bare King left at the end (!) and the opponent has all of the rest of the pieces on the board [arranged in such a way that none can move] but his only move is to move his King into check, that is, next to the opponent's lone King, thus he is stalemated and loses the game!' - George I. Fernandez

David Paulowich wrote on Wed, Mar 9, 2005 12:11 AM UTC:
Lionel Vidal posted the following to the Newsgroup fa.shogi, dated 2000/04/13

'I am not sure if this will clarify or confuse the issue, but here is a summary from an old post of George Fernandez:'

*** *** *** *** *** ***

The last version of 'The rules of shogi' I have was written in 1993 by Mr. K. Horiguchi 6 Dan[supplement to the January 1993 issue of Shogi Sekai]. The 96 page booklet, written in japanese, is the official rule book accepted by the Japanese Shogi Association.

The following definitions were given which apply here:

Checkmate:

A checkmate is a position in which a King is in check and there are no legal moves to leave the check.

Illegal moves:

(1)A move is illegal to make a double pawn.

(2)A move is illegal to make a deadlocked piece.

(3)A move is illegal for a player if his King's square is attacked by an opponent piece after the move.[to remain in check, to move into check or to expose the king to check]

(4)A move is illegal to make a repetition check move [Mr. Horiguchi wrote in an addendum the following clarification: '... In the event of perpetual check, if one player player does it FOUR TIMES(three times is permitted), he will lose his game'.

(5)A move is illegal to make a dropping check move by a pawn which leads to a position in checkmate at once(dropped-pawn mate).

Legal moves:

A legal move for a player is a move to leave the check by moving pieces on the board or by dropping if his king is in check. Otherwise, a legal move by a piece on the board which can go[move] or a drop move, which is not illegal.

Remark (condition of ending game):

1. The game is finished if the position is in a checkmate; The player to move loses the game.

2. The game is finished if one player makes an illegal move; This player loses the game.

3. The game is finished if one player has no legal moves; This player loses the game[contrary to chess rules, where a stalemate is considered a draw].

4. The game is finished if one player resigns; This player loses the game.

In an effort to put this issue behind us, and move on, I'm sharing with you a bizzare diagram from the 1993 rules book[page 93, digram #92].

***ENDQUOTE*** I [David Paulowich] am unable to format the diagram for this text message. It shows a stalemate loss for the lone White King. But Black to move also has no legal moves, even though he has a huge army and a Pawn in hand (dropping that Pawn would be mate).


25 comments displayed

EarliestEarlier Reverse Order LaterLatest

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.