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Comments by DavidPaulowich
I believe Edward Winter refers to this 24 move Einstein game in: Chess Notes #3691. Einstein game (C.N.s 3533 & 3667) A. Soltis gave the alleged Einstein game on page 372 of the July 1979 Chess Life & Review, with the following introductory note: ‘I’ve tried to find a good game by top-flight scientists without success. The following, which can boast of two of the greatest names in physics, will have to do. It was apparently played in the late 1940s when Hans Albert Einstein, son of the Einstein, and Robert Oppenheimer were both on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley. Hans Albert was, by the way, an internationally known hydraulic engineer – an expert on control of rivers.’ As usual, Soltis offered nothing whatsoever to back up his assertions about the circumstances in which the game was ‘apparently’ played.
House of Kay
. Company selling a circular chess board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A search for 'House of Kay Chess Sets' only turns up web pages on this site. This link is 100 percent dead.
Game Courier Game Logs Age Filter: Last 365 Days Status Filter: Only Finished Games will display hundreds of games.
Amazon. 
Can move as queen or as knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Two hundred years ago chess players in rural Russia would substitute amazons for the two queens. In my Zillions of Games file for King's Leap Chess, I included an game called Old Russian Chess (not exactly based on history) - with amazons (Q+N) replacing queens and a King's Leap replacing castling. The game I chose to name 'King's Leap Chess' substitutes chancellors (R+N) for the a-file rooks. So it is reasonable to consider games where one player has the Amazon force and the other player has the Chancellor force.
Murray Lion. Jumps two orthogonally or diagonally or captures on neighboring square.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Steve, the Chancellor (BAD NAME!) in Sidney LeVasseur's 'Kings Court' is a sort of short range Amazon, which can move to any location that is one or two squares away. LeVasseur decided to limit the power of this piece by adding a King’s Flight rule - a move alllowed to the King when it is in check by the opponent's Chancellor.
Chancellor. Moves like rook or as knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Chancellor Chess - Book contains several chess problems using the Chancellor (R+N) piece. We should update Piececlopedia articles to include links to any problems, or endgame positions, using the piece in the article. And, ideally, this site would have a monograph on chess variant endgame theory. Here is a brief note:
The endgame where White has King (h8) and Queen (h2) against Black's King (b1) and Pawn (c2) is drawn after 1.Qh7 Ka1 2.Qxc2 stalemate. Or White can keep on checking until the fifty move rule applies. There is simply no way to move the White King closer to the Black Pawn. But substituting a Chancellor for the Queen (h2) leads to 1.Cd2+ Kc1 2.Cb3+ Kd1 3.Cd3+ Ke2 4.Cd4+ winning the Pawn and the game. The Chancellor is a subtle and fascinating piece - I rarely design a chess variant without including it.
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]Help! The link on this page to my variant Shatranj Kamil (64) does not work - it needs to end in '64.html'. The link from the TenCubed Chess page (and other entries, I assume) works fine.
Shatranj Kamil (64). Modern Shatranj based variant on 8 by 8 board with new pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]My [Rule 5] Bare King Loss, like the FIDE 50 move rule, is intended as a practical solution that will work for the vast majority of games played. I once used the FIDE rules to achieve a draw with K+R against K+R+N. My opponent having only nine minutes remaining on his clock also helped.
Here is a slightly artificial endgame position. White: King (c1), Knight (e1). Black: King (a1), Rook (e2) 5 Pawns (a2, a6, a7, c6, c7). After 1. Nc2+ Rxc2 2.Kxc2 Black has 4 Pawns free to make 3 moves each. White will lose because he needs more than the 10 moves allowed in Shatranj Kamil 64 to achieve stalemate.
Nilakantha's Intellectual Game. 17th or 18th century Indian chess variation. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Consider the endgame position White: King (c1), Knight=Horse (a6) Black: King (a1), Pawn (a3). White can force checkmate with 1.Nb4 a2 2. Nc2, but what if he choses 2.Na6 instead? Black is stalemated, but can he 'slay the piece of the enemy in his vicinity which imprisons him”? That piece is the White King. There are always exceptions to the old Shatranj rules.
For a recent attempt at a comprehensive set of rules, see my Shatranj Kamil (64) entry in the 10-Chess Variant Contest.
Les Règles des Échecs. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]http://www.chess.ca/French/regles.htm
<p>- Supplément aux Lois:V, Parties éclairs (blitz):
<p>C. Attaque éclaire
<p>C1. Un ' jeu d'attaque éclaire ' est un où toutes les démarches doivent être entreprises en un temps fixe moins de 15 minutes
'Tournoi de blitz' actually appears to be normal usage in France (and Quebec) for both chess players and Go players. I graduated from a Canadian high school 41 years ago - my French is extremely rusty. A lightning bolt may translate as 'coup de foudre', but there is no reason to believe that the French chess players originally chose a literal translation of the word blitz.
<p>Another comment: the question on translation was regarding 'bullet chess' - games with a ome minute time limit.
It is possible to stalemate an opponent who has more pieces on the board than you have. For example, consider the drawn endgame where White has a King on 'c1' and Black has a King on 'a1' and a Pawn on 'a3'. If Black moves his Pawn a3-a2 and White moves his King c1-c2, then the game has ended in stalemate.
Buffalo. Triple compound leaper.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The Buffalo goes back to the enhanced Knight in Cavalry Chess (also known as Magician's Chess) designed by Frank Maus in 1921.
L. Fun contest: Help us create a new chess variant by committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The Mule (enhanced Knight) moves like the Black King in Jason D. Wittman's Mad Chess. The Rook-Camel has an entry in the Piececlopedia, under the name 'Canvasser'.
Carpenter. compound of Knight and Dabbaba.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I believe that the Knight-Dabbaba piece is sufficient mating material on the standard 8x8 board. Not sure about 12x12 and larger boards. Here is a computer-verified endgame position from 1999.
<p>White to move and mate in nine. WHITE: King (c6) and Knight-Dabbaba (h8). BLACK: King (c8).
Canvasser. Compound of Rook and Camel.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]http://www.chessvariants.org/contests/luotuoqi.html
<p>is the page for 'Lùotuoqí' (Camel Chess), a chess variant designed by committee. This variant contains a piece called the Rook-Camel. Back in February 2000, S. Sirotkin sent a 7x7 chess variant, called 'Herd', where Pawns promote to Rook-Knight, Rook-Camel, or Rook-Bison.
Chaturanga with minor changes. A series of variants based on the (according to many) earliest form of Chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]http://www.chessvariants.org/xiangqi.dir/xiangqiwest.html
<p>Köksal Karakus has posted a XiangQi diagram with western-style pieces and colored squares. This one picture is worth a thousand words! Clearly a player's two Elephants can defend each other, but can never defend a friendly Mandarin (Ferz).
<p>My 10-Chess Variant Contest entry 'Shatranj Kamil (64)' contains Generals (Ferzes) and Elephants (with the additional ability to make a noncapturing Dababbah move). Believing that these Elephants are equal in value to Generals, I arranged the game so that a General cannot capture the opposing General, but can be traded for either of the opposing Elephants. Your BATTURANGA initial setup happens to duplicate the 2x2 pattern of the King and General and two Elephants in my variant, but shifted three squares to each player's right. As you stated, this means that Elephant can capture Elephant in BATTURANGA .
The previous 'CORRECTION:' comment was submitted by me.
Modern Shatranj. A bridge between modern chess and the historic game of Shatranj. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Shatranj Kamil (64) is my recent attempt at providing a comprehensive set of rules for Shatranj variants.
Consider the endgame position White: King (c1), Knight (a6) Black: King (a1), Pawn (a3). White can force checkmate with 1.Nb4 a2 2.Nc2, or stalemate with 2.Kc2.
If White choses to play 2.Na6 instead, then, under the variant rule that Pritchard cites, the Black king can escape stalemate by transposing with the Black Pawn. Question: under the rules of Nilakantha's Intellectual Game (web page by John Ayer) can Black 'slay the piece of the enemy in his vicinity which imprisons him'? That piece is the White King!
veSQuj - Chess with 21st century armies. A highly tactical variant with a 21st-century-war theme. (6x6, Cells: 36) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Roberto: a decade ago it was said that more people could speak 'Klingon' than Esperanto.
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] Opulent Chess. A derivative of Grand Chess with additional jumping pieces (Lion and Wizard). (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The KNIGHT in this game is called the Brigadier in Glenn Overby's new variant veSQuj. He writes: 'Under different names, it appears in such games as Way of the Knight, Scirocco, Thronschach, and Lùotuoqí.' The Wild Thoat In Jetan is also the same piece.
The FIDE Laws Of Chess. The official rules of Chess from the World Chess Federation.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]John Jackson's question can be answered by considering how you actually make a complete move in a game of chess. [1] Move a piece to another square. [2] Remove your hand from the piece. [3] Using the same hand, press the chess clock. A 'fallen flag' is evidence that you have failed to complete your move in time. Remember, there is no legal distinction between being one second over the time limit and being one hour over the time limit. Attempting to add special rules like: 'When you checkmate your opponent, you do not have to press the clock' will make a complicated mess of things.
Crazyhouse. A two-player version of Bughouse. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]http://www.chessvariants.org/multiplayer.dir/tandem.html is the page for the (Recognized) variant pair Bughouse/Tandem Chess. Bughouse is insanely(!) popular in Canada - kids especially. Crazyhouse requires two chess sets for only two players, which is not practical at tournaments or at small chess clubs.
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See Ralph Betza's 1996 Index to Articles about Pieces including the ones used in CWDA and others. Incidentally, Dai Shogi fans will find short articles on the Phoenix (under the name WA or Waffle) and the Kylin (under the name FD).