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L. The list of official nominations for the variant-by-committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Wed, Apr 9, 2003 12:19 PM EDT:

Query about the S-Pawning Queen: When you say 'available space', do you mean any empty space on the board, or did you mean to say 'empty space adjacent to the Queen'? Inquiring minds want to know.

Bachelor Chess. Win by mating your opponent, or marrying off your King. (7x6, Cells: 42) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Doug Chatham wrote on Mon, Apr 21, 2003 08:37 AM EDT:

Charles, Marriage can occur even if the Queen is in danger of immediate capture. Best wishes, Doug Chatham

Knot Chess. Board in shape of geometric knot.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Thu, May 8, 2003 06:39 PM EDT:

Well, then, if both sides are in checkmate they have a equal chance of winning ;-)

Tridimensional Chess (Star Trek). Three-dimensional chess from Star Trek. (7x(), Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, May 18, 2003 03:34 PM EDT:

There are some Star Trek 3-D Chess sets being sold on Ebay. The prices are, of course, astronomical :-)

L. The list of official nominations for the variant-by-committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jun 22, 2003 01:43 PM EDT:

Anyone have comments on the new rules proposals, or at least the proposals made since the last time we adopted a New Rule?

Doug Chatham wrote on Mon, Jun 23, 2003 06:45 AM EDT:

That last proposal Robert is waiting for was emailed to the Camel Chess voters around June 8. It reads as follows: 11. [Entrant 7] When a player captures part of their opponent's Tower of Hanoi, they may optionally remove another part of it of equal or lesser height from anywhere on the board.

Chess. The rules of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jun 29, 2003 05:47 AM EDT:

I believe the point of that last condition is to prevent castling with any Rooks that are created on the eighth row by Pawn promotion.

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jun 29, 2003 06:39 AM EDT:

No. Consider the White Pawn in front of the White King. Suppose White somehow gets that Pawn to the 8th rank and promotes it to a White Rook. The 'same rank' condition prevents White from 'castling' his King with his new Rook.

Rules of Chess: Pawns FAQ. Rules of promotion and movement of pawns explained.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jun 29, 2003 06:48 AM EDT:

According to Article 5.6(d) of the Laws of Chess (at <a href='http://www.chessvariants.com/fidelaws.html'>http://www.chessvariants.com/fidelaws.html</a>), when a pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote immediately.

Aberg variation of Capablanca's Chess. Different setup and castling rules. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jun 29, 2003 08:03 AM EDT:

You can see the initial setup on the PBM preset page for Aberg's variation <a href='http://play.chessvariants.com/pbm/play.php?submit=Preview&game=Aberg+variation+of+Capablanca+Chess&rules=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chessvariants.com%2Flarge.dir%2Fcapablancavariation.html&group=Chess&set=alfaerie&board=10.01.&code=ranbqkbnmrpppppppppp40PPPPPPPPPPRANBQKBNMR&patterns=%3A+%21*&cols=10&colors=339933+CCCC11+22BB22&hexcolors=red+green+blue+orange+yellow+indigo+violet+cyan+magenta+black&player=White&first=White&files=&ranks=&bcolor=111199&tcolor=EEEE22&bsize=16&shape=square'>here</a> The new pieces go between the rooks and knights.

L. The list of official nominations for the variant-by-committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jul 13, 2003 08:20 AM EDT:

There doesn't seem to be much of a consensus about what to do about the Towers of Hanoi. My opinions: 1. A Tower can split and attack in the same move. 2. A Tower may split and merge in the same move. 3. An Eaglet can only promote to a Tower if flanked on both sides by Towers of the same size. Also, the Eaglet promotes to a Tower of the same size as those Towers flanking it. 4. We should have a vote to choose among the various options that have been mentioned.

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jul 13, 2003 08:23 AM EDT:

Oops,forgot one issue. 5. Eight is the maximum height of a Tower of Hanoi.

L. Fun contest: Help us create a new chess variant by committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jul 13, 2003 02:57 PM EDT:

The description of the Eaglet needs to be updated to be consistent with our new promotion rule.

The FIDE Laws Of Chess. The official rules of Chess from the World Chess Federation.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Thu, Aug 7, 2003 05:46 PM EDT:

Well, the current version of the Laws of Chess at <a href='http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101'>http://www.fide.com/official/handbook.asp?level=EE101</a> says in Article 9.2, <BLOCKQUOTE> Positions are not the same if a pawn that could have been captured en passant can no longer be captured or if the right to castle has been changed temporarily or permanently. </BLOCKQUOTE> So the answer to both your questions seems to be No. (By the way, the link to the FIDE Handbook is broken and needs updating.)

Hippodrome. Solitaire game using a small board. (4x4, Cells: 16) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Aug 31, 2003 04:24 PM EDT:

It's possible to lose this game -- that is, there are starting arrangements from which it's impossible to get the knights to the other side. For an example, consider - B q K b r r b B R Q k N n n N In fact, the player cannot make any moves at all! I wonder if there are losing starting arrangements where the player has some moves available.

Two Kings Chess. The queen is replaced by a second king. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Thu, Dec 11, 2003 12:31 PM EST:

I'd suggest the following, if nobody else has come up with notation: O-O for castling to the player's left. (At most one king can castle to the left on any particular turn, so there is no ambiguity.) O-O-O for castling to the player's right. (Again, at most one king can do this at any particular time.) OO-OO, or perhaps 2O-O, for the double-castling move.

Alibaba. Jumps two orthogonally or diagonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Mon, Dec 29, 2003 11:39 AM EST:

Hmmm...how about a 44-square Hecatomb-like variant where each side gets a King, an Alibaba, and 20 promotable Thieves? Call it something like 'The Game of Forty Thieves' :)

Contest: the 9 Queens Problem. Put 9 queens and 1 or 2 pawns such that queens do not see each other. Send your solution before Feb 29, and win a book![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sat, Jan 10, 2004 05:22 PM EST:

Well, there are many alternative problems we could look at. For example, replace the Queens with Amazons. (See <a href='http://www.durangobill.com/N_Queens.html'>http://www.durangobill.com/N_Queens.html </a>for some results on putting n Amazons --he calls them Superqueens -- on an nxn board, with no pawns.) For more problems involving combinations on chessboards, see <blockquote>S.M. Hedetniemi, S.T. Hedetniemi and R. Reynolds, Combinatorial problems on chessboards: II, Chapter 6 in Domination in Graphs: Advanced Topics, T.W. Haynes, S.T. Hedetniemi and P.J. Slater, Eds., Marcel Dekker, New York, 133-162 (1998). </blockquote>

Squirrel. Jumps two orthogonally, two diagonally, or like a knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2004 10:36 AM EST:

Boris Badenov was a villian in an old American cartoon series called 'The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'. The heroes were Bullwinkle, a talking moose, and Rocky, a talking flying squirrel. So I doubt 'Badenov' gave his real name....

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2004 03:02 PM EST:

The following answer can be found near the end of <a href='http://www.chessvariants.com/d.chess/matefaq.html'>http://www.chessvariants.com/d.chess/matefaq.html</a>: <blockquote> <h3>If I call checkmate falsely do I forfeit the game?</h3> No. When done accidentally, there is no consequence; the game just continues. When done on purpose, then an arbiter could punish you, as this would be a case of distracting the opponent, and/or making unreasonable claims. </blockquote>

The Eight Queens problem. Put eight queens on the board such that no one attacks another.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Sat, Jan 17, 2004 02:52 PM EST:

Here's a long list of references on N-queens problems: <a hhref='http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~kosters/nqueens.html'> http://www.wi.leidenuniv.nl/~kosters/nqueens.html</a>

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jan 18, 2004 02:12 PM EST:

One more comment: there is a 2-player version of this puzzle. Players take turns placing Queens on an n x n chessboard such that no Queen is attacked. If a player has no more unattacked squares to put a Queen on, that player loses. The game is called the Queen's Independence Game. See item 4 of <a href='http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~hedet/domination.html'> http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~hedet/domination.html</a> for more details.

Forward Chess. Variant where backward movement is limited. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Doug Chatham wrote on Mon, Jan 26, 2004 10:54 AM EST:

Would Backward Chess be playable?

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]

Doug Chatham wrote on Thu, Mar 18, 2004 01:44 PM EST:

So how do you get the pawns out of the way of the pieces in the back row?

Contest to design a chess variant on 44 squares. Our annual N-squares chess variant design competition.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]