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Comments by JohnLawson
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]That would be good for the final round of an important tournament, where a prize might be at stake. Usually, though, I don't play in such an orderly way, and would find it onerous. I rarely spend more than a minute deciding a move, and the analysis process is decidedly non-verbal.
Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Real Catholic Bishops'? Anglican bishops are also catholic, as the line of apostolic succession remained intact when the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church.
I'm sorry, I *did* misunderstand, but referring to the Church of England as catholic is not simply an internal matter. Because bishops left the Roman Catholic church to join the Church of England, the unbroken line of apostolic succession requires the Roman Catholic church to admit the validity of sacraments performed by Anglican clergy. This recognition is by no means automatically extended to Protestant denominations routinely. Of course, at least one sacrament, baptism, can be performed by anyone, even you and me.
OK, you win. Since I am neither Anglican nor Catholic, I have no investment either.
I think the best approach may depend on how many different pieces and movement types you use. One idea may be to use adjectives that are mnemonic. For instance, I am playtesting an unpublished variant of Falcon Chess with Peter Aronson in which the Falcon move is combined with other powers. When an otherwise normal piece also has the Falcon move, the adjective 'winged' is added to its name. If there were no more than four things combined together, a 'Winged Roving Leaping Whatever' might be easier to remember. Ralph Betza has taken the approach, in some variants, of trying to arbitrarily arrange his funny notation to be pronouncable, with mixed results. Similarly, you could assign an open syllable to each combining part, and form nonsense words that would at least be precise and pronouncable. So a 'Winged Roving Leaping Whatever' might be a 'WheeRoLee Whatever' or a 'WheeRoLeeWha'.
Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 3). More on the value of Chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Without doing lots of arithmetic, I'll just comment that enormously powerful pieces like the Amazon are actually less valuable than their overall mobility would indicate due to the levelling effect. I quote Ralph from Part 4: '...what's more, if one minor piece is a bit more valuable than another, some of the surplus value is taken away by the 'levelling effect' -- if the weaker piece attacks the stronger one, even if it is defended the target feels uncomfortable and wishes to flee; but if the stronger piece attacks the defended weaker piece, the target simply sneers.' While Ralph refers here to minor pieces, it seems to me to be a generally applicable concept. Isn't that why we don't develop a Queen too quickly, so it's not chased all over the board by less valuable pieces?
Caïssa Britannia. British themed variant with Lions, Unicorns, Dragons, Anglican Bishops, and a royal Queen. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Before Mr. Gilman goes off on a wild goose chase, hunting down how to register, he should know that one can only become a registered user if one is on the contributor list. As yet, he is not, although I believe he has some ideas for contributions in the near future. Making contributions is certainly not a requirement to participate in this site.
L. The list of official nominations for the variant-by-committee.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Here's my two cents: 1 - Towers can split at will into two Towers of arbitrary size by moving part of the Tower as a regular move. 2 - The moving part of the Tower can capture. 3 - A moving Tower can recombine with a separate Tower whose square it can move to without hinderance or penalty, even if it split from another Tower that turn. Here's the different part: 4 - An Eaglet flanked by two Towers of any size (even different) is promoted to a single piece Tower. This promotion is easier, but it only results in a strong minor piece. The largest number possible is 16 per side, including the original Tower. If each Eaglet were promoted to a full height Tower, it is mathematically possible for each side to require 2,048 draughtsmen.
There's another logical possibility also: Eaglets may NOT promote to Towers of Hanoi. But I think it would be more fun if they can.
Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 3). More on the value of Chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mike Nelson wrote: 'I would not call the magic number arbitrary--it is empirical, it cannot be deduced from the theory, but I think the concept has an excellent logical basis.' May I add, an empirically determined constant is no less scientific. For those who remember high school physics, it is rather like the gravitational constant, which has been measured very precisely to make the equations fit the evidence. This is all OK, because results that depend on it can be applied to accurately predict events in the real world. Of course, it is even better if we find a way to calculate the 'magic number'.
Mike Nelson wrote, 'I feel that WcR will be perceptibly stronger than WmR but I could be wrong.' I think there is more going on here than just mobility when we compare a WcR and a WmR. My opinion is that tempo matters significantly. A WcR cannot move quickly, but its long-range threats are immediate, for it captures at distance. A WmR threatens only at short range, and must take the time to move to make an immediate threat. Furthermore, in the endgame, a WcR can interdict the King across the board, a WmR cannot. Therefore, if given the choice between the two, I will choose a WcR. I would happily trade a WmR for a minor piece, but I would think long and hard about losing a WcR for a minor piece. Although I have only discussed the specifics of these two pieces, the concepts (king interdiction, threats without loss of tempo) are general considerations, that, like leveling, affect the values of pieces in ways that would be difficult to calculate. Some pieces have abilities that are more useful than their calculated value would imply. In Omega chess, the Wizard moves as a Ferz or Camel (WL in Betza notation). Although they are colorbound, I prefer them to Bishops and Knights because they can make threats beyond a pawn chain.
Los Alamos variant. Chess on a 6 by 6 board from the early days of computing. (6x6, Cells: 36) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'At the time Los Alamos chess was invented, computing power was at a premium.' I did some quick research, and came up with these facts about the MANIAC, on which this variant was played. Memory - 1 k Storage - 80 k I/O - paper tape Time to multiply two numbers - 1 sec. Contained 2,400 vacuum tubes In those days there were no compilers, programmers wrote directly in machine code. I think they deserve a LOT of credit.
Glenn's Decimal Chess. A 10x10 blend of FIDE, Shogi, and Xiangqi influences. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Regarding the name: there is precedent for 'la tanxecak.'.
Minor bug: On the Chinese Chess preset, the available pieces list cannot find the gifs for BSage2 amd WSage2.
Chess Cartoon. Members-Only A chess game being played by the pieces themselves.[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.
Ryu Shogi. Large modern shogi variant. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jared - If I may be bold enough to suggest: 1. Spend some more time polishing this game. The problematic rules are demotion, no drops in opponent's home zone, drop and move is your own home zone. Work on this one before you move on to the larger one. You already know that people like it, and it was a finalist, even if you received no prize. The experience will make the next variant better. 2. Try to find someone to playtest, even via email. Ralph Betza once said that one playtest game by strangers was worth a hundred played by yourself. 3. Send the revision to the editors, and, if you ask nicely, the ZRF could be updated to match. Or you could try it yourself. 4. Then, I might write Steve about your game, but don't hold out much hope. The last revision of Shogivar was over five years ago. 5. How about 'Dai Ryu Shogi'? Regards, John
The FIDE Laws Of Chess. The official rules of Chess from the World Chess Federation.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, you cannot castle Queen-side if the Knight is still there. See rule 5.1.f.ii on this page. Also see our Castling FAQ at http://www.chessvariants.com/d.chess/castlefaq.html
Deneb. Special pieces and winning conditions. (7x9, Cells: 63) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have a few questions: 1 - 'When a Soldier captures a friend piece, it can promote by COMPENSATION to a SPECIAL PIECE.' Does that include another soldier? That is, can my soldiers capture each other to create three more special pieces? 2 - When a Special Piece is adjacent to a Reducer, can it still make a stationary move to transmute into a different Special Piece? 3 - A 'rules lawyer' would notice that there is no prohibition against capturing your own King with a Soldier. You'd get another Special Piece, and you can't lose by checkmate! Is this what you meant?
The ZRF answers all: 1 - Soldiers can indeed capture other Soldiers. 2 - Reducers do not restrict the stationary move. 3 - You can capture your own King, but you lose.
Chess problems: A proof game. Problem to construct a legal game of given exact length to reach a given position.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The King is never actually taken, since checkmate ends the game immediately before the capture of the King. However, a Pawn can give checkmate, that is, a Pawn can be the piece that would capture the King if the game were not ended by checkmate.
The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Roberto, I have the scores of two medium-decent games played by Ben Good and me. If you'd like to see them, drop me a private email. The major notational problem is ichor.
The FIDE Laws Of Chess. The official rules of Chess from the World Chess Federation.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Ravioli Chess. Chess on two boards squeezed together at the edges. (2x(8x8), Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A fitting accompaniment to the Pizza Kings! http://www.chessvariants.com/unequal.dir/pizza-kings.html And don't neglect the Oriental variants Fortune Cookie Chess and Dumpling Chess.
Rules of Chess: Pawns FAQ. Rules of promotion and movement of pawns explained.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It starts on the square the pawn finishes, and the pawn is removed from the board.
Chess Rules for Kids. An illustrated guide to the rules of chess for children.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, the King moves one space horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, so he can go to squares of either color.
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