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Comments by PeterAronson
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Anti-King Chess. Each player has both a King and an Anti-King to protect; Anti-Kings are in check when not attacked. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, Anti-Kings neither check nor checkmate Kings.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]While the Cannon-Pawn is similar in some ways to a piece in Four-Field Kono (the usual English name for the game), unlike it, they can capture by jumping over opposing pieces as well as friendly pieces. Now, I've been exposed to Four-Field Kono via one or another of R.C. Bell's books, so it could have been an influence, but the Cannon from Xiang Qi was a more immediate influence.
Mad Scientist Chess. Fetch me the Pawn, Igor! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I suppose you could choose which side the newly animated piece belonged to, but as I noted below discussing attaching pieces to opposing pieces, there isn't really any reason to choose any side other than your own.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The first capture, C hf-f7, is legal. However, pieces in Rococo don't get to make multiple capturing moves like in Checkers/Draughts, so the second capture, f7-f9, is not legal. Rococo Chameleons can make multiple captures with a single move (when the move fulfills the requirements of multiple attacked pieces capturing moves), but not multiple moves.
Index page of The Chess Variant Pages. Our main index page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fergus, Hierarchical Games in the context of the index heading are games like Stratego or The Jungle Game where there is a capturing heirarchy (A can capture all pieces, B can capture all pieces but A, C can capture all pieces but A or B, etc.). There aren't a lot of these games in the system, but we do at least a couple.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]From the first paragraph of the section of the Rococo page titled 'Rules', third sentence:
Also, a player unable to move or who causes three time repetition loses as well.Yeah, the Immobilizer is awfully powerful. I am beginning to think that the variant where the Withdrawer is immune to immobilization may be the way to go.
Rhino. A set of pieces which combine the movements of the Mao with that of the Wazir.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yeah, I was overly pessimistic about the Rhino's mating potential. Jorg has also pointed this out earlier. Thanks!
Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Pachisi and a related game, Chaupar, were sometimes played with long dice. Here's a picture of a set with dice. Wikipedia isn't all that good with traditional games, alas.
Imperial Dragon Chess. A variant of Xiangqi designed to appeal to western players. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll have to guess, because our description is incomplete, but I'd say Pawn promotion is obligatory, and Dragon-Elephants do not un-promote when crossing back over the river.
Illusionary Piece Chess. A piece and a Pawn on each side are more powerful, but can not offer check or prevent bare King. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Illusionary pieces do not offer check to Kings -- they can move into positions that would normally be checking the opposing King, but it has no effect on that King.
Border Wars. Game played on the 42 edges of a grid, with elements of Shogi and XiangQi. (Cells: 42) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Flowerman, look at the victory conditions:
A player is considered vanquished and loses the game if all of the following conditions apply. (Bold added.) So converting the reserve isn't sufficient to win with by itself. You need to meet all four conditions.
Transactional Chess. Moves are grouped into transactions, which are not visible to your opponent
until committed. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've never personally had that much interest in trying to come up with a replacement for FIDE chess. Not that I don't consider it a worthy project, it's just one that's never interested me personally. However, to the extent that any of the games I've designed are suitable for that purpose, Transactional Chess is one of the last ones I would have selected. Really. it's more of a thought experiment than anything else: what happens if you try to apply the logic of relational transactions to a game of Chess?
Honestly, the closest I've come to next Chess type game is Not-Particularly-New Chess (probably Not-Particularly-New Chess II specifically), and that itself was more of a thought experiment itself than anything else. Actually, a lot of my designs are thought experiments, and most of the rest seem to be contest entries. This probably says something about me, but I'm not sure what. :)
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I really should update the rules one of these days. I would need to get my head back into Chess variants a bit more before I could do that -- at the moment family and RPGs have been absorbing my mental energies.
Mad Scientist Chess. Fetch me the Pawn, Igor! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]One question, though: the instructions specifically say that you can attach a move part to an enemy piece, but why would you do that? I can't think of any situation where that would it would be advantageous to do that: it deprives you of a part you could add to one of your pieces, and gives your opponent more options. There's no real impetus to dispose of parts you can't use in this way (even spoilage is preferable, I would think). Was this rule included only to fit the theme, or does it have a real impact on gameplay?At the moment it just is there for the theme. When I was first designing this game, it still used check, which could, in theory, allow for times when adding a piece to your opponent would cause a stalemate. Unlikely, though.
A variation might be to have grafts remain under the control of the player who added them, regardless of who originally owned the piece. So if black grafted a fers to a white knight, he could move that piece as a fers (but not as a knight), potentially capturing a white piece. What's more mad-sciencey than mind control? Shades of The Other...Neat idea! V.R. Parton called such pieces 'Knightmares'. I used a version of them in my game Combining Knighmare Chess. Adding them, would, of course, make the game even more complicated, which might be an issue.
We have a listing for a Behemoth by a Donald Seagraves. According to the author, it was inspired by Juggernaut Chess by Seth McGinnis and Erik Wilson. Later, I wrote my own contribution to this genre, PieceEater Chess.
I wonder if Brainking.com got permission from Donald?
Novo Chess. War game chess variant from the Netherlands, 1937. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, Ralph Betza's somewhat strange PASGL 312 Chess also features a train (and train tracks), but rather different than those in Novo Chess.
Actually, the Warlock is a bit like the Can(n)on from Antoine Fourrière's Jacks and Witches 84 or Bilateral Chess, which in turn was inspired by the Rotating Spearman from John William Brown's Centennial Chess. Admittedly the details are different, but the idea of a piece that can move or transform is not particularly new. (There are also games where the Pawn promotes as an entire move, instead of moving and then promoting as part of the same move -- this has some similarity.)
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, Cannon Pawns did show up in an unpublished game that Ben Good suggested -- Cannon Pawn Chess. It was FIDE chess with the Pawns replaced by Cannon Pawns. I don't remember if promotion was only to captured pieces or not. I made a Zillions rule file for it for Ben, and we may have played a bit of it by e-mail. If I recall correctly, in that environment, Cannon Pawns were awfully strong as compared to the Knight and Bishop.
Home Columns Chess. A piece cannot be captured when in its 'home' column.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You're right! Thinking about it, I'm fairly sure it's the comment and page that's correct, not the index entry and help entry. Unfortunately, after the last site move, I no longer seem to have a valid admin password, so I'm not in the position to fix it at the moment.
That is, alas, what happens when you edit one ZRF into another, and forget to update your comments. You will note the history entry has the correct inventor.
Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 4). Additional details on the values of Chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, this page received a fair number of comments back in 2001 when it was first posted, but they were in the old comment system: see here for the older comments.
(Actually, most or all of this series of articles have comments in the old comment system.)
Black Holes. On 5 by 8 board with holes as pieces which also can be used for transport. (5x8, Cells: 40) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I made this game with Zillions but there is a problem, it doesn't work if there are multiple partial moves to the same location. Please look at it http://zzo38computer.cjb.net/Zillions/Blackholes.zrf and please tell me how to fix it!We've had a ZRF for this game up on this site for quite a while -- maybe taking a look at it might be helpful.
Horus. Game with Royal Falcons where all pieces start off board and most captures return pieces to owner's hand. (7x7, Cells: 44) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I haven't left entirely, it's just my mental energy is mostly elsewhere at the moment (I'm a sad butterfly, flitting from hobby to hobby, and at the moment it's mostly pen and pencil role-playing games that has my attention). The my use of the term 'lame', while fairly standard on this board, might have been improved on if I used Betza's 'non-jumping' instead.
Piececlopeida: Advancer. 
Moves like a Queen, but captures by approach.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, Advancer's only capture opposing pieces like most pieces. The language in the article should probably have said: 'if the Advancer moves directly towards an opposing piece'
E. Gary Gygax, the co-inventor of D&D and chess variant creator, died today at his home in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He was 69.
Spartan Skaki. Missing description (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This looks interesting, Larry, but I have a few questions:
2) Push an opposing stone located adjacent right or left orthogonal to the next right or left orthogonal vacant point,Are pushes limited to one space, or do they go until the next vacant space? IE, if you have a row ---xxo--- is a push by o such that results in --xxo---- legal? Actually, now I think about, does a push cause the pushing piece to move? Would a push in this situation, ---xo---- result in --xo----- or --x-o----?
3) Leap over any number of adjacent friendly stones forward, right or left orthogonal to a vacant point.Does the leap only pass over friendly stones, or can it (after passing over friendly stones) pass over vacant spaces as well? IE, starting with ---ooo--- is o--oo---- possible, or only leaps like --ooo----? (I assume the latter, but the language is not completely clear.)
4) Capture an opposing stone on an adjacent forward diagonal point.Is capture by replacement?
Big Battle
. Large (10x10), commercial variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There is also some discussion of this variant on the 100 Square Contest Voting Page.
2007-2008 Chess Variants Design Contest. Chess variant inventors gather round! We're doing it again! Exact nature of contest to be determined with YOUR help!![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Frequently, for me, the value of a game doesn't become clear until the third or fourth time playing it. I noted that Gary Gifford didn't enjoy his first game of Tripunch but did decide he liked Tripunch very much after playing it twice. I think we should make a requirement that each person judging a game play two versions of it, one as black and one as white.When Tony and I judged the 42-Square Design Contest, we played each game at least twice, and would liked to have played them at least four times each (except we would have gone stark, raving mad, to the distress of our wives and children). I do think it takes at least two plays at a minimum to reasonably evaluate a game.
Falcon Chess Variants - Several. Some Different Setups with Falcon pieces, including with Capablanca pieces and Airplanes.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You know, Jeremy, I have Alfarie BMP files for all of the pieces from when I did the ZRF -- if they would help, I could send them to you when I get home tonight.
Given the Falcon's ability to fork, it might be interesting to try Two-King Falcon Chess, in the pattern of Two Kings Chess. That is, you replace the Queen with a second King, either of which can be checkmated. Normal Falcon Chess castling and promotion rules would apply.
According to Betza (at least at one time -- his values have varied), a Crowned Knight (Knight + Mann) is worth two Knights (the same as a Cardinal) on an 8x8 board. Because it is a short range piece, it might be worth less on a larger board. On the other hand, it is very powerful in the endgame.
Complete Permutation Chess. Game with all possible combinations of Falcon, Rook, Bishop and Knight on the back row. (16x8, Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]OK, this page has returned from the dead! Or, at least, the hidden.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I am feeling all out of sympathy with the Chameleon this morning. Not only is it nearly impossible to implement correctly in Zillions, but it is nearly impossible to fully describe even in English. There are just too many fiddly cases when you combine captures. I wonder if it should be simplified or replaced.
The easiest way to simplify the Chameleon is to disallow the combination of captures; although that can still lead to complex cases where there are multiple possible methods of capture available at the same time.
If it were to be replaced, what would you replace it with? Oddly, this morning I find myself wondering if returning the Ultima Coordinator , discarded during the original Rococo design process would make sense. Yes, it was felt to be unclear, but then, that complaint can be made against the Chameleon as well.
Outback Chess. New pieces on plus-shaped board. (10x10, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]When I implemented this for zillions I used this definition:
EchidnaAs far as I can recall, the author's family had a copy of Zillions and seemed to think the implementation was correct.The Echidna is a royal piece -- if it is captured, you lose the game. It moves and captures one step diagonally, it can move (but not) capture one step up, down, left or right, and it can capture (but not move without capturing or jump) two steps up, down, left or right.
There is something about this cartoon that speaks to what we do on this site.
Jumping Knights Chess. Nightriders replace Knights and War Machines have also been added to Jumping Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Very interesting game, David. I particularly like how the War Machines guard the Pawns in the starting array against being picked off by the Nightriders. I have not yet fully absorbed the effect of your more severe rules for pieces on the edge -- having to capture to escape makes the edge makes the edge risky in another way than it is in Jumping Chess. I assume that is part of preserving checkmate as part of the game?
Desert Pub Chess. A game where Desert Wazirs & Desert Ferz capture by jumping. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Leap-capture is employed in Airplane Chess and Zeppelin Chess by the Airplane and Zeppelin, respectively, and it works remarkably well.The Airplane and the Zepplelin are not exactly normal leaping pieces, but rather flying leapers. The ability to pass over friendly and hostile pieces makes them much, much more powerful.
Moreover, Alquerque, as described by Murray, is probably incorrect. Arie van der Stoop has researched the game (Draughts in relation to chess and alquerque, 2005) and has come to the conclusion that it was not at all drawish: Medieval Alquerque.Leaving out the question of whether van der Stoop is any more authoritative than any of the other authors on the subject; while promotion would make Alquerque more interesting, it would still be pretty drawish without forced captures. Even with forced captures, high level Draughts/Checkers tends to be drawish, and endgame tactics make extensive use of that feature.
When we see Checker-Kings, in a game of draughts, jumping two or three pieces at a time diagonally we can see one player quickly go downhill.In Checkers, the dynamics of the game are driven by the 'must capture' rule. Ancestors of Checkers without this rule, such as Alquerque, tend to be very drawish. Combined with the fact that, multiple captures aside, leap capture is generally weaker than replacement capture (because it can be blocked by pieces behind the piece to be captured or by the board's edge), this can make games dependent on such capture hard to force to a win, even when there is a royal piece. Jumping Chess which depends entirely on leap capture, even with the King and the ring board, is probably still too defensive. In the case of Interweave, another game that depends on non-replacement capture, I eventually added a 'forced capture' rule to prevent it from being too defensive, and it too, has Kings.
Anti-King Chess. Each player has both a King and an Anti-King to protect; Anti-Kings are in check when not attacked. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've got a question considering mate. What happens when a player mates the other player in the same move its own anti-king gets unchecked (thus being mate too). Who wins then?To repeat what David says in different words: you can't do that. It's the equivalent in regular Chess of moving your King into check in order to check the opponent's King.
It would be simpler to state that it is illegal to make a move leaving or placing your Anti-King in 'check', that is, not attacked by opposing pieces.Well, very likely. I tend to err on the verbose side in my writing.
ABC Chess. A variant with 8 armies of pieces generated by combining 1, 2 or 3 simpler pieces. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Rules of Chess: Kings and check FAQ. Answers to frequently asked questions on the rules of chess regarding kings and check.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A Pawn can certainly attack a King (technically, Kings are not captured, but mated, since the game is over when the King is in a position where it can not avoid being captured, and the actual capture is not made). If a Pawn is in position to attack a King, then the King is in check and must be moved if possible to an unattacked square or the Pawn must be captured; if neither is possible, then it is checkmate.
The Seeping Switchers. An army for Chess with Different Armies based on pieces that change color when they move.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Is there a castling rule in Seeping Switchers?You use the standard castling rules for Chess with Different Armies
Potential/Demotion Chess. Pieces may move like lower-ranked piece, but when doing so, become that lower ranked piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If a piece moves to the eighth rank with a pawn move, I believe it promotes to any piece in the opening array, right ?Correct, since 'The rules of Potential/Demotion Chess are identical to those of orthodox chess, except when noted otherwise.'
As for a 7x7 board without a Queen? Er, I don't know -- there's already too much power for an 8x8 board -- shrinking the board by 23% while retaining two pieces that are effectively Amazons and two that are effectively Cardinals might be even more brutal.
Triangle Chess. Chess for three players. (Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I assume you mean Invent-Tech, the invention submission company, and not Inventech, the on-line payment company? If so, you might want to take a look here.
Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This game is now available (for members, anyway) on itsyourturn.com. Unfortunately, they did not give credit to Bruce Zimov for the invention.
Fighting Kings. The King has switched places with the King Pawn - The King is now a fighting piece. And the pawn must be protected. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Non-royal Kings, AKA Commoners AKA Mann AKA Man, etc., are hardly a new piece. I suspect you could find at least a couple of dozen varients on pages that already use them without any real effort. Royal Pawns, on the other hand, while also not new, are a lot less common.
Toccata 
. A hexagonal variant inspired of Maxima.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Roberto, the fifth line of pawn movement has z8 duplicated, disallowing a few pawn captures. I believe the second z8 ought to be zx.
Willard Fiske's book Chess in Iceland and in Icelandic Literature: With Historical Notes on Other Table-games, long hard to find, is now available on-line from Google Books here. The book, however, is not about Chess, but was his unsucessful attempts to decipher references to the game of Hnefatafl (Tablut).
Leapers Chess
. Played upon a 10x10 field with all the pieces having leaping capability.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]David Moeser's Double King Chess has a Rook + Squirrel piece called a Squirk. By analogy, a Queen + Squirrel should be Squireen, or maybe a Squeek. But either would be silly.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thomas McElmurry had it all correct. The ZRF is, alas, as less than perfect guide to the Rococo rules, particularly those for the Chameleon, which got rather complicated and are still incomplete.
Rococo's claim to clarity is a matter of how clear the moves and captures of the pieces are, not, alas the clarity of either the write-up or the ZRF. Game rules are really hard to write well, and just when you think you've made everything unambigious, a new issue arises. As for the ZRF, probably it needs to be coded again from scratch, but I don't think either Dave nor I have the time nor energy these days. Sorry.
Dragon Chess (tm). Commercial board game played on a large board with a new piece -- the Dragon.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Upon closer examination of their press releases, it looks like Dragon Chess was developed by four interior designers: Lex Parker, Susan Parker, Ed Thalmann and Tove Thalmann.
The Dragon piece is patented (in Canada), which is ... interesting. It is not like short Queens are anything particularly new. They also hold the trademark (at least in Canada), but that is often a matter of whoever asks for it first.
Peter, I'm not sure if you have control over the classification, but I hope you can help. This game is wrongly classified. it should be 16x10 Cells:124. Thank you very much.Fixed!
Curiously, the designer of the Dragons is a former TSR employee, and he probably knows that his former boss has a previous claim on the name Dragon Chess. I wonder if Lex Parker made any arrangement with Gary Gygax before trademarking the name of his well-known 3D Chess variant.Actually, Fergus, it was the artist Jeff Easley who is the ex-TSR employee. The site doesn't say anything really about Parker. I don't think it even states outright who invented Dragon Chess, although it sort of implies Parker did. And in any case, I think you're underestimating how obscure Gygax's Dragon Chess would be to someone not on this site, although a quick Google would have turned it up if anyone bothered to look.
Greg, a quick and dirty calculation of how much the Dragon is worth on an 8x8 board, counting it as W + F + nD + nA + nH + nG (really abusing Betza notation here) we end up with a value of roughly two Knights (2 half-Knights + four lame half-Knights (worth half for being lame)), which is interestingly the same ratio you got for the larger board.
Three Elephant Chess. War Towers destroy 3 spaces at a time - protect your elephants while capturing your opponent's. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Looks amusing, although I have some minor doubts about the Stones -- in my experiance, these sorts of pieces can make endgames less fun by making them slower. But actual play should show if this is the case or not.
The War Tower has a slight resemblence to the Mad Elephent in Mad Elephant Chess.
Dunsany's Chess. 32 pawns play against a full set of pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Peter do you know who invented Horde Chess? It would be nice if we could add a page to chessvariants.org on it. I have been playing a three game match of it at brainking and the non-horde army has won them all, leading me to the preliminary conclusion that the non-horde army is better.Well, IYT never seems to give credit for their internal developments, but we could e-mail them and ask. As for a separate page, I wonder if just adding a paragraph to this page would suffice -- the games are not that different.
Mimotaur Chess. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There is also a descriptive note for this game on the page for
Chess with Ultima, Rococo and Supremo Pieces.
Weave and Dungeon . Abstract game played on a board divided into Weave and Dungeon, with movement following different rules on each part.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Pretentious Chess. All Pieces can move as and demote to a Knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Interesting. Aside from the King, this resembles a more restrained version of my Potential/Demotion Chess.
Royal Amazon Chess. Queens are replaced by Royal Amazons. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yes, Kings are still Royal too, since the rules are the same as FIDE Chess except for the Queen. I have made that clearer.
AvantGarde Chess . A font-named variant that adds a Centaur and a Man to the standard setup.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]OK, Fergus, I've fixed the ZIP archive file and I've added Abstract pieces
as an alternate piece set. I following the Centaur and Man pages for which abstract pieces to use for the added pieces. I've also clarified the castling rule a bit.
Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Any two-piece advantage can enforce checkmate, though, except N+N+NDoes that include N+B+B vs N when both Bishops are on the same color? If that's the case, then I still haven't come up with a case where promotion to Commoner is required.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]But unless someone can cite a reference that can be accurately dated back to the time that Rococo was invented, it will ultimately be a matter moot than dispositive.Err, I do happen to be one of the game's designers you know, and it wasn't so long ago that I've forgotten what we did. And for that matter, being the packrat that I am, I still have the original e-mails that David and I exchanged in late 2001.
that both the Long Leaper and the Advancer are equally prohibited from capturing adjacent pieces, and that adjacent captures were intended to be limited to the King and the Withdrawer.Except that the Long Leaper has always been able to capture an adjacent piece as long as the next square is empty. The Rococo Long Leaper was borrowed from Ultima unchanged. It is simply unfortunate that the piece description was badly phrased. However the ZRF and the animated diagram always demonstrated the correct behavior.
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEX! Chess. A game designed to be as different to chess as possible while still being the same as chess. (1x72, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, David Howe is the keeper of the comment system, and he seems to be unavailable at the moment. I don't think any of the rest of us have much of clue of how it works, except maybe Fergus?
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, the new phrasing for the Long Leaper should hopefully be a bit more clear. Really, I suppose the whole page could use a good going over. As for the history of Rococo's design, you can find a brief discussion in the Kibbitz section of this game here.
Feedback to the Chess Variant Pages - How to contactus. Including information on editors and associate authors of the website.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]John, try
Tezhi Luzhanqi, also known as Chinese Army Chess.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Is it legal for a Chameleon to hop over a longleaper and capture it, by landing on a enemy pawn, and also capturing it? This problem arised during a game.You know, there are times when I wish we had left Chameleons out -- they make up the vast bulk of rules questions! After thinking about this one for a few minutes, I think I have a correct answer, or at least an answer consistent with our other rulings.
It seems to me in this case:
+---+---+---+---+ | C | l | p | | +---+---+---+---+It would be OK, since the Cameleon's Cannon Pawn capture allows the move in the first place, even though the Long Leaper move could not be made, but once the Pawn capture move is made, you can say it is also a Long Leaper capture because the Cameleon has successfully leapt over the opposing Long Leaper.
However, in this case:
+---+---+---+---+ | C | | l | p | +---+---+---+---+It would not be legal, since neither the Chameleon can neither make a Long Leaper capture nor a Cannon Pawn capture, so it would never get started.
David, are you out there? Would you like to comment?
Stanley Random Chess . Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A joke is a joke, but the CVP is the sort of place that likes its humor clearly labeled where it won't get in the way of scholarship. I am beginning to get annoyed to the point of editorial intervention by multiple posts by supposedly different people in the exact same writing style. This sort of thing tempts the editors to a policy of only allowing posts by registered users. If you guys want to practice surrealist humor, do it on your own web pages -- imposing it on us is in dubious taste. And the joke isn’t funny any more.
Personally, I always thought Mao was a mean-spirited game.
Dunsany's Chess. 32 pawns play against a full set of pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The folks over at
Itsyourturn.com have tinkered with the rules as result of experience with 1000's of games played, you
can see their rules
here. For some reason they call it Horde Chess.
What a darkly-funny, weird train-wreck of a discussion! I see why many people don’t take the Wikipedia very seriously. Given the way Wikipedia appears to work, people who have nothing better to do with their time than hack around on Wikipedia are assumed to be real people who votes count, even when they adamantly refuse to do any actual research on what they are voting for, whereas people with actual expertise in a subject, who are usually too busy actually working in the field to hang out on the Wikipedia, votes don’t count. It’s very Orwellian -- someone refuses to agree with you? Call them a Sockpuppet! What a racket! I haven’t seen such a doomed-to-failure approach to running things since I found out how most law firms determine partner salaries. It seems to me that the Wikipedia is doomed to mediocrity and eventual irrelevance.
Angels and Devils. Chess game where white has two Angels and black has two Devils. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]For an extra piece, why not continue the theme of capturing on the opposing color? An orthogonal Withdrawer would have that characteristic, but without being colorbound, as does orthogonal custodian capture (like Ultima Pawns).
<p>
While it would dilute the theme, giving White on Devil and Black one Angel would mix things up a bit and help balance matters some if it turned out that the Devil and Angel had significantly different values.
<p>
Another game with the theme of capture on the other color is <a href='/other.dir/interweave.html'>Interweave</a>.
Poll number Summer 2005 Poll for New Recognized Variant. Vote for the new addition to the recognized Chess variants list for Summer 2005.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Attempting to vote produces the error (at least for me):
<blockquote>
Warning: fopen(/home/chessvar/polls/newrcv/Summer2005/peteraronson.php): <br>failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/chessvar/public_html/cgi-bin/rankedpoll/castvotes.php on line 105
<p>
Failed to write to the file .
</blockquote>
Blizzard Chess. What would Chess be like if it had been developed by the computer industry?[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]How did you deal with:
<blockquote>
<b>Patch 1.12</b>
<p>
Pawns have become too powerful, so we have altered the behavior of the Knight. From now on a Knight may capture a Pawn belonging to the opponent by jumping over it, as well as by landing upon it. This new ability may be used to allow a Knight to capture 2 pieces per turn. Jump Captures may only be performed on Pawns, and no other piece, and cannot be used to place the opponent's King in Check.
</blockquote>
Since the Knight's path is not defined? Also, if I understand the restriction 'cannot be used to place the opponent's King in Check', that forbids removing a Pawn to create discovered check -- isn't that kind of tricky to test for with Zillions?
<p>
I'd be interesting in looking at the ZRF . . .
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]Given that the Knight+Camel+Zebra pieces dominate the play in <a href='../diffmove.dir/cavalry-chess.html'>Cavalry Chess</a> with all of the power it puts on the board (not to mention more powerful Kings), I shudder to think what they'll be like in the power variants.
Carpenter. compound of Knight and Dabbaba.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The earliest reference to this piece that I am aware of is in Ralph Betza's <a href='../dpieces.dir/diffknights.html'>Augmented [Different] Knights</a>, which is copyright 1994. Ralph, following his own system simply called the piece the ND.
<p>
This piece also showed up as the Vicount in a discussion of a proposed variant called <a href='../index/listcomments.php?subjectid=Rook-Level+Chess'>Rook Level Chess II</a> in the comment system in April 2002. Ralph Betza was kind enough to provide a mate example for it -- also starting the Black King in a corner (b8).
Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. Also called Baroque. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Roberto,
<p>
Both the early version of <strong>Baroque</strong>, and the <strong>Ultima</strong> variant <strong>Renaissance</strong>, are described in the <u>Encyclopedia of Chess Variants</u>, the latter in the appendix.
Rules of Chess FAQ. Frequently asked chess questions.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]<blockquote><i>
Can you castle at any point in a game after you have been placed in check?
</i></blockquote>
Yes, you may. See the <a href='../d.chess/castlefaq.html'>Castling FAQ</a>. The rule your friend told you is a common variation of the rules, but is not part of the standard rules of Chess.
We have the entries for everyone who's posted, what's lacking is editors with time and energy. I'm afraid most of us are kind of burnt out.
Golem Chess. Variant where the Queen is replaced by the Golem, a piece that must be captured twice to remove it from play. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If a Half-Golem captures an adjacent Golem, then the Half-Golem is removed from play and the Golem is replaced by a Half-Golem as per usual. The line is just explaining the restrictions on Golem and Half-Golem captures of Golems and Half-Golems; in general, this sort of capture is still referred to as capture in these rules.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thomas, thanks for the comments. I'll see if I can get another pass through the rules off to David for his comments this weekend (it's allergy season -- during the week, all my remaining neurons are needed for work and family).
<blockquote><i>
I wonder how looks a possible variant of this game: using Rococo-Halflings...
</i></blockquote>
That's an interesting idea, but people don't seem to find halflings particularly inituitive for some reason.
<p><hr><p>
<blockquote><i>
I feel that this additional constraint is foreign to the original intent of making it harder to hide from LL's on the edge.
</i></blockquote>
Given that this change does not keep LL's from being able to capture, merely being able to capture <strong>safely</strong> under some circumstances, I don't think this violates my original intent. I wanted the captures possible, not necessarily safe.
Mad Chess. Chess variant with unequal armies on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, this was commented on heavily during the 100 squares contest as part of the voting -- see
<a href='../large.dir/contest100/votes.html'>100 squares votes</a> for details.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Once again, my unstated intention was that the Withdrawer could only capture in that case by moving to x2.
<i><blockquote>
I think that the freer capturing is really more in line with your
rationale for the edge sqaures in the first place: to keep pieces from
using the edges to hide from Long Leapers.
</blockquote></i>
<p>
Michael, I don't see how that follows -- could you please expand on your statement?
Sorry to be unclear -- yes, the LL could leap to x1 to capture at x2, but not leap to x0 to capture at x2. And it is the fault of my game description that this is unclear, I'm afraid.
PieceEater Chess. Yet another game with an indestructible randomly-wandering neutral piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If a King moves next to the PieceEater, then the PieceEater will on the immeadiately following move, move so as not to be adjacent to the King -- you can even sort of chase PieceEaters around with your King. This can be determined from the following two rules:
<p><ul>
<li>
The PieceEater moves after each player's move
<p>
<li>
The PieceEater will not capture a King, nor will it move to a square adjacent to a King (with adjacency being determined viewing the board as a torus, so a King on a1 prevents the PieceEater from moving to a1 and to any square that the PieceEater could move to from a1).
</ul>
<p>
But I admit it isn't as obvious as it could be.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]<i><blockquote>
The LL can't capture x2 by leaping to x0 because it could have captured by leaping to x1.<br>
The LL can't capture x2 by leaping to x1 because it could have captured by leaping to x0.
</blockquote></i>
<p>
Actually, the second statement is not true by what I wrote before:
<p>
<i><blockquote>
The only way you can end up on or pass over a particular edge square is to make a capture that would otherwise be impossible without landing on or passing over <strong>that</strong> particular edge square.
</blockquote></i>
<p>
Since the <u>passing over</u> clause would prevent it from being true.
<p>
However.
<p>
I've been thinking about this some more. What I wrote above is consistent with my original intentions for edge squares in Rococo -- they are there only to allow capturing moves that would otherwise be impossible, and then only the least possible extent. However, that's not what I actually <em>wrote</em> when I wrote down the rules, so I can see why the rules would be intrepreted to allow captures by LL and W (and sometimes C) that start on edge squares to choose among multiple edge squares for their landing square. What I am wondering now is how much difference does it make (it certainly makes some), and which yields better play?
<p>
Comments?
David had it right. The only way you can end up on or pass over a particular edge square is to make a capture that would otherwise be impossible without landing on or passing over <strong>that</strong> particular edge square. Thus, the LL could not land on <b>x0</b>, since that would require passing over <b>x1</b>, which isn't necessary for the capture.
<p>
Probably some clarifying text could be added.
George, I have hidden the ZRF and the page for Complete Permutation Chess.
George, I have reviewed my correspondence with you, and all I can say is
that your interpretation of events is very different than mine. So be it.
I am tired of this whole business -- it isn't any fun at all.
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]<i><blockquote>
If anyone is, you will need some code trickery--a straight forward
'capture both kings' type win condition will make Zillions very
hesistant to use the Valkyrie swap move on a King--during move evaluation,
Zillions erroneously considers this to be a loss of the King, though it
treats the move correctly when actually determining if the win condition
is achieved.
</blockquote></i>
<p>
The easiest way around this is to not allow the Valkyrie to swap with the friendly King, but rather, allow the King the ability to swap with a friendly Valkyrie -- this avoids panicing Zillions.
<p>
Another approach (used in Rococo.zrf) is to use an indirect capture target piece that is on a dummy square, and have capturing the King capture that piece as well. Since the swap move wouldn't have the code to capture the off-board target piece, then again, Zillions wouldn't panic at the swap move.
Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I always thought that Ralph preferred that both sides not use the same army, which would make the NN vs NN case moot. But even if you do allow duplicate armies, promotion to Colonel might make for a slower end-game, but not necessarily an undecisive one.
More10. Chessvariant on a board with 10 squares. (2x5, Cells: 10) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm not entirely sure this is a successful game, but I'm not sure anything much better could be done on such a small board, and this is a very creditable attempt. I like the extra branching added by the piece changing on movement.
David, Murray Lions would be a very interesting choice for the Queens. Hmm.
There's already a Chess variant named <b>Traffic Jam</b> -- it was in the 40 square contest.
<p>
Other possibilities: Filled Chess, Filled Board Chess, Jammed Chess, Crammed Chess, Solid Chess. (I like my <u>Roget's Thesaurus</u>.)
Experiments in Symmetry. Several experimental games to test whether perfect symmetry makes a game better.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Assorted comments:
<ul><p><li>
Symposium Chess looks a bit like a more restrained version of <a href='http://play.chessvariants.org/erf/Identifi.html'>Identific Chess</a> or <a href='../other.dir/potential.html'>Potential Chess</a>, with the ambiguity restricted to the King and Queen pair. I'm wondering if the Potential Chess rule that a piece left in check becomes known not to be a King would make sense in this game.
<p><li>
The setup for Sinister Queens Chess is found in a number of historical variants. Curiously, I seem to recall that several commentators felt this setup <em>increased</em> White's advantage. Certainly it has been universally abandoned for the current setup.
<p><li>
A leaperless combination of Bigamous Chess and Episcopal Chess with RBBQKQBBR would probably be closer to Derek's ideal, I would think, and avoid the 'all Bishops on one color' problem of Bigamous Chess.
<p><li>
You have a missing /DL tag at the end of the 7x8 section.
</ul>
I realize this topic has been inactive for over a year, but I just had an idea:
<p><hr><p>
<h4 align=center>Lazy King Double Weak Queen Chess</h4>
<center><i>or</i></center>
<h4 align=center>Lazy Chess</h4>
<h5>Setup</h5>
Standard board and setup, but King starts in hand, and second Queen
takes its place.
<h5>Rules</h5>
Rules are the same as Orthochess, except where noted below.
<p>
On their first, second, third, fourth or fifth turn, a player must place
their King on an unattacked square. That constitutes their move for that
turn.
<p>
Queens may move only one, two or three squares at a time, in the usual directions.
<p><hr><p>
Nothing fancy here. The lazy King was inspired by the King in <u>Idle King</u>, and the weakened Queens are because there are two of them.
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.
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