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Comments by RobertoLavieri
FIDE is always in controversy. Are FIDE world champions credible?. The actual World Champion, Russian Ponomariov, is ranked in 10th. place in the list of higher ELO´s and have had not-impressive results after his tittle, and the ex-champion Khalifman is in position 32 in relation to his ELO rating. It is considered by specialists that only Kasparov, Anand and Kramnik have the power for being the real champion of Chess, and perhaps Leko, Michael Adams and two or three more can be in the real list of contendors for a credible tittle. In July it is going to begin the new World Championship Tournament, in Tripoli, Lybia, with an extense list of around a hundred of pre-candidates, that are going to plat knock-out mini-matchs until the list is reduced to a few for quarter of finals matchs. Boris Gelfand (ELO 2714) and other strong israeli players have declined soon to participate, and after that the same did Anand (Oscar 2003 to the best player of the year); In the same way, Kramnik, Leko, Kasparov and some other strong players are not going to be present, so this World Championship Tournament mennaces to be the less representative in the history of Chess!.
I think Larry is not far from the truth, probably this game has reached its peak. But it is not easy that changes come soon, and FIDE-Chess is going to continue dominating the scene for an undetermined amount of time, it is a well stablished game and there are many interests of any kind around it, in fact, the decision of a World Championship in Lybia seems to obbey more to monetary interests than other considerations, this is my particular opinion, and perhaps it does not differ than other many opinions around the world. FIDE is in controversy, the Association of Chess proffesionals is gaining prestige, but the game itself is going quickly to a saturation stage, a player reaches high ELO´s in base to a frightening expertise gained through years of exclusive dedication and the knowledge of the incredible extense theory developed for this game. I think human beings are very close to dominate enterely this game, it is seen in the matches played against strong computer opponents that only use brut force and play the game in a discutible honest manner, because the programs have access to wide databases of openings, ends and games played through all the history, nevertheless the highest ranked players can beat many of these programs many times. It is the need of renovations and variants, but I repeat, it is not easy, new things must fight against very powerful interests.
Slide Chess 
. Variant on 44 squares with moving cages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Antoine, there is a bug in the ZRF. Pawns can´t capture.
Chogo44. Game with pawns and kings with co-enclosure capture. (7x8, Cells: 44) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This game has merits to be in the main cathegory. Is anyone trying to implement it in Zillions or making a Courier Preset?. The last thing is easy, at least a Preset that does not enforce the rules. I´m busy now and I´ll be in the next days, so I have little time to give a hand on this. I think the Zillions implementation is a lot of work, although it is clearly possible. I have thought a bit about a Zillions implementation, but I have not time enough to make the effort for a code soon, so if there is anybody trying to do it, or a Courier Preset, it should be good. Let me know.
Cobra Chess. Variant on 10 by 10 board with new pieces, including the Cobra. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Interesting, and the Cobra looks nice. I have not played the game yet, but my first impression is that the density of power is too high in this game, and complex tactics may dominate over long-term strategies, the game seems to be very deep. I may have a more precise opinion after trying it, I expect soon.
This is a very simple although interesting variant. The two bishops and Knights of each bands are numbered 1 or 2. At the begining of the game, each player annotates in a paper which of the two enemy Bishops or Knights is the player´s Secret Agent (only one enemy piece). In every moment of the game, the player may, as a move, change the color of the Secret Agent and move it in the same turn, and the enemy piece changes to friend piece for the rest of the game. Try it!
Well, that´s right, I have not known that this idea was first thought by Ralph Betza. The game play is very nice, I have tried it yesterday night against my son. Ralph, it is a very interesting game. Excuse me if I were confused and I have show the idea without an author. All the credit is yours!.
Symmetron! 112. Large version of Symmetron!, with a third modifier. (11x10, Cells: 112) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, it is finally released after a lot of changes and refinements, and never-end discutions with Antoine, who has a lot of the credit in the final version, with notorious differences with my first proposal. The community is invited to try this game, Zillions is not a very strong player of this game, but if you try it with Zillions, you are going to have an idea of this game. You may be surprised, it is really good, although this afirmation should seem not too modest, it is sincere. I like it. It is a Preset too, so this game is available to play in Courier.
Radical Chess (deleted). Link to website of commercial chess variant on 8 by 8 board with 16 types of pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I don´t want read more about this topic, neither miscelaneous things around it. Have someone some new interesting discussions about Chess Variants?
Game Courier Tournament #1. A multi-variant tournament played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fergus, I doubt the second round is going to begin at the end of this month, The game of Kamikaze Mortal Shogi that are playing Michael Howe and Ben Good may last many moves more, probably, and it is possible it is not going to finish as soon as you think.
Mortal Shogi ZRFs . Play Shogi and a couple variants with diminishing pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There are some problems with the Images and Windows XP, I don´t know if it happens with other Windows versions, but in Windows 95 and 98 the ZRF's are running fine. Fergus Duniho has said he is going to make some corrections in the images, I´m not very clear about the technical reasons for the bad lecture of the images with XP, but I have seen the incompatibility of the images wuth this Windows version.
Game Courier Tournament #1. A multi-variant tournament played on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, Ben would rather wait till the first round ends. I think Ben and Michael are playing an interesting game of Kamikaze Mortal Shogi, and in my opinion both are good players, so, very probably, this game is not going to be finished soon!. It means that the second round must wait...
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating](Motif Shogi pieces and light board). Beautiful
Eurasian Chess. Synthesis of European and Asian forms of Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is one of the best mixtures of 'Oriental' and 'Western' Chess variant I have seen, not only the setup but the rules seem to be carefully designed. The result is a very strategic and positional game in which dynamics can be explosive after some point. Material advantages seem to be much less important and decisive than in Fide-Chess, but position is definitely much more important. The density of power is perhaps a bit high, but it is correct for the concept of the game, and it is one of the reasons because little material advantages are not decisive many times. I have one OBSERVATION on the Board used in Zillions implementation and in the Courier Preset: It is beautiful, but somewhat hypnotizing, and can confuse the player in some moments (Well, this is perhaps a very personal appretiation that is influenced by my ocular limitations: I´m very close to the line that divides, speaking about visual capacity, the more or less normal people, and functionally invidents. I expect I´ll be over the line for some years, but I don´t know how much time). Regardless the beauty of the board, I´ll suggest Fergus add any other set with a new plain board, perhaps using light colors, but just squares. I´ll appretiate it, much more than many other players, you must be sure.
Hanga Roa . Play Hanga Roa with Zillions of Games![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hanga Roa ZRf seems to work well, although Zillions plays it poorly, as in many other games with territorial elements.
Switching Chess. In addition to normal moves, switch with an adjacent friendly piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a very interesting game, much more deep than FIDE-Chess. Try it!.
Hanga Roa . Play Hanga Roa with Zillions of Games![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mr. Young-Hyun Joo did a very good job, the ZRF game play has improved a lot, and it can be a serious challenge for novices, but I must say that it is not a very strong player yet, though. The main reason is because Zillions is not well adapted for this kind of games with territorial elements. I expect that in the next version of Zillions (3.0? -that version would come, unofficially, at the ends of this year-), the programmer can use integers, set management, and the possibility of change evaluations in base to positions and/or specially defined conditions, it would be great for improve the A.I. to very high levels in some games like Hanga-Roa, Amazons ('El Juego de Las Amazonas'), Tepuy and many others.
ChessV
. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This program plays very well, it is a very good challenger!. Thanks Gregory, excellent job. I have seen a litlle detail, after a 3-times repetition playing Switching Chess, the program could not end properly. Why?.
CHESS MORALITY XIV: Pleiadic Dialectic. 14th poem in Chess Moralities series.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Excellent use of words and ideas, I must admit.
Here is an interesting idea for a CONTEST: 'Design a Chess Variant game in which it is forbidden any type of capture, promotion or demotion of pieces'.
Dough, interesting ideas, but, as you can see, it is not easy!, I have tried some ideas before writing this comment-'Contests'-, and I were somewhat discouraged. Is it possible a very playable and very nice game with these rules, but a game with great essence of a chess-like game?. Checkmate is a valid rule!.
I have not tested this game, in fact, this is the first time I hear about it. I´ll take a look, many Betza´s games are impressively good.
Tag Chess and Bifocal Chess looks very well!. I´ll try to auto-play these games in a physical board to see how playable they are, but my first impression is very favorable. I am going to try the other entries too, this weekend. Prize to the winner?. A ZRF of an unpublished game, for collection (it is not going to be published for a while).
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The final of the Canarias en Red Internet Chess Festival ended in a victory for Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran (India´s number two player, 22 years old, ELO 2659), ahead of a valiant GM Sergey Karjakin, who is just 14 years old. 73 players, including 18 GMs and FIDE champion Ponomariov, were present in one of the strongest blitz tournaments ever. Hikaru Nakamura ('Star Wars') did very well in the qualification phase, with 8 points and beating some very strong GMs, but he couldn´t clasify to the finals by only a half of point. Nakamura beated Sasirikan, the winner of the Tournement, twice in two games!. A misterious anonymous player did very well too. Now it is known he was Henrique Mecking, Brazilian that was one of the world strongest players in the 70´s. He was affected by a severe illness, but a miracle happened, and he is playing again Chess.