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Comments by SamTrenholme

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Game Courier Tournament #4: An Introductory Semi-Potluck. A tournament to feature games good for introducing people to Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Feb 6, 2010 08:27 PM UTC:
I, sadly, have too much stress in my life right now to continue playing in this serious tournament. While it has been a pleasure playing everyone here, I am withdrawing from this tournament.

I will finish all games I am currently playing. After that, I will not start any new games.

- Sam


HyperModern Shatranj. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Feb 4, 2010 02:49 PM UTC:
I would not object at all to the Pawn’s move being updated. I would change this:
Pawn: pawns move 1 square orthogonally forward, toward the opponent's back rank. They capture, by replacement, 1 square diagonally forward.
To read like this:
Pawn: pawns move 1 square orthogonally forward, toward the opponent's back rank. They capture, by replacement, 1 square diagonally forward. Also can move 2 squares orthogonally forward in its first move if there is no piece directly in front of the pawn
You know, it’s interesting to look at the history from Shantraj to “Mad Queen” Chess. There is so few historical documents about this we don’t even know if the transition was done in Spain or in Italy. I think the only intermediate game between Shantraj and “Mad Queen” chess we know the rules of is “Courier Chess”.

Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Feb 4, 2010 03:41 AM UTC:
Now that I’m playing this game in the tournament, some issues:
  • The documentation does not make it clear the pawn has an initial double move like in modern “Mad queen” chess.
  • It is confusing to have the bishop-like piece be able to leap two squares, but having the queen-like piece not able to leap two squares, jumping over other pieces.
I think it makes more sense to either allow the general (queen-like piece) to jump, or to have the queen-like piece be a rook + ferz + alfil (rook + bishop-like move) in this variant.

If you want something less powerful, another option is to have the queen-like piece be a “commoner”: Moves like a king, but is not royal.


Game Courier Tournament #4: An Introductory Semi-Potluck. A tournament to feature games good for introducing people to Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2010 05:03 PM UTC:
Modern Carrera’s chess is the following “Capablanca” array:

RANBQKBNMR

Where A = Knight + Bishop and M = Rook + Knight

It is on an 8x10 board; castling is done by having the king move three squares.


Diamond Chess 306. Missing description (22x24, Cells: 306) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 31, 2009 03:48 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
It’s nice to see people moving beyond simple square and hex boards, but I think a 22x23 game is the rhombic equivalent of Tai shogi. Perhaps a smaller version of this variant would be good.

Of course, David’s next challenge is to make chess variants for all of the regular polygon tilings. Or, if that’s too ambitious, how about a chess variant for this tiling.

The possibilities are nearly endless...


ChessVA computer program
. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Sun, Dec 20, 2009 09:09 AM UTC:
Someone is going to have to fix the link on this page. In the meantime, again, it’s here:

http://samiam.org/chessv


Lemniscate Chess ZIP file. Chess played on a Lemniscate board (in the shape of an infinity symbol).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 17, 2009 06:18 AM UTC:
Thanks for uploading the .zip file. :) For people who can’t find it, it has been uploaded and is here

Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 17, 2009 03:04 AM UTC:
Hey, you forgot to upload your Zillions file!

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Fri, Dec 11, 2009 09:30 PM UTC:
Fergus: Seconded. And I have had someone in email tell me how annoying and nonconstructive George Duke’s posts are at times. George: You’re welcome to post here whatever you want to post, within reason. But don’t ask for other people’s posts to be deleted.

George Duke’s trollish posts about how horrible Capablanca Chess, for example, were quite annoying.


Game Courier Tournament #4: An Introductory Semi-Potluck. A tournament to feature games good for introducing people to Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Fri, Dec 11, 2009 06:20 PM UTC:
Amazons: I agree that these pieces don’t really work. There’s a reason why, while they tried replacing the queen with an Amazon for a while in Russia, they decided the FIDE queen was better.

Time control and number of games: There has been a lot of discussion about the the number of games, such as this posting, this posting, this posting, this posting, this posting, this posting, this posting, and this posting.

I want to see this tournament done in six months. My idea: 12 games, 24 hours per move with two weeks spare time for vacations and what not. Adjudication after two months. What do other people think? How should we guarantee that the tournament is finished up in 6 months?


Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 10, 2009 04:24 PM UTC:
You know, it might make more sense to have only 12 games with a slower time control (24 hours grace time, two weeks spare time, adjudication after three months) than to have 18 games with a relatively fast time control. A number of people have brought up that 18 games might be too much.

Nick: What do you consider a “blitz” time control?


Sam Trenholme wrote on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 11:40 PM UTC:
Fergus: That sounds like a good time control, but games may last longer than two months. Consider this: a game may need 30 or even 60 moves (60 to 120 plies) to be decided; I game at 24 hours/2 weeks can very well last four months.

One thing we can do is have it so, if one side feels they have a significantly stronger position and the other side is just dragging the game out, make it feasible to adjudicate games so they don’t last for months.

My idea is 18 hours/two weeks for most games and 12 hours/two weeks for HyperModern Shatranj (since this game otherwise would have a somewhat slower pace than the other five proposed games); after two months, either side can request an adjudication.

These shorter time controls will guarantee that games will be decided within two months; allowing adjudication will guarantee we don’t have a game last six months because someone with, say, a bishop and a pawn refuses to resign against his opponent with a rook and two pawns.

I really don’t want to see this tournament last over six months.

Any other suggestions?


Sam Trenholme wrote on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 05:31 PM UTC:
OK, 18 games in 6 months. I would do this as follows:
  • Each participant is given a block of six games to play. The time control for the games is the same: 30 days to finish all of your moves, no grace time, no extra time. Adequate warning is given for when the games start so players don’t lose time making their first move.
  • In two months, all of the games will be finished. We will then have two more rounds that will be the same.
  • Should this site ever be down, we will make sure players are given appropriate extra time on their clocks. Fergus: It would be a very good idea to implement a universal way to have it so, should the site go down, you can report this in Game Courier (just let Game Courier know when the site went up), and all players who had the move when the site went down will be automatically given their time back, as well as having all games lost on time correctly reinstated as incomplete games. I had an unpleasant experience with Game Courier a couple of years ago because my opponent lost on time because the site went down; we were unable to correctly reinstate the game.
Does anyone have alternative proposals?

Sam Trenholme wrote on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 02:49 PM UTC:
I think 18 games per player is OK, as long as they have reasonable time controls.

I also think there’s nothing wrong with having both Modern Carrera Chess and Euchess.

The important thing is to go forward with this tournament. Bickering about the games or tournament structure goes against this; if anyone doesn’t like the games, or what not, they are free to withdraw from the tournament.


Sam Trenholme wrote on Tue, Dec 8, 2009 04:51 PM UTC:
Is this going forward? After a brief spurt of discussion (mainly personal opinions about which variants to include in the tournament), this thread hasn’t been updated for a few days. Do we have consensus that only Game Courier presets that enforce rules will be allowed to be in this tournament?

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Sun, Dec 6, 2009 09:01 PM UTC:
Some of you are probably familiar with Desert Island Discs a British radio/TV program where people talk about what music they would have if they were stuck on a desert island and could only bring a few albums. Another version of this game I have seen is a video game version of this (Slashdot also did this), where people say if they could only have one video game, what would it be.

I have my own version of this game, where what I bring on to this imaginary desert island must fit in 50 megs on a computer with only a base install of Windows XP or Windows 7.

So, I would like to play a Chess Variant version of this game. If you could only play a single Chess variant, which variant would you play? Why do you like this variant?


Game Courier Tournament #4: An Introductory Semi-Potluck. A tournament to feature games good for introducing people to Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 08:34 PM UTC:
Vitya: OK, looking at Joe’s postings, he’s proposing Modern Shantraj, not Modern Chess. That in mind, we only have two submissions that enforce the rules in game Courier: Eurasian Chess and Balanced Capablanca Chess.

I think it’s very important all submissions use a Game Courier preset that enforces the rules. This raises the bar and makes it so people who really want to see their variant in this tournament need prove it by working at getting it here.

Someone wrote:

George is very right about the minor fudging of pieces and/or places in the initial setup not being actual variants.

That’s a subjective, not an objective judgment. Indeed, the Wikipedia article on Displacement chess calls rearrangements of the pieces in the opening a variant or variation. We have pages for a number of different opening setups using the Capablanca pieces, for example, as well at least one Grand Chess alternate setup. Each different setup has a different opening book and different themes and motifs.

That said, I agree it isn’t very original to simply rearrange the pieces in the opening. That said, the Capablanca setup I’m proposing is one which I decided to use after having my computer analyze various Capa opening setups for about a week.

In terms of what’s a variant, I could just as easily say that “all games that Fairy-Max can play are pretty much the same” or even “all games that Zillions can play are pretty much the same”. As I’ve pointed out before, there really not that many different types of Chess pieces out there (or, at least, Chess pieces with a simple move) and Betza covered pretty much all of the possible pieces in his 1990s research.

Indeed, I see Chess, Capablanca Chess (Janus Chess, Carrera Chess, Schoolbook Chess, etc.), W-rider chess and what not as different versions of the same game.


Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 06:11 PM UTC:
Vitya: Modern chess was suggested in this posting. It’s not something I offered. Joe offered it, and since the Game Courier preset does enforce rules, it belongs in the tournament.

In terms of making a real Game Coueier preset, Fergus has some excellent documentation:

http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/devguide.html

I think it’s perfectly fair to demand anyone who wants their variant played here to either make a full rules-enforcing game courier preset or to get someone else to make said preset.


Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 05:46 PM UTC:
Nicholas Wolff wrote:

Fergus is intending to make sure those games have rule enforcement.

Yes, and I think it is fair for Fergus to require this. Right now, I’m seeing a lot of discussion but little consensus. Here is one list I made of candidates and another list Fergus made. We already have listed six variants.

If we instead interpret “First-come first-serve” as the first six proposed variants where the rules are enforced, so far the following presets enforce rules:

Looking at this list, the next three people who make a game courier preset enforcing the rules will get their game in this tournament.

In the interests of moving forward, I think, since Fergus is organizing this tournament, he should make the judgment call on what six games the tournament has. I like the enforcing rules requirements; if you want your variant in this tournament, you need to figure out how to program game courier to play the variant.


Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 04:32 AM UTC:
First of all, I agree with Fergus that it would be good if my submission were a Capablanca variant, so I have already made a preset with the Aberg setup (RANBQKBNMR) and Capablanca Chess castling (the king can castle only three squares towards the rook). This can well be Carrera’s original setup; this setup (with different castling) has also been proposed by Aberg. Since the point of this contest is to make variants that are simple to play, I’m keeping the castling simple.

Here is the preset, which took me all of five minutes to make. Since Fergus said “program”, I think that means “the preset needs to enforce the rules”:

http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DBalanced+Capablanca+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault

I’m calling this setup “Balanced Capablanca Chess” because computer analysis of some Capablanca positions shows this particular starting array of pieces to be quite balanced; White only has a 3% edge and draws are at 12%. As a point of comparison, in FIDE Chess, white has a 10% edge and draws are at 30%.

I’m also doing something I’ve never done before: I’m signing up for the tournament. It’ll be good to play something besides my own Schoolbook here on the server!


Sam Trenholme wrote on Sat, Dec 5, 2009 12:11 AM UTC:
OK, based on Fergus’ “first come first serve”, and only allowing a person to choose one variant (the first one they mention), here are the variants proposed (links to the proposals in this thread):Now, do people feel it’s fair to make it strictly first-come first-serve, or should we have some other way to hit consensus?

Sam Trenholme wrote on Fri, Dec 4, 2009 09:18 PM UTC:
For a Capablanca variant, since Embassy can be played on BrainKing, how about a RANBQKBNMR setup. I explain in another posting why this looks to be the best Capablanca setup.

The next question is this: What castling rules should we use?


Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 3, 2009 05:45 AM UTC:
Joe: That sounds like it’s still too complicated for what Fergus is looking for.

How about this: The rules are identical to FIDE chess, but every piece can only move a maximum of two squares. Pawns can not move two squares; only one. Every piece can leap two squares over pawns and other pieces. Castling is normal--this is the only time the rook can move three squares.


Sam Trenholme wrote on Thu, Dec 3, 2009 05:34 AM UTC:
OK, here’s a modest variant I invented back in 1994:

Replace the Bishops with what I call “W-Flyers”. Inspired by Shogi’s Gold and Silver generals, this piece is a rider which can move forwards or backwards (but not sideways) like a rook, or forwards (but not backwards) like a bishop.

Here is a diagram of its move:

\.|./
.\|/.
..#..
..|..
..|..
If people are interested, I have a Zillions preset for this minor Chess Variant.

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Sam Trenholme wrote on Sun, Oct 25, 2009 07:02 PM UTC:
Thank you for the code update.

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