[ List Latest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments by Andy Thomas
Sino-European Chess 
. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]i have updated this variant a bit. the kings can now move within their own castles, and along the wall, and inside the opponent's castle as well. the castles are also now 3x3 thus in that regard resembling the palaces in xiang qi. also, the bishops can move not only up to and along the wall, but throughout the castles as well. they are yet prohibited from moving to the 'opposite side of the wall.' in any event, this should all make for less draws. 3 of the pawns have been set back to the 3rd rank (all 5 were on the 4th rank before), and the cannons begin on the 2nd rank. in the original, the pawns were 'too close' at the start. since there is no 'implied across the board check' between kings as in xiang qi, this new rule of allowing them to 'storm across the wall' and into the other player's castle is a sort of compromise between chinese chess and fide.
i think it could at the very least be stated that, in general black and white play differently from one another. one way of alleviating this 'problem' - without the use of simultaneous movement, or in always allowing black 'one last move' - in a given game, would be to have a chess variant such that the two sides are for all intents and purposes identically placed at setup, yet the 'black' side has one piece 'pre-moved' in some kind of logical, standard manner. this might make up for any real or imagined imbalance. for example, if you applied this idea to FIDE chess, you could have black begin with 'king's pawn at 4' (rather than 2) as part and parcel of the opening setup, yet white would move first.
Sino-European Chess . Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]well it says, 'edit index information or edit the contents of this page. You may also, if your page uses graphics, upload files.' this entry page having no graphics to speak of, 'edit index information,' and 'edit the contents' but seemed to allow for basic parameter/text editing... so i tried 'if your page uses graphics, upload files' and it uploaded... and it is updated... it was the 'if your page uses graphics' part which made it all unclear to me... thanks
with a cursory glance, i haven't been able to figure out how to update the zrf here. in any event, there is an updated zip/zrf over at the zillions site. it has larger graphics. the only real change which has occurred to me might be in making the castles and wall like a single, large zone, so the respective kings could traverse the wall and into their opponent's castle.
I have created a new variant called, 'Sino-European' Chess. There are a zillions (.zip) entry, plus an html page. It isn't precisely clear to me how to link the uploaded zillions .zip into the html. I would like to thank Fergus Duniho, inventor of Eurasian Chess for the inspiration in creating this variant. Thanks for your consideration, Andy
Pawn (Xiangqi). Moves and captures one square straight forward.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]yes, the pawn can capture sideways... once it has crossed the river...
at a certain point with large boards and many pieces, a variant should probably have multiple moves per side at a time, instead of 1 move per side... or the pieces should be really powerful... if you have a large board with single-moves and weak pieces, time can become a factor... some people might think it takes too long to play so i would imagine that, when designing the 'ideal' large board chess variant each of us attempts to factor these considerations in board size piece power moves per side time
Chess (Variant) Graphics by Jean Louis Cazaux. Icons of chess variant pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]i like these pieces... i like how the pieces sort of illustrate the moves in some cases, such as the hunter/falcon... you can kind of tell how they move by their respective designs... this is always a great bonus in piece design, in my opinion... btw, you can add 'colonel' to the castle/squirrel definition if you want... the 'colonel' in american chess moves exactly like the castle/squirrel... just a thought...
Chessmen-At-Arms. A wargame with chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]chessmen-at-arms struck me because it is another attempt to integrate wargames with conventional chess... aside from the 'chinese army chess' (super stratego) and the 'risk chess,' are there any other chess/wargame variants? interestingly, i had worked up a board for a game called, 'russo-german chess'... to recreate the 'eastfront' of ww2 in a chess format. in theory, the pieces are going to be 'empty containers' and the two players would be able to secretly apply 'points' to their respective containers from a pool of points, before battles were resolved. i hadn't gotten to the movement mechanics... whether it should be a lot of german moves, then a russian response, or an i-go-you-go like most chess variants... in any event there are prototype map and some vague piece theory...
Perhaps it could be said that xiang qi plays 'smaller' in the endgame and fide, 'bigger.' In xiang qi the battles begin to swirl around the respective palaces, whereas in fide the king is roaming at large, oftentimes being a key piece in a player's attack. Now, there is the cross-board, 'attack' of the king in xiang qi, but to me that is a small exception to this overall idea. Yesterday I was checkmated by a horse and a pawn in xiang qi. This could have been avoided but it is also a common type of lapse on the part of the defender in that game, at least in my experience. With the mobile king in fide, you oftentimes need a bit more muscle than that to accomplish checkmate. And the promoting pawns of fide are a big difference, yes. It is so fascinating, how these two games are designed; the distinctive features which balance each one out.
I have been playing a bit of both chinese chess and western (fide) chess and have a few general observations as to why each is a unique 'variant.' 1) Space: chinese chess - with its 90 cells (versus 64 for fide) and open files at the start - simply plays with a more 'wide open' feel. 2) Development: With the more immediate attack lines available in chinese chess, the middle game seems to begin at about 5-10 turns earlier than in fide games. 3) Firepower: Perhaps this touches on the ongoing discussion here as to the value of various pieces. In chinese chess you have far less firepower on a larger board than in fide. FIDE has such powerful bishops, and the queen; plus the knights are more powerful than their horse counterparts in chinese chess. In chinese chess, the lack of firepower is balanced by confining the 2 opposing kings to their respective 'castles;' whereas with the added firepower and smaller board of fide the kings roam free. 4) The River and the Late Game: With only 11 of 16 pieces able to move across the river in chinese chess, this is a marked contrast to the complete mobility of all pieces in fide. Sometimes, the limited number of offensive pieces remaining at the end of a xiang qi game can make checkmating the opposing king very difficult. Well, these are just a few observations; I'm sure there are many contrasts that have been left out. In the actual theory of both games i consider myself to be a 'manueverist,' always looking to trade pieces for position; a risky prospect to say the least, but when it pays off it seems to do so in spectacular fashion. In fide i like to clear the board; open lanes whilst trading my knights for my opponent's bishops, preferring to go into the end game with a more open board and my bishop pair remaining. I always keep in mind that the first bishop lost is worth more than the one which remains, something like 3.5 points for #1 and 2.5 points for #2; this is why i like to keep the pair intact. but i digress... Does anyone have any other comments on differences they've noticed between xiang qi and fide chess?
indeed, i agree with fergus... it's virtually impossible to get a checkmate in the situation you describe, without your opponent deliberately handing you the game... in an end-game like this, if you had a horse and a pawn instead, you might have a slightly better chance than with a single chariot... a single attacking chariot against perhaps a defending king and just one each of mandarin and elephant; you might also be able to get a win in a situation like that... but in your scenario, with the 'twin interlocking layers' provided by the intact pairs of mandarins and elephants remaining on defense... your chances at checkmate employing a single chariot are virtually nil... at least in my opinion... best to offer a draw and start anew...
PiRaTeKnIcS. Pirates on ships fight each other in 44-squares chess variant. (6x8, Cells: 44) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]if you get a zillions implementation i would certainly play it... sounds like an incredible game
Tezhi Luzhanqi - Chinese army chess. Chinese strategic game.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]i looked at this some more, and it looks like a variant... there are 6 naval type of ships, with gridpoints on the river and notation for the spots where the ships set up... there are the barricades at the back of the map, and the aircraft bases in the corners... this version i have has a dual rail line across the river, rather than the 3 rail lines i see in the picture... oh... this one has the 9 different 'soldier' or 'army' type of pieces, but only 1 of each of these... you can see that they have differing ranks by the slightly varying pictures, but moreso by the obvious changes in chinese characters from piece to piece... i looked at the pictures of the original game provided with the article here and see that the pieces are wooden... these here are plastic... anyway, what i have appears to be a variant on the same game... rail lines, but not in the same locations... navies and naval movement added in, with the same basic 'forts' and 'airbases' and 'depots' and whatnot... fascinating
i seem to have found a variant on this game... i purchased it at a chinese bookstore... it has a river, like the one here appears to have... but it has 2 bridges instead of 1... and it has diagonals (with interlocking points) drawn in the river, and naval pieces (in addition to army, artillery, and air)... it has 30 pieces per side... i will try to get some pics...
there is a new variant to 'operational chess' at the zillions of games site.... it is called 'land/sea chess' and is played on a 15 file x 9 rank board on 'leftmost' 5 files are 'sea'... the 5 middle files are 'land-sea'... the 'rightmost' 5 files are 'land'... so it is like 3 small, 5 file x 9 rank boards side by side: sea land-sea land 3 smaller boards making up a 15x9 board... the pieces which start at 'sea' can move anywhere over the sea files, plus the 5 'land-sea' files (the center)... the pieces which start on 'land' can enter anywhere over the 5 land files, and anywhere in the land-sea files... the sea pieces cannot enter land, and the land pieces cannot enter sea... the pieces which start on the 'land-sea' files can move to sea, land-sea, and land; they can move anywhere... these are hovercraft (GEV), marines, special forces, and the hq... the game is won by capturing the opponent's hq... there is a 'gun' version where several piece types have 'rifle' or 'gun' capture abilities (in addition to their normal moves)... and there is a 'non-gun' variant where none of the pieces have gun capture... this is a very interesting variant... the frigates (sea) and helicopters (land) are a couple of my favorite pieces... the general and admiral pieces are strong, as are the special forces, submarine, and paratrooper... missile ships and cavalry are variants on the erstwhile bishop piece, while the tank and aircraft carrier are based upon the traditional rook/chariot the GEV is probably the best all-around piece... and it is versatile in that it can enter land and sea both... i've seen games where side a) will lose just about all of their land pieces for instance, then side b) will in turn move their own hq to the land side of the board, then side a) has a lot of difficulty in trying to capture side b's hq... one time i thought i had the computer beat, but did just as the example above; lost my army whilst retaining a strong sea contignent... as it turned out i simply didn't have the pieces on land to take out the computer's hq... so the gevs take on added importance in the late game, being able to move all over the board... same with the marines, but to a lesser extent... also important are the frigate and helicopters, at least in the default, 'gun' mode... with their range-3 gun captures they can 'interdict' well into the areas where they are not otherwise allowed to move... so it is as though these two piece types 'cover' a little bit more of the board than most other sea or land types... they are the only 2 gun-capture pieces with range 3... all others are range 2 or 1...
http://americanchess.tripod.com Simply scroll down the page and you'll see it there at the bottom. Hi, As some of you know, i've been working on a game called, 'operational chess.' I have a new variant which is closer to the original idea for the game. After a lot of experimenting on victory conditions in the first version, i came up with the idea of each side having 3 outposts and 2 strongpoints for this 2nd, 'objective chess' version. If you've played the original version (which i later nicknamed, 'carnage') you probably noticed that virtually every piece on the board was under attack at the start. The missiles and bombers were usually the first to go. To make it more interesting for these powerful pieces, i re-implemented the 'backline' rule from american chess where pieces on your own 1st rank (or backline) are immune to your opponent's strongest pieces. The board was enlarged to 17 files by 11 ranks and in contrast to the original operational chess, almost none of the pieces start the game under attack; and the attacks which can be made at the start are not worth doing. The rook and bishop (tank and cavalry) can leap 1-4 squares along their traditional counterparts' axis; orthogonal for the tank and diagonal for the cavalry. So these pieces don't have nearly the mobility of their traditional counterparts, but their ability to move 'through' other pieces gives them a different kind of ability. Many pieces have a gun-capture (rifle-capture) capability. These are all at varying ranges: Helicopter-4, Strongpoint-3, Tank-3, Cavalry-3, Infantry-2, and Outpost-1. This gun-capture capability is along both the orthogonal and diagonal for all such pieces. The 2-star, 3-star, and 4-star generals can move 2, 3, or 4 spaces in any combination of directions. The 3-star and 4-star generals in particular are able to approach the long-range gun-capture units outside of rheir 8-way firing lanes. In any event this new version of Operational Chess is much closer to what i'd originally intended it to be. I have submitted the .zrf .zip file to the editor here, and to zillions-of-games.com, and have put it at the website: http://americanchess.tripod.com simply scroll down the page and you'll see it there at the bottom. The early game starts with the infantry establishing short, range-2 firing lanes while the helicopters, tanks, and cavalry move up for support. The generals also move off of the backline and try to get within striking distance of the long-range gun-capture pieces of the opponent. With the relatively short range of virtually every piece on the board, pieces can flow back and forth behind the main line of combat, organizing attacks and counterattacks. A well-placed gun-capture piece can typically threaten 3 or more of the opponent's pieces along its 8-way firing axis. The infantry can form pickets in the late to mid-game; 2 squares apart so their gun captures interlock. It's difficult to stop a concerted attack against your outposts. It is much easier to defend your 2 strongpoints. Nonetheless, if given the opportunity you can bolster the defense of your outposts by moving some of the nearby pawns up 1 rank before your opponent gets the chance to do the same. The end-game involves multiple pieces supporting each other on a final attack against the opponent's strongpoints. If you've done well you'll also have missile and/or bomber superiority. I hope you enjoy it. thanks for your consideration, andy
hi, i have gotten a working .zrf file for what i had previously described as, '21st century chess'... seeing as how that title was taken, i have renamed it, 'operational chess' instead... i would like to upload the .zrf but instead thought some of you here might want to take a look at it and comment first. is that how it should be done, or should it simply be sent it off to chessvar@yahoo.com and offered for download that way? thanks
Double Chess. Two sets of pieces on 16 by 12 board. (16x12, Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]if a pawn moves 4 on the first move, it yet has to move 6 more spaces to promote. it gets worse for the pawn in this regard if it only moves 1, 2, or 3 squares on that first move... what i'm saying is that, on a board this size you need more mobility from your pawns... or maybe move the promotion line up a couple or few ranks from the back line... when i'm designing a variant i look at how quickly and powerfully the pawns can promote, and depending on the variant adjust it in terms of FIDE chess... do i want a game which plays faster or slower wrt to promotions?... in any event this variant seems to make the pawn less important, and yes the knights on this board are much weaker than they are on an 8x8 board... on a larger board like this the leapers need to have more range... but that's just my taste... speaking of the rooks and bishops, i would imagine that the rook becomes even more powerful than the bishop, because the bishop's maximum move is 11 (12-1) squares diagonally while the rook can theoretically move 15 (16 -1) squares horizontally... it seems to me that boards which aren't entirely square like this favor rooks even more than bishops.... i think this game would play better on 16x8, but then the bishops become even weaker in comparison with rooks... but with 12 ranks, man that is a long ways to go for a promotion! gives it an old-fashioned feel in that regard...
hi, i'm working on a new variant - 21st century chess - but am having a problem with the zrf. does anyone feel like taking a look? it's 16 files by 9 ranks. i'm trying to introduce long-range, 'gun' type pieces; an extension of the gun and machinegun pieces found in the variant, 'chess battle'... but i'm fairly lost in the .zrf code... cobbling pieces of code together for the gun capture-type of moves from 'chess battle'... i'm not sure if i have the moves codes for the various slides correct. i need the standard rook/bishop/queen slide, plus the chinese cannon (vao and pao) slide, and the slide move for a piece which slides but doesn't capture... only moves along blank squares... such pieces capture using the 'gun capture' move instead... anyway the message i'm getting is, 'while reading a true/false condition, the following non-piece-attribute was encountered: 'empty'' thanks in advance for any help, andy
Nova Chess 100. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]on the issue of pieces which are rook/pao or bishop/vao being too powerful... what if, as an alternative there were also rook/vao and bishop/pao pieces?...do such pieces already exist in nova chess?
Sky . Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]hi christine, how about the squirrel piece? (like a colonel in american chess)... 2-0,2-1,2-2
i participate in chess/xiangqi tournaments at another internet site... during their tournaments they allow the players to study 'printed' material, but no computer/ai help is allowed...
Joshua's Chess. Missing description (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]questions: with the vao/pao properties given to the bishops/rooks respectively... they only leap a friendly piece... was this intentional?... if you make a zrf have you thought of asking your son joshua to design the pieces using a paint program?
25 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.