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Game Reviews by Yu Ren Dong

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Gess. A Chess variant played on a Go board where pieces are collections of go stones. (18x18, Cells: 324) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Jul 24, 2010 12:58 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
One of the best meta chess variants.

Pick-the-team chess. Make up a list of pieces and choose your pieces from your and your opponents list. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Mar 27, 2010 08:21 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Pao or Grasshopper placed on a square of row 2 or 9 in opposition of enemy King is vevy dangerous.

Yu Ren Dong wrote on Fri, Mar 26, 2010 10:02 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I'd like to add my thumbs up to Pick-the-team chess that can be extremely intense with two aggressive players.

Fanorona Chess. Variant played on a Fanorona board with capture by approach and by withdrawal. (5x9, Cells: 45) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sun, Mar 7, 2010 03:56 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Another good crossover variant. A playable variant is better than millions of ABC large variants.

Trampoline Chess. Each player has a Trampoline that allows friendly pieces to make a second move. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Mon, Dec 7, 2009 05:26 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Thanks for a real original and imaginative piece :Trampoline.

Maorider Chess. Maorider and king with unusual recruiting abilities. (8x9, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Mon, Jul 27, 2009 12:50 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
So 

Chinese Camel - is R2.
Elephant - is  B2.

The Sons of Mithra. Elaborate Fantasy variant with 13 different types of pieces per side. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Fri, Jul 10, 2009 01:49 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Thanks. The Sons of Mithra is a chess as good as Dragon Chess.

Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Wed, Jul 8, 2009 11:42 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
The theme of this variant is fantastic enough. I like these imaginative power.

Bifocal Chess. A game without capture : win by checkmate with a neutral piece! (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Mon, Mar 30, 2009 01:07 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
So crazyly creative a varint. It will be better if change Falcon to e6 and e4.

Sudden Death Chess. A piece must be sacrificed after each non-capturing move. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sun, Feb 1, 2009 08:37 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Good idea! This idea could be used in those huge Chesses which have large number of pieces, such as Dai-dai Shogi.

Patt-schach (Stalemate chess). Players start with an illegal move from a stalemated position. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Thu, Jan 29, 2009 04:02 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
http://www.pathguy.com/chess/PattScha.htm

Patt-schach is a good exemple improving well for Upside-Down Chess.

Plunderchess. Commercial variants where capturing gains the right to move once as the captured piece. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Mon, Jan 12, 2009 10:22 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
A good chess variant between Absorption Chess and Cannibal Chess.

Kaissa. Decimal variant developed from descriptions in John Norman's Gor books.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Tue, Jan 6, 2009 01:01 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Kaissa is one of good chess variants worth being implemented with ZOG.

Tile Chess. Commercial chess variant, published by Steve Jackson Games.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Dec 27, 2008 02:24 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
http://www.pathguy.com/chess/TileChss.htm

http://www.hivemania.com/play/

The machine is like Hive. Maybe Hive is inspired by Tile Chess.

Take and Return Chess. You put pieces taken from the opponent back on the board. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Fri, Dec 19, 2008 06:27 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
The game is an interesting variant for chess problem. How special is this capture rule. But I think it takes a long time to play. Let pieces which are captured by King not be replaced again! http://www.pathguy.com/chess/Canadian.htm

Earthquake Chess. An earthquake caused a kind of Z-form in the board. (8x8, Cells: 8) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Thu, Nov 27, 2008 01:15 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
http://www.pathguy.com/chess/Earthqua.htm

I had played this varinat and like it. Hope someone would Implement it on ZOG.

Chameleon Chess. On each turn the rank of the moved piece changes.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Mon, Nov 24, 2008 01:19 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
Not bad. Thanks for Ed Friedlander. He had improved the rules in his Applets. The variant is more playable now.

Shifting Sands Chess. Special squares -- which can be dropped and moved -- change the types of pieces that land on them. (6x7, Cells: 42) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Tue, Nov 11, 2008 03:37 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I very like the idea of this game. It maybe added with some other color squares for Chancellor or Marshall. It is difficult to distinguish whose color squares in this zrf. I advice that color squares can't be allow to move.

Turkish Great Chess II. Gollon's large historical variant. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Thu, Oct 23, 2008 09:31 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I think this version is better than other Turkish Great Chess. 

Qalmaqini ,armed women, moves like a Shogi Pawn. Can Qalmaqini be promoted when reaching in the last rank?

Wa Shogi. A variant of Japanese Chess on an 11 by 11 board. (Link.).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Thu, Oct 16, 2008 02:36 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
My friends and I ever played one Modern rules of Wa Shogi:with drops and changed Toen (Climbing Monkey): moves one square orthogonally forwards or diagonally forward, or one or two squares backwards. Promotes to Moroku (Violent Stag). 
Toen is slightly beefed up by moving one or two squares orthogonally forwards.

Regulator Chess. Game on a 35 square board with a 7 square track on which a piece moves that determines how Knights and Bishops can move. (6x7, Cells: 42) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Tue, Oct 14, 2008 04:00 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
This variant is as creative as Influence Chess invented by the same man. But I think the draw is easy to happen.

Influence Chess. Pieces on the top or bottom layer influence which chess pieces may move on the middle layer. (3x(4x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Tue, Oct 14, 2008 03:02 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I like this variant. I never dreamed of the desgin like it.

Rotary. On a 9 by 9 board with rotating pieces. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Oct 4, 2008 04:29 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
As Scythe to Rotary, are Lance to Shogi. The merit that Scythe could rotate after the move without limit compensates for the actual loss of one direction.

4 Armies. Each player controls two armies. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Oct 4, 2008 12:56 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
Pawns got finally its need in four players chess and have more efficiency to cooperative with friend army. 

Adding other win ways also hastened the end game.

Dual Chess. A more Chess-like variant featuring the Marshall and the Cardinal. (16x8, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sat, Sep 27, 2008 03:28 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
The variant is a thinkable way to accept and highlight Marshall and Cardinal.

I agree Antoine Fourri�re's remark. Putting too similar pieces in a broad makes the game boring.

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