Comments by Erik Lerouge

Another excellent 10x10 game that was not mentioned by Kevin but was very much played on this website (but I don't think it is played elsewhere) is Rococo, even it differs a little more from chess than the other mentioned variants. Rococo is also a "recognised variant" on the CVP (for what it's worth). But I suppose that accustomed chess players would more easily be interested in more "conventional" variants.

Ok thanks, it works now.

Hello Aurelian,

Sorry I didn't see that the last round has begun. It's true that my e-mail is not visible. I could have given it to you (or you could have asked me:) at the start of the tournament...

Sorry, I don't play long-term correspondence games anymore. So I resign for my last games and I give the victory to my opponent Daniel. Congratulations for all the participants, and for Aurelian for creating Apothecary Chess! The 3rd round games I play against Daniel were particularly intense from beginning to end.

Just a little remark on language: it is 'en passant', not 'en passé'. ('En passé' is grammaticaly wrong in french).

Merry Christmas!

I like very much short-ranges games, even with not very strong pieces, and this game falls into this category. Here the piece set (only of max 2-square range) is logical and works well, and the presence of 4 Kings, of which one must be checkmated (with the consequence of a unstoppable fork on several Kings being a checkmate), is here to help the outcome of the game. However, even with the 4 Kings, the game seems to take a very long time to finish; the two games in this website that had been led to a conclusion took 85 and (for the game that ended with checkmate) more than 110 turns, which seems too much for a game of that type. And I am a little bit sceptical concerning the mating potential: when most pieces have been exchanged, the four Kings can more easily prevent the Pawns to promote.

One solution would have been stronger 2-square range pieces, in a game closer to a short-range version of Sac Chess, with a KNAD being the strongest piece (or at least Centaurs, or KADs). The presence of the KNAD, able to force checkmate without assistance, would obviously make the game faster and more decisive, but in the same time maybe less balanced and tactically interesting. (In Metamachy, the power of the KNAD/Lion is well balanced by powerful long-range pieces.) And I wouldn’t suggest a change in the piece set of this game; it works well as it is, and a like it.

Another idea is making a game with 2 moves per turn. With the same pieces and victory condition, not only this would make the game shorter, but also the attacks more dangerous and less easy to counter (and the possibility of double check with two pieces). This solution seems to me more interesting, while keeping the character and the concept of the game, than to have stronger pieces.

For the Rook/Nightrider, you could use Teutonic Knight. It is related to the crusader, which you have already for the Nightrider. (Templar or Templar Knight is also possible, since it's also semantically related; but this name is already used for the augmented Knight in Omega Chess Advanced).

For one of the two first pieces (the Rook/Nightrider or the Rook/Cannon/Ferz), I also thought of Dragoon. The Dragoon is an mounted infantryman who uses horses for mobility, but fights on foot. Since this name is derived from the handgun 'dragon', it can refer to a Cannon-related as well to a Knight-related piece. (And you can obviously use a dragon picture for this piece.)

And what about Firebird and Thunderbird for bent-riders? With these you keep the mythical bird theme for bent-riders (even if they aren't from the same cultural origin: the Firebird is from slavic folklore, the Thunderbird from North American idigenous culture). And, even if they have been certainly used for fairy pieces in recent variants, these names are not already used in a historical game, a fortiori for the original naming of a well-known fairy piece (Aanca-Gryphon).

Good luck to all!

Hello, Having tried the Metamachy preset with a personal invitation to myself, when I click "... to move" for the first move, I have the message "The invitation to play this game hasn't been accepted yet." and it is impossible to do a move, even after going back to the menu and returning to the game log. Is it that? Maybe you can try to send an open invitation, that your opponent could accept. I seem to remember that there could have been issues with personal invitations in GC.

Hello, I'm interested to participate in this tournament.

This page can be deleted, as for my two other empty submissions. Could the editors delete them? Thanks.

The definitive name of this game is 'Wildebeest Decimal Chess'. Is it possible to change the name of the corresponding preset (which I had called 'Wildebeest Chess Decimal') for the definitive name, without destroying ongoing and finished games?

I also just downloaded Chess V2.2. Great job. Thank you Greg for having included my game. No matter if you have it under its old name; but if it is a Release Candidate version, if the name could be also changed it would be more coherent with this page (even if the 2 names are nearly identical).

It seems that posting kibbitz comments isn't available anymore?

The orthography 'Wildebeast' could be intentional from its author.

I am currently playing a game of Odin's Rune Chess, and I really like it, as much the rules and gameplay, as the runic theme. The Forest Ox is a terrific piece, maybe too powerful... I like the rather strong Pawns. I generally appreciate modern variants that use non-conventional Pawns, it effectively renews the dynamics of a chess game. And their initial colorboundness isn't a default at all, for me.

I was wondering if Pawn promotion could be integrated in this game - even if it is not necessary since Pawns can go back and the need for new material is less crucial, since the vulnerabiliy of the Kings without moving possibilities makes situations of insufficent material less likely. Promotion possibilities should be limited, since Pawns can reach the last rank in only four moves; for example, they could only promote to previously captured pieces of his own colour; or there could be limitations to the maximum number of pieces of each type present on the board (4 Valkyries, and 4 Forest Oxen, for example - which is already a lot). One can also think of the opportunity to permit the promotion to King (here too, the maximum number must be limited or promotion be only to previously captured Kings). But the game plays already well, I don't think it needs a promotion rule. I was just wondering how promotion could affect the gameplay, and if it could be interessant as a variant.

Edit: my comment about the possibility of promotion wasn't very pertinent. Promotion doesn't make much sense in this game.

The Jocly Apps are actually still available on the Apple App Store (but not on the Google Play Store). Of course connection to the server isn't possible anymore, but the IA works.