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At what point will the technological singularity arrive to chess variants and how might we define that?
Man and Beast 02: Shield Bearers. Systematic naming of divergent coprime radial pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]"WARHEAD Pawn: both steps must be capturing (more aggressive than the above)"
- to say that both steps MUST be capturing is not to make the Warhead pawn more aggressive but to allow the Warhead pawn an initial double step only in the extremely unusual event that two pawns are lined up for it to take. Since an opponent is unlikely to allow that to happen, in practice, that means the Warhead pawn is unlikely to be able to make an initial double step at all.
So in practice, makes it more passive, not more aggressive (unless we substitute "can" for "must.")
Edit: I see my comment is insufficient in light of how you use "may" to introduce combinations of initial-step pawns. I will review and comment again later, unless someone can clear all this up in the mean time. I am now thinking perhaps we can create an even more comprehensive list that is also more plausible - unless you already did that, Charles. I wouldn't put anything past you when it comes to creating authoritative lists.
Sky. Brilliant original game by Christine Bagley-Jones. Pieces promote through a succession of odd leapers eventually to a rooks.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Did you get my email I sent you a few months ago? Email me, please, if you have time.
I have a suggestion for a possible Sky variant which I'm currently calling "Sky Kamil." This is just a working playtest variant, not necessarily final.
The point is to tame it; make it a teeny bit more "chess-like" by adding a little bit of traditional pawn-interference.
1. These camel pawns move like forward camels or like regular "European" / Orthodox / FIDE pawns.
2. They can NOT make a NON-CAPTURING camel move on their first move.
3. After that, the SK Camel-Pawn's camel-move aspect switches, from CAPTURING to NON-CAPTURING.
4. Camel-Pawns can only promote to Trippers or Commuters.
Open, of course, to any comments you might have.
***This occured to me in writing out the above: An easier and simpler alternative to the above (and this could be implemented easily in the Game Courier automation - all the camel-pawns can be programmed to change into regular pawns upon moving): The camel pawns only exist as such camel / orthodox pawns for their first move which can be capturing or non-capturing. Immediately upon moving, they revert to "normal" (orthodox / fide / European) pawns.
This latter variant of "Sky Kamil" sounds more appealing at the moment...thotz?
Chigorin Chess. White has knights instead of bishops and a chancellor for his queen; black has bishops instead of knights. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] 65 Square Chess. FIDE chess but pretend there's another square smack dab in the middle.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thanks for the questions. I've updated and slightly revised the variant to answer them.
Elven Chess. 10x10 variant with 4 new pieces, of which one can double-capture. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I probably should have emailed you before I posted this. I apologize if so.
Perhaps it wouldn't give any extra advantage to White. Perhaps you're somehow right and it would give White some sort of advantage - that would be interesting. Demonstrate.
Yes of course I assumed the shogi pawns would only move one step at a time.
By giving it nine ranks, we give it the same number of ranks as in a 9 x 9 Shogi game where three lines separate the pawns. There's at least a bit of reason to my madness here...
If, on the other hand, you have four ranks between the pawns then it creates a certain asymmetry in pawn domination of ranks where the second player can not always directly meet the opponent's pawn on its fourth rank. In 9 x 9 Shogi, there is a middle rank that neither side can easily foray into....
Well, it's just a suggestion. I'm sure the 10 x 10 version of Elven Shogi would play out just fine and if that's the one to go with as standard, you're the boss in the matter and I defer to your judgment.
Reviewing the wikipedia Shogi Variants, I see no 10 x 9 Shogi version (and I can't think of any chess variant that is such a shape either but I don't think this apparent absence means that such a shape is inferior in any way to just about any other shape) so you may be right that my suggestion is unique. I do see a contemporary 10 x 10, like yours - Okisaki Shogi but can't easily locate the rules for it and can't see any but the vaguest notion of a setup. Some places they say it has ten pawns and others 11. Apparently, Okisaki means queen and this variant is a western hybrid that, like yours, implements a queen. Yours looks more interesting though.
To be very clear, I'm not here of course talking about Elven Chess but the Elven Shogi you refer to at the bottom of your notes on Elven Chess. I already submitted an Elven Chess preset exactly as you described it. The question is whether to leave Elven Shogi on the 10 x 10 board. When you say the pawns are FIDE like, with an initial double-step, I wonder whether you didn't realize I was talking about Elven Shogi. Are you saying the Elven Shogi pawns have a double-step?
This discussion, about contracting the FIDE board, helped me recall this morning Ingo Althofer's En Passant Chess which although merely gimmick-y is also fun and I've played it a little. Because it *is* gimmicky, it might not have much depth and might very well give White a forced win which we could discover, as you suggest. The consequence of contracting the board allows the En Passant rule to really come into its own. Most established dogma about what makes cvs playable is entirely arbitrary and can be thrown out the window with a little rule adjustment, I've found...the familiar shouldn't be confused with the truth.
Universal Chess. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I can't disagree more strongly with such people as those who take the ultraconservative Book of Ecclesiastes approach to variants and life, that "there is nothing new under the sun" and that "all is vanity and vexation of the spirit." There is so much yet to be discovered, looming just before us. Just look at the advance of science, technology, math, even art, music, literature, cinema. There is no shortage of inspiration. We do not criticize science or math for proliferation of new discoveries, new inventions, new understandings and neither should we criticize variants qua variants or professional chessplayers who specialize in particular variants. There are, of course, almost innumerable amazing chess moves, variants and pieces yet to be discovered...almost (cvts maybe suggests otherwise!? Is infinity real?!). In elaborating this philosophy, I call myself a pupil of no school but rather a student of every serious academy of variants play.
*The* case in point, this variant of Carlos's:
I am truly astonished at all the work Carlos has put into developing this chess variant, which attempts to be an homage to all chess variant pieces and tribute to chess variants / "variants chess" / chess qua chess.
Fantastic work!
I would really encourage all chess variant inventors who have the time and energy to play as much Universal Chess as possible and not only that, but to work on developing Universal Chess variants. I myself have big plans for this realm. The energy you put into it will reward you richly - at least, I have found it so. Universal Chess has provided me with phenomenal growth in understanding and appreciation of variants and pieces.
Even some of the pieces I invented for some untried "prolific" variants (upon my most recent return to this world, I am attempting a more measured approach to publication, preferring to update in some cases) only really came to life for me once I started to play Universal Chess and this, in turn, inspired discovery of more astounding pieces and designs.
The inventor sees this game as a parade of pieces and chance for the pieces to be put on display on the grand venue of 8 x 8. He uses the metaphor "shadowboxing". I want to see and help develop this concept grow beyond that.
In my own personal experience, I've found work on this variant most beneficial if regarded as a serious arena for chess combat. That may just speak to my own general philosophy, perhaps like that of the great Em. Lasker (whose philosophical works about chess as struggle I would like to read one day - I don't think they've been translated into English).
I award this variant 6 out of 5 stars or 11 out of 10 stars. You broke the mold with this one, Carlos. Thank you, with sincerest gratitude, for developing this universal chess "chess utopian" work. BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, BRAVO, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo, bravo!!!!
Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I think it's a fun exercise for chess variant inventors to develop their own CDAs, kind of like a poet to develop his/her own haiku or sonnet. Obviously, it's not essential for poets to adopt "accepted" (but also merely arbitrary and conventional) forms. I encourage cv inventors with time, energy and inclination to do what Aronson, Lawson, Joyce and several others have done and try to come up with their own unique blend of pieces to compete against the ortho-Eurocentric one, e.g., what CDA might employ a GW Duke Falcon? I would LOVE to see such a thing developed and I'm sure some very nice ones could be.
A fun variant design contest would be for CDAs.
I hope to see CDA developed for other variants besides the ortho-eurocentric one such as the Shatranj for Different Armies alluded to by such as Knappen and Joyce and Tripunch for Different Armies as Betza has alluded to (I have recently myself discovered a Tripunch CDA currently in Beta Testing). One hopes to see more classic, exotic, fancier CDAs developed such as those by Knappen, Maxson, Makov, I myself, others and older ones fine-tuned with the guidance of computers such as H.G. Muller has been delving into...
I have posted a nightrider cda but I think because of forking factors that makes them too strong (as with Fearless Fairies - courtesy again H.G. Muller). I have what I think is a clever idea how to revise it and only say this pre-emptively before unveiling...
Cunning Cupids is still in a very primitive state of un-readiness but I hope it will one day be a legit cda too (in the mean time, i'm preparing several new pieces in the heart theme)...I have another geometric army even less ready called Awful Alfils based on hexagonal movements.
George, that's a rook you put in the center there, right?
I've been inspired this morning to think of a substitute that would perfectly complement the rest of these pieces, some sort of a lame multipath queen that would have approximately the same value as the rook. Sounds funny because queens are already "lame" but I'll show you what I mean...Why don't I email you tentative details and maybe we can work out such a piece and post it here...should I use the same email address as you use in games you play via courier?
I will copy H.G. Muller on this correspondence and hope he can help us finetune for accuracy of value.
Please describe by what routes your lame gnu gets to its camel / knight squares. Or are you saying the knight-chirality is what makes it lame?
About Game Courier. Web-based system for playing many different variants by email or in real-time.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Georg, we will work it out. Game Courier works just fine but it can act a little weird. I'll challenge you to some games and we'll get it to work.
A. Please go to this site: http://play.chessvariants.org/pbmlogs/index.php
(Save the link because it can be a good idea to check in on it frequently. For some reason, not every move that's made via game courier goes through to email.)
B. When you go to that site, please enter your userid avunjahei where it says userid and then click the button on the right that says "submit". Then click on your name in blue for any of the three games you've started there. It will take you to that game.
Now, there are two ways you can enter a move and then there are some tricks for unusual moves that you may sometimes need to use especially in presets that aren't rules enforced (like all the ones I have submitted so far since I haven't taught myself that much programming yet for game courier). I will attempt to tell you the tricks if and when you may need them but for now, let me try to walk you through entering a move with a step-by-step process:
1. Point at the piece you want to move. Click on it. Click on its destination square. The move should show up in the space marked "Moves."
OR
2. Enter the actual move into the space marked "Moves" - this means entering the first coordinate followed by the last coordinate. (d2-d4 for example would move a pawn from d2 - d4 in a variant where this is possible).
3. Now, after completing step 1 OR 2, click the button "Preview."
4. In the new screen, there will be a space for you to enter your password. Enter it if you are satisfied with the move that appears on the screen (good to double-check!) and then click "Send."
Voila. It should now record your move. The move might not show up right away but it will.
Does that work for you?
I am working on a preset for Duking Falcons. It should ultimately require me to design a piece, get it and its movement approved by others who are working on this, and then get it uploaded. But in the mean time, I can send you a mockup preset with a piece we will pretend is the new one and / or one with the rook as the consort piece. Let me know if you want to do this. I'm glad you want to try it out.
Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Re: CDA for 8 x 10, here's one attempt, an off-the-cuff one, pairing an unnamed CDA against Derek Nalls' Carrera contribution where pawn protection is maximized in the opening setup.
Btw, one reason why Waffles are so popular in CDAs is because they are fun to play with and they just feel really good as knight substitutes. Though I too strive for orginality, it's not a "no no" per se to use the same pieces in different CDAs. Ralph Betza did it a lot.
Where I have my yet undefined "st-queen" substituted for the queen piece (can go to all the same squares as a queen via different routes), I might actually like to put a more thematic BNW (cardinal-wazir) but I'm not sure if there is such a thing yet on the Alfaerie - Many set. I may need to create one and get it uploaded. Do you know of such a piece? I've been looking for ways to modify the cardinal to make it equal to the queen on an 8 x 8 board and this way occurred to me this morning.
My most questionable substitute might be the gryphon for the marshall but I think what the marshall loses in the expanded board, the gryphon gains.
Now here's another challenge, George: Create a CDA for 8 x 10 that utilizes the Dragon, Scorpion and Falcon. This time our Dragon shall breathe a little easier.
Purely for the sake of diversity, I've taken the liberty of replacing the Shatranjian Knights with crab-ferzes.
A while back, I created a piece that I intended as a Queen + Renniassance Cavalier + Renniassance Duke. But I've not used it yet and in the mean time I think I may have a more appropriate solution for the piece I had in mind. That frees up this piece to become standard for the Were Queen (Fox / Wolf) if you like it. If not, it's back to the drawing board for me. FIDE vs. Duking Falcons.
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