[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments by judgmentality
Chess/Xianqi/Shogi Tournament #1. Enter the First Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Game Courier Tournament![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm in.
When Beasts Collide. A systematic set of names for more complex oblique pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Charles, I have created a couple of variants that use carriages and zemels and I hope to create many more variants using many more of the pieces you have named. I have also given names myself to a whole new class of pieces inspired by Knappen's Quinquereme (Pentere) and Leeloo. I would like to share them with you directly, so please email me so that I can email you back (since your email address doesn't appear with your user name).
Janus Kamil Chess. A crossover between Janus Chess and Modern Kamil Chess. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The rules for castling aren't stated exactly either here or in the rules for Janus Chess. How far towards the rook is the king supposed to go?
Leandros Chess Game Courier Preset. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Why do not the logs show up? I could swear I said 'Public' for this.
A Chess-like Variant Construction Set. Build your own army and territory.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Game Courier Tournament #2. Sign up for our 2nd multi-variant tournament to be played all on Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Congratulations, Gary. A great inventor of great chess variants wins. Great!
Warp Point Chess. Knights are replaced by Warp Points that other pieces can move between. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Warp Point Chess turns out to have a very similar feel to it as Knight Relay Chess. They both contain uncapturable / uncapturing knights that weirdly impact other pieces. The gameplay suffers, in both cases, from leaving the rest of the board sparser by exempting two live pieces to work with. An expanded board with more varying types of uncapturable, weirdly impacting pieces would benefit the gameplay of both types of games. However, these games are good ways of familiarizing oneself with warp points and relay knights.
Index page of The Chess Variant Pages. Our main index page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I want to suggest that an extra rating be added. In between 'Poor' and 'Good' the rating of 'Average.' There are cases when I think a variant is 'Average' but it would be too harsh for me to say 'Poor' too caring to say 'Good.'
Janus Kamil Chess. A crossover between Janus Chess and Modern Kamil Chess. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ah, yes. Okay, it was my fault for the confusion. Thank you.
Index page of The Chess Variant Pages. Our main index page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thinking about this gave me the giggles: -6 Beneath Contempt -5 Contemptible -4 Loathsome -3 Hideous -2 Miserable -1 Awful 0 Bad 1 Neutral / Average 2 Fair 3 Good 4 Excellent 5 Awesome 6 Incomparably Fine If one wanted to have additional layers, we could initiate additional categories, such as for 'originality.' A lot of games are original but have bad gameplay or unoriginal but with good gameplay (I am reminded of Ben Good's essay here about Omega Chess). Still other categories for 'fun-ness,' presentation, appearance. Categories could be optionally listed according to ratings and categories with overall negative ratings should perhaps be shelved into different sections of chess variants after each receives a fair number of votes from the community of users (as opposed to just members). There is one thing that disturbs me most of all about how people rate games and I fear that there is sometimes a tendency to judge games without playing them, trying them out. Sometimes, it is not necessary to playtest a game, but I think too often a game is judged too much by certain superficial aspects that have little to do with worth of gameplay (as with books by their covers.) If one has a separate category strictly for rating 'gameplay' (as opposed to other aspects), it could be a category that could only be filled out after actually playing the game. If nobody is willing to play a game, that would usually imply something about the nature of the game. I suggest that as long as a game maintains a positive gameplay rating, it not be shelved to the negative ratings section. Because a game can fail every other mechanism or gradation of analysis, but if people enjoy playing it, that's probably a pretty good test, in my opinion. 'Confusing presentation, ugly appearance, highly unoriginal concept, but amusing gameplay.'
Games for Game Courier. The many games you can play online with Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Both schemingmind.com and brainking.com have a number of 'hidden information' games with rules that are automatically enforced. You can try both sites out for free. They also both have a lot of mini-tournaments (that members can begin) for their variants, though neither has anything near the number of variants Game Courier has. One thing I like a lot about schemingmind.com and would like to see replicated at chessvariants.org is a pyramid system for each variant. You can join a pyramid and then challenge other people at your level. If you win, you go to a higher level and if you lose, you go down a level (or if you're at the bottom, you stay at the bottom).
Index page of The Chess Variant Pages. Our main index page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I meant members as opposed to users, but probably there shouldn't be any restrictions on how a rating gets generated. I just meant mechanisms so that the value of a game isn't artificially inflated or deflated... By 'shelve' I just want to reinforce that I don't mean, be made unavailable, but just put in a separate section, and just as an optional way of listing according to rating.
Chess Variant Pages Rating System. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm glad my tongue-in-cheek proposed worded descriptions amused some people as they did me. While I agree that using words like 'beneath contempt' to describe a variant may hurt people's feelings, I do think there is a serious reason to use a number system that includes 1 through 10. I do not think that 1 through 5 allows as much flexibility in analysis. A '4' in a 1 - 10 system is less harsh than 'Poor' in a 1 - 5 system. I think there is a serious purpose in having a rating system which allows a certain depth of analysis. That is so we can list pages according to their rating. This will allow visitors to the site, including ourselves, to sort through variants according to apparent quality. Of course, popularity will not always translate into quality, but at least we can have some sorting mechanisms in place that will help guide us through an increasingly prolific site. I would like to see all 10s rated together, all 9.4's rated together, all 5.32's rated together, etc (averages derived from cumulative ratings). This would encourage people to really take seriously the art of critiquing games. Does a game really deserve the rating of 10? People can go to the page on which 10s are listed and say one way or the other, thus influencing the way in which the games are listed. I would also like to ask that we take seriously the idea of separate rating systems for different aspects of games 'playability' 'originality' and 'appearance.' Again, the advantage is to evolve sorting mechanisms (sorting according to playability, etc). It would also help the designer to know what people did or didn't like about the games. I would also like to hear some feedback for a separate rating system in place for Game Courier post-game analysis, so that people who have actually played games can then have a chance to rate them. At the end of a game, there could be an option, 'Do you want to rate this variant?'
Symchess. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In Charles Gilman's Ecumenical Chess, the camel-bishop compound is called a Caliph. In Mark Hedden's Ganymede Chess, the camel-bishop compound is called a Flying Dragon.
Leandros Chess Game Courier Preset. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Okay, I guess there is no feature that allows records of logs for Leandro's Chess. I would like there to be. Just want to say that.
Chess Cartoon. Members-Only A chess game being played by the pieces themselves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Who crosses the river first?. A variant on Chinese Chess. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Why does this game seem to be getting assigned as a school project again and again?
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Whoops? I thought it might have been the quotes too so I went back and tried to re-do it without quotes.
Fianchetto Chess. Rooks and bishops switched in opening setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Does it make any sense to have no castling in this variant? Castling doesn't just serve the purpose of getting the rooks out of the corners. It helps get the King out of the center of the board.
Game Courier. PHP script for playing Chess variants online.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]When I click on the button for the new 'Dervish Chess' preset, all I get is an empty board.
Fianchetto Chess. Rooks and bishops switched in opening setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Best not to play this variant then, Christine, or Bond James Bond may wish to have a word with you. http://www.chessvariants.com/diffmove.dir/oomost-chess.html
Royal Pawn Chess. The e2 and e7 pawns are royal, but Kings are not. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Amazon Grand Chess. A combination of Grand Chess and Amazon Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Just fyi, I did contact the inventor and he agreed to change the name of this variant to Amazon Grand. We have written to some editors and asked them to take action to this effect.
Royal Pawn Chess. The e2 and e7 pawns are royal, but Kings are not. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]See 2 (quoted below). Promoting a royal pawn is an alternate method of winning. 2. In the unlikely event a royal pawn reaches the eighth rank, that shall be a game ending move counting as a win.
Yes, unlike in FIDE chess, the king can even sacrifice it/himself. The only checkable piece is that highly vulnerable Royal Pawn, sadly restricted to ordinary pawn movements. So yes, the king can put itself in 'check.' And the king can castle through 'check.' Although the king is allowed to castle, I doubt one will encounter a worthwhile excuse to move the king further away from the center of the board where royal pawns are likely to be confined for most of the game (The king will likely wish to remain there too, in the center, at first to defend, later maybe even to attack). To talk about the king in this way (in terms of 'check') is, of course, misleading, since the king is not subject to check. I'm sorry I didn't make that explicit in my rather terse description of the rules for this page.
Atomic chess. Pieces explode when captured. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I created a preset and sent out an invitation to play atomic chess with an extra row of pawns over Game Courier.
Symchess. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]That happened because in your Figure 3, in your diagrams above, they are in different places. This is also the case in your more recently submitted diagram for the s.i.p. variant. Is it meant to be so?
Colorbound. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Clever. Knights appear to move as camels.
Centaur Chess. Pieces move backwards as Knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Another interesting twist on FIDE Chess by innovative Adrian de la Campa. Fun to play. Aptly called 'Centaur Chess' since all the pieces are half horse, half person.
En Passant Chess. All pieces
can be taken en passant. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This is a mess. There now appear to be three variants sharing the same name listed here on Chess Variants site and the one that Betza lists, which apparently preceded the other two, is not described.
Sounds like fun. I have a joke game which wasn't meant to be a joke. It featured giraffes and it turned out that White could checkmate on his first move. I already submitted that to chessvariants yahoogroup (before I figured out the joke so the joke was on me, as it turned out).
Regarding your idea of submitting games with X-Mas related themes...
J.K. L. and I also have the suggestion also of having a Valentine's Day themed variants (contest?) day.
We started working together shortly before last Valentine's Day but then realized we needed more time so maybe next Valentine's Day, I'll have some Valentine's Day related themes to submit. John and I thought of some ideas for a cupid piece, cupid's army pieces, romeo and juliet pieces, pieces that could fall in love with each other, pieces that suffered from unrequited love, etc.
Yes, you have five different points and I hope everyone reads them all. I endorse the proposal in its entirety. Just wanted to single out that one because it was a chance for me to advance the Valentine's Day theme idea.
Yes, that sort of thing, Christine, good idea, although it sounds a bit coercive. Perhaps certain pieces can be more vulnerable to seduction than others. A seduction could also involve being attracted to a piece that falls within a certain range (thus having to move one or two squares closer to it - opposite to the effect of the fearsome ghast of nemoroth). An attractive piece, literally... Well, one idea is that a piece falling in love with another piece has to follow it around. Such a thing could happen if a piece gets struck by a cupid piece which could operate similarly to the coordinator in ultima and such variants. The coordinator carries its move out by drawing an imaginary love triangle so to speak between itself, its king and another piece. A cupid piece could form triangles among all sorts of pieces, friendly and foe alike.
Speaking of joke games, in my first version of Quintessential Quadrupeds, both kings were in check from the start (again, this was unintentional and only hard experience taught me this).
The Central Squares. 3d chess variant where all three levels share their central squares. (3x(6x6), Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I don't understand how these pieces move. If anyone cares to try to expound on them, I'd be very pleased as I'm attempting to play such a game but suddenly feel totally lost. I don't see the logic behind the pieces' movement. I understand the central squares connection. What I don't understand is the bizarre 3-D movement capabilities. I think I might have rook and bishop down.
I'm stuck on knight. Where does that dababah movement come from? And how does it get to move one square on board C in the first set of its diagrams?
The Secret Invisible Pass Chess. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Okay, a quick question about the pass. Is it fair to presume that using the pass squares to get to the opposite side of the board is an option? In other words, one has the option, at any given time, to use them just like regular squares without using them as a transit spots?
Hi, Joe and Gary. I'm a huge fan of both of you and your chess variant contributions. There is a chess / go combo that really has me fascinated and I'm wondering whether either of you have checked it out. It's called Gess. http://www.chessvariants.com/crossover.dir/gess.html
The inventor of Benedict Chess which is played at Schemingmind.com also invented a variant called Cleopatra Chess which has a seduction idea like the one you mention. http://www.chessvariants.org/difftaking.dir/cleopatra.html
The Central Squares. 3d chess variant where all three levels share their central squares. (3x(6x6), Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you for responding, but I'm still bewildered by some of these movements. Why the dababa move for the knight? (As especially in the second set of diagrams for the knight) And why does the knight have a wazir move? (As in diagram for Board C in the first set of diagrams for the knights) Are they just arbitrary ideas or was their a logic behind it that I'm overlooking?
Okay! Now I get it! Thanks for the explanations! Now, I'll have to figure out how those pesky pawns move.
ArchCourier Chess. This game is Courier Chess expert Eric Greenwood's modernization of Courier Chess. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Why not refer to the Duke here as 'Eagle' instead?
Games for Game Courier. The many games you can play online with Game Courier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Pallab, maybe that's because the Chess with Different Armies presets, unlike many others, use enforceable rules. When I use another preset as a model for creating a new one, I try to find one that doesn't hasn't had its rules enforced.
Game Courier Ratings. Calculates ratings for players from Game Courier logs. Experimental.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Never noticed this before. Hey, Joe (Joyce) you and I have a very similar rating at this time. We're a good match.
Schoolbook. 
8x10 chess with the rook + knight and bishop + knight pieces added. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Every game of Schoolbook Chess I've played has been swashbuckling great fun.
I like your idea, Joe. There is another variant somewhat germane to this discussion, and that is 'Diffusion Chess' by the brilliant and highly creative Alexandre Muñiz famous in part for the invention of the Windmill piece. Someone should definitely create a GO Board for the Game Courier preset so we can try out some of these nifty chess-go variants. http://www.chessvariants.org/32turn.dir/diffusionchess.html
Capablanca's Chess. Play Capablanca's Chess on the Play-by-Mail system![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Stephen, does this work for you?
Capablanca's Chess with Archbishop and Marshall in between knight and bishop
The Black Ghost. Betzan attempt to remedy White's first move advantage in FIDE by giving Black a noncapturing but capturable teleporting piece.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Perhaps it might be better to file this one under letter B?
Wives Versus Guards. FIDE setup with additional pieces to offset white's first move advantage - two ferzes + two wazirs against two guards.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Eric and I would be interested in getting any feedback on the concept behind this game and whether it might make for good chess combat.
Haven't zillionsed it yet. Good idea. Should do that. Good point about the first one. I know Eric is very distrustful of it and our assumption is that White may very well be able to gain a quick winning position by playing the opening accurately. The impression I'm getting about the second one - hidden - is that it is 'cozy' because the guards, wazirs and ferzes protect points that are traditionally weak in FIDE.
4-Way Chess
. Commercial fourhanded chess variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi, Stephen. In our game against you, Eric and I were under the apparently mistaken assumption that we could confer with one another. Clearly didn't help us much but that's what we did. Now, I'm reading over these comments and I see that we weren't supposed to, otherwise you wouldn't have the admonition, 'never trust your partner.' Can I suggest that you allow partners to confer with one another as part of the rules of the world championship. This would increase game quality and allow for partners to feel that they are truly cooperating with one another. How will the tournament be structured? With what time parameters? To everyone else: 4-Way Chess is great fun and I encourage everyone to enter this tournament, either by themselves or with a partner. Is anyone interested in being my partner? (even though I've only played one game of 4-Way Chess and lost quickly?)
Agincourt. Decimal variant with Archers. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Go. Preset for Go and Go-Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi, Roberto.
Not a chess variant, no, but the piece drop is not unknown to chess variants (as Shogi).
There are a few chess variants that use a Go board and integrate concepts from Go. Diffusion Chess is one. As we make other chess-go hybrids available for play on Game Courier, such as Gess, I shall call attention to them here.
Your suggestion that we add other games is a good one because it will provide further inspiration for chess variant designers to hybridize.
Agincourt. Decimal variant with Archers. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ah, David, I'll bet you're right. I'll bet they do move like Camels. Intriguing way to describe their movement, strictly in terms of diagonals!
Which in fact makes it almost, but not quite, identical to Super Cardinal Chess. I bought a copy of that once, and I must admit to some disappointment. The pieces were light plastic. The design is not unattractive though. To be honest, I've never tried playing it , but with different people re-discovering it (10 x 10 chess with ordinary pieces and two camels added), perhaps there is something to the gameplay.It's rather trendy to re-name the camel for some reason. It's been done in Renniassance Chess (General) and more recently in Clash of Civilizations Chess (Unicorn). In these variants (Agincourt and Super Cardinal, we have a very similar setup and two different names for the same camel piece, Cardinal and Archer.
I guess great pieces have a tendency to attract many names and uses. I designed a game once called Camel-Cardinal chess which featured one cardinal and one camel. I guess I could have called it Cardinal-Cardinal Chess.
Well, as you say, what's in a name. My answer is 'a lot' and I think your unicorn is the best unicorn!
Enochian Chess. Four-player team variant of the Golden Dawn. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]My impression is that perhaps the author doesn't so much miss the point as tailors the game to remove the divination aspect, as you see in the caveat he expresses at the end of his piece, but thank you for the info.
Go. Preset for Go and Go-Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Did you design that piece? It's quite lovely. I'd like to see it uploaded and used in a preset.
Bushi shogi
. Shogi variant on a two-square board! Bushi means Samurai.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]With only two squares, perhaps this is the smallest of all chess variants.
Tony Quintanilla's Net Chess operates somewhat like this, with the teleportation of pieces through a 'Net' and then the extra move to activate them.
Agincourt. Decimal variant with Archers. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]another nearly identical variant with identical description of special pieces, this time called 'jesters': j-chess
Cannons of Chesstonia. Cannons launch a Pawn, Wazir, Ferz and Stone to increase strategical and tactical play. (12x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Gary, here is a preset for your new variant, Cannons of Chesstonia. If you like it, I can formally submit it to the Game Courier index.
Hi Gary. Okay, click on the link again and tell me if I've achieved what you needed. I did make at least deviation. Instead of 'i j' for the last two files, I added 'wy' or some such thing.
Alfaerie Variant Chess Graphics. Set of chess variant graphics based on Eric Bentzen's Chess Alpha font.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jared, I agree that the tiger should have stripes :-)
Meanwhile, we've been using this particular tiger in one of Eric Greenwood's Courier Modified variants, Courier Mod 3 and casually referring to him as a 'mountain lion.' He moves as a non-leaping lion that moves one or two spaces outward in any direction.
I don't know which variants / presets / zillions games have been implementing the same piece and using it for a different purpose. It would be nice to know though, and also know more about who uses a 'tiger' piece and for which purpose. I dissuaded Eric from introducing a new 'tiger' this morning, partly because there is no alfaerie piece which really looks much like a tiger yet. If someone stripes that one though, it would do, I'll say.
Choiss. Starting with a 2x2 center, players assemble a 64 square board of any shape before play.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'd like to know more about the rules on how to play this game: How do the two players get to decide where to put the squares?
Unionchach, Sachsenschach, and Leapale. Some 3D Chess variants. (6x(6x6), Cells: 216) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi, Charles, I think I would like to try my hand (one day or soon) at designing presets for these variants but I need more information about the different types of pawns on Unionschach and I want to know where the new pieces go on Sachsenschach and Leapale. Do you think you could give me this information?
69 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.