Comments by Nicholas Wolff

David,

We already tried that, but it doesn't seem to work.  Thanks.

-Nicholas

Shou Dou Qi (or Jungle) is one of my all time favorite games.  I see that
we have a rules page for this game, but no preset for it.  Is there any
copyright laws or anything preventing us from having it or is it something
that nobody has done, yet?  I know it really isn't a chess variant, but it
is definitely a great strategy game.  If we can get this game on here, I
plan on making a preset myself, hopefully.

Thanks!

-Nick

If you find a way to have support for Macs, you might see me on there :)

Carlos, 

I like your ideas with the piece additions.  I think the Maorider king would be a great one!  Question for clarification:

If the Maorider king and the FIDE king are both in play and you checkmate one, does it disappear then?  Or do you have to maintain a checkmate on both of them in the game at the same time in order to win?

I have a quick question that somone may hopefully be able to answer (John
Smith, you may be the subject matter expert on this from what I have
read).

I haven't really posted the two newer versions of the game, but some of
you are intimately familiar (mostly becuase I force it down your throats)
with my variant I am almost completed with: Wildest Kingdom Chess (WKC
III).  Well, it really doesn't have much to do with chess, it is just kind
of a strategy board game.  Myself and my boys are working on creating an
actual board and pieces for this, but I want it to look professional.  We
are designing what needs to go on the board, but I want to have it
professionally done by a company so that it looks like a board you would
pull out of Candyland, Stratego, or Chutes and Ladders.  My questions are:

- Does anyone know of reliable companies that can do this?
- How much would you imagine the cost being?
- How long would it take to set this up?  (My goal is to have it done by
November, though I am pretty sure that isn't feasible).
- Do they work with individuals that are overseas?  (I am in Japan)

I have tried to google for hours, and all I get is ways to make boards out
of posterboard and foamboard.  I want this to look real, though.  I found
one site that said he just cannibalized an old game board and used his
design, but I don't think I possess the patience to line it up correctly,
especially when my boys and I will be creating 62 pieces by hand.  

The type of work I am looking for is for me to send in a design and have
it come back on a board.  Is this possible?

Thanks for all of your help!

Hey,

I might be off for a while.  We have two typhoons heading our way and
should be hitting this week.  Please wish my family and I luck and
hopefully, power is restored quickly so I can be back on.  Take care, all!

Best,
Nick

Jose, 

I challenge you to try the swap command.  It doesn't work.  I think three of us have tried to get it to work.  Unless we are using the syntax incorrectly.  Thanks, though!

007 Chess
---

I have had the opportunity to play both 007 Chess and its variant, 007 - Detente.  I must say that I am rather impressed with how a simple variant could give you such a headache when you play (and I mean that in a good way).  To play a decent game, both require a lot of concentration, risks and a large mental capacity.  Personally, I would not play either one of these variants without using the “balanced” version of the game.  White has a large advantage if the balanced version is not adhered to.

Despite the simple changes between 007 and its variant, they are both vastly different games:

007 Chess | This variant is for those who like the down and dirty games.  Like most non-random games, it does require skill, but to what extent?  It seems that no matter how far down in pieces you are, there is almost always a way to at least strike a hearty blow to your opponent.  Currently, I have copmleted two games, one with each color, and I was losing both games with quite a large piece deficit.  I came back to win one and drew the other.  Might it perhaps be one of those games that brings evenly matched players closer towards draw games?  The farther down you are, the more advantage you seem to get.  Essentially, if you want to find a way to accomplish something, sit down and analyze the board for a few minutes and you should be able to come up with something feasible.  Tips for playing this variant: 

- PLAY CONSERVATIVELY.  Any piece that is developed quickly has a very high chance of being captured.
- Keep your opponents king checked as much as possible.  It will waste a move for them to eliminate the check which keeps you with an advantage.  At the same time, ensure your king is protected.
- Try to move the opponent’s king out into the open early.  
- Take advantage of the fact that this isn’t Détente.  Move a piece in position for an attack, move an opponent’s piece where the piece you moved can attack it, and then retreat with your last move.  
- You don’t have to move the opponent’s pieces to capture.  Sometimes, blocking the escape routes for the king, blocking other useful pieces in, or moving pieces that are protecting a piece that you take can be the best course of action.

The final note I want to leave for this is that the focus of attack seems to be primarily on the kingside and controlling the kingside might possibly mean the victory, just as controlling the center in FIDE chess.

007 Chess – Détente | Despite being an offensive player, I prefer the Détente variation over the original.  I believe this game requires more strategy as it is a little harder to “will” a good move/position your way.  If you read the rules, you notice the only differences are that you can’t move the same pieces the first and third turns of a move and you can’t capture an enemy piece that you moved that turn.  When we played, we played under the assumption that on white’s first turn, he may not capture a black piece moved that turn as well, though it is not stated explicitly in the rules.  I, along with the other players, agree that this undoubtedly way is the best way to play it, for white can get an early advantage if you don’t.  Here are some tips for playing this variant that I have discovered on my own, even just after a few games playing this:

- Develop your queen early.  She will be your major player, if you know how to use  her.  I like to set her loose by advancing the pawn at c2-c3 or c7-c6.  I feel it takes advantage of the mostly open queenside.
- Again, the kingside seems to be the major battlefield, at least in the opening.  
- Keep your opponent’s king in check.  This eliminates a move for your opponent.  At the same time, ensure yours is protected.
- Keep moving your opponent’s king – eliminate his ability to castle and get him into the open early.
- As you cannot capture your opponent’s pieces that you move that turn, your best bet for moving their pieces is to block escape routes, block development, move the king, remove protection from a piece that you captured.
- Interesting attacks come from the queenside.  Don’t eliminate your options.

To sum it up, I concur with the below comments: this is a great variant.  On Nick’s personal scale out of 10, I would rate 007 Chess a 5.5.  Great concept, but it is too difficult to establish stable positions.  007 Chess – Détente would be rated at a much higher 8.  The concept is there, and it eliminates the deficiencies that 007 Chess has.

Hey Joe!

Thanks for the comment!  The typhoon did miss us, but it impacted mainland
Japan pretty hard, I hear.  We did get some gnarly wind and rain.  My wife,
of course, is really upset that it hit us.  She has this obsession of being
in every type of natural disaster and living (hurricane, earthquake,
volcanic eruption, etc).  We did wildfires last year lol and growing up in
'Tornado Valley' we both have seen our fair share of those.

I am not looking to spend too much money on the board, but I am not afraid
to drop a little dime into it.  Basically, I want just a regular game
board.  I was thinking about cannibalizing a Candy Land board that we have
lying around, but I don't know if I can make it look nice.  If you have
some time (I know it is getting late there), you can feel free to email me
at nicholas.wolff@usmc.mil becuase I am not at home and we can discuss
propositions.  I might even be willing to throw in an authentic Shogi (once
I find one.  They are hard to get on Okinawa) or Changgi (If I find one
when I go to Korea this month) board.  I already have a Changgi board, but
the quality isn't that great.  It was like 15 dollars.  Email me and we
can work something out :)  Thanks!

Very nice looking variant, Jeremy.  Were you doing this because I like Mamra Chess with Wuss so much?  

A couple of questions: 

-At what point does the pieces transform?  For instance, if I check a Wuss, he is obligated to move to get out of it.  Is it legal for him to move to another space that he is in check and then transform into a Mamra?  Or do they transform after the players turn has ended?

-What happens if a player makes it so there are no kings/wusses on the board?  (ex. moves his king to turn into queen and moves wuss to turn into mamra).  Is this legal?  If so, is there an alternate way of winning?  Maybe I didn't catch it.  

Again, nice looking variant and I look forwards to playing it in the 'world tour' :)

10 Minute Melee
---	

I have so many thoughts regarding 10 Minute Melee, that it may be hard to get it all down.  I want to start out by saying that this game may be a hard one to play in this day and age, or at least it seems this way for me.  I think it may be because there are hardly any chess players to play OTB in the military and even fewer that go deeper into the variants side of the game.  This being said, I have not played this OTB and probably will never have a chance to do so.  So what I say in review of this game is *mainly* intended to outline the few games that I have played online of this.

Yes, I have played this online.  With the programming knowledge of Antoine Fourriere, Jeremy Good has created a nice looking preset which was modified from a Crazyhouse preset with rule enforcements.  I think if they modify the preset to only allow drops onto their correct spaces, then it will be complete.  Now, playing this online proved to be rather difficult and provided us several obstacles to overcome.  

First there was a question of time.  We had to have a countdown that neither player could see.  We ended up having one player keep time  and notifying the other when it is up.  Trust was a big key here, so if you are playing someone for the first time in this game, then you need to go back to the drawing board on methods.  I have played Jeremy many times, so trust was not an issue.  The best fix we found for this was to utilize a site called http://www.online-stopwatch.com/.  This provided a nice little countdown timer that buzzed when it ended.  We started it and then minimized the window. 

The second issue we ran into was a matter of the 15 second/move rule.  We didn't really come up with any solution for this, we just played as quickly as possible.  With this being said, we did not utilize the one-time move extension and the points for going over time, which was beneficial for us because of the time delay in not only receiving the move, but sending it off to include entering in your password each time.  This did not only impact our game as mentioned, but resulted in games with a low move count which lead to low scoring.  Our first game was 14 moves and our second game was 16 moves.   I feel if it we were to play OTB, the stakes would have been higher, as exemplified below in the comment on 13 June 2006.   

I think with this internet age on the rise (as it has been for years), if someone could program a nice protocoled game with a timer and LAN/Internet Access, it would eliminate all of the hassle involved with this game and may receive better reviews that what is listed below.  It needs something that encompasses all of its requirements easily, because the players have little time to do anything but play.

I believe one of the only problems with playing it in real life is score tracking.  The best way that I have thought to do this would be to completely annotate the game, which is often difficult in a blitz type game and then score based on that annotation.  Another minor issue is that you would have to have the necessary equipment available.  An audible timer shouldn't be too hard to come by, you would need an extra set of chess pieces for double the colors (which might pose a problem of sorting through all of the pieces while you play, but a little organization can help with that), a chess board (not hard to get), and a move clock, which I don't know of many people that have one, though I imagine if you want to drop the money for a clock, you can get it pretty easily online.  Please note the specifics of a move clock that is annotated by the author in the rules:

'For the MOVE CLOCKS, a standard chess clock can be used, as long as you are able to set the chess clock to record the time on each move, not record the total amount of time the player has used so far'

I also understand the time limit was set for 10 minutes due to the contest.  I agree with the previous comments that a longer time limit should make it much more interesting and an easy modification to make to the rules, as well, though Mason has yet to make that modification as promised in his below comment.  
  
I applaud the creator of the game in the fact that he chooses to keep the timer hidden during play.  Though, it may make for a little more strategic play involved if you can see the clock, this would make play dull.  There would arise situations of purposely stalling for the last minute if you were ahead by a nice sum of points or stalling on time if you can capture their queen at the last second to put you in the lead.  There is no rule stating that there is any other penalty besides giving points to the opponent..  I would suggest making the time penalties a little more painful and maybe doing 2-3 points per offense, not just if the timer was visible, but regularly anyways.  It would stress the importance of keeping on time more.  

A problem that I believe that will be ran into in this game, especially at GM level if there is such a thing for this game, is that evenly matched players will, in my opinion, almost always come down to either a move at the last second for a win or drawing and going into sudden death mode, not really emphasizing a victory for the stronger player.  This means that it would be very hard to have a tournament for the World's Best 10 Minute Melee player.  I firmly believe the best player would be too hard to determine.

The need for sacrifices is diminished in this game because there is no royalty, thus nullifying the need for positional advantage.  Also, since pieces can only be dropped in the places where they started, I don't think that feature would be utilized too much.  In both of our games, only one piece was dropped, that being by Jeremy, and I never once considered it myself.  More often than not, it will cause a loss of tempo and give advantage to the opponent.  It might be useful during an endgame situation, if a game could even get that far.  

Here are my playing tips and strategies for this game:
-Play conservatively.  Positional advantage has no relevance to this game, so make sure every piece is defended.  
-If you feel like the time is getting close, you may want to start an all out offensive.  Make sure you are the one who takes first so your opponent is down on points 50% of the time.  Its not an exact science, but if you have a good sense of time, it could bring the lead to you at that second the alarm goes off.  
-Use your king!  Don't forget that he is not royal.  He is worth 2 points and a serves as a great block and and a great offensive piece.  
-Play to draw.  Take a piece for a piece.  There is no positional advantage since your only objective is to score points.  Utilize tip 2 if you can at the end. 
-Obviously, your queen is the major player here.  Make sure her starting square is always uncovered in case of a trade or a lucky queen capture and always look for the forks she can give.
  
This variant definitely has potential.  With longer time controls (still hasn't been added to the rules, Mason), a sure-fire way to keep track of time fairly, and organization that allows the outside mechanics of the game to be executed quickly and efficiently, it could be definitely be in a league of its own.  Ultimately, a computer program would be optimum for this game, but it is doable OTB.  I rate this game, on Nick's personal scale out of 10, a 5.5.  The concept is there and it looks obtainable, there are just some kinks and play testing is needed to iron them out.

Who is in charge of updating the all time played games list?  It is 2 years
since last done.  How big of a venture would it be to do that?  I would be
interested in seeing the results.  Thanks!  :)

I can't make any moves in a game.  I am white and it is my first turn.  I always get this error:

79: die You may not move the same piece twice on the same turn.

It also lists a bunch of 'arrays'?

Thanks!