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Comments by Nuno Cruz

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Ninth Century Indian Chess. Differs from Shatranj in the setup and the Elephant's move. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Mon, Dec 15, 2008 06:05 PM EST:
It seems that in India there was a bit of differences from one region to another. That is not surprising. Today we are living in a world that always want to 'standardize' things... but when there where now papers, TV, telephone or any means of communication but the spreaded word or the occasional manuscript, things tended to get local 'colors'. Chess was not different. Only with Islam it first appeared a standard version of chess (in the west of course..)

On the same page of Murray where this account is given it also appears the movement of the Burmese (or silver general) piece but referig to the Punjab in India. There is now doubt that it was the ancestor of the moves on this local varieties.

The quest for the discovery of the first version of chess is becoming so much more intriguing... and fascinating. :-)

Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Fri, Dec 19, 2008 05:41 PM EST:
Take a look at this: 
http://www.mobygames.com/game/amiga/distant-armies/screenshots
Nice. And old.... (1988)

:)

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Fri, Dec 19, 2008 06:07 PM EST:
(Note: This commment those not belong to a page?)

Very interesting because it really seems that that was the purpose of the
'inventor' of chess. Rook, Alfil and Knight to be like the three types
of pieces that complemented each other... Historically the first record we
have of this (0,2) piece is the Camel in a Decimal chess of Baghdad
supremacie era... and also comes convergent to John Ayer theories!

It seems logical. We are just missing the proofs. :)

Nuno Cruz wrote on Sat, Dec 20, 2008 10:41 AM EST:
thanks! :)

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Sat, Dec 20, 2008 01:58 PM EST:
about the size of the elephants... make sure their ears are small. We are
talking about Indian elephants (Chaturanga) not African ones! : D

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Sat, Dec 20, 2008 05:34 PM EST:
Can you please help... I would like to post some pics on a comment. How can
I do that?

Many thanks!
Nuno

Nuno Cruz wrote on Sat, Dec 20, 2008 08:37 PM EST:
I took a look at his post. I can see that it is an http link. That requires
me to upload the pictures to a site first. I do not have one, only blogs
:(

I was hoping I could upload directly to the comment.

Thanks
Nuno Cruz

[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Sun, Dec 21, 2008 07:47 AM EST:
Here it is some pictures of the set for my variant MODERN KAMIL (variant which I pretend to rename and modify the exit squares for the Camels).

The camel is like my piece 'fetiche'. OK OK.. it is lame.. awkward, weak.. it doesn't even worth two pawns(?!).. etc, but it still feels like one of the most logical fairy pieces to add to a game, and in this particular, to a decimal game.

Hope you like the pics. they are poor quality because were made with a cheep mobile phone.

In this picture we can see the Camel compared to the Bishop and a pawn.


Nuno Cruz wrote on Sun, Dec 21, 2008 07:57 AM EST:
This one has the hole 'familiy' together. This set for MODERN KAMIL was made from two plastic chess sets. The Camels are Bishops with a resin Camel head that was bought on Toys are us. They sell resin made animals. They hade the complete body, but of course that I went 'French Revolution' on them! :D

The book they are standing on is the 'Classified Encyclopedia of chess variants'


Nuno Cruz wrote on Sun, Dec 21, 2008 08:03 AM EST:
The last one.. The set was black and (ugly) bege. I painted the black pieces dark brown - they are the ones pictured here - but unfortunaly in some of them the paint attacked the plastic and created many ugly scars like strips :(

The paint cane said it was good for ALMOST all plastics..


Tamerlane chess. A well-known historic large variant of Shatranj. (11x10, Cells: 112) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Wed, Dec 24, 2008 09:59 AM EST:
There is a free on line font that has the pieces of chess as well as of shogi.. but also of Tamerlane chess(!). I made a screenshot that you can see below.

the link for this site is: en.grinningbit.com


Alpha Variant Font. Preview of the new Alpha Variant font along with new Alfaerie graphics.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Fri, Dec 26, 2008 02:33 PM EST:Good ★★★★
This project has stopped or is already concluded?

Mideast chess. Variant on 10 by 10 board, inspired by ancient Tamerlane chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Sun, Dec 28, 2008 11:04 AM EST:
I was just browsing the pdf of Falkener Book (available on line for download) and I noticed that for Tamerlane chess he modified some piece names for people of the west (Americans in this case but also true for Europeans) to better understand them. Some names that he gave to pieces were precisely the ones given in this variant.
Most probably the inventor was familiarized with Falkere's book.

Wazir. Moves one square orthogonally.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Nuno Cruz wrote on Sun, Jan 25, 2009 06:45 PM EST:
'The Wazir, or Generalissimo. He moved straight, only one square (...). It is evident, however, that he could, 'slowly, but surely' cover all the squares of the board, hence is value was greater than that of the Farz which could cover no more than one half of the board.

(Forbes, page 141)

Is this true? I had the idea that, even colorbound, the Ferz was slightly more valuable..


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