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Glinski's Hexagonal Chess. Chess on a board made out of hexagons. (Cells: 91) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Anonymous wrote on Wed, May 16, 2001 12:00 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★I searched all over the internet for basic information on Hexagonal chess and this one website gives me more information than all other websites combined!
Ben wrote on Fri, Aug 16, 2002 04:11 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★Wow, this is definatly one for the logisticly inclined ;) It may make your head hurt, but it's a lot of fun.
I think this version of hexagonal chess has one fatal flaw: The kind has too much mobility and is too difficult to checkmate. In FIDE chess, it is possible for force a checkmate with a king + rook against a bare king; in hexagonal chess, one needs considerably more material to checkmate a bare king.
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I think the easiest and best way to compensate for this is to have the king only able to move to a fully adjacent hex, reducing its move to that of a rook going one square. This way, the bare king can be captured by an opponent's rook and king, just like in FIDE chess.
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- Sam
Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Apr 13, 2003 08:58 AM UTC:This is not the only variant with a hard-to-checkmate king; the problem is widespread in 3d games as well. One solution that preserves the move extensions is to make baring the king a victory in itself, as was the case before the Queen and Bishop were introduced to square chess.
Sergei Korchitsky, Byelorussian International Grand Master and vice-president of the IHCF, has a <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/'>site</A> with 20 <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/Theory/exercises.php'>problems</A>, more than 200 <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/Theory/debut.php'>games</A> played in four tournaments between 1994 and 1998, nearly half of which start with 1. Ndf4 (the moves are in English), and a few other pages in Russian covering <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/rules.php'>rules</A> (stating that a Bishop is worth 3 Pawns, a Knight 4, a Rook 8 and a Queen 16), <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/Theory/strateg.php'>strategy</A> (3 images), <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/Theory/taktik.php'>tactics</A> (28 images) and <A
href='http://www.loktev.h1.ru/hexachess/Theory/ends.php'>endgames</A> (10 images).
Bill wrote on Sun, Dec 19, 2004 02:48 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★I had no idea. Great page and very informative. I think I will try this variant of the month.
Creative! It will probably take hours and hours, or days, or months to reach checkmate (if it's reachable at all!) since there's so much space on the board and I'm not sure if I'd want to play this more than once, but I'd love to have something like Hexagonal Chess as a decoration! Love the idea!
ZRF with a nice graphics can be downloaded from my homepage. ZRF is by J. Mark Thompson and Ivan A Derzhanski, graphics created by me.
By the way, Alfred Pfeiffer found a nice way how to implement Glinski's standard notation in ZRF. One can simply use 'translate' command to give the cells desired coordinates: (translate ('g2' 'g1') ('g3' 'g2') ... ). I updated ZRF on my homepage (see my previous comment) with these changes.
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Over three years ago, I pointed out that this game is probably too drawish, based on looking at the game mechanics (the king is too hard to checkmate). I'm not surprised that both games of Glinski's Hexagonal Chess played on the game courier server ended in draws.
My Russian isn't good enough to look at all of the games played in tournaments on the Russian page, so I can't get a sense of the draw percentage there, but I will bet you it's a lot bigger than the corresponding FIDE Chess draw percentage. Here are three ways to make this game less drawish:
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Six games have been played on Game Courier, and only two have ended in draws.
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Looks like you're right.
Here is how I got to see all six games:
- Sam |
Six games is too small of a sample to draw any generalizations from. Another factor to consider is whether some of the players have any tendency toward drawing games. For example, Roberto Lavieri, who drew one of these games, has drawn about one quarter of all his games on Game Courier. In the game he played against Ben Good, the game ended while each side still had two Rooks, a Bishop, a Knight and several Pawns. Roberto was actually ahead by two Pawns and probably could have won, but he concluded that the game was drawish and offered Ben a draw, which, being behind, he was wise to take. If the game is drawish, your arguments for this will have to depend, at this point, on a priori analysis of the game mechanics or data on more games than those played on Game Courier.
I have not confident data available, but I have seen a few results in high-level tournaments, by curiosity. I can´t conclude, but it seems, more or less, as drawish as Chess. It means: very drawish, as FIDE-Chess is, when played at very high level of play.
Anonymous wrote on Thu, Mar 16, 2006 12:22 AM UTC:|
I agree that six games is not an exhaustive sample. However, it's the best data I have available. Now, I don't have enough of a background in statistics to give you a error percentage with these figures; however, it may be telling that we have played 31 FIDE Chess games on Game Courier and not one of them ended in a draw.
Then again, according to this Russian page (translated via the fish here) King + Rook vs. King (and King + Queen vs. King) is a mate against a bare King. I wish I had more game results to look at to see just how drawish this game is; the results over at Game Courier don't make this game look very good. Perhaps Glinski's Hex Chess with Shogi drops? - Sam |
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I agree that six games is not an exhaustive sample. However, it's the best data I have available. Now, I don't have enough of a background in statistics to give you a error percentage with these figures; however, it may be telling that we have played 31 FIDE Chess games on Game Courier and not one of them ended in a draw.
Then again, according to this Russian page (translated via the fish here) King + Rook vs. King (and King + Queen vs. King) is a mate against a bare King. I wish I had more game results to look at to see just how drawish this game is; the results over at Game Courier don't make this game look very good. Perhaps Glinski's Hex Chess with Shogi drops? - Sam |
In regard to Sam's comments about Glinski's great game.... I see no need to complain about it. It's been around since about 1936 or 1938 and little research shows that there were over 500,000 players of this game at one point... quite commendable. Also, it remains the most popular of hexagonal chess variants and even has world championship playoffs.
Hexagonal chess is no more drawish than normal chess, and it is no more difficult to deliver mate than in normal chess. It is true that the king has greater mobility, but so does most of the other pieces. The reason why some beginners believe that it's difficult to deliver mate is probably that spotting mating patterns can be a bit tricky for beginners; partly because the game is unfamiliar, and partly because there is a bigger number of potential flight squares to inspect in order to mentally verify that it is indeed a mate. I am the author of Scatha, which is probably the strongest hexagonal chess program available today. Unfortunately, it only runs on Mac OS X. If someone is interested in giving the game a try against a strong opponent, I would be happy to play a few informal e-mail games with Scatha. I would be very impressed if someone manages a draw.
It is no hard to win in hexachess! I never had such problem!
Ian Hudson wrote on Thu, May 3, 2007 10:08 PM UTC:Does anyone know where I might buy a Glinski Hexagonal chess board? If so, please email me at IHudson@comcast.net. Thanks.
Carlos, the preset is listed under Hexagonal Chess (Glinski).
I have been playing Hexagonal chess with this layout: http://mail.maclaunch.com/richmond/hexchess.html for years. I believe it is better than Glinski's because there is greater space between opposing pawns.
The next live hexagonal chess competition will take place in Hungary on 12-15 March 2010. More details at http://5mp.eu/fajlok/hexasakk/versenykiiras_angol_www.5mp.eu_.htm All are welcome! Peter
Live hexagonal chess competition will be in Hungary on 8-11 July 2010. More details at http://5mp.eu/fajlok/hexasakk/2010_tamasi_k_angol_www.5mp.eu_.htm All are welcome! Peter
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