Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Oct 21, 2017 07:09 PM EDT:
I'm thinking of adding support for Chess-and-a-Half to ChessV, but have a couple questions/comments...
Castling: What is described here is actually not quite the same as "flexible castling". In flexible castling, the king moves two or more spaces toward the piece in the corner, but cannot move only one. The point of this is so that a move can be simply identified/annotated by (from square)-(to square). If you allow the king to move a single step when castling, you need additional notation to be able to distinguish, and computer programs need additional interface to allow the move to be entered. For this reason, it's almost always at least a 2-space move. Wildebeest Chess is the only game I know of that allows a single-space castling move. Just something to consider; ChessV can handle in either case.
Option capture-by-overtake: The fact that capturing pieces passed over by a cat or star cat is optional will require specification of how these moves are annotated in game scores, and some very-customized UI for any computer interface. There may be some real game positions where you wouldn't want to capture (for example, if removing the piece opens up your king to attack making it illegal), but I'd still personally recommend making them mandatory because the alternative adds a significant amout of complexity.
Promotions: Is there any particular reason why the non-pawn promotions are optional? Why would a knight choose not to become a speedy knight, or a cat not become a star cat, or a guard not become an eques rex? (There might be a reason, but I can't think of any.)
I'm thinking of adding support for Chess-and-a-Half to ChessV, but have a couple questions/comments...
Castling: What is described here is actually not quite the same as "flexible castling". In flexible castling, the king moves two or more spaces toward the piece in the corner, but cannot move only one. The point of this is so that a move can be simply identified/annotated by (from square)-(to square). If you allow the king to move a single step when castling, you need additional notation to be able to distinguish, and computer programs need additional interface to allow the move to be entered. For this reason, it's almost always at least a 2-space move. Wildebeest Chess is the only game I know of that allows a single-space castling move. Just something to consider; ChessV can handle in either case.
Option capture-by-overtake: The fact that capturing pieces passed over by a cat or star cat is optional will require specification of how these moves are annotated in game scores, and some very-customized UI for any computer interface. There may be some real game positions where you wouldn't want to capture (for example, if removing the piece opens up your king to attack making it illegal), but I'd still personally recommend making them mandatory because the alternative adds a significant amout of complexity.
Promotions: Is there any particular reason why the non-pawn promotions are optional? Why would a knight choose not to become a speedy knight, or a cat not become a star cat, or a guard not become an eques rex? (There might be a reason, but I can't think of any.)