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ChessVA computer program
. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
📝Greg Strong wrote on Wed, Mar 15, 2023 01:42 AM UTC in reply to Fergus Duniho from Tue Mar 14 06:48 PM:

Thanks, Fergus. Been tied up by work as of late. Some of these have been pending description for a long time. Here's a quick summary:

  • Duplex Chess -- a new double-move variant that I've invented and need to document.  I wanted to make a balanced, double-move variant that wasn't too overwhelming.  This is managed in this game by the fact that no piece has a range more than 2, and the same piece cannot move on both of a player's moves ... with the exception of the King.  The King can move twice making him a viscous attacker.  (He can hit-and-run, unlike any other piece.)  But exposing him has risks, since if he falls, the game ends instantly.
  • Gilded Grand Shatranj -- this is definily a Joy Joyce original, but doesn't have it's own page.  The text on the Grand Shatranj you mention is probably the source.
  • New Zealand Chess -- From Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.  "Rook becomes Knight and N becomes R when capturing only.  R & P endings described as 'bewildering' (BCM Sep 1903)." Is all the info I have.
  • Nightrider Chess -- Also from Pritchard's Encyclopedia of Chess Variants.  V. R. Parton (1950s)
  • Odyssey -- This is mine, it's a complicated, ambitious invention that needs a page. 
  • Opti Chess -- This is a differnet capablanca-array with flexible castling.  Derek put it forward in comments probably close to 20 years ago now.  It turns out that this array works really well (in terms of most options for good openings.)
  • Relative Royalty Chess -- This is weird.  It grew from ICS's TwoKings variant, for which the rules were a random outcome of how ICS handled the presence of more than one king.  But "TwoKings" had problems (not surprising, since the rules were kinda random).  Relative Royalty Chess was an attempt to fix those issues.  I made it only because when first published, an enthusiastic user on Talk Chess loved TwoKings and wanted this.  I don't know if anyone plays it, or knows, or even cares.  Maybe it should go away.  But, if not, it should be documented.
  • Unicorn Grand Chess -- This is the Unicorn Great Chess pieces with a more Grand Chess setup.  (Pawns on the 3rd ranks, Rooks start connected on the 1st, pawns promote on the 7th by replacement under Grand Chess rules.)  This was my idea to adapt Uncorn Great in this way.  David ok'd the invention.  As much as I like Unicorn Great, I think this is even better.  Hasn't really been played here, but it has been built into ChessV for nearly 20 years.
  • Warochess -- This was emailed to me.  It was also submitted here, but if memory serves, it wasn't published on the basis that it was too close to other variants.
  • Wild Castle -- This is another thing to spring from ICS.  It's basically like FRC except there are only 18 setups.  (Rooks are always in the corner.)