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http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/rococo.html Rococo. I think Peter Aronson took offense when I said Rococo rules above are not well written. I just think the rules should begin with the simple statement, that they all move like Queens. That's what happens with collaberation in books too. Combining styles of two authors or more leads to mixed results in write-ups. Usually two are worse than one in creative or scientific writing, not always. Still Rococo is the best CV under CVPage auspices as a game. Rococo Pawns that's why firstly, and secondly the border squares. Where are either of those two elements elsewhere used? Nowhere important because they fit Rococo.
Some candidates are Nightmare Chess, Shogi, Kamikaze Mortal Shogi, and Gross Chess. Nightmare Chess has a lot of variety and is a lot of fun to play, but it lacks the perfect information element and doesn't provide as much opportunity for deep analysis. Shogi and Kamikaze Mortal Shogi have much the same appeal. I might choose the latter over the former for being my own game. Gross Chess is my largest variant, and it includes a greater variety of pieces, including all the Chess pieces plus several popular variant pieces. Consequently, there is more to pay attention to than in most variants, and the opportunity for deep analysis is greater. As long as I couldn't play other games, I'm inclined to choose Gross Chess.
Either Shogi - the drops along with the slow moving generals make this a very gradual game, yet with plenty of exciting attacks - or Chu Shogi - a complex Shogi variant without drops, but lots of interesting pieces and very rich. I could see myself playing either of those for a very long time without becoming bored... (as long as the hypothetical desert island includes an opponent of a suitable level). Or, if it has to be a variant of western chess, I quite enjoy Parker's Dragon Chess (not to be confused with Gygax's) - it is very close to normal chess, yet different enough to feel like it offers more opportunities, and unlike the various variants adding Capa compounds, the dragons aren't overly powerful. Perhaps for sheer variety, Navia Dratp would be a good option - 44 different pieces, and build your own army, allows for a lot of possibilities. Of course, given that one of the things I enjoy about chess variants is the sheer variety - encountering new ideas, having to think in slightly (or radically) different patterns - being restricted to just one variant, no matter how good, would be dull compared with exploring the richness of all the weird and wondrous variants people have invented.
Some of you are probably familiar with Desert Island Discs a British radio/TV program where people talk about what music they would have if they were stuck on a desert island and could only bring a few albums. Another version of this game I have seen is a video game version of this (Slashdot also did this), where people say if they could only have one video game, what would it be.
I have my own version of this game, where what I bring on to this imaginary desert island must fit in 50 megs on a computer with only a base install of Windows XP or Windows 7. So, I would like to play a Chess Variant version of this game. If you could only play a single Chess variant, which variant would you play? Why do you like this variant? |
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