Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Omega Chess is now the featured variant for September, 2024.

I'm nominating Omega Chess.

Duke of Rutland's Chess

I second Atomic Chess.

Anyone care to nominate or second a game?

New month started………

I second CwDA to hang out for more than a month if that's allowed.

There hasn't been a new featured variant in a bit and it's worrying me a little.

There is none for this month, and I have now disabled the notice in the header. There was not sufficient interest in choosing one this month, and the ones currently nominated and seconded appeared to be ineligible.

Don’t worry. Everybody is fine.

CwDA is a large notion enough to hang out for two months.

There hasn't been a new featured variant in a bit and it's worrying me a little.

I'll nominate Omega Chess.

Well, websites like LiShogi an PyChess just offer on-line versions of Fairy-Stockfish, rigged to play at very weak level, for a limited number of variants. So I don't see much use in mentioning those at all, if Fairy-Stockfish is already mentioned as a possible computer opponent.

Fairy-Stockfish is also configurable for other variants, in a straightforward way. But it seems to suffer from similar limitations as Sjaak II. (But is of course enormously stronger, 3000+ Elo vs ~2200 Elo.) One of these is that the board cannot have more than 128 squares (which in Fairy Stockfish seems to be further limited to max 10 ranks and max 12 files). And only a limited variety of pieces is supported: compound of leapers, sliders, knightrider, possibly as (grass)hoppers, possibly divergent. So no Griffon, for example. But many variants don't need more than that.

Weak computer opponent, weaker than Zillions of Games. (ID = Interactive Diagram, J = Jocly, Li = LiChess, Lu = Ludii)

I can also notice that there’s LiShogi site (can be abbreviated like Ls) which can play Kyoto Shogi; and also all variants marked with #Lichess tag are playable against Lichess Stockfish, which isn’t noted in Weak section in the table (exc. for Atomic chess).

We will have to add additional opportunities for human on-line play (pychess.org, gamerz.net, freechess.org, chess.com), and for 'strong' computer opponents (Fairy-Stockfish, ChessV, Sjaak II, Nebiyu, HaChu, CrazyWa, KingSlayer...).

Since some of these engines are configurable, it would often be possible to supply game files for them, to use them for variants that are not in their standard repertoir.

Standard repertoir of Sjaak II:

• Normal chess (Jazz, Sjaak and Leonidas all play this).
• Spartan chess, where black and white play with different armies and black has two kings (Sjaak and Leonidas can both play this).
• Seirawan chess, where both sides start with an extra off-the-board piece that can be introduced later (Sjaak and Leonidas both play this).
• The Maharaja and the Sepoys, where white has only one piece (the Maharaja) (needs to be played as variant "fairy" in XBoard). In Sjaak II you need to load the variants.txt configuration file to make this variant available.
• Amazon chess, where the queen moves as an amazon (needs to be played as variant "fairy" in XBoard).
• Knightmate, where the king moves as a knight and the knights move as a king.
• Berolina Chess, where pawns move one square diagonal and capture straight ahead.
• Shatranj, a historic precursor of modern chess.
• Capablanca Chess, a variant played on a 10x8 board with two extra pieces.
• Gothic Chess, the same as Capablanca Chess but with a different starting position.
• Fischer Random Chess and Capablanca Random Chess, which are like normal chess and normal Capablanca chess, but with a randomised starting position (Sjaak does not generate a starting position, however).
• Makruk, the Thai version of Chess. ASEAN chess and Ai-Wok are supported Makruk variants.
• Pocket Knight, like normal chess, but players have an extra knight they can drop on the board.
• Grand Chess, on a 10x10 board.
• Indian Grand Chess, or possibly Turkish Grand Chess. On a 10x10 with four extra pieces.
• Burmese chess (Sittuyin), needs to be played in XBoard with legality testing off.
• Courier chess, a medieval variant played on a 12x8 board.
• Chinese chess (Xiangqi), Black and white face eachother across the river that runs along the board, with their kings confined to their palaces.
• Japanese chess (Shogi), where captured pieces can be dropped on the board to reinforce your own army. Also supported are a number of Shogi variants (sho-shogi, mini-shogi and tori-shogi).
• Traditional Mongolian Chess (Shatar), which has restrictions on how mate can be delivered.
• Omicron Chess, which is basically Omega Chess on a slightly smaller board.
• Omega Chess, a variant on a 12x12 (effectively 10x10 with four extra squares) board.
• Grande Acedrex, a large (12x12) mediaeval variant of chess with divergent pieces: the Rhinoceros/Unicorn (first as Knight, then as Bishop) and the Gryphon/Aanca (first as Ferz, then as Rook). Can be played by Postduif.
• Various minor variantions and challanges, including Peasant's revolt, Legan's chess.

If I may add there's also ChessCraft which meets the requirements of programmed online play, has a computer opponent (albeit weak).

ChessV tagged games

I commented out the nomination for Deconstruction Chess, because its page is still pending approval.

It is always difficult to compare programs that can play so many different variants, and have different methods of time control (fixed time per move vs fixed depth). I also have the impression that Ai Ai is buggy, making it a bit unpredictable. But at Tenjiku Shogi it cannot even come up with a reasonable opening move even at 10 min/move.

I guess the next step is to complete the list of strong computer opponents. On the Fairy-Stockfish page at GitHub I see that it plays:

Regional and historical games

• Xiangqi, Manchu, Minixiangqi, Supply chess
• Shogi, Shogi variants
• Janggi
• Makruk, ASEAN, Makpong, Ai-Wok
• Ouk Chatrang, Kar Ouk
• Sittuyin
• Shatar, Jeson Mor
• Shatranj, Courier

Chess variants

• Capablanca, Janus, Modern, Chancellor, Embassy, Gothic, Capablanca random chess
• Grand, Shako, Centaur, Tencubed, Opulent
• Chess960, Placement/Pre-Chess
• Crazyhouse, Loop, Chessgi, Pocket Knight, Capablanca-Crazyhouse
• Bughouse, Koedem
• Seirawan, Seirawan-Crazyhouse
• Amazon, Chigorin, Almost chess
• Hoppel-Poppel, New Zealand
• Antichess, Giveaway, Suicide, Losers, Codrus
• Extinction, Kinglet, Three Kings, Coregal
• King of the Hill, Racing Kings
• Three-check, Five-check
• Los Alamos, Gardner’s Minichess
• Atomic
• Horde, Maharajah and the Sepoys
• Knightmate, Nightrider, Grasshopper

Shogi variants

• Minishogi, EuroShogi, Judkins shogi
• Kyoto shogi, Microshogi
• Dobutsu shogi, Goro goro shogi
• Tori shogi
• Yari shogi
• Okisaki shogi
• Sho shogi

Elven Chess is one of the variants played by HaChu, Musketeer Chess is played by KingSlayer-Aramis, and for Chess with Different Armies there also exists a KingSlayer derivative. The ChessV page says that ChessV plays 100 CVs, but it doesn't say which.

I knew it wasn't great but I didn't realize it was that bad

Ai Ai is very weak. I think it even loses to the Interactive Diagram.

Since I got rid of the ibids, I put the nominated games in alphabetical order. While doing so, I found two games that were nominated twice. I consolidated each into one with the second nomination as a second.

Odin's Rune Chess is in ChessV.

Some other games, such as Ajax Chess, would be easy to define for ChessV also. Would making the game definition available here be enough to count as strong ai?

Some more potentially qualifying games that are included in ChessV or Ai Ai, or both:

• Alekhine Chess
• Sac Chess
• Northern Ecumenical Chess
• Unicorn Great Chess
• Great Shatranj
• Lemurian Shatranj
• Shako Balbo
• Xhess
• Apothecary Chess Classic
• Duke of Rutland's Chess
• Wildebeest Decimal Chess
• Jumping Chess
• King's Color

I have now reformatted the Nominations & Seconds section, and I have checked it for errors. The information about games is not complete, though.

So that I can better check against introducing errors, here is what was on the page before I started editing:

• Seirawan Chess [UGC] ID [PG] (N: Kevin Pacey)
• Superschaak [] (N: H. G. Muller)
• Paco Shako [ID] (N: ibid, S: A. M. DeWitt, Bob Greenwade)
• Musketeer Chess [GC ID PG] (N: ibid)
• Tenjiku Shogi [GC PG J] (N: ibid, S: A. M. DeWitt)
• Duck Chess [ID] (N: ibid, S: Jean-Louis Cazaux)
• Spartan Chess [PG J] (N: ibid, S: Aurelian Florea)
• Elven Chess [UGC PG J ID] (N: Jean-Louis Cazaux, S: Daniel Zacharias)
• Enhanced Courier Chess [GC PG ID] (N: ibid)
• Modern Chess [GC PG J Z] (N: Max Kovel)
• Singularity Chess [] (N: ibid, S: H. G. Muller)
• Opulent Lemurian Shatranj [UGC PG] (N: Joe Joyce, S: Bob Greenwade)
• Tiger Hunt [] (N: David Paulowich)
• Sort of Almost Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Chess on a Soccer Ball [] (N: Max Kovel)
• Atomic Chess [ID Li Lu] (N: H. G. Muller, S: Daniel Zacharias)
• Golem Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Knight Relay Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Odin's Rune Chess [UGC PG] (N: ibid, S: Daniel Zacharias)
• Kyoto Shogi [Z] (N: ibid, S: A. M. DeWitt, Lev Grigoriev)
• Elk Chess [OGC ID Z] (N: ibid, S: Jean-Louis Cazaux)
• Chieftain Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Extinction Chess [] (N: ibid)
• King of the Hill [] (N: ibid)
• Racing Kings [] (N: ibid)
• Three-Checks [] (N: ibid)
• Losing Chess, nominated as Suicide Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Dark Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Balbo's Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Pick-the-Team Chess [] (N: Bob Greenwade)
• Deconstruction Chess [] (N: ibid)
• Shatranj of Troy [UGC PG Z] (N: Daniel Zacharias, S: H. G. Muller)
• Seireigi [GC ID J Lu PG] (N: Lev Grigoriev, S: Bob Greenwade)
• Ice Age Chess [] (N: Max Koval)
• Chak [ID] (N: Jean-Louis Cazaux, S: Lev Grigoriev)
• Dai Seireigi [GC ID Lu PG] (N: Bob Greenwade)
• Ajax Chess [] (N: Daniel Zacharias)
• N-Relay Chess [] (N: HaruN Y)
• Sort of Almost Chess [] (N: HaruN Y)