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Elsewhere needing to be dropped here is this scenario for topic in year 2010. Even Brainking does not do that great with only 200-300 logged on a time. At least Brainking had the sense to shrink a billion CVs to its 30-50, but it needs puzzles to keep that many. To show consistency to those works not having been discussed lately: Let Gilman pick 2 of his 1000 he wants played widely. Let Winther do likewise. 2+2=4. Betza, pick 5 and vote 1. Gifford self-selects 5 he would like widely played and everyone votes 1. Three Falcon arrays. Rococo. That's 4+1+1+3+1=10. FRC as up to 50 arrays nevertheless counts as 1. That's 11. Find some 9-14 more for 25 CVs. Since this list is a re-do, there must have been tacit approval. Some entit(ies) devising 20 CVs along these lines would do better than Brainking. Why? Because we are in a position to say we have Chess, and nobody else does. Of course we have Chess and nobody else does. It's a proven fact over and over again, scientifically, mathematically, metaphorically. Think about it honestly if you can, free-liner designer, benigner resigner, diviner Einsteiner, tree-piner recliner... The set-up would be a buffer of the 20-25 apart from the 4000 other CVs, with provision for Rich Hutnik's Mutating Class for most of the 25, such that there should be withdrawals and new arrivals. Obviously there are incredibly close calls, as mentioned before, where you distinguish two rules-sets earning so close as 6397 and 6389 (primes). Since potluck contests have run their course, try something else.
Hutnik mentions Next Chess. This was the third thread of next chesses. In chronological order were: Mastodon Modern Eurasian Templar Centennial UnicornGr Switching Seirawan BlackGhost BigBoard CourierdlD Eight-Stone Wildebeest FantasyG Venator GreatShat King'sC ThreePlayer Schoolbook Melee Sissa. I think about half of comment participants are inclined to see this developed, or so request of past Editors. Within IAGO, and endorsed by CVPage, why not select one of these CVs at a time every couple months? There may emerge only 2-4 from these particular 18-21 CVs. Then separate category on title page of CVP and 'What's New' would endorse the eventual 20-25 CVs for outreach with outside world. No one in history of the world knows more about the candidates, CVs and Mutators, than a core of two dozen radicals here from 'A'ronson to 'Q'uintanilla to 'Z'ade. The higher nominees out of this would not be 'Recognized' as of the past but for the future. Not addressed exactly in this comment are Track One, Track Two, Wildcards, and Hutnik's Mutating Class.
Reviving NextChess Track One, recall 2009 has Mastodon, Modern, Eurasian. 2010 Centennial, Templar, Unicorn Great. 2011 Switching, Seirawan, Black Ghost. 2012 Big Board, Courier de la Dama, Eight-Stone. 2013 Wildebeest, Fantasy Grand, Venator. 2014 Great Shatranj, King's Court, Three-player (Zubrin). 2015 Schoolbook, Melee, Sissa. I don't think any one of the contenders has been played publicly ten times. A century ago a few CVs were enough, what Raumschach, Glinksi's, Bird's morphing into Capablanca and maybe a dozen more of note? Don't hold out much hope for this forum to do anything but proliferate in bourgeois artwork. And constructively some few may have caught attention of reformers outside the confines. Lasker's essay ''Reform in Chess'' (a book chapter) is also 100 years old soon.
USA Football was promoted by President Theodore Roosevelt despite opposition in academia for its brutality. Touchdowns counted for five points and field goals four in those days. One hundred years ago teams had three downs to make ten yards. Previously they had two downs to make five yards. Passes were legal, but incomplete ones drew penalties of up to 15 yards. So the game stayed mainly on the ground of the field 110 yards long, which still is 110 in Canada. Forget Soccer, far and away preferred, for convenience. There could be untold thousands of variations of ''football,'' by altering field size, downs, points, number of players, substitutions, time periods, all in different combinations taken. In fact sandlot football, or basketball, or baseball, may well be played hundreds of different ways within neighborhoods. By logic and melding of conflicting interests, we want next-Chess threads to resolve into 2, or 5, or up to 50 sustainable forms, not proliferating unduly. It will take two years. (A previous analogy under Chessboard Math, similar to this football one, was to professional Badminton, with its one or two standardized Olympic forms.) Whatever is arrived at, certain websites chosen will take it from there.
Track One year 2015: Schoolbook Chess(8x10), Melee (9x9), Sissa (9x9). We need one standard Carrera form that has lasted 400 years, so Sam Trenholme's Schoolbook is taken for play in 2015. George Boeree's Melee is only the second '9x9' and early use of short-range pieces before Joyce's and Begley-Jones'. Carlos Cetina's Sissa is the third 9x9, with natural novel piece, that does not have to be thought out with each move and position. That makes 21 ''Next Chesses,'' half or more of which would be better received than Crazy Queen(8x8) in a perfect world of level playing field.
Not standing pat, we work our way to year 2030 first. So far 2009 Modern Mastodon Eurasian; 2010 Centennial Templar Unicorn Great; (2011 Switching Seirawan Black Ghost); 2012 Big Board Courier de la Dama Eight-Stone; 2013 Wildebeest Fantasy Grand Venator; 2014 Great Shatranj King's Court Three-Player of Zubrin. The 8x8 64-square thought experiment for year 2011, parenthesized, is a throw-away, because our particular bias in our particular list is that the small board is dead. Once before we quoted the judge at cannibal Alferd Packer's trial, ''hanged by the neck until you are dead, dead, dead.'' How so many feel about OrthoChess, driving the rebellion, well, its starts and fits.
George, let me jump around a bit. I was looking at Templar when you made the 2014 comment, which includes Great Shatranj. So let me do a game from 2010, one from 2014, and one not yet chosen, instead of the 3 from 2010. Templar is, again, an add-on game, but very nicely done. The 4 square long added ranks put a little more into the game than the usual 2 squares at each end. And the templar is a nice piece. But it is one of a cluster of similar and complementary pieces [eg: Gary Gifford's fye'tin] and feels just a touch incomplete by itself, because it's an asymmetric piece without its complement in the game. I'd put this game right next to the line of acceptability, not sure which side, 2 steps from the ideal next chess, whatever that is. Great Shatranj is a fine next shatranj game, but that would seem to make it a less-than-fine next chess game. Let's compare and contrast it with a game that is a good choice for a next chess, Falcon Chess. Both are played on an 8x10, with similar setups - 10 pieces on the back ranks and 10 pawns each on the second ranks. But they're not the same pawns. Falcon uses modern pawns, with a double first step and en passant rules, Great Shatranj uses the older 1 step pawns. [Not much difference, you'd think, but openings play differently with 1-step pawns, and modern players often don't have the patience to develop the pawns properly, leading to some mid and late game contortions on occasion, because games are often won or lost on the pawn structure.] The king and knights are the same in both games, but the remaining pieces are literally worlds apart. Falcon Chess is in a classic traditional Western chess variant mold. It is an expansion of orthochess, using a matched pair of sliders [rather than the unmatched pair of power pieces often used in 8x10 games]. It makes 1 basic change, integrating a second, shortrange, pair of sliders into the game, which maintains all the standard chesspieces and rules 'as is' [except specific castling rules, adjusted to be more flexible and for a larger board]. Great Shatranj, on the other hand, while it, too, makes 1 basic change, leaves almost none of the pieces intact. Great Shatranj is alternate history: Capablanca Chess in a Grand Chess setup, with all of the sliders changed to 1 or 2 square leapers. That the pawns also become shatranj pawns, with no double first step, is almost incidental, though this does slow the game down a bit more. For it is a slower game than orthochess, more strategic and deliberate. And this is probably a second strike against it, for the modern game is made for slashing attacks, the devastating blow, the quick kill. And that can't happen in Great Shatranj. Though there is great scope for tactics and strategy, Great Shatranj is very definitely ancient warfare, lacking all the speed of modern warfare exemplified in our western chess pieces. Perhaps Charles Daniel has the right of it by providing a standardized large board with a core chess setup, and extra pieces to drop into the corners. But of the three games discussed here, Falcon is Track 1, a NextChess contender; Templar is Track 1&1/2, too close to the dividing line to tell; and Great Shatranj is a NextShatranj contender, Track 1 in another time and place. [And Track 2 here.]
Next up is year-2015 three chosen CVs. We have 18 Track One candidates so far through year 2014. We need some perspective. By percentage of its 4000 or so CVs, Chess Variant Page, everyone's favourite website here, is largely Track Two. Track One is potential OrthoChess replacement, and Track Two is more novelty, themed, whimsical, a la Betza. Probably CVPage is 80% Track Two and 20% Track One. We want to winnow 50 or 100 of those latter for further study. Most of us enjoy both categories. The analogy I thought out beforehand is hunting and wildlife. As avid nature-lover, I oppose hunting though I fish. Many friends of mine hunt, and I don't hold it against them because I can see they sincerely enjoy wild lands both ways, as gamesmen and as viewers of wildlife -- or climbers, hikers, campers, canoeists. Now with Chess variants, I am more like my hunting friends. I like both Track One and Track Two. However, proliferation and repeated reuse without attribution only confuse both sets of CVs, One and Two. This thread is Track One, in ongoing try to get some order, with full respect for the other way of making CVs. Track Two tends to be the artwork, artistic expression for its own sake not so much to be played. When minimizing Track Two, I have analogized it to orthogonal basketweaving and needlepointing. Both styles of activity One and Two have their due place.
(1) To Joyce, please do not leave out qualifications: we identify year 2011 of '8x8' as in deference to Betza and Seirawan, implicitly conceding shortcomings of Black Ghost. However, do not rule out an introduced piece a la Betza or Seirawan as solution Track One. (2) For all his language, we never directly rated Duniho's ''inventions,'' the one and only prolificist omitted before for obvious reasons, except right here favourably with Eurasian as selection for 2009. Any evaluation ought to be balanced not all one way. Whosoever stews in his own juice, the site moves on. There should be nothing personal about each trio named for each year, and by 2030 or 2040, many more designers of just one or five CVs, non-prolificists, may find theirs here too. Anyone can veto any choice, literally, as stated from day one of ''NextChess.'' If any one person objects to actual play of any CV in this thread, we remove it within 24-48 hours. Total consensus. Now these are all Track One, the specialty for rest of season. For Year 2014, chosen candidates are Great Shatranj (8x10), King's Court (8x12 96 squares Sidney LeVasseur), Three Player Chess (96 spaces Zubrin, patented USP3652091). These all have the ''feel'' of proximity to OrthoChess. Joyce may not consider Great Shatranj his best, but it is desirable size he recently mentions. We are not selecting personal favourites so much as predicting what some cadre of anti-OrthoChessists may eventually endorse. Why not Chess being the first sport to break from one on one to one by one by one, as Three Players? Absolutely all of the others so far are the following, numbering fifteen: 2013 Wildebeest, Fantasy Grand, Venator; 2012 Big Board, Courier de la Dama, Eight-Stone; 2011 Switching, Seirawan, Black Ghost; 2010 Centennial, Templar, Unicorn Great; 2009 Modern, Mastodon, Eurasian.
These are all Track One. Borderline Track One to Track Two included are Fantasy Grand and Eight-Stone. Year 2014 forthcoming. 2013 Wildebeest, Fantasy Grand, Venator. 2012 Big Board, Courier de la Dama, Eight-Stone. 2011 Switching, Seirawan, Black Ghost. 2010 Centennial, Templar, Unicorn Great. 2009 Modern, Mastodon, Eurasian.
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