Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Spinal Tap Chess. Variant on an 11x11 board with a once-a-game mass 'Battle Move' of Pawns and Crabs. (11x11, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

PBA wrote on Tue, Mar 26, 2002 12:00 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

Definitely an amusing game! I particularly like the Minister (RLF), as it's a piece, while obvious in design, I haven't seen before. I find myself wondering about its value. On an 8x8 board, I would be fairly confident in assigning it a value greater than a Queen -- about a Raven (RNN) in fact. But on an 11x11 board, the shorter range components of its movement are worth less, and so a Queen -- which is all long range elements after all -- gains in relative power. Anyone out there have an opinion?

gnohmon wrote on Wed, Mar 27, 2002 07:00 AM UTC:

In several web pages, I have written down, step by tedious step, the appropriate numerical methods for estimating the values of the Q and the (1,3) and the F and the R on any size board. You can answer your own question by doing the appropriate calculations, step by tedious step. I once wrote a C program to do it, but it's a real pain to generalize it to whatever possible movement pattern on whatever size board. (Source code long lost, sorry.)

Anonymous wrote on Wed, Mar 27, 2002 08:00 AM UTC:

The basic problem with doing the calculations, is that at heart, I'm lazy. I was hoping to scare an answer out of the woodwork, produced by some more energetic person. In any case, I'm fairly sure that even on an 11x11 board, a Minister is at least as valuable as a Queen, which makes Spinal Tap Chess' restriction on Queen promotion but not Minister promotion inconsistant.

gnohmon wrote on Wed, Mar 27, 2002 09:00 AM UTC:

The calculations are indeed of a nature that inspires laziness. Once in a while, one must.

gnohmon wrote on Wed, Mar 27, 2002 10:00 AM UTC:

After I wrote my last note I saw a page than thanked me for providing feebback on this page. Would Feebback Chess be a game where the pieces have normal strength advancing but are feeble in retreat?

JCL wrote on Wed, Mar 27, 2002 11:00 AM UTC:

I would think that Feebback Chess is a wager game you might play with your physician or attorney where you might win the fee back.

Robert Shimmin wrote on Sun, Oct 13, 2002 02:31 PM UTC:

Note: in the graphical diagram of the opening setup, the black viceroy and squire on files i and j have been reversed from the other two descriptions on the page. By symmetry arguments, I assume the textual descriptions are correct?

Ben Good wrote on Sun, Oct 13, 2002 05:44 PM UTC:

yes, you are correct. the ascii diagram is correct. the graphics diagram is not.

Peter Aronson wrote on Mon, Oct 14, 2002 07:38 PM UTC:

Graphic fixed.