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Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
HaruN Y wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 06:21 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Fri Oct 25 06:31 AM:

Does this mean I can create an Interactive Diagram for Chess but the King in check cannot travel?

Edit: It does!


Interactive diagrams. (Updated!) Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 06:31 AM UTC:

I added a feature to make it easier to debug or copy an Interactive Diagram: there now is a button 'Source Code' under the legend (which you open by clicking the 'here' link twice). When you press that, the definition of the Diagram is displayed below it.


Shatranj. The widely played Arabian predecessor of modern chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 06:36 AM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 06:21 AM:

Does this mean I can create an Interactive Diagram for Chess but the King in check cannot travel?

Not sure what the 'this' in your message refers to.


HaruN Y wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 06:43 AM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 06:36 AM:

Petrifying Check Chess

King in check can't travel. Castling is illegal.

files=16 ranks=8 promoZone=1 promoChoice=NBRQ graphicsDir=/cgi-bin/fen2.php?s=50&w=1949e7&b=b5e725&p= squareSize=50 graphicsType= royal=K moveList=1. Rxa4 Rxa5 2. Rxb4 Rxb5 3. Rxc4 Rxc5 4. Rxd4 Rxd5 5. Rxe4 Rxe5 6. Rxf4 Rxf5 7. Rxg4 Rxg5 8. Rxh4 Rxh5 9. Rxh3 Rxh6 10. Rxg3 Rxg6 11. Rxf3 Rxf6 12. Rxe3 Rxe6 13. Rxd3 Rxd6 14. Rxc3 Rxc6 15. Rxb3 Rxb6 16. Rxa3 Rxa6 17. Rxa2 Rxa7 18. Rxa1 Rxa8 19. a2 a7 20. jxb2 jxb7 21. Nxb1 Nxb8 22. kxc2 kxc7 23. Bxc1 Bxc8 24. lxd2 lxd7 25. Qxd1 Qxd8 26. pxh2 pxh7 27. Rxh1 Rxh8 28. oxg2 oxg7 29. Nxg1 Nxg8 30. nxf2 nxf7 31. Bxf1 Bxf8 32. mxe2 mxe7 33. Kxe1 Kxe8 borders=0 firstRank=1 rimColor=#f5f5db holeColor=#f5f5db darkShade=#527e5b lightShade=#7e9491 coordColor=#f5f5db hole::::i1-p1,i2-p2,i3,j3,k3,l3,m3,n3,o3,p3,i4,j4,k4,l4,m4,n4,o4,p4,j5,k5,l5,m5,n5,o5,p5,i6,j6,k6,l6,m6,n6,o6,p6 pawn:P:fmW*fceFiDXX:pawn:i2,j2,k2,l2,m2,n2,o2,p2,,i7,j7,k7,l7,m7,n7,o7,p7 knight:N:NiDXX:knight:j1,o1,,j8,o8 bishop:B:BiDXX:bishop:k1,n1,,k8,n8 rook:R:RiDXX:rook:p1,i4,,i5,p8 queen:Q:QiDXX:queen:l1,,l8 king:K:cKiiKiDXX:king:m1,a5,b5,c5,d5,e5,f5,g5,h5,a6,b6,c6,d6,e6,f6,g6,h6,a7,b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7,h7,a8,b8,c8,d8,e8,f8,g8,h8,

Has this been invented before?


H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 07:37 AM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 06:43 AM:

I don't get it. The Diagram is preloaded with a long game, which seems to consist exclusively of illegal moves. When not shown in isolation something goes disastrously wrong (probably because it then uses betzaNew.js from a later Diagram in the Comment listing), and Kings appear everywhere.

What is the purpose of all the holes? Why iiK?

The Diagram as defined would not do what the title suggests: check has no effect on its ability to move at all. It can move from e1/e8 even when in check, and cannot move without capture elsewhere even when in check.

I also don't understand what it has to do with Shatranj...

[Edit] OK, I see: the pre-loaded game tries to capture all the Kings. For some reason this doesn't work with betzaNew.js. You try to make use of the fact that initial moves on royals are forbidden when in check. Inventive, but awful.

[Edit2] Pre-loading games doesn't appear to be Diagram-specific, so it tries to pre-load the wrong game when not viewed in isolation.

[Edit3] The latter is now fixed; it was caused by the fact that the game specified with moveList was loaded with a delay, like it was pasted, but by that time another Diagram on the same page could already be the 'active' one. The script now first sets the active Diagram to the one it uses the move list of.


@ François Houdebert[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
François Houdebert wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 07:58 AM UTC in reply to A. M. DeWitt from Fri Oct 18 08:27 PM:

It is a good idea to publish these pictograms. I confirm that the Chu Shogi applet is a success


Interactive diagrams. (Updated!) Diagrams that interactively show piece moves.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 08:03 AM UTC:

I fixed something that was broken. The n modifier on a W or F step, which is not useful in the normal meaning of non-jumping, was 'overloaded', and supposed to indicate that the step 'leaves behind' an e.p. square on the square it came from. This way the path of lame leapers explicitly specified as a multi-leg move could precisely indicate whether and where the piece could be e.p. captured.

The Diagram furthermore applies the rule that royals can be e.p. captured by normal capture (c) moves; the capturing piece does not need to have an explicit e mode for that, like it would need to e.p. capture non-royal pieces. This is for instance how the ban on castling out of or through check works: the castling creates e.p. squares on the King's origin, and the square it passes through. So that castling through check exposes the King to e.p. capture, and would thus be illegal.

I used this to make a Diagram for Caissa Brittania, where the royal Queen cannot move through check (nQ). Each step in the slide then created an e.p. square. But also on the origin, which would forbid moving out of check. But in Caissa Brittania moving out of check is allowed, so I suppressed generation of an e.p. square on the origin, and only left it for later steps in the slide.

This, however, broke the use of n on non-sliding W or F, where it became a complete no-op. I now fixed this. So nK would now be a King that cannot move out of check without getting e.p. captured, but moving a royal nQ out of check would still be legal.

[Edit] I am now starting to doubt the wisdom of this (irregularity-introducing) convention. If nQ would also create an e.p. square on the origin, one could still write [K?nQ] (= KyafnK) when this is not desired. OTOH, with the convention you would need [nK?nQ] (= nKnyafnK) for a royal Queen that cannot move out of check. [K?Q] is after all just synonymous for Q, but allows you to tinker the properties of the first step separately from later steps. I suppose that neither of these is particularly more complex than the other. But it bothers me that nW and nR would be treated differently as to moving out of check is concerned.


Spider Rider Chess. A game with spiders and riders. (13x13, Cells: 121) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🔔Notification on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 03:01 PM UTC:

The author, Gerd Degens, has updated this page.


💡📝Gerd Degens wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 03:20 PM UTC:

Spider Rider Chess on Game Courier.


files=13 ranks=13 promoZone=1 promoChoice= graphicsDir=/graphics.dir/alfaeriePNG/ squareSize=50 graphicsType=png stalemate=win baring=0 royal=K lightShade=#ffffcf oddShade=#70b09f darkShade=#70b09f coordColor=#70b09f holeColor=#E0E0E0 hole::::c1,d1,e1,i1,j1,k1,b2,c2,d2,j2,k2,l2,a3,b3,c3,k3,l3,m3,a4,b4,l4,m4,a5,m5,a9,m9,a10,b10,l10,m10,a11,b pawn:P:fnWfnDfmF:pawn:f2,h2,e3,f3,h3,i3,d4,j4,c5,k5,,c9,k9,d10,j10,e11,f11,h11,i11,f12,h12 nightrider:N:NN:nightrider:d3,j3,,d11,j11 amazonrider:A:QNN:amazonrider:f1,h1,,f13,h13 cardinalrider:M:BNN:cardinalrider:e2,i2,,e12,i12 chancellorrider:C:RNN:chancellorrider:c4,k4,,c10,k10 spider:S:RNNA7:spider:a1,b1,l1,m1,a2,m2,,a12,m12,a13,b13,l13,m13 zecari:Z:ZZCC:zebrawazir:b5,l5,,b9,l9 king:K:K:king:g1,,g13

Empire Chess. Asymmetric variant where one army has pieces that move like queens but capture differently.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Oct 26, 2024 11:12 PM UTC:

Note that even a King and Commoner (nonroyal piece moving like a King) can checkmate a lone King on an 8x8 board, without using something like the King-Kaiser Faceoff rule. So a Kaiser and Duke can easily checkmate a lone King. Also the Checkmating Applet tells me that a Kaiser and two Eagles can checkmate a lone King in twenty moves or less. Dividing the Fairy Stockfish endgame values listed in the game by 2.76 yields:

Pawn=77, Knight=309, Bishop=332, Rook=500, Queen=972.

Soldier=98, Eagle=389, Cardinal=515, Tower=536, Duke=417.

I would guess that the minimum values are: Eagle=450, Cardinal=500, Tower=650, Duke=550. At least, I am reasonably certain that an Eagle and a Duke are a match for a pair of Cardinals. A final note: in a game of Empire Chess gaining Pawns seems more important than hanging on to all those higher valued pieces. My immediate goals would include trading an Eagle for Knight+Pawn and trading a Cardinal for Bishop+Pawn.


Ajax Chess. All pieces have can play one square in any direction, the Mastodon leaper complements the Knight. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
David Paulowich wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 01:16 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★

After fifteen years I finally decided on an excellent rating. One contributing factor was the Checkmating Applet telling me that a King and two (improved) Knights can checkmate a lone King in 33 moves or less on the 10x10 board.

Estimating Pawn=1, Knight=4, Bishop=4.5, Minister=5.5, Rook=6, Queen=10 points. I started with my usual values on the 10x10 board, then added 0.5 to the Rook and 1.0 to the Knight (8 more moves) and Bishop (4 more moves, plus no longer colorbound). Now a Queen is only worth as much as a Rook and a Knight.


Midgard Chess. Midgard Chess has two unusual shortrange pieces, the War Elephant and the War Machine. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🔔Notification on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 03:17 AM UTC:

The author, David Paulowich, has updated this page.


Ajax Chess. All pieces have can play one square in any direction, the Mastodon leaper complements the Knight. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 08:13 AM UTC in reply to David Paulowich from 01:16 AM:

Indeed the Ajax Knight is 'potent', as the F move allows it to switch its attack from c1 to a1 in a single move (e.g. Nd3-c2). So it should be able to checkmate in combination with almost any piece.

Note that on 8x8 I never saw much effect of adding moves to a Bishop that lifted the color binding. Giving the Bishops of one player a single orthogonal non-capture step, and the other player that same move on the Knights, did not really swing the score away from 50%. If color binding is a handicap, it seems to manifest itself only for the unpaired piece, making its value less than half of that of the pair. This argues for the Knight gaining more from getting 8 moves than the Bishops gain from 4.

I also did some tests with multiple color-bound pairs (for evaluating the Color-Bound Clobberers CwDA army). The results were best explained by the theory that the intrinsic value of the pieces is half the pair value, but that you have to subtract a fixed penalty if the color bounds are not equally distributed over the two shades.


Empire Chess. Asymmetric variant where one army has pieces that move like queens but capture differently.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 08:24 AM UTC in reply to David Paulowich from Sat Oct 26 11:12 PM:

For the few divergent pieces I once tested the rule of thumb that their total value is the weighted average of the non-capturing and capturing components, where the later count twice as much as the former. So mQcN was around 5 (N=3, Q=9 scale), mNcQ around 7. The Tower and Cardinal can also be written as mQcR and mQcB, so I would expect values 6.3 and 5 for those.


Shock Chess. (Updated!) Players are paralyzed from the shock of losing their queen. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
A. M. DeWitt wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 03:29 PM UTC:

Finalized version of Raichu Shogi.

Only differences from normal Chu Shogi are that the Lion-trading Rules are replaced by the shock rule (except King and Prince do not trigger it) and that Pawns and Lances must promote on the last rank due to not having any special abilities deriving from the shock rule.


About Game Courier. Web-based system for playing many different variants by email or in real-time.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 08:15 PM UTC:

When I try to open this game it shows an error saying

ILLEGAL: P f3-f5 on turn 1:

There was no P on f3. It is an empty space.

The game has no rule enforcement at all so it seems like it should work


Regular Riders. Members-Only An army where pieces are riders. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

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Krieg. Two player game on a four-by-four board. Article. (4x4, Cells: 16) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Murve33 wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 09:48 PM UTC:

I'm still curious about the origin of this game.

The only PDP-8 software called Kriegspiel is "a variation of chess, and is played by the same rules, except that neither opponent can see the other's position. They play on separate boards and there is a judge who tells them if their moves are legal and gives other information regarding the game."

So, Kriegspiel. Which leads me to believe the game went by a different title.

Internet Archive Link


Desert Dust. Large variant with Arabian-themed pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniel Zacharias wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 11:16 PM UTC:

This looks fun. Game courier?


@ HaruN Y[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
HaruN Y wrote on Sun, Oct 27, 2024 11:48 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

Archaic Warfare by yoshilikes24-chesscraft94, AKA YoshiLikes

files=8 ranks=12 promoZone=1 promoChoice=NRA graphicsDir=/cgi-bin/fen2.php?s=50&w=758157&b=751857&p= squareSize=50 graphicsType= royal=K symmetry=rotate shuffle=ANK,RQZ borders=0 firstRank=1 coordColor=#e7e5ec lightShade=#a39ba0 darkShade=#4b5445 rimColor=#1b1d2d pawn:P:fhmKsO2isafdaubW:templar--irongeneral:d2,e2,b4,g4,a6,c6,f6,h6,,a7,c7,f7,h7,b9,g9,d11,e11 knight:N:N:knight:d1,,e12 rook:R:R:rook:c3,f3,,c10,f10 queen:Q:Q:queen:a3,,h10 amazon:Z:QN:amazon:h3,,a10 archer:A:msWcvaibR:archer:a1,c1,f1,h1,,a12,c12,f12,h12 king:K:K:king:e1,,d12

But with shuffle.


Super-Pao Chess. Private Game with Super-Paos. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

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@ HaruN Y[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
HaruN Y wrote on Mon, Oct 28, 2024 04:03 AM UTC:

This one enforce rules.

files=8 ranks=12 promoZone=1 promoChoice=NRA graphicsDir=/cgi-bin/fen2.php?s=50&w=758157&b=751857&p= squareSize=50 graphicsType= royal=K symmetry=rotate shuffle=ANK,RQZ borders=0 firstRank=1 coordColor=#e7e5ec lightShade=#a39ba0 darkShade=#4b5445 rimColor=#1b1d2d enforceRules=1 pawn:P:fhmKsO2isafdaubW:templar--irongeneral:d2,e2,b4,g4,a6,c6,f6,h6,,a7,c7,f7,h7,b9,g9,d11,e11 knight:N:N:knight:d1,,e12 rook:R:R:rook:c3,f3,,c10,f10 queen:Q:Q:queen:a3,,h10 amazon:Z:QN:amazon:h3,,a10 archer:A:msWcvaibR:archer:a1,c1,f1,h1,,a12,c12,f12,h12 king:K:K:king:e1,,d12

VaoQi. XiangQi with Vaos. (9x10, Cells: 90) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Oct 28, 2024 09:05 AM UTC:

Well, this one might already have been published, but the Diagram in it is awful: the board background image is not properly aligned with the pieces, and furthermore already has (oriental style) pieces on it.

It could be that I just uncovered this, as I finally managed to fix the use of background images in the Interactive Diagram. It appears that someone had installed a style file that globally broke all Diagrams on the site by defining a background color in table row (<tr>) elements. Which covered the background image the Diagram used for the <table>. I now discovered that explicitly specifying the <tr> background color as 'inherit' is a way to counter-act that. So all background images are now visible again.


King Battler. King usually moves as a queen.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
HaruN Y wrote on Mon, Oct 28, 2024 10:58 AM UTC:

Chess Battler Advanced

files=8 ranks=12 promoZone=3 promoChoice=NBRQ graphicsDir=/cgi-bin/fen2.php?s=50&w=feb4b1&b=1b4bef&p= squareSize=50 graphicsType= royal=K moveList=1. Rxa3 Rxa10 2. Rxb3 Rxb10 3. Rxc3 Rxc10 4. Rxd3 Rxd10 5. Rxe3 Rxe10 6. Rxf3 Rxf10 7. Rxg3 Rxg10 8. Rgxh3 Rgxh10 9. Rxh4 Rxh9 10. Rxg4 Rxg9 11. Rxf4 Rxf9 12. Rxe4 Rxe9 13. Rxd4 Rxd9 14. Rxc4 Rxc9 15. Rxb4 Rxb9 16. Rxa4 Rxa9 17. Rxa5 Rxa8 18. Rxb5 Rxb8 19. Rxc5 Rxc8 20. Rxd5 Rxd8 21. Rxe5 Rxe8 22. Rxf5 Rxf8 23. Rxg5 Rxg8 24. Rxh5 Rxh8 25. Rxh6 Rxh7 26. Rxg6 Rxg7 27. Rxf6 Rxf7 28. Rxe6 Rxe7 29. Rxd6 Rxd7 30. Rxc6 Rxc7 31. Rxb6 Rxb7 32. Rxa6 Rxa7 33. Ra3 Ra10 34. a4 a9 35. b4 b9 36. c4 c9 37. d4 d9 38. e4 e9 39. f4 f9 40. g4 g9 41. h4 h9 42. Rhh3 Rhh10 43. Ng3 Ng10 44. Bf3 Bf10 45. Ke3 Ke10 46. Qd3 Qd10 47. Bc3 Bc10 48. Nb3 Nb10 borders=0 firstRank=1 rimColor=#b9a9dc holeColor=#b9a9dc darkShade=#f17a9c lightShade=#ff99cc coordColor=#ffc6d5 hole::::a1-h1,a2-h2,a11-h11,a12-h12 pawn:P:fmW*fceFiD:pawn:a2,b2,c2,d2,e2,f2,g2,h2,,a11,b11,c11,d11,e11,f11,g11,h11 knight:N:NiD:knight:b1,g1,,b12,g12 bishop:B:BiD:bishop:c1,f1,,c12,f12 rook:R:RiD:rook:a1,h1,,a12,h12 queen:Q:QiD:queen:d1,,d12 king battler:K:niiQKiD:king--queen:e1,a7,b7,c7,d7,e7,f7,g7,h7,a8,b8,c8,d8,e8,f8,g8,h8,a9,b9,c9,d9,e9,f9,g9,h9,a10,b10,c10,d10,e10,f10-h10

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