Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Thank you for your interest in Herb garden chess.

I do not follow what you mean by the following comment.

'GHI,LargeCV'

Large CV perhaps means Large Chess Variant, but GHI puzzles me.

You might perhaps like to have a look at my Quest Chess font which has
characters for Herb garden chess within it.

It is available from the following web page.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/fonts.htm

There is a pdf document using the font.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/quechess.PDF

The font is also used in the following pdf documents.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/marquesses.PDF

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/chessclub.PDF

They are part of a collection of pdf documents most of which do not
involve chess at all.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/usinggraphicsandfonts.htm

The marquesses mentioned above are pieces from the variant version of
Tree
garden chess.

Thank you for your interest in Herb garden chess.

William Overington

25 February 2005

As this game was played by various people during the judging of the 84
spaces contest, and possibly in other circumstances as well, does anyone
have any recorded games which could either be posted or sent to me by
email please as I would be interested to study how people played the game
and to have the information as a record of a game which I invented being
played.
 
William Overington
 
19 October 2003
 
WOverington@ngo.globalnet.co.uk

A font which includes sorts for Herb garden chess is now available at the
following web page.

http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ngo/font7007.htm

For details of the code points, please see my note about the font in the
comments on the Tree garden chess web page.

William Overington

25 May 2003

I notice a recent addition of a comment to this page that

The above was edited/posted ....

Could you please clarify this in that I sent in a text file in accordance
with the rules of the 84 Spaces Contest and that the colourful web page
diagram was added by a member of the editorial team and a web page
marshalled by a member of the editorial team yet that my original text has
not been altered at all and is fully my own written work exactly as
entered for the 84 Spaces Contest.

Here is a change to the rules of Herb garden chess.

It is as a result of a similar change to the rules of Tree garden chess. 
There are some notes in the discussion about Tree garden chess which
explain the reasons for the rule change.

So, delete the following from the rules.

Each side may only use castling, championing or centauring once in any
one game and provided that the king has not been checked at any previous
time in that game and provided that both the king and the participating
piece have not moved previously during the game. 

Add the following to the rules in the place from where the above was
deleted.

Each side may only use castling, championing or centauring once in any
one game and provided that both the king and the participating piece
have not moved previously during the game.  Castling, championing and
centauring may only take place if the king is not in check at the start
of the process, does not pass across a square which is under attack and
does not end upon a square which is under attack.  If a king has been
previously checked in a game, the fact of that king having been
previously checked in the game does not prevent castling, championing
or centauring taking place.

> Well, I will force your centaur to retreat because I'll attack it with my
knight.

Well your white knight may sally forth thinking that my centaur will
retreat, yet in fact he jumps so as still to protect the pawn yet also to
look as if he will attack your knight!

Indeed, the centaur does quite a lot of gesturing at the knight so that
hopefully some black piece will advance so as to try to attack him on the
square where he is located, whereupon he might jump so as to fork a
bishop, a champion and a rook all in one go!

However, unfortunately, brave though the fork might look, taking a piece
would lead to the loss of the centaur as well, so perhaps, if attacked, he
might gallop elesewhere, leaving the pawn originally protected now to fend
for itself.

Ah well, it was a nice defence while it lasted! :-)

Well, I will force your centaur to retreat because
I'll attack it with my knight. The champion cannot provide
protection either. I advance another pawn to attack
it with the bishop.

--JKn

> * The centaurs' pawns are unprotected and immediately targeted
by the bishops after a central pawn has moved. The only defense 
I see is to advance the knight's pawn one step.

What about the two possible moves of a centaur, moving as a knight to then
offer protection in the manner of a bishop?

This then .... yet wait, why should I explain a black defence when you
might challenge me to a game where you play white and I have to defend?
:-)

What about the move of a knight to offer protection to the pawn?

Is there perhaps a scholar's mate somewhere amongst the herbs?

Sigh, I cannot rate this one 'good', alltho 'poor'
sounds a bit too harsh for me. The white side has
too big an advantage right from the start:

* It has the priviledge to advance a pawn with a double step
directly onto the middle line. Black cannot mirror this move.

* The centaurs' pawns are unprotected and immediately targeted
by the bishops after a central pawn has moved. The only defense 
I see is to advance the knight's pawn one step.

In consequence, white can advance both the king and the queen's
pawns two steps and still has the initiative. 

Possible improvement of the game: Rearrange the opening area,
add a handicap to white's first move.

A last point: I love the extended castlings of the two garden variants.

--J'org Knappen