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Morley's Chess. Boards with enlarged sides.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Bn Em wrote on Sat, Feb 26, 2022 12:45 PM UTC:

Having just read the book, this description is erroneous. Morley does propose the first variant givn on this page, but it is an alternative proposal, offered almost reluctantly after a digression on Knight's Tours, to the one the book is ‘about’ (though in many ways it's really a long and winding — though charming — book of Chess‐variant apologetics); the main variant in the book has only the ‘corridors’ on the sides, not the ones behind the camps. The second version offered here would seem to be apocryphal.

The corridors originate, according to Morley, as a way of giving the Rooks' pawns the ability of capturing in both directions, as the other 6 pawns can. The promotion rule is, as suggested here, that pawns can promote on the enemy back rank — pawns are given the opportunity to capture into the corridor ‘at their own risk’.

The variant as a whole is intended to expand the possibilities of the game (and counteract its being ‘played out’ — not so much between players of equal strength, as between players of potentially equal intuitive ability but differing levels of learnedness, esp. re the Opening) without making any changes to the rules or pieces, in contrast to e.g. Henry Bird's earlier proposal (referred to in the text) which introduces the Carrera compounds, as the added complexity would in his opinion be, though perhaps interesting to experts, too intimidating for lay chessplayers.

As a change, the ‘inverse Gustavian’ board (i.e. adding everything except the corners on each side) is a nice way of accomplishing that goal imo (and indeed, the Gustavian board has the opposite goal: introducing new pieces while changing the board as little as possible).


George Duke wrote on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 03:35 PM UTC:
Morley*. Also there can be two promotion zones, or three promotion zones. Morley was serious about the expansion of the board to 88 and entire book is devoted to it world-war-two era. I believe David Howe cites it in section of the Guide. Try optimizing the rules here given the board and the pieces. A lot of so-called new CVs are really re-designs and optimizations not deserving separate game status. Pawns reaching corner maybe should have to underpromote in Morley rather than tack-on extra rule to get the Pawn out of there, suggested by the other two comments. Then if reaching the opponent's pieces' squares instead, there is the regular Queen promotion, obviously intended by Morley. And finally third if reaching the final back-rank, some higher possibility -- like the Amazon. Amazon I just mentioned recently as way to un-deadlock the tie problem Hutnik raises in going-on thread. But suggestion of Amazon there is somewhat frivolous, for real sake of condescension to ordinary gms understanding RBN right away if little else. The best draw-buster I can think of, for conventional implementation, is control of the central four by one or the other King. Morley would rather opt for this different board outright to rejuvenize Chess. Also, Black, compare this board by chess professional to Reshevsky's ''professional'' design at Zonal. Both retain pure and simple RNBKQP with boards saw-toothed-like. Now if wanting a CV rather than a reform, call Pawn reaching the originally empty back opponent rank an alternate Win course, and forget the Amazon. ///*F.W. Morley mathematician chess-involved is father of F.V. Morley who wrote the Chess book of larger boards. The same book is recollection of F.W.M. too.

(zzo38) A. Black wrote on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 02:10 AM UTC:
Another possible variant: Pawns which are stuck in corner can capture your own pieces as well as opponent's pieces.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, May 25, 2004 06:47 PM UTC:
There are, however, ways to get around a Pawn getting stuck in the corner, such as:<P> <UL><LI>Use Grunt Pawns, which can also move without capturing 1 <BR> square sideways</li> <LI>Use Berolina Pawns, which capture straight forwards and move <BR> without capturing diagonally forwards.</li></ul> Of course, the players must agree to which one they're using, if any, <BR> before the game starts.

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