What was new in November and December 1999

• Week of December 27 - December 31, 1999:
  • Ganymede Chess. Sample game with commentary added.
  • timurschess.zip. Tamerlane's Chess for Zillions of Games. Plus Shatranj and an Oblong variation of Shatranj. Some visual and rule improvements by Francis Monkman.
  • Piececlopedia additions:
    • Moa moves like knight but cannot jump first diagonal square. Written by Hans Bodlaender.
    • Vao moves like bishop but must jump when taking. Written by Hans Bodlaender.
    • Root-fifty leaper makes a (5,5)-jump or an (7,1)-jump. Written by Hans Bodlaender.
• Week of December 19 - December 26, 1999:
  • Happy Holidays!
• Week of December 12 - December 18, 1999:
  • Photos of King's Court. Another in a series of photographs of the 1999 Large Variant Contest Finalists.
  • (Updated) Grander Chess. A variant of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. By Kevin Scanlon.
  • Europan Chess. A 14x14 board with extra pieces. By Mark E Hedden.
  • Zillions of Games 1.1.1 has been released!
  • Zillions of Games Demo. Try out a limited version of Zillions of Games for FREE!
  • Visit the Chess Variants Forum on the experimental Collaborative Document Server of Bo Leuf. This is similar to our Yahoo club, except it's much more fexible and allows entries to be edited. I think this will be great for collaborative projects.
  • 3-D Chess added to the Chess Shop page.
  • Chess: 3D quick reference updated. (Link.)
  • Double Chess sample game has been updated with more frequent diagrams.
• Week of December 5 - December 11, 1999:
  • Crazy Lightning Chess. Also called 'Surprise Chess', this is speed chess combined with an umpire calling out random rule changes. Additional information sent by David Regis.
  • Convergent Chess. Attack king directly or move to its home square on board with 40 squares. By A. J. Winkelspecht.
  • Mini Burmese Chess. Small variant of Burmese Chess. By A. J. Winkelspecht.
  • convergent-miniburmese.zip (download). Zillions of Games implementations of the above-mentioned variants (Convergent Chess and Mini Burmese Chess). Implemented by A. J. Winkelspecht.
  • Chess Variant Pages Shop updated.
  • Lichen Chess. Pieces are modular, and each piece may contain fragments belonging to both players. By Alexandre Muñiz.
  • Stratomic. 10x10 board with two extra pieces on each side (tactical nuclear missiles). Sent by Bo Leuf. Invented by Robert Montay.
  • 40squaregames.zip (download). Four 40-square contest related variants implemented for Zillions of Games: Toto40, Philosopher's Chess, Diamond Chess and Magician Chess. Implemented by Jens Markmann.
  • amphora.zip (download). An updated version of the Zillions of Games implementation of Amphora, which now implements most of the rules. Implemented by Jens Markmann.
  • Chassyrinth. A 'color-attribute' based hexagonal chess variant. By Kumar Yelubandi. (Link.)
  • Microorganism Chess. A 16x16 board with pieces that behave like micro-organisms. By Mark E Hedden.
• Week of November 28 - December 4, 1999:
  • November 1999 Letterbox.
  • New Zillions-of-Games files:
    • Bedlam (bedlam.zip),
    • Clockwork Orange Chess (cwochess.zip), and
    • Fusion Chessgi (fusion-chessgi.zip).
  • Updated Magnetic Chess magnetic.zip (bug fixes).
  • Mind-games event in Milan, December 4-8, 1999, with Chess, Shogi and Chess Variants. (Link.)
  • Odds Chess. Ways of giving a weaker opponent better odds. Written by Roger Cooper.
  • Free Placement. Players alternate placing pieces on board. Written by Roger Cooper.
  • Free Castling. Less restrictive castling rules. Written by Roger Cooper.
  • Taxonomy updated. Added a new category called "Size".
  • Clockwork Orange Chess. Captured pieces are replaced with non-capturing counterparts. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Fusion Chessgi. A hybrid of Fusion Chess and Chessgi. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Bedlam. A hybrid of Metamorphin' Fusion Chess and Chessgi. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Grander Chess. A variant of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. By Kevin Scanlon.
  • Separate. orthodox chess, but Queens each start trapped behind enemy lines. By Brian Wong.
  • Ganymede Chess. A 12x12 variant inspired by Ralph Betza's Chess on a really big board, Centennial Chess, and Adrian King's Typhoon (among others). By Mark E Hedden.
  • Vote for the Winner of the 1999 Large Variant Contest! Which one was the best?!
• Week of November 21 - November 27, 1999:
  • Random Pieces. A 20 game match is played, with each player receiving a number of pieces equal in value to the game number. By Roger Cooper.
  • Z-Chess World Open Tournament!
  • Half-finals European Championship Hexagonal Chess. With three sample games.
  • Chess Lucena. True type chess font by Armando Marroquin from Mexico. (Zip-file.)
  • Magician Chess. Variant on 7 by 7 board with nine holes and magician able to move holes. By Jonathon Whittle.
  • Complete interview with Seth McGinnis. Seth was the winner of the contest to design a chess variant on 39 squares.
• Week of November 14 - November 20, 1999:
  • magnetic.zip (download, 29k). Updated version of the Zillions of Games implementation of Magnetic Chess -- fixes bug in Anti-Gravity Chess for when an enemy pawn is repelled to its promotion zone.
  • eightstone.zip (download, 23k). Updated version of the Zillions of Games version of Jim Aikin's Eight-Stone Chess. Fergus Duniho updated the .ZIP file to store the files in the correct locations, and also implemented the 'Ko Rule'.
  • Fault Line. An entry for 40-Squares Chess Variant Contest with shifting rows.
  • Fabrice Liardet. Tons of Losing Chess, lots of Bughouse, and a few others too. In French. (Link.)
  • Jordan Becker's Kriegspiel Chess page. (Link.)
  • New address for Bishops. (Link.)
  • magnetic.zip (download, 29k). A Zillions of Games implementation of Joao Pedro Neto's Magnetic Chess, Anti-Magnetic Chess, Gravity Chess, and Anti-Gravity Chess. Implemented by Joao Pedro Neto and Fergus Duniho.
• Week of November 7 - November 13, 1999:
  • Yutopian's Page for Chinese Chess. Page devoted to information on, and products for Chinese Chess. (Link.)
  • Haynie's Great Chess. A decimal chess variant with Cardinals, Marshals Amazons, Nightriders Commoners, Firzans, Wazirs, Camels, and Zebras. By Billy Haynie.
  • Crazyhouse. A two-player version of Bughouse.
  • chessgi.zip (download, 7k). A Zillions of Games implementation of Chessgi, a popular hybrid of Chess and Shogi. Implemented by Fergus Duniho.
  • crazyhouse.zip (download, 7k).A Zillions of Games implementation of Crazyhouse, a two-player version of Bughouse, similar to Chessgi and Shogi. Implemented by Fergus Duniho.
  • Fusion Chess. Variant in which pieces may merge together or split apart. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Metamorph Chess. Variant in which pieces transform by fixed rules into other pieces. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Metamorphin' Fusion Chess. A hybrid of Metamorph Chess and Fusion Chess. By Fergus Duniho.
  • Scorpion: piece for the piececlopedia. Fairy chess piece formed by given grasshopper powers to a king.
  • Shatranj problem: Dilaram's Legacy. Easy Shatranj problem (about 1001 years old) with a story about two kingdoms attached to it.
  • Interview with Seth McGinnis. Seth was the winner of the contest to design a chess variant on 39 squares.
  • New items added to the Chess Shop and Chess Variant Shop.
• Week of October 31 - November 6, 1999:
  • Stupidhouse. Variant of Double Bughouse or Tandem Chess where partners have the same color.
  • Photos of Quang Trung Chess. Another in a series of photographs of the 1999 Large Variant Contest Finalists.
  • Sting. Kings have additional grasshopper power.

• Index to older `whatsnew' files.