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Joe Joyce wrote on Thu, Oct 8, 2009 08:13 PM UTC:
Thanks for the reference, George. Looked for games, found 1 that's on turn 1. It hasn't gotten a lot of action since it's been posted. It has its good points. For example, it's a short range game, having notably more short range pieces than 'infinite sliders'. Among its bad points: it has a whole bunch of short range leapers that are knight analogs. Aside from the knight [well, maybe including the knight], these pieces are all awkward to use, and as their ranges get more and more elongated, they get more and more awkward to use. Note the Bat of the game's title does not appear in the game being played, nor is it recommended to be used in standard play. In fact John Savard specifically states it should not be used, it is there for problems, not play. 

It appears to me this game was put together by a problemist more than a player. Six of his pieces per side are among the most useless around, alfils and dabbabahs. And they are carefully set up so one side's alfils oppose the other's dabbabahs. This is the problemist's mind at work, not a player's.

This is not a bad thing, except our discussion recently has been on playability, and in this game, you will be fighting your own pieces as much as your opponent's. That limits its appeal to the more cerebral types. And unless someone blunders, or conversely, is utterly brilliant for several turns, this will be a long game. Again, this is a matter of taste, but it limits the game's appeal even more. 

Me, I don't like difficult pieces; the simpler the better. But I have no objection whatsoever to long games. I don't actually like games that are really short. I figure games should probably fall into the 30 - 100 or so moves range and this would give reasonable time limits for the possibility of good chess games. Too much shorter and you are losing strategic depth. Too much longer and you could probably cut the game down in size profitably. 

One last point. These games are at a size where it makes sense to look for something in addition to the standard mechanics of chess just to handle all the pieces and play a game in a reasonable amount of time.

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