Comments by Alfred Pfeiffer

Of course this variant is new, but there are already some examples 
with chess for one-dimensional boards:

1) The 'One Ring Chess' by L. L. Smith 2001, where 32 fields are
   arranged to build a closed circle, published at the Zillions page
   http://www.zillions-of-games.com/games/oneringchess.html.


2) I have a bilingual book (German and English) 

  Dr. Karl Fabel, C. E. Kemp: 'Schach ohne Grenzen - Chess unlimited'
  Walter Rau Verlag, Duesseldorf und Kempten, 1969

with the following short section about the subject (I quote from the
english part, FCR = Fairy Chess Review, TDR = Thomas Rayner Dawson):

  Boards

  We now move off the 8x8 board, it is sometime necessary!
  In 1944, as a wartime diversion, FCR had a tourney for problems
  of any kind on an one-dimensional board, that is a single line
  of squares of any lenght.  N. M. Gibbins who proposed and judged
  the tourney, expected the entry to be small.  In fact there were
  85 problems.  TDR won 1st. and 2nd. prizes with two sets of
  problems.  The themes of the first set, of 8, were 'self-
  interference, line-closing, grab, crosscheck, chain interference,
  mutual obstruction, and triangular Grimshaw interference'!  How
  did he get all this on a single line?  By using composite pieces.

  No. 1 is one of this set.  We will refer to squares simply by the
  the numbers 1, 2, ... 15, 16, starting from the bottom.  The rider
  (R for short) at 16 can be play along 16, 13, 10, 7, 4, 1, as a 
  3-rider, and along 16, 11, 6, 1, as a 5-rider.  The problem is 
  built on the fact that 16 and 1 are in both sets.  The solution is  
  1. K9 P5, 2. P12#;  1.... P12, 2. P5#.  Not 1. P5 threat 2. Rx13# 
  as black is stalemate, P13 is now pinned.  And not 1. P12 threat 
  2. Rx6#, also stalemate as P6 is now pinned.  

  These are two highly thematic tries.  The mates are discovered
  mates, there is a double battery from the rider at 16.  Two-line
  chess on a one-line board!

The position which the referred diagram No. 1 to is following;

White: K8, R16, P4, P10 (R = combined 3-rider and 5-rider, 4 pieces)
Black: K1, P2, P6, P12 (4 pieces);  Board 1 x 16, 
Mate in 2,  FCR 1944.


Regards,
Alfred Pfeiffer

I still have a question: When multiple pieces are mated, and then the
removing of the first of them results in the effect that the remaining
piece(s) no longer will be mated, do you then stop the removing or
do you continue to remove until you have removed all initially mated 
pieces?

Hi Joerg,

I assume in German 'official' names for Ultima pieces does not exist.
Each author tries to find the best adaption.  The German version of
Zillions used names that differ from my inventions. I wrote a small
article for the magazin 'Computer-Schach und Spiele'. Please look to
'http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~apf/Gnaax/CV/Ultima/ultima2.html'
for the content.

Friendly greetings,
Alfred Pfeiffer

'I'd like to set up a game where white chooses a piece to use and drops
  it on his first rank.  This causes an identical blue piece to appear 
  blue's first rank on the rotationally (or perhaps reflectionally)
  on symmetrical square...'

I propose to define an additional direction (here called 'mirror') that
links the squares from the first row to its symmetrical field. Example:

  (board
    (Board-Definitions)
    (links mirror (a1 h8)(b1 g8)(c1 f8)(d1 e8)(e1 d8)(f1 c8)(g1 b8)(h1
a8))
  )

Then in the setup phase you should be able to determine 'easily' by use
of
this additional direction, where related pieces are to be placed.

For different variants of symmetry use different lists for 'mirror'.

I work on a zrf with a variant for each Patch Level.
In some cases my interpretation of the rules differs 
lightly with those in Larry's zrf.
I hope I can it offer this week (perhaps tomorrow) to
the community.

Alfred Pfeiffer

I could contact the inventor Panos Louridas and resolve some of the details
that remained untold in the article and my previous comment (19.01.2006).

First I should mention again, that an essential paramater in this game is
the _number of types_ of pieces that a player owns. If it is only 1 or 
less then for this player virtual play never occurs. This ruling principle
will help (I hope) to understand the following clarifications.

1) We should complete the rules about the capturing of pieces (real
or virtual) by the following:

If the number of types of pieces (real and potential) of a player will 
reduced by the capture to 1 and he owns virtual stones yet then the 
virtual piece(s) of this player will be replaced instantly by the 
potential pieces they stand for, and this event is not the start of 
a recycling (because such players are excluded from playing with 
virtual pieces).

2) Promotions of Pawns:

The owner of the pawn chooses (at usual) a piece to become for the pawn.
This pieces goes to the resevoir and becomes a virtual piece on the board

then and only then if the number of types of pieces in the reservoir 
will be greater than 1 (including the new piece by the promoting).
If this condition is not fulfilled the promoted piece stays a real piece.

Examples:

a) Before the promoting of a pawn the player does not own any other 
   piece.  Then the promoted piece will remain real evidently.

b) Before the promoting of a pawn the player owns only one type of other
   piece(s) (always real by the rules mentioned above). If he chooses
   for the promoting pawn the same type as he already owns then all
   of his pieces will stay real; if he chooses for the pawn a piece of
   another type then instantly all of his pieces will go to the his 
   reservoir and will be substituted by virtual piecs on the board.
   Furthermore the player also will take part again in the future
   recycling cycles.

c) Before the promoting of a pawn the player owns more than one types
   of pieces, but all of them except one are already in the real state.
   If now the player chooses the same type of piece like the one that
   is represented by his last virtual piece then the promoted piece
   stay real; if he chooses a type other than that of the virtual
   his promoted piece will become virtual and the choosen type of
   piece will be added to his reservoir.

d) Before the promoting of a pawn the player owns more than one types
   of pieces and at least two of its pieces are in the virtual state 
   and stand for different types.  In this case the promoted pieces
   always becomes a virtual piece and the choosen promotion goes to
   the reservoir.


Friendly Greetings,
Alfred Pfeiffer

Hello Mats,

why do you not use an other name for your new piece?
'Elk' (German 'Elch')is already the name for a known fairy chess
piece
(look at 'http://www.softdecc.com/pdb/pieces.pdb?langt=EN&langn=EN').

There is already a lot of confusion because of the existence of
different names for same pieces, but the situation becomes extrem
mistakably by using same names for different pieces.

Alfred Pfeiffer

P.S.: This remark is valid also for other new pieces you introduced,
e.g. 'http://www.chessvariants.org/piececlopedia.dir/scorpion.html'
describes an other 'Scorpion', and maybe also the name 'Mammoth' is
already used by fairy chess composers (but I do not know their 
definition).