Comments by BobGreenwade
Piececlopeida: Advancer. Moves like a Queen, but captures by approach.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I did get a kind of Centaur when I asked it to draw a chess piece of a doe. But it was a lady centaur with bare breasts and a weird horn on one side of her head. When I repeated the prompt, I got a hornless deer, which is what I was originally going for. See the Withdrawer page for that image.
Oh! The lady centaur (a centauride) would've been great for the Amazon page, as an Amazonrider, which I call Centauride... well, if not for those two other details.
Immobilizer. Pieces standing near an immobilizer may not move.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I don't think these images add much to these pages. I'd rather see them in a separate article. To the points about different piece sets/themes, you could aggregate similarly themed examples into a "set" article.
I second this idea. A discussion on designing physical pieces for chess (both orthodox and fairy) would be a good idea, especially taking some of the thoughts that have been mentioned in this discussion. It'd be a lot of work sifting through images to find acceptable ones, but in the end I think it'd be worth it.
(Other things I wonder: How, in a one-color piece, does one show the difference between a Knight's horse and a Zebra, or a Leopard and a Tiger? How do I figure out how tall a piece should be? Stuff like that.)
Piececlopeida: Advancer. Moves like a Queen, but captures by approach.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]They should be simple to be made by a hobbyist, using a lathe or 3D printer, ergonomic, and distinctive. Why not include such files (which will be eventually made by someone) in every Piececlopedia article? There's no need to create a design classic, just something that can be very simple, yet different and efficient. It should be compatible with a standard Staunton-like chess set.
I fully agree here. Of the designs I've seen, I think Jean-Louis's come the closest (certainly, mine don't fit with Staunton designs, or at least scant few do).
... I've also been getting really good results with DreamShaper.
Nice that you mention this. I have it a while with about a dozen or more possibilities (not including three or four tries at getting it to understand what a centaur is), and all I got decent results for were Exorcist, Tax Collector, and Vulture (and an almost good one for a Bharal). That's actually more than I expected.
The discussion on some of the Piececlopedia pages about AI design led me to do a bit of experimentation, and two different AI art systems gave me remarkably similar results for a Tax Collector piece. So, I emulated the ideas there to come up with a look for the piece that I think is quite better.
It's somewhat more abstract, and it's less obvious about what it is without being told, but it's pretty recognizable and distinctive from other pieces, and less awkward in many other ways, so I like it better.
56. NARF. This is another name-describes-the-move piece, I was just walking around the other day, trying to come up with words that would fit this in some way, and this word popped into my head. I tried it out and, somewhat to my surprise, it makes for a fairly elegant-looking diagram. (NARF)
I'd give it a counterpart, but somehow BWND doesn't quite work the same way (unless you're Welsh). I may yet relent, though, if I can come up with a decent visual.
Still, this piece is ready to stand tall next to any rodentine Royal piece on a mission to take over the world.
(And hopefully it won't generate any heat from a certain media company.)
Scheherazade has a WAN piece called a Jumper, but I'm not finding anything with FDN. Scheherazade's FNDD is called a Flyer, so based on that I'd suggest that FDN could be a Glider.
If the name is only used in the Interactive Diagram, and doesn't appear in the text, you can safely assume that I just made it up for the purpose.
In this case, I'd call it a joint invention.
If it were me, I'd go with Panda (FDN) and Sable (WAN).
57. Vivi. This piece was created by Ralph Betza, though as far as I can tell it's never appeared anywhere other than his Bent Riders article. I think that's too bad; I think it'd be very welcome along with Spears (expained below).
The Vivi gets its name from the appearance of its move diagram: it moves one space forward or backward; and then, from either space, moves diagonally forward like a Bishop.([fW?fB][bW?bB])
Spears are pieces with sliding forward moves but little or no backward move -- basically, "Pawnriders," with almost as many possible variations. Because of the latter, they're typically as eligible for promotions as Pawns, at least in my mind. I like sometimes to put Spears in a row right behind Pawns in a game with four or more rows of pieces.
As you can imagine, this was one of the easier and simpler piece designs.
Spell Chess. A limited supply of freeze and jump spells allow you to hinder the opponent or get extra moves. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The old writer's joke is, "I don't need spell checkers; I use spell chess!" Now it's a reality.
@Bn Em: Ah, well. I'd rather just call it Slip-Rook, but that's just me; I was just speaking off the top of my head anyway.
What''s the diagonal counterpart (Slip-Bishop)?
@Max: Thanks! (The design was kind of a no-brainer, though.)
I've done enough Pieces of the Day that I've made myself a document here (at home, on my computer) listing them all. I had to fix a couple of numbers here -- plus, I found a couple of pieces that I should've shared somewhat earlier, so I'll get to those over the next couple of days.
Remember: these aren't just pieces invented by me, but also obscure historical pieces, and of course cool pieces invented by other contributors on this site. The latter two are ideas that I think deserve more recognition and application (even if a lot of my own are more thought exercise than practical piece, the recent Root-N25 Leaper being a deliberate case in point).
Next week, I plan to pick out my second-worst group of physical designs (because the first-worst group is too awful to even upload) and see who might have suggestions for them to improve.
I think that's about as good of an answer as you're likely to get, Jean-Louis. Name them what you want.
(I still like the idea of using the names of animals indigenous to China. Maybe Australia -- Koala and Dingo?)
Well, I'll probably go ahead and build them as Koala and Dingo and then put them in something (if nothing else, an expansion for Dealer's Chess), but there's no need to mention anything I've done in a book since I'm such a new face.
58. Malkia. Some time ago, I presented the Kuhani (26) and Mtawala (27), compounds of the Zebra with (respectively) the Bishop and Rook. I intended to include the Queen compound of the set, but forgot about it, so here it is. (QZ)
All things considered, this is my favorite piece of my own invention -- the move, the name, and the piece design all come together just right. (The Kuhani and Mtwala certainly didn't come out looking this good!)
Any resemblance between this piece and the costumes worn by Angela Bassett in the Black Panther movies is neither deliberate nor coincidental. Both drew heavily on actual headgear worn by women of power in eastern Africa.
Chess on a Tesseract. Chess played over the 24 two-dimensional sides of a tesseract. (24x(5x5), Cells: 504) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I still have a few more details to work out and write out, but there's enough here for people to comment on (particularly the questions posed in the text).
Featured Chess Variants. Chess Variants Featured in our Page Headers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I think it looks great!
59. Pyramid. The Pyramid is a piece that cannot move, cannot be moved, and cannot be captured.
To date, it's been used exclusively in fairy chess problems, and it would seem at first look that that's all it's good for. But it does have a little potential, as either a drop or a Pawn promotion (especially a Mecklenbeck Pawn). As a drop, it can be put in a place that blocks an attack (especially a check) where the opponent's response with any other piece would be to simply capture the blocking piece, leaving the player in no better position.
Even just getting a Pawn (again, especially a Mecklenbeck Pawn) to promote to a Pyramid in the opponent's home area can throw a wrench into things, depending on where it is.
The design is, obviously, a pyramid; it nearly fills a square, and it's taller than any other piece (including the King).
Featured Chess Variants. Chess Variants Featured in our Page Headers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]For some reason, this diagram is making an error message "ambiguous illegal move 3. Wf4" to pop up on my screen.
Well, of course we're 3D figures, and in battle situations we tend to "make do" with 2D space -- though a variant might be interesting that had "trees" (elevated squares, or 4x4 areas) where rifle-capturing pieces could snipe at others.
60. Pirate Ship. Simiilar to the Pirate (one of my first posts), the Pirate Ship is a "neutral" piece that may be moved by either player. Its move rotates the regular Ship: it moves one space diagonally, then proceeds outward orthogonally like a Rook, but instead of moving forward or backward like the Ship, the Pirate Ship moves sideways; and, like the Pirate, it may only move to capture. ([cF?scR])
Arguably, I should've left this piece until next Tuesday (International Talk Like a Pirate Day), but I've already mentioned other plans for the first four days of next week.
(I'm still not sure whether I should've left the sail on the ship.)
Dealer's Chess. Armies are chosen by dealing special cards. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Expansion Set #2 is up (in case anyone cares).
Featured Chess Variants. Chess Variants Featured in our Page Headers.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I second this: feature games that show some sort of innovative thinking. It's part of how I came up with Blender Chess, Dealer's Chess, Zwangkrieg, Chess on a Tesseract, and (to a lesser extent) Short Sliders (and the Leapers Who Love Them). I could easily nominate Pick-the-Team Chess or Deconstruction Chess for their creativity.
25 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.
I've drawn a few ideas from this chart that someone did on DeviantArt, but not so much the Immobilizer. For that I put an octagonal figure at the top (and as a bonus I can add that figure to other pieces to create immobilizing versions).
As for the gorgon here, I agree with Jean-Louis; the pose and the base both say "figurine" rather than "chess piece."