Comments by CBagleyJones

http://www.ancientchess.com/
you can buy from here, i didn't look to see where it is, but i highly
doubt they would rip you off.

Claudio, i like it! (sorry for late reply).
thanks for taking an interest in 'the shortrange project', i think it
should be added to 'project 2', i am sure Joe would agree.
If we can't put a zrf together, we can at least add info/link for this
game.

i know i'm late with this, but happy new year everyone, thanks to David
and Fergus and all editors and contributors, readers and players etc etc,
hope all is fine and well, thanks for making this site the best chess
variant site in world (yes the world) !!!!
So many great variants created last year, hope this year brings many more,
which i'm sure it will!

sorry yep there will be seperate pages done for each game, but you can see
descriptions of each game here (starting half way down the page)
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MPtheshortrangep
(ohhh not having zillions, how can a chess variant lover do without it!)
Joe will be doing pages for each game soon, i don't know why he is taking
so long :)

hello :))
after white plays h1-e4 black has five diff moves to get out of mate and i believe this is more than enough. After black moves a tripper in front of the king, if white decides the play the same piece again and check black king then black can move their king forward. Now i know in normal chess, moving the king to the 2nd rank on your second move is not good, lol, in this game, it is fine, the king can nicely move up the board because of the nature of the pieces in the game, and the king is a 'strong fighting piece' in this kind of game. Also, it is interesting i thought that there is a mate on the 2nd move hehe.

i tested the game a lot, and didnt find white had any winning advantage.
the idea of this game is to give pieces which are generally seen only in fairy chess problems a field of play. Having pawns in the game makes these pieces very awkward to play, so with no pawns these pieces can freely play without problems associated with pawns, and play they do, surprising well and flowing very happily. the very set up of the pieces actually makes them not come in contact with each other easily in the opening play.

the idea of having a queen in the game i would consider extremely bad because it is too powerful and would destroy the mood of the game, and also a piece that moves like alfil/dababa too strong and would also destroy flow and mood of game.

well i hope this site is going well, i take a look every now and then and of course new games keep getting invented, nice :)

i have been playing 'World of Warcraft' these last few years, what an amazing game :)

kk all the best, bye for now :)

Yes this is brilliant game, but u know u can play this game under a few variant rules, besides actually capturing the king, u can also play this game using the standard checkmate style.

Steve Nichols has a site where u can download a nice program that plays these variants, http://www.chaturanga.com/

Playing the 'double mate' variant, red and yellow play of course against black and green. Now how this works is, if for instance, red army mates black, then, black now cannot move as the different armies make their moves around the board (order is red, black, yellow, green).

So red would move, then yellow, then green, and so forth. Because each army has only 3 major pieces, this can often tie up the pieces and make them unable to move, if they want to 'hold' the mate on the board. Yellow would be able to attack the non-moving mated black army, and capture pieces, but this of course could lead the release of mate on black, but if enough pieces are taken then this of course can be ok. Green is not going to stand around and do nothing, and would try to attack red to try to release the mate on the black army, or even try to mate yellow!! If green can release black from mate, then black would again be able to start to make moves!

Exciting gameplay indeed. I did play a game with a friend, and early in the game, his red army did mate my black side, but, on his very next move as red, his ONLY legal move was to move his ship, which released my black army from mate, and, by the way, haha, i went on to win the game.

I play this game with a few friends and all agree this 'double mate' variant is the best way to play.

ok, giving this game an excellent rating because of your effort to make this a zrf in the style of playing it with no dice, and, because this is my fav game too hehe, well done :)

hey, u would have to walk on the board to make move would u? (lol)
love how big it is, probably would be hell to play :)

what is the difference between 'step' and 'slide', is 'step' different from 'leap', i dont kinda understand.

i think what Carlos meant to say was ...
'Fergus: What do you think about (this chess variant site) running a
tourney like this?'

I find it interesting about talking about pawns, and i would like the throw
some ideas around. Pawns no doubt are the soul of chess, they keep the game
structured. If the game of chess was just played with pieces alone, the
game would quickly become chaotic. They put a boundary between both armies,
and this is very desireable.

However, within the realm of chess variants, because of the nature and
concept of the games created, sometimes pawns would destroy the chess
variant.

Take for instance, 'The Travelers' by Roberto Lavieri. This is a
brilliant game, but there are no pawns, and there is no place for pawns in
this game, it would destroy the 'nature and concept' of this game
entirely. Also my game 'Sky', pawns would destroy the freedom of movement
of the 
unusually long jumping leapers, and pawns also here would destroy the flow
of the game. These games i think one can easily see how pawns are not
desired.

Lets have a look at Joe Joyce's game (hey Joe) in relation to pawns. Well,
first off, it is played on a very big playing field (16x12). How do pawns
go holding structure on a huge board like this? It must be harder to do
than on a 8x8. Now what is the 'nature and concept' of this game. Joe can
best answer this i'm sure. Just off the top of my head, it is centered on
piece play, and because the board is very big, we wont find the 'chaotic'
nature that would arise on an 8x8 board if this was played just with
pieces. Also, there is a rule in this game that greatly hammpers the
chaotic nature of a game that plays just with pieces ....

'No piece may ever move unless it is activated by a chieftain which has to
be within 3 squares of it at the start of its move'.

Probably also, on this size board, Joe has not put too many pieces in the
game, and lastly, the pieces are short range, and not powerful pieces.

I think a lot of chess variants are 'thinking out of the square' and the
rules that hold to chess or games very 'chess like' cannot be applied to
all chess variants.
 
Anyway, discuss, lol :)

By the way, hi to everyone here at this great site, i've been away for
awhile, busy and stuff. As regards the tournament u are all talking about,
i don't think i can play, but maybe in the future i can get it together
and find time to play in one.

Thank you very much for the link there Mr. Knappen (i can't read your first name, webpage doesn't show 2nd letter, is it 'Jorg').
That page looks fantastic, lots of info, but it's in german right, lol, dang i can't read it lol.
I can make out some stuff though, and yes the 5-1 leaper there is called 'Ibis', and, come to think of it, i don't know if i have ever seen the 5-1 even mentioned. Also that page show's the 'flamingo', and besides this site, that is another leaper that is not mentioned on other pages too, i don't think George Jelliss has it on his page.
Also, that page gives two names for the 4-2 leaper, 'Lancer' and 'Hase'. Mr. Jelliss also calls 4-2 leaper 'Lancer', so, this page is not connected with him, right?

Oh, Charles, who is 'Torsten Linss', u give a link to some problems he composed about the 'flamingo'.

i'm not fully sure what is going on around here but it's entertaining.

*makes popcorn*

Heya Fergus, after our talk last week about pawns i thought i'd check out your game here. And i must say, it's been a lot of fun!!
Now, if u don't know, i am a big fan of the more 'chaturanga, shatranj' etc etc styled pieces, and have only played games with these 
kind of pieces for years now. So, this game, looked very daunting to me, to say the least, as i pondered my first move, hehe.

After the first couple of games, i was all over the place, the game seemed hard the manage, very dynamic and nearly chaotic. But 
then, after a few more games, i started to get a feel for it, and i had some wonderful games. I'm rating 'excellent'.

Nearly right from the start, the game seems dynamic to me, and it stays that way throughtout the game, but there seems to be a 
steadiness of play, the 'chaotic' i felt at first, was 'controlled', still there, but it's balanced and 'held' in the game. 
The Cavlier's i think put a uniqueness to the game. They do act as 'pawn's' but they are more flexible than a pawn, and 
when they get to the 8th rank they are in striking distance of promoting.

Nice piece placement for the opening, and great seeing the 'nightrider' playing too. Sometimes, in a somewhat wild position, it 
was interesting playing a cavlier non-threateningly up the board and feeling it was safe and the best move.
I really feel the cavlier makes this game unique and exciting. Great work.

Hey this game looks great, love the big board and not too many pieces added, really like the 'duke' too. I will have to check out the game courier logs, i like this type of game because one can learn more about gameplay with fairly short range type pieces on a very large board. Great stuff.

ok, i worked out what the problem was with 'ballista_north' and 'ballista _south' files.

there is a 'space' after the last letter, before the '.bmp'

i.e. 

'wballista_north .bmp' etc etc.

Claudio, i'm from Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. We recently got flooded bad here but the house i live in was fine, all good.
Now, what alfaeirie graphic's don't we have for what, hehe?
Sorry :)

oh, piece naming, it's a pain, i like to use the 'orginal' name mostly for pieces but some pieces get so well known by certain names in your 'community' that it is hard to resist, some names u don't like, etc etc.
i got no time at the moment, got to go out but i'll revisit the sticky subject of piece naming, bye for now, and, 'where's my beer' :)

what Joe is trying to say here is fide chess sucks cause the queen is way
too overpowered for the 8x8 board :))