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Comments by DerekNalls
[Removed comment due to obsolescence.]
On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I respect the need to be diplomatic with a publication by an editor of the CV Pages. Overall, this is a fine, well-structured article covering the basics of chess variant design which fills a need using accessible language and clear examples. The only fault I find within it is that it does not, in sharp contrast to my own essay on the subject, contain a minimum of necessary value judgments. I cringed only at the parts where you advise newcomers to use the three classic games as models for good design and to intentionally create an east-west asymmetry within their armies. Even though you personally hold those preferences, I doubt the necessity of sending any-all trusting souls down those dead-end roads.
Please forgive my unclear writing.
I meant that our respective essays have very distinct purposes.
Mine is mainly documentation for a specific game, justifying its features in terms of likes and dislikes (based upon reason) with a maximum of value judgments.
Yours is an educational article of general purpose which should contain a minimum of value judgments (although quality itself unavoidably entails value judgments). Hopefully, many people will benefit from reading it over the years.
I do not wish to argue (further) about either of the two topics you
mentioned within your essay. I only wish to point-out that both topics are controversial and opinionated. As such, I ask you to seriously
consider whether or not they have a proper place within an article covering
the essentials (but not the abstracts) of sound chess variant design.
All of these comments are as readily available to the reader as your main article. They serve as sufficient warning to the reader that a couple of your hopefully-or-allegedly, best recommendations are controversial. For newcomers to learn to think critically and decide for themselves about every foundational, value judgment is in their best interests, anyway.
Chess Computers Unbeatable
(This article can be found at the Sofia News Agency.)
Chess variants with radically different game-ending objectives arguably do not meet the proper, restrictive definition of 'chess variants'. Still, a tournament which strays from the standard stuff by one or more criteria could be interesting (albeit embarrassing to those who only play strongly at games similar to standard FIDE chess). Yes, shine a spotlight into a dark, rare cubbyhole of the CV literature! Nothing radical, mind you. No games allowed that are not at least supported by the Zillions program. [Game Courier support, optional.] I am suggesting excluding games of the type that are usually included within these tournaments thereby including games that are usually excluded. Here are several example, exclusion criteria which would instantly eliminate the majority of well-known chess variants from illegibility. I am sure others can come-up with many more. 1. No chess variants played upon a rectangular (or square) board. 2. No chess variants using the standard white-black turn order. 3. No chess variants with the game-ending objective (established at the beginning of the game) of capturing a single royal piece (king, usually). 4. No chess variants using a majority of pieces common to chess, shogi or xiang-qi. 5. No chess variants with asymmetrical opening setups or gameboards. 6. No chess variants ever played in a previous tournament at the CV Pages. By the way, I am indifferent to speculations about my ulterior motives.
In fact, the Zillions program actually DOES have a ply depth control. It is illusive though and has been mistakenly presumed by many (including myself) to not exist. Please read this thread of interest from the Zillions discussion board: http://zillionsofgames.com/discus/ You must navigate manually the rest of the way since deep-linking is not supported. Zillions of Games Discussion Forum: Desired Features for Zillions of Games: Time keeping
Amazon Grand Chess. A combination of Grand Chess and Amazon Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I also agree with Duniho's proposal of a ban on sequelled game names by different inventors. For the purposes of eligibility for a contest, we should pass no judgment on the games themselves but for their names, the inventors should be made to 'go back to the drawing board' and come-up with something original.
Royal Queens Chess 
. Game with full board and all pieces are sliders or immobile and victory is by capture of all 8 opposing Queens.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Thank you for posting it but this game no longer exists anywhere. So, please delete this page since the link is dead.
Corner Chess. Fast-paced variant without pawns.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]With apologies to Dr. Friedlander for the loss of his fine work ... This was my first and worst game ever invented (in 1999). Several years and appr. 250 games later, I just don't like it anymore. So, please delete it.
Calculation of Piece Values
. Link to an essay on attack values, material values, relative piece values.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This work has been substantially revised and expanded recently to 29 pages. Please check it out again.
[Odd, my previous message was moderated. This one was not. Is there a bug possibly? Comment deleted as irrelevant.]
various remarks concerning draws description- Symmetrical Chess Collection http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/descript.pdf relevant excerpts p. 26-28 (first paragraph) ___________________________________________________ Note- Some remarks are admixed in context with the description of a game (Hex Chess SS) while other remarks are directed in a purely general manner.
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Chess Variant Pages Rating System. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]For that matter, any rating scale at all can offend game inventors (including the 4-tier one we are using right now). Still, we need a rating scale. It can be comparable to helpful advice. I don't think adjectives should be used at all (including the ones in our current system). When someone's game receives a below-average rating, bad words trigger people to get upset and feel insulted moreso than numbers.
Calculation of Piece Values . Link to an essay on attack values, material values, relative piece values.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]At 29 pages currently, I am still refining the model. Accordingly, I have recently started calculating material values for chess variants (other than my own) having fairly well-established (hopefully), published calculations or estimates of their relative piece values. I am having difficulty finding suitable games for comparison. Thusfar, I have made calculations for only 5 games with somewhat satisfactory results. I need more test cases. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Hex Chess (square-spaced) http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values.pdf Fischer Random Chess (including Chess) http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-chess.pdf Omega Chess http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-omega.pdf Capablanca Random Chess http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-capa.pdf Wildebeest Chess http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-wilde.pdf
Recognized Chess Variants. Index page listing the variants we feel are most significant. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The opening setups, piece moves and rules of the game are all well-explained. Many of us are so experienced at playing our favorite games, the relative piece values (where known and published) are at least, roughly obvious to us, consciously or subconsciously. However, this can be a maddening problem for newcomers- the difference between playing with a clear, tactical plan and playing blindly thru tactical chaos. For several games for which relative piece values are fairly well-established, they should be published upon their respective game pages. That is how Wikipedia does it!
Large Chess ZRF 
. ZRF for Capablanca's Chess plus variants: Bird's, Aberg's, Grotesque, Univers, Embassy, Janus, Archbishop, New Chancellor + more.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The next time you update this master file ... A worthy inclusion would be a game invented by David Paulowich that I believe is entitled Outrigger Chess. It is only described in an article by Betza listed on the CV Pages as 'Outrigger Chess'. The unique properties of this Capablanca variant have been discussed recently at the Yahoo group Chess Variants. Its opening setup is a piece of cake.
Chess. The rules of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]material values- all pieces Fischer Random Chess (including Chess) http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-chess.pdf
Fischer Random Chess. Play from a random setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]material values- all pieces Fischer Random Chess http://www.symmetryperfect.com/shots/values-chess.pdf
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