Comments by Glenn Nicholls

Regarding comments by M. Winther, Mark Thompson & Graeme Neatham – There
have been some very interesting comments recently about the future of
(western) chess particularly in connection with what is being termed the
problem of  “scrabblization” and the possible solution by the use of
randomisation.  I am not myself keen on the idea of randomisation and I do
not think this is the long-term future of chess, at least as far as being
the standard form of the game.  There is another way to overcome this
problem, however, and it was partly with this problem in mind that I wrote
the game of TigerChess.  In this game there are in all probability many
billions of viable opening lines and possibly many more than this and
together with the greater possibilities of middlegame tactics and
strategies the problem of scrabblization should be permanently solved. 
The game also keeps alive something of the game of checkers.
G. Nicholls

A reply to Charles Gilman: Whilst I do not intend to go back over ground already covered, it seems that you are wondering about one or two things…..

I wrote this game (with reference only to the standard games of Western and Chinese Chess) in its basic form several years before I was aware that this website existed, and the first I was aware of another game/article featuring Forest and Storm pieces was in your comment.  I do not know whether you thought of these names before myself and I do not even know in which of your many games/articles they appear.

If you are saying, as you seem to be, that Sultan’s Elephant Chess is not a spoof then why should Dragon be so.  Or, put another way, if you think Dragon is a spoof then surely you must expect such thinking about Sultan’s Elephant Chess.

Presentation is largely about form only and is a matter of individual style and preference.  In any case it is always possible to re-write such games in a different format or order.

George, I am told that Bridge, fine game though it is, is also in decline;
and a visit to a tournament will often see screens erected in front of
players to prevent cheating by the use of signalling – a poor sight
indeed.  Western Chess may be (slowly) dying but so too will Contract
Bridge.

G. Nicholls

Hi Joe

I'm having trouble with my email so I'm using the comments page
instead.

The names LancerChess and LeopardChess are just alternate names for the
same game as the form for the zrf submission said that LancerChess had
already been used though I couldn't see where.  If you tell me what to do
next I'll try to do it.

Thanks

Glenn

With regard to the business side of variant chess.  Yes, the actual market for chess variants is currently very small, but no, the potential market is very large.  Hundreds of millions of people play chess and are very enthusiastic about the game and I am sure a good percentage of these players would find preferred games amongst variant chess; unfortunately most (virtually all?) are not aware of alternative variant games and this, I think, is what is holding back progress. How to solve this problem I do not know, but I think it is necessary to gain the attention of large numbers of players - If, for example, the next edition of the largest selling chess software, Chessmaster, were to include a few good variants properly programmed then this might start some momentum.  There are other possibilities but they would require the interest of the right person(s) and this is very difficult to bring about.

G. Nicholls

I was under the impression that Lasker suggested reversing the initial
positions of the Knights and Bishops, not Capablanca.  Can someone please
confirm which of these two suggested this.

Hi Joe

Winning by territorial gains seems rather similar to what I wrote a couple of weeks ago under 'TigerMarks'.

Regards

Glenn Nicholls

Charles Gilman
  I think we have had some discussion before on presentation and I recall saying then that this is a matter of personal style and preference; nevertheless there is always room for improvement and here are the reasons to answer your points. 
  The page that these CVs derive from is a Word Document which has formatted and coloured headings etc. which obviously make reading the page easier, but all this seems to be lost when loading onto the Chess Variant Pages;  if there is a way to keep the colouring and formatting etc. I would appreciate knowing how. 
  In all my variants the names I use are never duplicated for different pieces and are always chosen to suit the particular game they appear in.  
  The reason for the changing of roles for the Royal Couple is as I pointed out years ago in TigerChess i.e. the idea of a medieval King sheltering in a castle whilst his Queen goes into battle is not sensible and also the standard names of some pieces such as Rook and Pawn I simply find out of keeping with the idea of Chess and so I never use such names. 
  The gaps between the diagrams have come about because each diagram uses one page on my Word Document and the text then continues overpage.  I would be quite happy to reduce the gaps but the original images have them so as to expand to fit on one page of my Word document.

I know what you mean but all my games link together and so my pages cannot properly be read in isolation.

If you want to make a start the best place to go would be my page titled Games by Groupings.  From here there is a heading for a group of games called Springboard which lists the more basic games roughly upwards in order of difficulty. From here go to a page called Summary of Game variations, Clock times.....where each individual game is listed roughly downwards in order of difficulty with basic information and a note on the page in which a full description can be found.

Thank you for your interest.

Glenn Nicholls

The moves of the Sky-Prince are set out towards the end of my page titled Jewel: A Linked-Series of Games, though these moves are in turn referred to my page titled Dragon and they are chess-like moves.  To find out more about the wider aspect (chess is a representative game in my opinion) of the Sky-Prince you would need to read about the "Alternate bonuses" for the Jewel Series which are summarised in a table in the page; but really it would be best to read this entire page.
The weaknesses (vulnerabilities) of the Sky-Prince are connected to the wider aspects of him and these are set out in this page (Tiger's-eye Opera) under the section titled "Flash seven:  Crystal of Doom - the Emerald Variation".

I have a page nearly ready for posting but it is a word document.  How do I keep the formatting when posting it to the Site.

Is there a problem with uploading images?  I have one or two to upload but I can't seem to upload them.

Best wishes to the Chess Variants site and its Editors

I find it very interesting that the most popular pieces for Chess Variants appear to be the very old "Capablanca" compounds.

Despite it all, it seems to come back to Western Chess, Chinese Chess and Capablanca Chess.

But the Chancellor and the Minister are still the most popular of variant pieces and I would ask why people can all be so wrong?