Comments by GlennNicholls
Just to add a note to my previous remark on Most popular pieces:
I've just looked at Fergus's Gross Chess and a lot of the pieces do indeed include those of Western Chess, Chinese Chess and Capablanca Chess.
So we come back to these three games and their pieces once again.
Thank-you for your interesting opinions Mr Duke.
But, if I may say, these remarks are mostly your individual opinions and some of these would not, I think, be shared by all, including myself.
The point I am making is that of popularity and I can see no other games or pieces that have made such headway on this site compared to the three games and their pieces I've mentioned. Shogi I have no real knowledge of and so cannot comment on, but it seems (and I may be wrong) that this game is played by a large number of people but not in such a geographically wide area compared to Western or Chinese Chess.
One point I would mention with Capablanca Chess is that the large combined strength of the pieces to commence with is reduced once an exchange of the very strong pieces is made and then reduced still further once another exchange is made, so the game will often "scale down" to something resembling Chess on a larger board (but not greatly larger if 10x8), and if there are different very strong pieces left this could make for very interesting games (IMHO) and perhaps less likelihood of a draw.
Unaesthetic positions are difficult to define since there is a saying I remember from long ago that "One man's meat is another man's poison" and so I would simply look at a position on the board from any of these three games and see what could be made of it from either side. Sometimes there are possibilities in a game that are hard to see and the more unusual the position the more you may be able to cause your opponent to go wrong by playing unexpected moves combined with time pressure, if this can be brought about.
There are three other basic piece compounds I find interesting and I think I first heard these mentioned a number of years ago by one of our editors - Joe Joyce, and they are the Rook, Bishop and Knight each combined with a non-royal King (or Commoner as this piece is sometimes called). Of these the piece I personally like most is the Knight/Commoner compound and I have called this an Earl - a dangerous piece if he can get into the enemy camp; thanks to Joe for mentioning these pieces.
Anyway its past midnight in the UK and I will have to sign off for now.
Modern Shatranj. A bridge between modern chess and the historic game of Shatranj. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I, too, have a CVP reference page submission awaiting clearance.
Anatoly Karpov has stated (and he should know given his playing strength and achievments) that he thinks ELO ratings have become subject to inflation and IMHO I think he is right. Bobby Fischer's peak rating was 2785 in July 1972 and this is IMHO the highest anyone has so far in reality achieved. This means, at least in my opinion, that no-one in reality has yet achieved a rating of 2800.
About Game Courier. Web-based system for playing many different variants by email or in real-time.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]What has happened to the editing of one's pages and the appearance of those already on the site. Things seem to have got into a bit of a mess.
Symmetrical Chess Collection
. Collection of several large symmetric chess variants with only line pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Of course the straightforward capture and loss of a Queen (King in my variants) means a loss of the game almost as certainly as that of the "Prime" Royal-piece - other perhaps than total beginners.
I made this aforesaid comment because an encirclement or trapping and then capture of a Queen (King in my variants) is a rare (at high level Chess) occurance, and one that I find very exciting in a game.
Of course, at the very top level of Chess, the loss of a Rook or even a minor piece is usually decisive.
Eurasian Chess. Synthesis of European and Asian forms of Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]For Chess-playing ability and hard work, Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, and Magnus Carlsen have my respect indeed, and I have no doubt their Chess ability would manifest itself in any sensible Chess-variant given the proper time to learn and study such Game. As I have said before, let's drop the word "Variant" for any sensible Game e.g. Capablanca-chess, since these Games are still Chess. Yes, sensible is subjective, but top Chess-players would, I think, form a consensus of opinion on any particular Game or Set of Games.
As an aside I think that Bobby Fischer's ELO rating of 2785 achieved in July 1972 is, in reality, the highest achieved and that there has been, as former world champion Anatoly Karpov has stated, inflation of ELO ratings.
The layout of pages setup by using MS Word documents has changed and has resulted in something of a mess for my pages. What has happened?. Can this be put right? I would very much appreciate an answer.
Stepping-stones of Chess. A Book by Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls of Merridonia.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This page was posted by using MS Word and took a great deal of time and effort to make reasonably tidy and readable. It is now something of a mess. I would very much appreciate knowing what to do to restore the page.
Thanks for the reply, but I don't have this sort of knowledge and I'm far too busy to sort all this out. The page is readable with effort and so if someone wants to read this page it is down to them to make the effort I'm afraid - the page has been up long enough. If you or anyone else can tidy it up without further confusing the page, fine, otherwise I'll leave it as it is. Nobody should change things that mess up other Persons' pages without letting everyone know first in simple language.
I don't think this page should have been messed up like it has been. Changes should not just be made that do this. What great purpose has been served by the change anyway. Posting in Word was at least straightforward and it worked and was simple. I think someone should put things back to how they were. There are in fact a series of Games on this page, and not merely one, and they often link together, and there are other items connected with Chess and Chess variants that some may find interesting, items that are somewhat of novelty value.
Thanks for the reply. I'll give this a try, but its late here in the UK, so tomorrow maybe, or when there's time.
10 x 10 Variants are IMHO hard indeed to invent, even Capablanca settled on a 10 x 8.
Thank you for trying to help. I do have a complete word document of all that is on this page and I will make efforts to repost it when time permits.
I can't seem to do anything on this site, even sign in.
Stepping-stones of Chess. A Book by Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls of Merridonia.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I can only speak for my own Games on this site here, but this may well apply to some of the thousands? of other variants, and that is, although I have done some testing, I cannot guarantee that every Game I have on this site would "work".....they all seem Plausible, but Plausible is the word, and in any case no Money has been paid me (and none are for sale at all anyway) and so I owe no duty that the Games do in fact "work". BUT they MAY be good.
I don't seem to be able to upload images....they are just the usual JPG images and are under 100k - does anyone know why this is?
Whatever I do the spacing on the text always comes out as one line on this Page - does anyone know why - I would be very obliged for any advice or help on this.
Thanks Fergus.....I think the WYSIWYG mode might sort it out - I'll try it later on.
Sometimes I think it is more important to consider the Plausibility of a piece before other factors.....There is in this page, at the end and with a move diagram, a modified Character (piece) called the (Northern or Sumatran) Tiger-emperor and he is a little bit more powerful than the Character called the (Northern or Sumatran) Tiger-prince that he is a modification of.....But, he is not quite so logical in his moves as the Prince and so I have not included him in any Games here - the Prince appears in the Games of Tiger-strike and Tiger-crossfire.....I think the Emperor is Plausible enough in his moves though, and I think Plausibility needs to be considered with the moving and capturing abilities of Chess Characters, or the Game and its Background and Representational aspects can lose sense - this is of course only my personal opinion.....The Emperor combines the moves of just two Chess pieces i.e. the Rook and Knight.....despite this, he seems to be fractionally more powerful than the well known three-piece compound of Rook, Bishop and Knight (usually called a General, or Amazon or other name).
With reference to my previous comment regarding the moves of the Characters (pieces) called the Tiger-prince and the Tiger-emperor, I ought to add that Tigers do indeed sometimes "hit" their prey with a leap (or pounce) from the side and this can result in a "follow through" of differing angles. Of course, a "Tigerish" Person could perhaps also move and strike like this in a Medieval Battle. There is also a Tiger-princess as well in this page.
Of course, various combinations are possible of these Characters, but only one is mentioned on my pages, and that is the TigerGuard (one word), and he combines the powers of the Tiger-prince and the Tiger-princess - see my page TigerSquares (also one word).
The Tiger-emperor could, of course, and perhaps better so, be called the Tiger-king, but I have decided on Emperor due to his strength - but he may be too strong to bring into a Game - the Tiger-prince and Tiger-princess are strong enough.
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Thank-you for the reply Mr Duke.
So Mr Muller seems to agree, at least in part. What are bizarre positions in Chess? - some of the most exciting positions I've ever seen in Chess might be considered as strange by some - Anderssen v Kieseritzky has a huge material imbalance for example, towards the end.