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Comments by James Spratt
Chess for Three
. Traditional pieces, three players, on a triangular board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]James Spratt is posting Yaron Gvili, programmer of the original Chess for Three Game, comments re the new triangular version: >>>Dear James, Thank you for your email. Your chess work is interesting and looks very professional. My connection to chess for three started about 7 or 8 years ago. I implemented it as a student, and as an active chess player. The game itself is a patent by Jersy Luberda from Poland. I will address the game in several manners. First, as a piece of art, it looks very nice, especially due to the closeness to regular chess. Second, the geometry of the board is clean. Note that the Polish chess for three has a 'hole' in the middle of the board, whereas your board is complete. However, the back rows of the polish game are easier to grasp. The pawns are far more powerful in your version of the game than the polish one, as well as the sliding pieces. Third, the winning goal of your game is different than the polish one. A player's strategy in your game would be to survive first and only then to attack other sides. When two players battle, the third one can wait and stay strong for the final attack. The polish game takes a different approach. The first king that is captured ends the game, and the winning side is te one who captured him. Therefore, each player must defend 3 kings and attack 2. This seems to create more opportunity for complications in the development of the game. I wish you all the best and good luck with your game. I would be happy to hear if there is interest in your chess variants. Sincerely, Yaron.<<<
Rules of Chess: The 50 moves rule. Answer to a frequently asked question on the rules of chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi, Hans: My comment is about the 'MAJON' award entry on Chessvariants' Awards page. In my opinion, that particular award should be disavowed and the link dropped. To pay money for an award I believe is undignified, and in your innocence you are providing this obviously greedy, predatory outfit with access to your constituents. I'd call their link 'spam;' their first priority seems to be money, not chess, and I don't believe that their admiration of this wonderful website is sincere, particularly if they're charging for it. If I read your own comments correctly, you've had your own doubts about them, and unless they are providing some useful service for Chessvariants, I'd drop them. Sincerely, James Killian Spratt, m.sc.
Navia Dratp Photos. Actual photos of this soon-to-be released game![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since I haven't played this game, I don't feel qualified to rate it, although it appears to have excellent potential. It's a lovely figure of (the heroine?), a very intriguing package, and the dungeon-like promo pic is just right. I wouldn't mind seeing close-ups of the little sculpted pieces, and explanations of what they do. If you've gone to full injection-casting production, I wish you the best of luck. James Killian Spratt, m.sc.
Hi, Matt: I hope you can assure that the rare, powerful pieces really remain 'randomly' distributed; if anyone finds out they can be simply bought for a premium price, you'll kill the lower 90% of your market very quickly--kids who aren't rich, and I think the real prize pieces should remain luck of the draw. Just a thot, and again, good luck. James Spratt
Dear Editors: I have tried repeatedly to access the form to issue an open invitation to play a game, and keep being sent to a Yahoo window; my initial reaction to seeing that was 'Uh-oh, there goes the neighborhood.' How did a distinguished outfit like Chessvariants get mixed up with a cookie-monster like Yahoo?
I really like the new 'Printer-Friendly' element in the Game Courier displays. It's nice to be able to get printed pix of loaded situations in the games, and particularly pleasing for me to be able to capture my heavy investments in graphics in Imperial and Jetan-Sarang. Great touch! Fergus, is that some of your doing? EXCELLENT! James Spratt
Who has played Flying Chess, and is it any good? Gushy compliments to its 'truly visionary' inventor are not overly convincing, and smack of the fan-club toadying to the guru. The good Doctor may be a visionary, but I'd prefer to figure that out for myself based on the merits of what he has envisioned and, more importantly, how much others can enjoy it. Your enthusiasm is admirable, but the object here is chess variant games, not personalities.
Flying Chess. Some pieces can fly. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'm inclined to give Dr. Eltis the benefit of the doubt. It sounds like a pretty neat game, and a new innovation, and the name is quite catchy. If it's got a few bugs, like Roberto says, this would be a great place to work them out, if it could be fielded here, technically, that is. There's a lot of clever, skilful people around here who've been a huge help to me.
Well, I think the whole issue of 'Flying Chess,' good game or bad, has been introduced in a very irregular manner, and is becoming a silly nuisance. Unless someone feels it important to go chase Dr. Eltis down and get the truth, or better, would the REAL Dr. David Eltis please step forward, I think the whole thing should be ignored. I'm not inclined to play stupid tag, or humor one who is playing too coy to speak for his own product.
Index page of The Chess Variant Pages. Our main index page.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Being able to view logs of all past and ongoing matches of particular games via the new links is a nice touch. Good going, David and Fergus, it's a very desirable feature.
I'd just like to give David Short a big slap on the back for coming up with Double Chess. It is a GREAT chessgame. Where's th' rating box? How 'bout I just type in EXCELLENT!!?
Double Chess 16 x 8. On 16 by 8 board. (16x8, Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] Spherical chess. Sides of the board are considered to be connected to form a sphere. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I like the idea of spherical chess; I visualize 'globular chess.' Is there a graphic representation of a board (globe?) somewhere, showing shape of cells, etc.? Seems like magnetic--steel globe with little magnets in bases of pieces would work, and you'd have to be able to rotate the globe. Paint it up like Earth and play out some ominous metaphors.
Buongiorno, Roberto: What's the story on Bobby Fischer, anyway? (Sorry if I'm a little behind the times.)
Thanks, Roberto. I did some googling around myself on the matter, and am having trouble getting my head around the phrase 'wanted for playing a chess-match...'
Well, I hope they let him go to Iceland and be happy. I think nations and their evil, self-serving rules should go, anyway, but I guess some ambitious, pit-bull prosecutorial bureaucrat wants a promotion by busting a high-profile target, 'outwitting' the really, really smart guy with handcuffs and pistolpoint. I'm not impressed. As a chess champion, Fischer is a symbolic dominator, not a real one; the eternal struggle--the brain versus the mailed fist. I suspect he KNOWS what he's doing, always has, and I'll bet he's not stuck for chess partners, even in jail.
The Game of Three Friends. A variant on Chinese Chess for three players. (Cells: 135) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hi, Sean. How about the human politics during play? Do two weak players gang up on the strongest? I've found that typical in Chess for Three.
Hi, Fergus. (How ya been?) I just spotted your new Game Courier Ratings files, wherein CVP participants are rated by win percentiles. Although I hadn't really been keeping track, and now see that I should probably try a little harder (ennnnnhhh--), I do find it to be an interesting addition to CVP, and it IS nice to be taken seriously, whether I deserve it or not.
I'm unable to get an invitation to post in the Waiting Room. Is there a direct internal CVP link from the presets to the Waiting Room that bypasses Yahoo? Yahoo uses cookies, which are a vector for dataminers and other obnoxious, intrusive vermin; I have cookies blocked for that reason, and will not unblock them. In my understanding of your written rules in the User's Guide, an open invitation defaults to the CV Waiting Room, but doesn't seem to be doing so. How do I get an invitation from a preset to post in the Waiting Room without unblocking cookies or joining Yahoo. If anyone would like to play DOUBLE CHESS by David Short, and would feel up to posting an invitation, I'd sure take him or her up on it. We thank'ee.
Hi, Fergus: Thanks for trying to clarify the invitation process for me; I'm now reminded of the difference between the Waiting Room and the Yahoo Group. BUT, I'm still unable to post an Open invitation in the Waiting Room list. If my invitation shows up at the Yahoo Group as well as the Waiting Room, that's fine, but it's clear that the Yahoo Group will not pass the invitation on back to the CVP Waiting Room unless I join their group, which requires enabling cookies, which I won't do, and my invitations aren't showing up at either place. It sure looks to me like Yahoo is standing in the way. The Invitation boxes at the Presets have a box where you can enter 'Opponent's Email or UserID'; what's wrong with putting a link direct to the CVP Waiting Room in the drop-down selection there, thereby leaving Yahoo out of the loop altogether? I don't like outfits that INSIST on using cookies, which enable many intrusions on privacy and which convenience strangers' unstated ulterior motives, a common theme these days. What am I missing here? Seems that we had this same discussion a while back, and I don't recall ever straightening it out.
Hi, Fergus: Well, at first I concluded after your last that I had a browser setting wrong or the wrong plug-in disabled, but I went back to the Double-Chess (Short) Preset, as a control, and tried again. Again I got the notice that 'no invitation sent...', so, jaw in hand, scrolled back up and noticed that the 'Opponent's Email or UserID' box, which I had left empty as per instructions below, had been filled in by the default you mentioned, so I hit the Submit button again, and LO, it worked. I went hunting the CVPages to see if my invitation had gotten posted anywhere, and found it on the Open Invitations page--the format looks like the active logs--and in the active logs (the Moves page), but could not locate the Waiting Room page, which had previously had two highlit boxes saying 'Accept This Invitation' and 'Remove This Invitation,' respectively. Is the 'Waiting Room' a thing of the past by that name? SO, it seems to be working, and again, thanks. BTW, the invitation's for real, even though it was a test; I'll play two games of Double Chess.
Got it. In the words of the great Larry Smith, 'Okey-dokey.' Nyuk-nyuk!
It's not evil twins, it's evil QUADRUPLETS!!! **Cackle!!**
Hi, Fergus. I've got a little problem, which is my fault: in Double Chess game no. david_64-whittlin-2006-30-580, in my last move it seems that I neglected to 'send' after verifying the move, and clicking on the game in the logs would not permit me to pick it back up. (Sorry, David!) Furthermore, to clean up my email Inbox, I had deleted all my former moves, and can't go back to one. What should I do to get my move back? Thanks, James
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