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Comments by PeterAronson
<blockquote><i>
It has two full atoms, half of another, and a quarter of another; this puts
it already in the Rookish range, though maybe a bit weak. The partial atoms
are the forward parts, which must boost it to full Rookitude.
</i></blockquote>
Well, as I count it, it has two full atoms, and the quarter of <em>two</em>
others. Now, I am certainly willing to accept that 0.5 of the value of the
W is due to its forward move, but what I am less convinced of, I guess, is
whether the W forward move by itself <strong>adds</strong> that much to of
the value of the W to another piece that already has forward moves. It's
at least an interesting question, I think.
<p>
If the Elephant is 0.75 N, and the Great Elephant is 1.5 N, then the White
Elephants are about 0.5 N too strong (the exact amount depending on your
opinion of the relative values of the N and B). If that's the case, maybe
the Queen should be replaced by the War Elephant, Rook + Alfil Rider (RAA)
-- this should be about the proper balance, since a Rook + Alfil would
be a full 0.5 N weaker than a Queen, but since the Great Elephants are a
tiny bit weaker than Rooks, maybe, and there's the Bishop differential,
the extra strength of the AA over the A ought to just balance things.
<p>
<hr>
Captain Spalding Chess!? -- Marxist!
Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This does look like fun! It's an interesting question if it is better to play your Rhino and Headless Rhinos early, or to keep them safe in the box. Elephants and Great Elephants of course should come out and play as
soon as possible.
<p>As for Lint to Dust Bunny to Dust Demon -- you may have found another great train of evolution to rival Paperclip to Coathanger to Bicycle.
<p>As for the credits, your stuff has long and often had a light-hearted (and
erudite) touch -- you didn't really get it from me.
Chaturanga 
. Version with fancy graphics.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I agree with Tony -- very pretty! And I've already appropriated the
Elephant graphic.
Alpha Variant Font. Preview of the new Alpha Variant font along with new Alfaerie graphics.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A worthy project! And a valuable addition to the available Chess variant graphics.
White Elephant Chess. Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Pink Elephants! I gotta think about that one -- there's something there, I'm sure.
The Drunken Elephant or Suizo moves like a King, except not directly backwards (fsWF). It promotes (by capturing) to a Crown Prince (!), which is essentially a spare King. It's found in Chu Shogi and most other large Shogis.
The Drunken Elephant or Suizo moves like a King, except not directly backwards (fsWF). It promotes (by capturing) to a Crown Prince (!), which is essentially a spare King. It's found in Chu Shogi and most other large Shogis.
White Elephant Chess . Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]OK, I fixed the Mammoth -- current ZRF revision is 1.3.
PASGL 312 Chess. Critters steal lunch in the forest, while trying to get close to the campfire and avoid the train. (Cells: 68) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've merged the additional material at the end, and added the notation additions.
Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If you move a piece next to two or more Cookie Monsters simultaneously, what happens? Do they all leap on it and devour it, and disappear? Or does the moving player choose one?
Knightmare Chess. The American version of Tempete sur l'Echiquier.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Tastes do vary. At 44 I no longer qualify as a 'younger player', but I
have to admit that after winning the game in a contest, I looked it over
two or three times, and then put it on a shelf where it remains today, due
to the (to me) unpleasent artwork. Life is too short to expose myself to
that sort of thing. But then, as I said, tastes vary -- the world
contains many people who enjoy horror novels and long dreary Russian
novels.
But in this case, the theme is not instrinsic to the variant, but to the
particular edition of the variant. The original version of the game
-- Tempete sur l'Echiquier -- used the same rules but different artwork
on the cards. This is a case of effect of production choices on the
resulting game.
Captain Spalding Chess. Find an Elephant in your Pajamas.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Another question: if the Box moves to a square adjacent to the 8th rank, may it play a Bat on the 8th rank? If so, is the Bat stuck there, or does it instantly promote to a BOOH?
An alternate approach to balancing Colorboundmost Chess would to follow the path used in other double-move variants -- only have white make a single move on their first move. I would suggest having white make their first move on white, so that each player would make the first move on their King's color. Once you have white making only a single starting move, it should no longer be possible for black to mirror white, so race rules could be applied.
Knight Scattering Chess. Knights can neither capture nor be captured, but instead can move opposing pieces a Knight's move away. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Karl, in <u>Knight-Relay Chess</u> you get to move your <strong>own</strong> pieces a Knight's move away from one of your Knights like a Knight -- in <u>Knight Scattering Chess</u> you get to move one of your <strong>opponent</strong>'s pieces a Knight's move from one of your Knights. Not a big change in the rules, but this results in a very different game.
Contest to design a chess variant on a board with 42 squares. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]<h4>Progress Report</h4>
The judges have <strong>not</strong> actually fled the country, but
continue to work on the contest. Since we decided to play
all of the entries <em>twice</em>, that's 42 email games. However, we
are down to 10 games left, all currently in simultaneous progress.
<p>
Thank you for your patience.
When I go to sleep at night, I often try to think about something
interesting or pleasant while I drift off. Last night I found myself
thinking about an odd Chess piece.
<p>
The piece moves without capturing like a Dabbabah-Rider (repeated leaps
of two squares in the same orthogonal direction), but captures like a
Rook. So, mDDcWW or mDDcR in Ralph's funny notation.
<p>
And I found myself wondering: how powerful is this piece, and what sort
of game or problem would it be good for? I has a number of curious
characteristics: except for capturing, it is doubly colorbound, being
restricted to 1/4 of the board; and while it can switch by capturing,
at any time it can only attack 1/2 of the board.
<p>
It seems to me that this piece is vaguely cannon-like, being more powerful
in the opening and midgame than the endgame. It also seems to me that it
might be a very charming part of a piece mix. Any thoughts?
Vierschach. 19th Century 4-player game where allies start off at right angles to each other. (14x14, Cells: 160) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jared, the Zillions implementation of Chaturanga 4-84 does exactly that, and seems to play pretty well.
I considered the Bishop equivalent, but decided it would likely be
too weak.
<p>
Mike Nelson has proposed a game based on these sorts of pieces -- you
can see it in the comments for Colorboundmost Chess. My suspicion is
that there would not be enough power in the board in the endgame, making
the game drawish.
I think the weakened King might to the trick, though I would express the funny notation as FcW. The resulting game ought certainly to be different!
Jörg, I'm not sure about the can-mate part. It seems to me that in a lot
of situations the piece would result in stalemate, not mate.
<p><hr><p>
Mike, I threw together a crude ZRF of your game last night -- it seems to
play OK. But I was wondering if stalemate ought to be a loss instead of
a draw, as the nature of the game makes it more likely, as does,
unfortunately, changing the King from WF to FcW.
<p>
By the way, do you have a name for it?
Actually, Mike the ZRF was pretty easy -- just a quick modification of the
standard Chess ZRF. I still need to update the piece descriptions.
<p>
Names . . . hmm. Maybe:
<menu>
<p><li>
Quarterbound Chess;
</li><p><li>
Odd Piece Chess;
</li><p><li>
Stuttering Chess;
</li><p><li>
Skipping Chess;
</li><p><li>
Transfering Subsets Chess;
</li><p><li>
Nelson-Aronson Odd Piece Chess;
</li><p><li>
Separate Realms or Separate Realms Chess.
</li></menu><p>
Once we decide, someone ought to put a page together for it.
<p>
If stalemate is a loss, then by Ralph's Rule Zero, so is 3-times
repetition.
<p>
I'm not sure bare King is the best choice for this game. Given that
stalemate is a loss, and the King is fairly weak, I think you'd lose
some interesting endgame play that way.
So, Mike, who's going to do the page? <pre><g></pre>
That's a neat mate, Jörg!
<p>
Does that mean Separate Realms Chess could go back to using a standard
King? I think I like the current King, even if it isn't strictly
necessary, since it carries the theme of the game to completion -- every
piece restricted to some subset of the board when not capturing.
Chaturanga. The first known variant of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Honestly! See Jean-Louis Cazaux's page on the relative ages of 2-handed
and 4-handed Chaturanga. It can be found at:
<ul>
<li><a href='http://www.chez.com/cazaux/chaturanga.htm'>http://www.chez.com/cazaux/chaturanga.htm</a>
</ul>
Neither Forbes nor Cullen are considered exactly up-to-date sources, you
know.
Separate Realms. Pieces capture like normal FIDE pieces, but have limited moves that only take them to part of the board when not capturing. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Michael, I've changed the reference from Asymmetric Chess to Biform Chess -- thanks for pointing that out!
Joerg,
<p>
That sounds like the French game described in the ECV as Djambi -- you
can find some information on the Internet if you search under that name,
including a (French) retailer who apparently still sells it. The
inventor's name is Jean Anesto.
<p>
There's an extensive page in French on the game at:
<a href="http://jeuxsoc.free.fr/d/djamb_rg.htm">http://jeuxsoc.free.fr/d/djamb_rg.htm</a>
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