Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

doh.  thanks, i've sent aronson a corrected diagram.

'Note that if the Advancer moves directly towards a piece and lands
adjacent to it, capturing that piece is not optional - the piece must be
removed.'
	Does this mean that an Advancer cannot move toward, and land adjacent to,
a friendly piece?

The section on checkmate with king and advancer should read "If he plays 1...Ka3, White wins with 2.Aa7#."

You're right. The Advancer cannot even reach c7. Correction made.

I think there are other mistakes:

"In the diagram on the right, the White Advancer can capture the Black Queen by moving along the path of red circles and ending its move on the large red circle on c5. If it stops on one of the smaller red circles on d6 or e7, the Advancer will not capture the Queen."

The large circle is on d5. The small red ones on e6 and f7.

Thanks! I've fixed those too.

I added an AI image of this piece.

@Fergus: how do you do this "with AI"? Can you explain? The result (Advancer, Antelope) is incredible.

Hover over the pic, and you can see that they were drawn by the new Leonardo AI art generator.

I've experimented a little bit with Img2go, and I get similarly impressive results.

It does look impressive indeed, and I like this idea, but it must be said that essentially all AI art lacks actual aesthetical, and hence representative worth, not because it was made by an algorithm but because it's just one of the possible approximations, without a clear idea behind it.

There must be a thesis behind the form. It's what makes AI generations worthless because there can be endless combinations, and all of them will lack it.

It does look impressive indeed, and I like this idea, but it must be said that essentially all AI art lacks actual aesthetical, and hence representative worth, not because it was made by an algorithm but because it's just one of the possible approximations, without a clear idea behind it.

That's not true, though. I had an idea of what I wanted it to draw, and I rejected many images that did not fit my idea as well as this one did.

I agree with Fergus. This piece looks nice as an Advancer (though I'd name it Ram), and I'd use it on a board if it existed. I had an even more impressive result when I experimented to see what a Malkia (West African queen; QZ) would look like. (I wish I'd saved the pic!)

If only there was some way to get a whole set that way.

It could also be used for a Ram, as that's what I told it to draw a chess piece of. I was lucky that this piece was already represented as a ram, and the AI knew how to draw one. I've been having a lot more trouble with Coordinator, which I'm not sure how to represent, and Centaur, which it just doesn't know how to draw.

Apparently, nobody else knows how to make a decent piece that looks like a Centaur either. (I sure don't, but I also can't find anything that really says "centaur" anywhere else either.)

It doesn't bode well for my wish to examine further Mann/leaper compounds, such as with Camel, Zebra, Okapi, Bison, etc.

That's not true, though. I had an idea of what I wanted it to draw, and I rejected many images that did not fit my idea as well as this one did.

I didn't mean the idea of a picture, since it appropriately depicts the supposed chess piece. I meant an artistic idea, something that fully gives a form its value, basically the opposition of kitsch.

Seems to me this is nothing but bias. One cannot know such 'artistic ideas' behind art/kitsch, and would have to judge the aesthetic appeal solely based on the product. If you cannot make the destinction without knowing who created the work, it is just an illusion.

@Bob: speak for you. I'm quite happy of the Centaur I designed myself, and that actually printed to verify it is printable. I don't like when you say "nobody else knows how to make a decent piece that looks like a centaur". Believe me I could say the same thing of many pieces that you post here everyday.

Speaking of a Centaur, too many people are making a piece with a horse's head, just forgetting that a centaur has a horse's body and a human head.

Being also involved in the creation of boardgames, what is bothering our community is that the work of illustrators is now at risk. We have seen some editors using AI to get the illustration of their box. Many illustrators risk to become jobless. Well, maybe you think it is not a problem, but next it will be the turn of the authors as well. I confess I'm troubled by all this.

@Jean-Louis: I did not mean any disparagement toward your Centaur piece; as for the looks of my own pieces, I plead guilty as charged.

The horse's head thing is what holds me back from designing a Centaur; I get a man's head and upper body for sure, but I'm at a loss as to how to represent the horse on the lower part.

Make the horse part prance, supported on its hind legs and tail for robustness.

Being also involved in the creation of boardgames, what is bothering our community is that the work of illustrators is now at risk. We have seen some editors using AI to get the illustration of their box. Many illustrators risk to become jobless. Well, maybe you think it is not a problem, but next it will be the turn of the authors as well. I confess I'm troubled by all this.

While AI art may put some jobs at risk, I am not putting anyone out of a job by using it, because I have never hired artists in the first place. So, while I recognize the larger societal issue, I don't see my use of the technology as exacerbating the issue.

I expect it will be harder to replace authors than to replace illustrators. When I generate AI art, it often comes out wrong, and I have to use my own judgement on whether to keep or reject it. This is not too hard with art, because I can quickly tell by looking at it whether it is suitable. Even so, I can't get AI art to follow precise instructions, and I sometimes can't get anything suitable. As for the written word, someone would have to actually read it to tell whether it is any good, and that will take more time. Even if AI books start coming out, I think people will put more trust in books written by humans. So, I don't think AI-generated text is as much of a danger for writers.

Apparently, nobody else knows how to make a decent piece that looks like a Centaur either. (I sure don't, but I also can't find anything that really says "centaur" anywhere else either.)

I did get a kind of Centaur when I asked it to draw a chess piece of a doe. But it was a lady centaur with bare breasts and a weird horn on one side of her head. When I repeated the prompt, I got a hornless deer, which is what I was originally going for. See the Withdrawer page for that image.