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Thanks Jean-Louis for your interest.

@HG, In the context of my before the previous example I think the ":" symbol does not influence the preset although it works fine in the interactive diagram!

I finally had time to look at this. The preset as it was indeed ordered completely random shuffling of Y and W. Which means that YY-WW or YW-YW is also a possible outcome. The way the shufflespecs work in the preset is that the second element of the triplet specidies the set of pieces that have to remain symmetrically located, and the third element specifies the set of pieces that must be equidistributed over square shades. A 0 there means there are no such pieces (and if both are non-zero, the third element is ignored). The first element then contains the remaining pieces, and must be non-empty.

By putting (W Y) in the first element, you asked for an unrestricted shuffle. Because the first element must not be empty, you have to put one of the two there (say Y). The other (W) can then go into the second element, and will be symmetrically shuffled (either as W.-.W or as .W-W.). The Y will then be 'shuffled' over the remaining open spaces, which in this case is just placement there as there is nothing left to choose.

I am not sure why the automatic generation did not work; I haven't looked yet what shuffle string you specified there. Perhaps it failed to put one of the Y, W in the first element, and put them both in the second. Anyway, try if this works:

set shufflespecs (
  (Q V U) // shuffleset
   0
   0
  (I M) // shuffleset
   0
   0
  (Y) // shuffleset
  (W)
   0
   0 // mirror to get black
);

HG, There are four areas where pieces get randomized. And they work in the diagram. The code you had given me yesterday only has 3.

Ah, I did not really look at the Diagram, just at the preset. You can just add the fourth group to the shufflespecs array, as another triplet. You have to put one piece (e.g. Bishop) in the first element of the triplet, and all the others in the second.

I took your Diagram definition from the page source of your article, and pasted it into the Play-Test Applet to generate GAME code. Indeed it turned out that the two groups for which you wanted symmetric shuffling were not put into the shufflespecs array. The reason appears to be that you put the colon (:) to request symmetric shuffling on all pieces of the group. The GAME-code generation apparently cannot handle that. And I never noticed that, because I tend to mark all the pieces but one with a colon. The last piece then must be placed symmetrically as well, as the only open spaces that are left will be symmetrically positioned. If I removed the colon on one of the pieces in each group in the Diagram's shuffle parameter

      shuffle=:B:N:EF,QUT,DI,:LY

then the GAME code gets properly generated:

set shufflespecs (
  (F) // shuffleset
  (B N E) // symmetrized
   0
  (Q T U) // shuffleset
   0
   0
  (D I) // shuffleset
   0
   0
  (Y) // shuffleset
  (L) // symmetrized
   0
   0 // mirror to get black
);

(beware the Diagram uses other piece IDs than your preset!). I will fix the JavaScript for GAME-code generation in the Play-Test Applet such that it can also handle the case where all pieces in a shuffle group have a colon prefix. (As the Diagram itself doesn't seem to have any trouble with that.)

HG, When I try nothing gets shuffled!

When you try what? I see no change in the preset.

BTW, the GAME-code generation should now also work properly when all pieces in a shuffle groep have a colon prefix.

I had copied the code you've obtained in the preset. Isn't that supposed to work?

Well, I did not see it in the preset (link you gave earlier in this comment thread).

And no, that is not supposed to work, because it seems to use other piece IDs than the preset.

I don't understand what you mean by the fact that the diagram uses different pieces ID than the preset. I thought we had passed that. Maybe take another look and tell me what is there do be done: https://www.chessvariants.com/play/pbm/play.php?game=Grand+Apothecary+Chess+3&settings=Applet Thanks for your help!

You had not given me that link before, so I was looking at another preset. In this new one you forgot the closing parenthesis (and semi-colon) of the shufflespecs array.

I have made the modification but the shuffling algorithm still seems to get ignored. You have said earlier that the names of the pieces are different. I don't understand that. May you be a bit more specific?

It does shuffle for me. What I meant is that you gave two links, to different presets, in this comments topic, and that these use different piece IDs.

@HG, I'm not sure what is going on then. Maybe clearing my cache could help? Or the fact I use microsoft edge is a problem? But it seems it is not a preset problem.

All I can say is that when I use the link you last gave (with FireFox, or the Android browser on my tablet), and select 'Play' from the menu, I get a different start position as what was initially shown. And when I then go back to the previous page, and press Play again, I get yet another setup. And it gets shuffled in the way that was specified. So the preset appears to be OK.

Perhaps others could try to see if they have the same experience.

Oh, on Android I get correct results too! I'll just switch to that!

Now there is another problem. Once an invite is passed it cannot be accepted. If someone tries to accept the invitation (we have tried only personal) it gets an error that says the opponent won. Any idea?

I think we will need Fergus' help for this. When I use the preset in Play mode it doesn't declare game end during the first few moves. I think that proves that the Post-Game code cannot be responsible for the observed termination.

Agreed!

I have added in this game's initial position one regular pawn on each flank on the fourth row. That is because flank attacks by white where too dangerous in start positions where the black rook of the file was undefended. Also more king safety should he castle.

I have added in the notes sections explanations about why are the pieces are the way they are in this game. They are not perfect, but I had questions and I wanted to answer them.

I like it! It's always interesting to see the thought behind the choices made when designing a game.

Thanks!

Also feel free to make any comments!

The author, Aurelian Florea, has updated this page.