Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I agree with almost all Max's comments. The point were i am seing differently is the use of animals. This is a very old tradition in chess variants and fairy chess problems, and there is nothing wrong in perpetuating it. Look at the Alfonso X's codex in 1283 for a famous historical legacy. Yes, chess is a war game, but our vision on war has changed a lot in our modern era and it is nice that we are trying to play with other concepts than weapons. Back on Bob's designs, I don t see the need of creating pieces just to create pieces. If they are not supported by a variant, they will never be remembered. It seems that most of them are simply motivated by writing a Betza's string. Concerning the 3D designs, i fully agree with Max. Things are more demanding than assembling 2 objects from Thingiverse with Tinkercad. However, some designs presented here are nice, such as the Thunderbolt or the Ghost.

Ironically, the Ghost is something that (in terms of the physical design) I'm going to need to re-do; that one really is 2 objects from Thingiverse assembled in Tinkercad (or it was, before I re-did the base; I still need to figure out how to do the body).

And of course I'm aware of the historical status of animal-named pieces; the Camel, Zebra, a Giraffe, at least, are pretty well-established, and people have at least ridden camels into battle. I just rather wish there was less reliance on animal names; I still have to work to wrap my mind around a Knight being taken down by a Squirrel (at least, outside Marvel Comics).

But I'll roll with it; after all, real bishops don't often walk diagonally. The Gerfod and Anvil are part of my effort to lean into the absurdity of it, remembering that this is really a game more about geometry, mathematics, and strategy than about war.

Regardless, I'll still post these pieces, and sparking discussions like this one is part of what makes it worthwhile. Most of them are set to go into into one of my variants (meaning they're part of one in my brain, but not yet submitted), if they're not already. Others serve other purposes; hopefully there was some laughter at the Anvil and the Kimono Dragon -- and I'm even getting the early part of an idea for a game featuring the latter. And maybe someone will stumble on one of the pieces and decide that it fills a need in a variant they're contemplating.

PS: I just got done adjusting the pair of pieces for this weekend, to increase the diameter dfference between top and bottom. They both look tons better. I may need to do a bit more trimming (y'all can let me know when you see them), but I like that result.

25. Poison. The Poison (or Poisoner, if you prefer) moves like a lame Knight -- it's a (1,2) move, but one of the intervening spaces must be vacant. However, it does not capture this way; it only captures by moving one space orthogonally (mnNcW).

Also, any piece that captures it is also captured, because the Poison is, well, piosonous. (I'm not sure this is programmable into the Interactive Diagrams.)

Like the Rope of a couple of weeks ago, this is for the chess/Clue hybrid I'm developing (once I get the board and one or two other issues figured out). Of weapons that don't appear in the original game, this one appears in the most expansions (including Clue: Master Detective and both VCR Clue games).

That's not the only place I'm likely to put this piece, either.

Also, a look at the (ostensibly) improved Sphinx:

Have you considered the piece RA (the Egyptian Sun God?) And rook Alfil, of course? To me it does not seem a very interesting piece by comparison with the dragon king for example. I was wondering though if the RAG could be a nice chancellor strength piece on a 12x12.

I'm not clear on what you're saying here, Aurelian. You're asking about a Rook/Alfil compound, to be named after the Egyptian sun god?

(I am wanting to do a Dragon King and Dragon Horse design, once I can figure out how to make it look decent.)

What do you mean by decent? I have made and already printed a RF and a BW for some of my games.

Well, I don't expect to make my work really approach the quality of yours, Jean-Louis. But I do want to be able to make something in my own style, with the consistent base, that at least suggests "Dragon King" and "Dragon Horse" (even though I have a Missionary and will probably make an Admiral soon enough without too much trouble).

I am not sure where I am confusing you!

My work is not better. I am not a big fan of compound pieces but I admit they are popular. For the BN and RN, i have copied the Camaratta's design, found in Musketeer's set. I like them both. For the RF, Admiral, my idea was to make a "tower on tower", like the Fortress of Mskt set. I found that this design, which is Zied's one, is good to represent an augmented Rook. Then, logically, i've made the BW, Missionary, as "Bishop over bishop". I have put the second slot vertical, crossing the regular one, thus forming a cross that reminds of the Wazir move. Of course, another possibility would be to design a dragon with a crown, and a dragon with a horse's head. I have not tried those yet.

A dragon with a crown, and one with a horse's head or something similar, is exactly what I'd be looking for with those names. I do, as I said, have a Missionary for the BW move, using more or less your same method, and I did just do an Admiral with something resembling an admiral's hat on its head.

I am not sure where I am confusing you!

I'm just not parsing your earlier clearly in my brain. Were you suggesting that the Sphinx piece be used instead for Ra, named for the sun god, with a Rook-Alfil move?

26. Kuhani & 27. Mtawala. These are simple compound pieces combining Bishop and Rook, respectively, with the Zebra.

Of course, while there are extant symbols in Board Painter for Camel compounds, there's nothing for Zebra compounds, so I improvised a bit.

I was actually quite surprised to find that, with the Archbishop and Chancellor having long histories and the Caliph and Canvasser having been around for a while, nothing seemed to be around to combine the Zebra. Since Knight pieces yielded European imagery and Camel pieces yielded Arabic, I thought the Zebra probably should do for the Savannahs of eastern Africa, where Swahili is the dominant language. Thus, the Kuhani (Swahili for "Priest") comes as a BZ, and the Mtawala (Swahili for "Governor" or "Administrator") comes as an RZ.

I initially was just looking for these based on a vague concept I had, but have now set aside. Seeing that these have been neglected so much, I plan to include them in as many future variants as I reasonably can.

(I'm taking tomorrow off from posting these, and I may make a regular practice of posting a related pair on Saturday and skipping Sunday.)

Bob , I wanted to say that the XBetza RA can be named by the sun god. That is a piece that moves as a rook or jumps 2 squares diagonally!

I have the BZ present in one of my Grand apothecary games. There it is named Sangoma as Fergus has suggested to me.

Bob , I wanted to say that the XBetza RA can be named by the sun god. That is a piece that moves as a rook or jumps 2 squares diagonally!

Ah, OK. I might be able to figure something out on that. (If nothing else, it'd make for an interesting counterpart to the Bede.)

I have the BZ present in one of my Grand apothecary games. There it is named Sangoma as Fergus has suggested to me.

At first blush, I was resistant to that, but since looking it up I actually like that name. I'll either change the Kuhani, or at least note the Sangoma name on the Thingiverse listing. (Sangoma might also be a good name for AZ, since an AN is a Hospitaller.)

Addendum: I just was pondering what would be good for a Gnu, and the range for that creature is southern Africa. That would be a good area for Zulu names like Sangoma (along with Umbusi and Indlovukazi). And that, of course, will lead to the central African okapi and the American (Salish) bison.

I suggest you have a look to my latest book "More chess and more than chess" where I have a full section presenting several fairy pieces. Among them the Sorcerer, moving WZ, created by John Davis for his Grand Tamerlane Chess (presented on the CVP).

I went and took a look at Grand Tamerlane Chess; on the page, John credits the Sorcerer to Charles Daniel in Sorcerer Chess.

I actually felt sure that I'd seen the Sorcerer somewhere else, and more prominently, doing something else, for which reason I resisted using that name for my Magus, but I don't know where it is any more. I'm therefore changing the name of the Magus universally to Sorcerer, with thanks to Mr. Daniel.

28. Walrus. This is a companion to the Dolphin, which moves three spaces orthogonally, and can leap to the second or third space if not capturing (it must slide to capture). The Walrus does that diagonally: B3mAmG.

The move is simple enough that I haven't bothered making a diagram for it, though I might if it's requested or recommended.

In building the appearance, I was surprised at how well the head came out. (The shaft needs a bit of tweaking, though.)

If you print it as is, the teeth will need a support and the risk to break is high. Meshmixer could analyse this.

I was wondering about those tusks. Needing support for them is a foregone conclusion, of course; I'm thinking about how to thicken them. It's not unlikely I'll have it figured out by the end of today (the only thing holding me back would be how this week's heat wave is affecting my home office), fixing it at the same time as I do the neck..

I don t know what is your experience with 3d printing. So far you have shown a lot of stl designs but no actual realisation. The need of supports is not a mere foregone conclusion, especially if you print with PLA. Again you can analyse your design with Mishmixer. The supports are proposed by the Slicer app you will use. Of course, you can decide to have less support... at your own risk. When the printing is done, the supports have to be removed and at this moment i would worry for the tusks. Maybe i m wrong, never mind.

The unfortunate part of my experience with 3D printing is that I have a dual-extruder machine, and I'm used to using a specialty support filament that breaks away easily. I forget that others don't have that option. In the case of the Walrus, though, they looked a little fragile from the start, but it wasn't until the full-size picture appeared here that I could see how extremely fragile they'd be -- I'd worry about them even with that specialty filament.

Either way, by the time you'd posted the above, I'd managed to re-do the Walrus, with the problem addressed two different ways: the tusks are thicker, and they actually embed into the bezel so supports may not be needed.

The heat here in the northwestern US started to affect me pretty badly by the time I was done, which is why it took until this morning for me to post it up.

29. Chicken Pawn. The Chicken Pawn moves like a regular Pawn, but with one addition: when under attack, it may move (without capturing) directly backwards like a Rook, or diagonally backwards like a Bishop.

Hey, they can't all be brave.

I have this in one of my newer proposals, but I may someday put it into a Shogi-esque variant where the two sides are separated not by a river, by by a road.

Your solution for the Walrus seems quite good.