Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

157. Snail. When I started here, I "invented" a piece called Snail; I later found that someone else had it, and with a move pattern better than what I'd come up with. That pattern is a normal move one space diagonally; a non-capturing move sliding two spaces diagonally; or a capture-only move sliding two spaces orthogonally.

I just wish I could remember where I found the older Snail.

At least the piece sculpture came out surprisingly well. The antennae may break if it's dropped, but it's still pretty good if I do say so myself.

158. Crab. and 159. Barc. This weekend's pair kicks off a week of pieces that are already familiar to most folks, I'd been putting off sculpting, either because I wasn't sure how to approach it or because the work I'd already done was horrible. I've tried fixing things up as well as I could, and I'm putting them here to see if anyone has any critiques -- especially specific suggestions for improvement.

The Crab even has its own Piececlopedia page; it moves forward like a Narrow Knight, or backward like a Wide Knight.

The Barc not only spells "crab" backwards, but also takes the move backwards.

That's the part you already know. But then there's this:

I think they at least are recognizable for what they are. Well, at least the Crab is.

160. Rose. I'd actually considered making today's piece something Christmas-related (like inventing a Reindeer), but instead I'm continuing my group of pieces that are familiar to most, but new to my collection. Of those, this is the closest to something Christmas-y.

The Rose's move starts like a Knight's, and continues in a circular fashion. (qN)

The diagram (as if yet another one was needed for most of the folks reading this) shows most of the Rose's typical moves. The arrows only carry the Rose four steps away, which some designers prefer; others limit the move to seven, since and eighth step would effectively be a "null move," while others do allow the "null move" -- among other things, how often would all seven of those spaces be open to make the move possible?

That's the look of the piece, and the interior is hollow; I may change that, if it makes the piece more rose-like in appearance.

It took a while to get to this point; initially the petals turned the other way, like this:

I may yet use this for something, if I can figure out a good name and move.

One left note: If you’ll make Kirin-based Rose, what piece can be in the center of all its eight circles? And which piece is in center of second piece’s Rose?)

Re: Kirin-Rose: With a Kirin being a Ferz + Dabbaba, I tried out both pieces with a q modifier, and both returned nice, neat octagons, so both parts could be affected (qFqD).

Re: Second piece: If you mean the second piece that I just posted, I have no information on it. That one's an earlier, failed attempt at making a Rose. The end result probably won't be a Rose at all; I might make it a curved slider (like the Yaj and Yaz in my Tifinagh set) or try some other experimental thing.

I mean q(FD), so it’ll be a Knight in center of each circle, as well as Astra is in center of qN! Puzzle isn’t solved!;);)

I use the Play-Test Applet to figure out these things, and q(FD) doesn't translate; the applet doesn't recognize it at all. I even tried q[F-D], which at least did enter but doesn't yield a move.

I don't know that there's a way in XBetza to do what you're trying to describe.

You can specify alternation of steps in XBetza using parenteses plus a number for specifying the repeating combination. Becaust F and D are incommensurate, you will first have to express D in K steps: D = mpafW to transparently glue to W steps together. The repeating unit then is mpafafsW, and te trajectory that starts with a D step and ends with an F step is mpafafs(aqmpafafq)2W

This was in fact the basis of an earlier Gilman name for the Newt/Astra: since it was in the centre of the Rose's circle, he called it a Rosette (and correspondingly he had names for the centres of other oblique roses).

Fwiw he calls the q[FD] (not valid XBetza, but valid original Betza as per one of the Really Big Board pages) a (curved) Alpaca.

Really an idea to link my name for it to Rosetta probe of European Cosmic Agency!

Well, actually often working with this agency, let me correct you: it is European Space Agency, not European Cosmic Agency.

161. Roc. Of the seven pieces in this group, this is probably the least well-known. It's a compound of Alfil and Camel, leaping (1,3) or (2,2). (AC)

The question for me was, how to represent a bird that's as huge as the legendary roc? All I could think of was to leave just part of it, as if it was too big for a chess piece.

Fitting its talons over a Pawn's head was the best thing I could think of -- though the roc of legend was supposedly much larger even than this!

The Roc is also sometimes called a Caribou, which is another name for a reindeer. I frankly found that sculpture even more daunting than a Roc; otherwise this would've been yesterday's piece!

@Bob on BD, RA, QDA etc. I change the page for this discussion as it is not necessary to annoy Kevin.

I disagree with you last comment the problem with Bidaba, Rukhfil and Begun is that they cannot be rendered by 3D imagery.

First, Begum could inspire some imagery! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begum. I have few possible ideas around a Queen with some oriental scarf.

For the rest, it is true but you are probably the only person sensitive to that. I don't think that many people will try to re-use all the images you share every day. They are just too many, soon 200! Apart few rare exceptions (like Vivi), no one is able to remember how your Snail or Swordfish moves.

Actually, if one really wants, it is quite possible to design a compound piece such as BD or RA in 3D. For example a Bishop's head above a wheeled platform. Then, if someone recognizes the parenthood with B and D, then a name bearing some indication of the parenthood is easier to catch.

True, all you say. (Good information on Begum, in particular; I'd never heard of the word before.)

I've actually done quite a few pieces like what you say, though as far as I can tell the only one I've put into PotD is the Root-N25 Leaper. Maybe I'll do a week of them some time, just to give ideas.

And of course the Piece of the Day is 90% just getting people's creative juices going. Some (like the current week) is asking for feedback, of course, and occasionally there's other stuff going on.

To my piece-finder colleagues:

Are there established pieces anywhere with a move of [C?R] and [Z?R]?

Basically, I'm looking for rotary counterparts to the Astrologer [C?B] and Tiger [Z?B].

I'm pretty sure I've seen [N?B] and [N?R] somewhere as well, but I don't recall where.

162. Sissa. This is a more popular piece around here than I would've expected, and it took me a good two months before I really understood how it moves, and it wasn't until I was mapping out the move that I looked closely enough to really get it. It makes a Rook or Bishop move, then turns either 45 or 135 degrees left or right and moves the exact same number of spaces (aivsQ). It can't make a single-space move, or move fewer spaces on the second leg; both legs of the move must be equal and unobstructed.

For the diagram, I mapped only the second leg of any given move. The blue arrows are orthogonal first, with a 45-degree turn; the green arrows are orthogonal first, with a 135-degree turn; the magenta arrows are diagonal first, with a 45-degree turn; and the mustard arrows are diagonal first, with a 135-degree turn.

Interestingly (at least to me), this gives the same destination squares as a Chancellor, but with different ways to get there.

A visual representation is hard to come up with, since the Sissa is named for a person (the legendary inventor of Chaturanga, from which Chess is descended). Since Sissa himself was Indian, I took a cue from the usual 2D icon and used the 24-spoked wheel of the Ashoka Chakra, which figures on the Indian flag, as a basic model. I'm not sure I did it justice.

[N?B] is Unicorn from Grande Acedrex, [N?R] is Cavalier mentioned in Griffon’s piececlopedia page.

Yes N-then-B is as Lev said. N-then-R is Pegasus used by Daniel Z in Tigrey

The Cavalier from Rennchess mentioned in the Piececlopedia is a different piece. The diagram may confuse. Every square can be reached by two different ways:

Step one square diagonally, and then slide any number of squares orthogonally.

Slide any number of squares orthogonally, then step one square diagonally.

Final remark, the name "Cavalier" is not a very good choice, because that word (which is from French origin in English) is the word used in French to name the Knight at chess.

No luck on the [C?R] and [Z?R] yet.

Still haven't heard anything.

So far I've figured out that the [C?R], to go with the Astrologer, can be an Astronomer. Not sure what to do with [Z?R] yet, opposite the Tiger.

I like this 3D Sissa

I like this 3D Sissa

Well, thanks! It was extremely hard to figure out, having virtually nothing to go on.

163. Hawk. The Hawk leaps two or three spaces in any orthogonal or diagonal direction.

Making the model was the easy part; the hard part was making it distinguishable from the Raven, Falcon, and other raptors in my collection. I eventually ended up changing the close-set wings on my Falcon for the open feathered wings that I often use to indicate beings that actually have wings.

I'm not sure it reads well (I may post a couple of my other raptors later, for comparison), but it's what I could come up with.

No luck on the [C?R] and [Z?R] yet.

Still haven't heard anything.

So far I've figured out that the [C?R], to go with the Astrologer, can be an Astronomer. Not sure what to do with [Z?R] yet, to go opposite the Tiger.