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Alekhine Chess A Zillions-of-Games file

. Named in honor of Alexander Alekhine, World Chess Champion 1927-1935, 1937-1946.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Joe Joyce wrote on Sun, May 31, 2009 12:23 AM UTC:

Hello, Michael, and welcome back, Greg. I probably shouldn't be getting drawn into this, but the topic is one I find quite interesting. How much power is too much power? Conversely, what is too little power in a game?

Wargamers [you know, those strange people who spend hours playing over 1 battle in some real or imagined military campaign] tend to first prefer to upgun their units when they can build their own battles. All tanks become Panzers and Tigers, all planes become jets, all the infantry has vehicles to carry them fast... and this satisfies most of them. Sometimes, though, one will tire of all the power, and go for more subtlety. Then you get the new battles, the new units, the new tactics and strategy. It's an acquired taste, possibly.

It's obvious that most variant players are chess players first. And since chess is a wargame, it's logical to think they would first be attracted to variants with more power. The logical 'new' pieces are B+N, R+N, and B+R+N. So Michael has made a very logical variant, in that sense.

The game is a shoot-out, a Gunfight at the AOL Corral, if you like. A lot of people like slick, glossy, fast, bloody; look at all the action movies that do so well. People like fireworks and special effects, and this game provides them. Pure raw power, coming right up the middle at ya! It's the football version of chess.

The baseball version of chess? The shortrange games. [The badminton of chess would be the games with weaker pieces, then.] Much more positional play, with various tactics and strategies manifesting themselves during the game. But longer games, with much more maneuvering and struggling for position and advantage. If anyone doubts this, let them try the following experiment: Play standard FIDE chess, but reduce the range of the rooks and bishops to 4, and the queen to 3. When you see what this does to the game, you'll understand a bit better the effects of the introduction of the 'infinite slider' power pieces - all those with a rook and/or bishop move. It's a different taste.