Anthony Viens wrote on Thu, Nov 29, 2018 06:00 AM UTC:
H. G. Muller, I share your dislike of the dueling mechanic and agree it does not feel 'chesslike'.
However, it is not chance. It is very different skill, requiring reading the board, relative importance of keeping the piece vs stones, and your opponent. You cannot duel randomly and be effective, because this 'prisoner's dilemma' has an end....you run out of stones and your opponent has a huge advantage.
You may not be aware that Chess2 was played very extensively on Steam, which tracks all games. Quite a few players racked up litarally thousands of hours playing. Chess2 probably ranks very high on the list of Chess Variants that have actually been played--and not a single decent player approached the dueling as anything other than an important calculation to make. You could duel randomly, of course, but experience shows that is not the best way.
(Chess2 on Steam is pretty much dead now, no one is ever on and the computer is quite weak. But it had quite a few players for a while there.)
I do agree that it pushes this variant farther away from chess than usual--much further away than I like. But dueling doesn't make it a game of chance.
H. G. Muller, I share your dislike of the dueling mechanic and agree it does not feel 'chesslike'.
However, it is not chance. It is very different skill, requiring reading the board, relative importance of keeping the piece vs stones, and your opponent. You cannot duel randomly and be effective, because this 'prisoner's dilemma' has an end....you run out of stones and your opponent has a huge advantage.
You may not be aware that Chess2 was played very extensively on Steam, which tracks all games. Quite a few players racked up litarally thousands of hours playing. Chess2 probably ranks very high on the list of Chess Variants that have actually been played--and not a single decent player approached the dueling as anything other than an important calculation to make. You could duel randomly, of course, but experience shows that is not the best way.
(Chess2 on Steam is pretty much dead now, no one is ever on and the computer is quite weak. But it had quite a few players for a while there.)
I do agree that it pushes this variant farther away from chess than usual--much further away than I like. But dueling doesn't make it a game of chance.