Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

(8) Option Chess, http://en.chessbase.com/post/option-chess-by-paul-bonham.

Pablo Neruda "Past": We have to discard the past And as one builds Floor by floor, window by window, And the building rises So do we go on throwing down First, broken tiles, Then pompous doors, Until out of the past dust rises smoke rises....  

["Pasado": Tenemos que echar abajo el pasado
y como se construye
piso por piso, ventana a ventana,
y sube el edificio
así, bajando vamos
primero tejas rotas,
luego orgullosas puertas,
hasta que del pasado
sale polvo
como si se golpeara
contra el suelo,
sale humo
como si se quemara....]

For follow-up, obviously  this particular Option Chess is subvariant of Duniho's 2005 Extra Move Chess (http://www.chessvariants.org/multimove.dir/extramove.html), which itself in turn is perfecting  subvariant of some two-move Chesses: http://www.chessvariants.org/index/mainquery.php?type=Any&category=Usual-MultiMove&orderby=LinkText&displayauthor=1&displayinventor=1&usethisheading=Multiple+Move+Variants. 

2014 Option Chess article at Chessbase uses contemporary wording: "weakens
the play of even the most optimized computer engine."

Fifty years earlier, Horowitz and Rothenberg write in 'The Complete Book of
Chess'(1963), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Albert_Horowitz, last
chapter "The Future" in several pages on computers: "In essence, is it likely
that in the foreseeable future man will be able to program a mechanical
robot to play invincible Chess?  .... The Yessers cite success already
attained by electronic brains as Chessplayers, and they claim
enthusiastically that what has been shown to be possible on a limited scale
can and will lend itself to any desired expansion.  A systematized
organization of all known principles of play is quite sufficient in
insuring a programming of faultless play.   The American Chessmaster, Dr.
Edward Lasker -- also, by coincidence a fine engineer and mathematician --
appears to favor the Yessers, whereas Botvinnik, as already noted, seems
to lean towards the Noers.   ....  That a richly endowed [computer] will
one day be able to play a highly skillful game of Chess leaves no room for
doubt.  On the other hand, in the absence of a fantastic superspeed
electronic brain, the Chess championship of the world is likely to be
retained by humans for centuries to come." 

As far as that
 last statement a page from the end of the book, well 33 years 150 years same difference.

 
Incidentally, in intellectually free mid-twentieth century, the above excellent standard reference 'The Complete Book of Chess', chiefly for OrhoChess of course, naturally treats many Chess Variants:  Kriegspiel at length, Grid Chess, Relay Chess, Fairy Chess in general, as well as pieces Nightrider, Grasshopper, Camel, Zebra.  Among chess- and math-involved, not only a few described "grand-masters" today would be ignorant of every one of those stock-in-trade Chessic forms.

Http://en.chessbase.com/post/computer-resistant-chess-variants --ChessBase 21.February.2014.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=23044 -- the six messages in "AI Easy or Hard" were all May 2009.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=22910.

Arimaa -- http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=22999.

Among the eight CVs, ChessBase's Seirawan Chess has two new pieces, Rook-Knight and
Bishop-Knight, that were invented 400 years ago exactly by Carrera.  
Option Chess and Tandem Pawn and Switch Side Chain dramatically change the Rules (see
recent list).  

In operating mathematical paradigm, the three convenient parameters of variantdom would be (1) Board,
(2) Pieces, (3) Rules.  ChessBase in 2014 tinkers with Pieces and
Rules, and their non-traditional Boards remain foreign Xiangqi 9x10 and
Shogi 9x9.   Is the 8x8 board then sacrosanct?  Of course not, and Chess Variant Page boards
range routinely from early computer Los Alamos 6x6, http://www.chessvariants.org/small.dir/losalamos.html, to 8x16 so-called double chesses,
http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/doublewide-chess.html, also seen in deeper 16x10 and 16x12 forms.
 In principle, differing Boards should more readily thwart Computer sixty years on from Los Alamos.

Pre-Internet, CV pioneers Boyer, Dawson, Parton, Betza also strongly preferred staying on safer 64 squares.  Professional circles just thought of other than 8x8 as offbeat and declared inelegant,  whether in problem theme or full CV.  (Above Betza does diverge in Doublewide.)  For them to expand to larger board would chaotically play into hand of amateurs, or just open whole can of worms for everyone unnecessarily, presenting one new kettle of fish after another.  Really as it is, 8x8 is infinitely variable by Rules and Pieces potentially alone to cook up to suit.  That has been the tacit conventional wisdom, notwithstanding GM Capablanca's 80 and 100 squares.  Even in Chess Variant Page, half the several thousand CVs retain table-top 8x8, but applications make better boards 8x10, 9x9, 10x10 easy too.  

If Chess had been 7x7 for the last 1500 years, say without Bishop, which was the last addition, there would be scrambling and piling Mutator upon Mutator to try to salvage perfectly playable 49 squares in favour of biologic intelligence over relentless silicon.

[Added 4.March.14: Ist der Bauer geschuetzt?

"In two words: Im - Possible" - Samuel Goldwyn]

Today's Quote: "The first thing to realise about the aether is its absolute continuity.  A deep-sea fish has probably no means of apprehending the existence of water; it is too uniformly immersed in it: and that is our condition in regard to the aether." - physicist Sir Oliver Lodge, 'Ether and Reality'(1925)

Http://en.chessbase.com/post/hindi-and-the-origins-of-chess.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?itemid=Chaturanga -- "Jason L." here 2011-12 takes minority view for Chinese origin. And 
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=4667, 
 John Ayer addresses what early rules may have been more than origin per se.

The connection between the elephant's leg s and the Rook most ingenious, but it is entirely spurious. The shape of the modern Rook is well documented as originating in the similarity of the Arabic Rukh, from which that piece's English name is derived, and rocco, one of the Italian words for a tower. As Chess reached Europe from an Islamic culture, which shunned representational art, there would be no reason to associate any piece with an elephant from the shape of abstract pieces alone.

A European acquainted with the Arabic language might spot a physical reference to elephants, but it would be in the precursor to the Bishop, which was an abstraction of the (male) elephant's tusks. The clue was in its name of Alfil, literally the phrase "the elephant". Someone with such an education would also recongnise Rukh as meaning a chariot, a quite different piece of military equipment. If the Rook ever really did represent an Elephant it was certainly a chariot by the time Chess began spreading west - and for that matter east.

This is half of a Bridge column in 2008 by Jared Johnson "Game Doesn'
t Suffer from Bad Luck of the Draw":

'Many years ago in football, a tie score at the end of four quarters meant
a tie.  Then overtime was added.  We don't like ties.  In baseball they go
extra innings.  We don't like ties. There are playoffs in golf. We don't
like ties.  .... You rarely have ties in Bridge.  .... In a game that has
already been made less interesting by conservative play, this gives at
least one of the players even more motivation to have draw after draw after
draw.  .... And whereas Chess has just two opponents facing each other, a
Bridge event can have dozens or hundreds of pairs, so no one is playing for a draw.  

Another problem with Chess is that the standard range of opening moves has
become so thoroughly analyzed and predictable, you just don't get much
excitement.  Not so at Bridge.  You get the occasional dull deal, but the
next hand might be seven hearts, six clubs and 17 high card points.  

If they really do want to rejuvenate Chess, some new approaches are needed.

Computers have already beaten world champions at Chess.  The Bridge
computer programs aren't even close, since the game is so much harder to
program with all the hidden variables and psychological elements.  Knowing
that a machine can beat a man has been one more blow to Chess.  At Bridge,
the humans are still on top.  ....

Bobby Fischer was once asked his favorite part of the game of Chess.  His
reply: "That moment when I can feel my opponent's ego being crushed."  

Meanwhile, Bridge players will pick up their next hand with fair confidence that most of the time the complete deal will be something they've never seen before.  And there will be a winner.  And a loser.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duplicate_bridge.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-archology-of-chess-positions.

Chessbase as a website is understandably very timid for CVs or true history of western Chess.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/feynman-using-chess-to-explain-science.

The above is however interesting current take; we developed Feynman on
Chess as Physics operator here:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=25105

and http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=25108 and elsewhere
5 years ago before the Chessbase coming out with it. Or is the better formulation Physics as Chess operator?  Unfortunately Feynman died at just 69 twenty-seven years ago almost to the day: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman.

Really enjoyed the link to the explination of science using chess.

"Fantasy Variation."

 
http://en.chessbase.com/post/lawrence-trent-winning-with-the-fantasy-variation.

 Sounds like a CV?  You know:  Fantasy Grand Chess, Duggan's Fantasy
Chess.
No, don't be fooled.  To the Antinomians of Chess, one-style Chessbase,
Fantasy Variation means '1 e4 c6 2 d4 d5' for the fifty thousandth time
or for the hundred thousandth time or the two hundred thousandth time and
then 3 f3....    Whee for 'f' as in title of fantasy three.

Hey it concludes "easy to learn" for every one-trick pony Grand-master.

Send in the Clowns.  Within hours antinomian ChessBase will have its once
yearly sprinkle of ha-ha.  You know, April 1.  1.April.2014 was Carlsen on
an oil rig:
http://en.chessbase.com/post/breaking-news-world-championship-2014-in-norway.  How about suggestions for another April 1 in future, or May 1 May Day as one will, some sketchier than others?

   1) President Ilyumzhinov plays a game of Hitchhiker's Guide chess with an alien intelligence.  This idea is obligatory here, or over-determined, on account of the unwarranted criticism by new york times and other corporate presses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation, http://www.openminds.tv/russian-exopolitics/3949.

   (2) The return match at Reykyavik between Putin and Obama will run 24
games, not contemporary GM-woodpusher regular mere 12 games.
(3) Helsinki will hold annual Ethiopian Chess, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senterej, tournament dispensing with
the mobilization phase as too conventional.

   (4) The annual Return to Shatranj will be held by organizer Joe Joyce (http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSgrandshatranjm) in New York City.
(5) Shogi tournament will take place in Kyoto between Kasparov and Carlsen,
featuring 50 different piece-types to suit: http://www.chessvariants.org/shogivariants.dir/taikyoku_english.html.

   (6) Gilman's three-dimensional Armies of Faith will be played or played out at Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, birthplace of chess problems, in 2017 http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSarmiesoffaith3.  
   (7) The Living Chess at Matostica, http://armchairtravelogue.blogspot.com/2009/06/living-chess-game-at-marostica-italy.html, will begin to feature Beastmaster pieces instead.

Don't expect anything shilpit or unipygic from the like of ChessBase; sure of their lines, every April 1 they there get the last laugh though all faces on their horizon are not even smiling.

One is true and one is false presumably.  http://en.chessbase.com/post/the-bremer-counter-attack,

http://en.chessbase.com/post/minor-planet-named-after-chess-player, both April 1.

Anand's planet again: http://en.chessbase.com/post/minor-planet-named-after-chess-player.
April Fool because both were true, and the third one later is false:

http://en.chessbase.com/post/google-tooth-the-latest-in-wearables

at ChessBase who exudes: http://en.chessbase.com/post/google-tooth-you-must-be-kidding.

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=31219.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/switch-side-chain-chess-revisited.

http://www.chessvariants.org/other.dir/sscc.html.

Switch-side Chain Chess can be generalized too.    No reason the Mutator
cannot be widely applicable to over 90% of the 3000 CVs, and then there are
over easily 4000 or 5000 new games,  if some non-overlapping Pritchard
'ECV' cvs are included.

Switch Side Chain Rococo, SSC Schoolbook Chess, Switch Side Chain Altair
and so on.  If original SSCC with careful conservative f.i.d.e. six on 64
has not much clarity, imagine the opaqueness of Switch Side Chain Pocket
Polypiece.  In Thompson's terms, all the SSC Chesses probably stand very
high in depth and drama, average in decisiveness, and low  in clarity, the
chief four.  That  spectrum would explain expected computer typically
advantaged over biological again.

The Rose in its move, http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSrosechess, has shape of ideational entire Chain roughly speaking, so games with Rose by Betza or others could be candidates for this Mutator.

Offhand this would seem a pedestrian debate,
http://en.chessbase.com/post/chess-gender-debate-in-the-international-press,
since they choose to focus on simpleminded f.i.d.e. six on sixty-four only.
 Open up to CVs, of which thousands are generated not just one played the
same way over and over, and females in general will do as well or better
than males.  (above based on link of title and headlines so far -- have to yet read the
some social media content if any)

[22.Apr.15, the original -- http://en.chessbase.com/post/vive-la-diffrence-the-full-story]

http://en.chessbase.com/post/new-million-dollar-grand-chess-tour-announced.

http://en.chessbase.com/post/new-chess-circuit-to-be-announced-in-saint-louis.

Electric atmosphere: Fischer and Spassky Iceland 1972.  Fast forward a
lifetime.  Today Iceland public broadcasting has marathons of live sheep
birthing, Chess, Knitting, and wood-burning,
http://www.1stmove.org/2015/05/20/i-want-my-mctv/  in slow television
campaign.  

Is formal f.i.d.e. become kin to knitting then?  Actually Chess and
Knitting have been conflated before by writer of astronaut book 'The Right
Stuff', Tom Wolfe.  Crudely Wolfe likens the continual clicks of
(centenarian) knitting circle needles and endless clicks of keys any
computer room as same absentminded "click, click, clicking" -- broadening
perfect-fit Chess to all silicon objects key-clutched.  Wolf's ax to grind
is book sales decimated by surfing Internet.

So here's perfect solution for each complainant one by one:

(1) R. J. Fischer r.i.p.

(2) Iceland tv should just adopt CVs in order to regain their 1972 Reykjavik
suspense.  Just forget Fischer's last decade the Aughts terminal Icelandic
reprise, and these Teens decade reinvent CVs:  Rococo on Ice, Northern
Lights Altair, Geyser Gaia.

(3) Thirdly, F.i.d.e./ChessBase?  Recall Japan has good size 81, China
regular size 90, and Europe only paltry 64. No board fits wide screen any
more. Unbefitting a Carlsen, one or two recent championship games have been
like Watching Paint Dry -- sure qualification for Iceland Slow TV along
with woodburning. So renew FRC discussion if not Reshevsky
pocket to further perfect the board.

(4) Finally Wolfe. Since his astronaut book, cosmonauts have played Chess in Space: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition17/earth_v_space_chess.html.  Common German Chess Boxing is too mild, http://worldchessboxing.com/contact/ a contact sport.  Wind surfing/Chess could be done, as play on words, to remove monotony but Chess is land sport.  So take the next step a sure leap to Base Jumping for excitement: Buildings, Antennae, Spans, Earth.  A new CV then surfaces, Supreme Blitz basejump Chess Taft Point Yosemite, advanced to Meru Peak, http://iloveskydiving.org/view/videos/world-record-base-jump-from-6600m/, India, birthplace of the holy 2*2*2 board. All moves in 1' free fall,100 mph, between cliffs no time for clicks,  Wing suit and parachute, no entanglement, Draw death no way.    

(safety is Los Alamos 36 surer to finish in time)

(http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/may/22/did-rules-not-risk-cause-dean-potters-base-jumping-death)

Moscow.

In the timeline of CVs the 1910s have T. R. Dawson Nightrider and Grasshopper and

German Raumschach, the 1920s saw Capablanca's own version of Bird Chess fifty

years before that, and the war years 1940s have many CVs from Kristensen's

to German Wolf Chess to Morley's. There is relative gap in CVs of 1930s, but Dawson was steadily producing

fairy problems in British Chess Magazine, and the standout new CV of 1930s is Dutch Novo Chess.

Moscow tournament: Novo_Chess. It was fascinating in 1990s to see Motor Unit anticipating four of

the six Falcon moves.

Another 1930s creation in fact from Moscow year or two earlier, Chess_Battle.