Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Wildebeast9. A Variant of Wildebeast Chess.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Chris Chradle wrote on Thu, Aug 22, 2019 09:45 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I think it's a fusion between Wildbeast and Xhess not XChess. XChess is a variation with an hourglass.

Chris

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Aug 22, 2019 09:53 PM UTC:

And a Shogi board is 9x9, not 9x10. (Xiangqi is 9x10, but this also doesn't qualify as a Xiangqi board, which has a Palace and a River.)

Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Aug 22, 2019 11:34 PM UTC:

And, not to pile on, but it's Wildebeest not Wildebeast. (I can rename the game in the database if you would like.)

Erik Lerouge wrote on Fri, Aug 23, 2019 07:58 AM UTC:

The orthography 'Wildebeast' could be intentional from its author.

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 07:18 AM UTC:

Hello all.
Greg: Correction made on documentation.
Thank you for the rename offer, but I would like to call mine Wildebeast.
HG: Removal of 9x9 on the documentation.
Chris: Xhess correction made.
Erik: I added your game to my introduction

Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 03:25 PM UTC:

Thank you. This looks interesting. I'll send out a GC invite so I can try it.

I assume by the way the promotion rule is worded that if you do not have a queen you must promote to a queen and cannot choose wildebeast. Is that correct?

Also, I see the GC Preset is named Wildebeast_9 with an underscore. Would you mind saving another copy without the underscore for consistency?

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 09:34 PM UTC:

Greg: Done. The game is now Wildebeast9. Can you delete/erase Wildebeast_9? The one with the underscore?

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 10:01 PM UTC:

Greg: Another update to the documentation. FYI. The promotion is to either wildebeast or queen. You can only promote to queen if you do not have one.

Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Aug 24, 2019 11:10 PM UTC:

Thanks for the clarification.

I was able to re-associate the two existing game logs with your new Wildebeast9 preset and delete the old one.

Greg Strong wrote on Mon, Aug 26, 2019 10:11 PM UTC:

If the pawns are called horsemen in this game, does that mean the notation should be "H"?

Finally, just to make 100% sure I understand, the promotion rule is this:

Horsemen MUST promote upon reaching the 8th rank (3rd rank for Black.) They can always promote to Wildebeast. They can also promote to Queen if the player does not already have one.

Is that right?

dax00 wrote on Mon, Aug 26, 2019 11:26 PM UTC:

I would also like clarification about the promotion rules. The way I interpreted the rule as you wrote it, promotion to queen would be mandatory if you didn't have one, otherwise mandatory promotion to wildebeest. Which bothered me, because in my current game with Greg Strong, in one quite possible line, I would prefer wildebeest to queen. Underpromotion is a great mechanic, so it would be nice to be able to promote to lesser pieces if desired.

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Wed, Aug 28, 2019 12:51 AM UTC:

Greg: You are correct on your promotiion rules.

Dax: You do not have to promote to Queen, You have the choice at all times of Queen or Wildebeast, unless you own a Queen. I did not want to flood the board with Queens.

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Wed, Aug 28, 2019 12:58 AM UTC:

dax: About promotion, I would prefer the Queen Wildebeast rule, however, if you get a 2nd person to make that request, I will change to code so that promotion can be any lower piece. I will keep the 1 queen rule though. :)

H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Aug 28, 2019 07:54 AM UTC:

Note that the Wildebeest does not have mating potential in your game. (Unlike in Wildebeest Chess, where stalemate also is a win.)

Also note that you do not consistently use the same spelling for the name of the piece, and that the promotion rule as described in the article (twice!) says indeed something entirely different from what Greg wrote. And, to really nitpick, that "all other cases" to that where you do not have a Queen is just the single case where you do have one.

💡📝wdtr2 wrote on Wed, Aug 28, 2019 11:24 AM UTC:

HG: I took your suggestions and attempted to re-write the section on the promotion. I think I used the name Wildebeast everywhere, except in the Introduction. (I can't find the misspelling) When I wrote the code, I assumed that the Horseman could get to the promotion zone with more ease than a pawn. I guessed that there would be more promotions in this game. Can a king and two horseman put a bare king in checkmate? I will try this and run some tests. If the answer is yes, I like my promotion rules "as is". If the answer is no. I probably should fix/adjust the promotion rules. If you dislike the promotion rule, I am open to suggestions. I think I have 1 vote from dax for promotion to other pieces like knight, rook, bishop, etc.

Greg Strong wrote on Fri, Aug 30, 2019 01:10 AM UTC:

I think the easiest solution is just to make stalemate a win so king + wildebeast can win against bare king.

I don't see any need to change the promotion rules though. Even if you don't change stalemate, promotion is not an issue. You are only forced to promote to wildebeast if you do not have a queen, in which case you promote to a queen and can checkmate easily. The only other case I see is the unusual position where you don't want to promote to a queen because that would stalement immediately, but since the horsemen promote on the 7th rank I don't think that is possible.