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Comments by JohnLawson
Existentialist Chess. 10x10 board with many different pieces. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I suppose I should note the obvious: that both these pieces come in a left-handed and right-handed version.
I take umbrage! I'm a pseudo-intellectual, and that seems obvious to me!
Lynn, I was just kidding of course, but there are other symbols that are ambiguous also. I recently moved from New Jersey to Texas. Here they have monuments to 'Our Brave Confederate Dead', and I've seen a county courthouse flying three flags, USA, Texas, and CSA. I'm not sure what they really meant by that, but I drove directly out of the county.
Royal Fury. A Futuristic Chessery Game - relaxed win rules.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]According to the 'Classified Encyclopedia of Chess Variants', Royal Fury is dated 1972, and Ultima is dated 1961.
I became a chess variantist in 1962, so yes I know how hard information was to find in the olden days. Bob Abbott published a paperback book 'Abbott's New Card Games', Funk and Wagnalls, $0.95, in 1963, containing the rules to Ultima, so the possibility of cross-fertilization is there. I happen to have two copies. But does it matter really? I see no reason to be concerned with 'primacy'. They are different games, inspired by an idea that could occur to anyone.
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Roger Hare's shogi pages are here now: http://www.shogi.net/rjhare/chu-shogi/chu-intro.html
There is an old topic thread on much the same topic at: http://chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=piece+sets
The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]No, I don't think so. 'No piece, neither friend nor foe, will dare venture upon an an ichorous square'
Papers on phylogenetic analyses of chess variants. Papers describing phylogenetic analyses of chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This link is broken, but I found it here: http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/Alex$20Kraaijeveld.pdf
The Pizza Kings. An experimental army for Chess with Different Armies, with lots of calories.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I had originally given the Meatball Knight moves in all directions (a more 'well-rounded' move, like a perfect meatball), but it was way too strong, so I had to lame it. This army is a lot of fun to play with, questions of balance aside.
Gothic Isles Chess. Fictional historic variant, with Dragons, Wizards and Champions. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I found the Fairy Tale Draughts link: http://www.zillions-of-games.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi?do=show;id=406
There is either a post or a comment in an article somewhere on this site where Ralph admits that he mostly designs variants on 64-square boards because, as a US-Master-level FIDE chess player, that was the board he could most easily visualize. This allowed him to do his play-testing in his head, without resorting to physical equipment.
The Game of Nemoroth. For the sake of your sanity, do not read this variant! (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I don't understand why you see so many alternatives. What is your thinking on the interaction of the Go-Away and the Basilisk?
Whew! OK, I'm going to think about that for a while (I have to go back and study the interactions section). Don't Ghasts also cause you a problem, since they can trigger cascading flight?
My point about the Ghast was not about pushing a piece closer to a Ghast, but pushing the Ghast itself. There is no compulsion for a Go-Away to flee a friendly Ghast if it approaches, but if the Go-Away screams, the Ghast will move and potentially create compulsions in other pieces not affected by the Go-Away's scream. It says in the rules 'The Go Away cannot approach a Ghast, and may be compelled to flee an enemy Ghast (but pushing the Ghast further away counts as flight).' The mind boggles.
I've been visiting this chess variant site for almost 14 years. I like these posts by George. They sometimes remind me of things I've participated in that I have forgotten, and I'll go to the old threads to review the discussion.
Introducing Economy in CV's?. Several chess variants based on economic principles.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Zorkmids' are the currency used in 'Zork', a text-based computer adventure game released about 1980. Using it here is just a joke.
Concise Guide to Chess Variants. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating] On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]David, I also find the 'point-count' classification interesting and possibly fruitful. One interested in games in general might establish 'point-count' characteristics for other types of games, and then for those games that are ambiguous, one could perhaps, for instance, compare the various 'point-count' analyses of a difficult case like Nemoroth to decide whether it is more a Chess variant or a Fox-and-geese variant. One of the characteristics could be, as trivial as it sounds, does any game in question take advantage of the physical nature of a chess set to define or clarify aspects of its own rules?
Home page of The Chess Variant Pages. Homepage of The Chess Variant Pages.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This seems better than the current text, but you might want to make it a little clearer that when you say 'Chess' without modification, you are referring to the modern variant originating in Europe.
Something is not right on the "What's New?" page: Last item created or updated 163 DAYS ago.
Minishogi. On a 5 by 5 board. (5x5, Cells: 25) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Minishogi has not been the smallest shogi for quite a few years. It would be hard to surpass Bushi Shogi. http://www.chessvariants.org/index/external.php?itemid=BushiShogi
Yup, I follow xkcd, and that one made me laugh out loud at work.
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