Comments by JorgKnappen

Now it is forbidden for the Black King to enter the 1st rank at all, see the potential capture after move 119 and the situation after the last move:

{1781357515} 1. e4 e5 2. Qg4 f5 3. Qg6 Ke7 4. d4 d5 5. Bg5 Kd7 6. Nc3 b5 7. O-O-O Qf6 8. g4 Kc6 9. Bc4 Be6 10. Nf3 Bf7 11. d3 Ne7 12. Nd4 Kd7 13. Na4 c6 14. c3 e6 15. Nc5 Kc7 16. a4 a5 17. Bf4 Kb6 18. Nd7 Kb7 19. Nc5 Kc8 20. b4 Qe5 21. h4 Kc7 22. Na6 Kb6 23. Nc5 Nd7 24. f3 Ra6 25. a3 a4 26. h5 Ra5 27. Rd2 Nc8 28. Bg5 Be7 29. f4 Bf6 30. Rhh2 Nd6 31. h6 Rha8 32. Rde2 R8a6 33. Rh3 Nb8 34. Nd7 Kb7 35. Nc5 Kc7 36. h5 Nd7 37. Ree3 Nb6 38. h6 Nb7 39. Ref3 Kb8 40. Nd7 Kc8 41. Nc5 Kd8 42. Rfg3 Ke8 43. h5 Qd6 44. e5 Qd7 45. Rg2 Nd6 46. h6 Ne4 47. Rgg3 Qd6 48. Rh4 Nc8 49. Bb3 Qc7 50. Rgh3 Ncd6 51. Bc4 Ng3 52. Rh2 Nde4 53. Ne2 Qd6 54. d4 Ra8 55. R2h3 Kd8 56. Nb7 Kc7 57. Nc5 Rd8 58. Rh2 Raa8 59. R4h3 Qd7 60. Na6 Kb6 61. Nc5 Qa7 62. Rh1 Qa5 63. Nd7 Kc7 64. Nc5 Rd6 65. R1h2 Kd8 66. Nb7 Ke8 67. f3 c5 68. Rh1 Kd7 69. f4 Kc7 70. R1h2 Kxb7 71. Rh4 b6 72. Bb5 Ra6 73. R2h3 Rd7 74. Rh5 Kc7 75. Rh2 c4 76. b3 b7 77. R5h4 Kb6 78. d3 Kxb5 79. Nd4 Kb6 80. Re2 Ka7 81. Nb5 Ka8 82. d4 Qb4 83. Nc7 Kb8 84. Nb5 Kc8 85. Na7 Kd8 86. Nc6 Ke8 87. h5 b5 88. Rh3 Rd6 89. h6 Kd7 90. Nb8 Kc7 91. h5 Kxb8 92. Bh4 Kb7 93. Qg5 Bg6 94. h6 Kc7 95. Rhh2 Nf1 96. Re3 Ned2 97. Rhh3 a5 98. Re2 c5 99. h5 Qc4 100. a4 Qd3 101. c2 b4 102. Rf2 Qc3 103. b2 c4 104. Rff3 Rab6 105. Rh2 b3 106. Bg3 Rb4 107. Re3 a6 108. Rg2 Kb6 109. e4 e5 110. Rg1 Ka5 111. f3 Kxa4 112. Rg2 Ka5 113. f4 Ra4 114. Kd1 Qd3 115. h4 Ra1 116. b1 Ka4 117. h5 Ka3 118. Rg1 Kb2 119. c1 Ka3 120. b2 Kb4 121. Rg2 Rb1 122. f3 c3 123. Rh2 Qc2 124. Ke2 Kc4 125. d3 Kd4 126. f4 h6 127. h4 b4 128. b3 Rb2 129. Rf2 b5 130. b4 b6 131. b5 Rb4 132. Rff3 Kc5 133. h5 Kxb5 134. d4 Ka4 135. Rf2 Ka3 136. Rd3 Ka2 137. Rg2

Nice find. OLS War Elephant differs from the Prime minister with respect to the null move: The Prime minister has it, the War Elephant doesn't.

The OLS War Elephant can also be conveniently characterised as a B2zB2: The combination of Bishop and Boyscout, both restricted to two moves.

Browsing "Articles on Pieces" I stumbled of this one: Prime Minister which is well written and has good pictures. Can the two articles be merged in one?

This is a quite technical comment, and I put it here because many pages all over this site are affected.

Cross-reference links to pages on this site

Unfortunately, many pages on this site include cross-reference links with the protocol (http or https) and the site (www.chessvariants.org or www.chessvariants.com) explicitly encoded. All those cross-reference links should be changed such that they include just the path. I think this is best done globally and automated by a script.

Why?

Changing the protocol from https to http while interacting with the site can expose the password when people are login in again to the insecure protocol.

Changing to the backup site chessvariants.org may result in futile interactions (like trying to comment there).

When only the path is given, a user stay on the site and is not accidentally moved to an identical looking but different site.

A little bit of playtesting with the interactive diagram it looks like the basic premise doesn't work out: It is not only possible but also advised to exchange one of the missiles by striking at your opponents missile. White is practically forced to follow this path, otherwise Black would get a free second strike. Black eliminates White second missile in the counter-strike.

It is also possible to eliminate a Royal piece using the missile strike (don't know if this is a good idea for the attacker since other pieces have higher fighting value).

I still don't know more about the Panda's history than I wrote in the historical notes section. I don't know where the name Panda occurred first, I got it from Peter Aronson. In the Jelliss reference, only ski, skip, and slip pieces are mentioned.

You may want to look at Charles Gilman's Commedia dell'Arte Chess where he names slip-B Bear, slip-Q Harlekin, and also the compounds Rook+slip-B Columbine and Bishop+slip-R Clown.

Some links are broken, I tried "Other variants" and "Modest variants" under "Chess variants with usual equipment: Those variants that can be played with (mainly) a usual 8 by 8 board, and usual pieces." and both give a database error.

Example:

INVALID INPUT REJECTED. The generation of SQL has stopped without finishing, and the database has not been queried.

Invalid value for category: Usual-Modest.

Why did I try it at all? ... It has something to do with AAUUGHH! Chess and the recent comment on that.

Another minor one: Dabbaba is better spelled without an h at the end: The underlying Arabic does not have one either.

I think, the piece name should be spelled Dabbaba (without an H at the end), the underlying Arabic does not have it either.

Here's the Wiktionary entry with more information on the original Arabic word: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dabbaba

Maybe you can define an explosion zone for the missiles, such that it explodes only in the enemy's back ranks, otherwise it is just a pimped up grasshopper.

The Arabic singular is just دَبَّابَة (dabbāba), the "ت" only occurs in the plural دَبَّابَات (dabbābāt).

See: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D8%AF%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%A8%D8%A9#Arabic

This is strange for a piecoclopedie entry: A year of invention of the wolf is given but not the name of the inventor nor its first use.

Also no later uses are recorded.

Finally it should be mentioned that the name wolf was assigned to other pieces, notably to the rook-knight compound in von Wilpert's game Wolf Chess.

I still agree very much with this old comment. This piece is not worth being in the piecoclopedia.

Another potential addition to all these is the army of New Zealand Chess. It features the Rookni and the Kniroo in the places of Rook and Knight. For a funny name I suggest Krazy Kiwis.