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Comments by RobertoLavieri
Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. Also called Baroque. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, in my fourth game against Chess V, the program beated me, playing in a good manner. I have not played bad, neither commited fatal errors or clear blunders. Analyzing the game, I have played different than in my previous three games, with a relatively open position. It seems that Chess V plays well this kind of instances.
ChessV. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yes, I did an mental exercise and I think you are right about the difficulties to write the code about when the King is in Check. One possible solution is changing the objective of the game to the capture-the-King rule, as in Zillions. Chess V is a relatively good player in open positions, because the program can calculate many tactical moves, it is not easy for a human do it in a good manner in this game, due the great mobility of pieces and combinations. The program is less abile in closed positions, because it does not understand well positional concepts, in fact, it is not designed using positional evaluation functions, but I agree with Greg, the program should be smarter if the Check condition detection is well solved, because part of the responsability of the bad play in some instances is the incorrect evaluation of the King vulnerability.
Alice Chess ZRF 
. New Alice Chess ZRF plays Alice Chess on two boards.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have downloaded the new Alice ZRF, but it does not run in my computer. It is showed an error message when loading. I have only seen the images using an images editor. Nice!.
ChessV. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Uff!, what improvements!. Greg, I have played my first test game, and Chess V won, playing very, very well. I have not used a lot of thinking time for my part (computer: 10 sec. per move in Pentium IV 2.1 Ghz.), but I think I played well too. I can say you that Chess V is now a very good contendor, at least for me, the problems have been fixed, and ChessV has now much more power. At this moment, I´m playing the second test, I have used the 'take-back-last-move' trick three times, after clear blunders or weak moves made by my part (well, it is a test game, so taking back last move a few times is permissed), Chess V mantains slight material advantage, but positional advantage is mine (this was my strategy, playing a closed game and taking relative positional advantages). I´m going to play the end thinking carefully each move, because I think I can win, but it seems it is not going to be easy. Once finished (I suppose tomorrow, the game can be very extense), I´ll send to you the saved game.
With the help of my son and a friend, we finished the fever caused by the fifth test game with a victory over Chess V after 6 titanic hours of a very disputed game to complete near 85 moves (we played White, and Chess V used 10 sec. per move in Pentium IV, 2.1 GHz.). The program played really well, it attacked and defended strongly, but this game is very instructive, it puts on the carpet the way of taking positional advantages in this kind of closed positions, and shows why this is a game which sometimes favours defense over attack. See and enjoy it!: Ultima f2f4 g7g5 e1g3 a7a4 h2h5 b7b5 g3g4 c7c4 g1h2 h8c3 e2e3 d7a7 g4g3 d8d4 e3f3 f7f6 h2g1 d4e4 !c2 e4g6 c1c2 g6f7 d1c1 h7h3 g1h2 g8h8 g3h4 c8g4 h4h7 f8h6 h2g3 g4h3 g3h2 h6h4 f4e4 f7d5 h1g1 d5b7 g1e3 h3h1 e3d4 b8g3 f1d1 g3e3 d4b4 h4d4 a2a3 e8d8 b4b3 h1h4 g2g1 h8g7 b2a2 b7d5 c2c3 e3e6 a1b2 d5g2 c3g3 g7g8 b1c2 d4d6 g3g7 g8g3 d1f1 e6e5 a2a1 a8g2 c2h2 h4h1 b2h2 a4h4 f1h3 e5c3 c1d1 d6d5 d1e1 f6h6 e1f1 d8c8 f1g2 d5f3 g2h1 h4f4 b3d1 h6e6 d1f1 e6e4 h2g2 f4h4 h1h2 c3e5 g1h1 b5b4 h2g1 e4e2 g1f2 e5f4 h1h2 f4e4 f2g3 e2f2 g3f2 e4b1 f1d3 b1g6 g2a8 c8d8 h3e3 g6h6 e3e5 h4f4 h2h1 h6a6 f2f3 a6a5 e5g7 a5a2 f3g4 f4e4 g4h5 e7d7 h5g6 d7d6 g7f8 e4f4 g6f6 a2e6 f6g7 e6a2 g7g8 a2a3 f8f7 a3a2 a8b7 d6d7 b7c6 b4c4 g8f8 c4b4 f7e8 d8c8 c6b6 c8b8 e8d8 a2c2 f8e8 d7d5 e8d7 f4f8 d7e8 f8f3 b6b5 d5c5 b5d3 f3f4 d3b3 f4e4 a1a5 c5d5 d8b6 d5d1 e8d7 b8a8 d7c7 a7b7 a5a7 !c2 b6b7
Alice Chess. Classic Variant where pieces switch between two boards whenever they move. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Judith Polgar is a very stron Omega Chess player, but all I know is that she plays it eventually.
The game seems very interesting. It is not difficult a ZRF, but I would need some days to begin it, and one or two weeks to have it finished, but it is possible that other people can try it before. I have some doubts about the lenght of a typical game. Extense, perhaps?, I´m not sure without some tests.
Alice Chess ZRF . New Alice Chess ZRF plays Alice Chess on two boards.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Good work, Fergus!. I tried it briefly, and I have not seen bugs yet.
There are 21 possibilities to put 5 pieces in seven spaces, and so many victory conditions that can be stablished in the ZRF for this alternative way of winning, but I´m going to think on a more ellegant code, if it can be done in other way.
Greg, I´m not sure if it is a picture identifyng the characters in the Courier preset, and a brief description of the game and pieces, but it should be good to have it as help through the first moves, until the player is better familiarized with all. I´m tempted to accept the invitation, but I need a brief help as guide during the first moves.
I like too disallow the capture of one Alligator by the other (Serpent?. Would you reconsider the name of the piece?)
Leko has beated Kramnik today, and he is ahead 4.5-3.5
ChessV. Program for playing numerous Chess variants against your PC.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Greg, I tried to load the 5th. test ULTIMA game, saved file, and I found an illegal move saved (the saved game couldn´t be loaded, by this reason), number 9, it shows !c2, and the same move is saved as the last move of the game. You can see it in the list of moves I sent as a comment on the game, or I can send you the saved file, as you prefer. I don´t remeber what move I made as 9th., but it was surely legal, and I can´t understand what !c2 means. As for the program, I finished the 6th. test game yesterday night, and I Chess V won. It is now strong enough, I think, I used the 'take-back' facility a lot of times, but the program beated me playing with great force. Would you tell me what changes have you made in the program?. Excellent improvements!
dUchess. Chess on two levels. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]At first view, I think this game is good, and very playable. I have to test it to have a better idea.
Shako. Cannons and elephants are added in variant on 10 by 10 board.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Shako is as Esperanto, a very good idea that only a few people have appreciated well. Game play is interesting, it preserves much of FIDE-Chess flavor, but it adds good emotions with the Cannons and Elephants, making the game deeper than FIDE-Chess, but not much more. I only disagree a bit with the initial setup, particularily with the Elephants, I prefer more centered initial positions for these pieces, but it is only a personal opinion, and I have not strong arguments against the selected setup. Observation: I have not learned formally Esperanto, but I have read some things about it during a pair of weeks in the past, enough to be convinced that it is very easy to learn; nevertheless, I think that Artificial Languages like Esperanto, Loblan, Klingon and some other good ideas have little chance to have great success in this actual world, there are many interests against it.
Information: Shako means Chess in Esperanto. Correction: When I mentioned Loblan, it could be interpreted as Lojban on Loglan. Both are in the same line of logical languages. Question: How can I say Chess (generic) in Klingon?. It should be a good name for a variant, but I´m not speaking about Klin Zha. Words is Klingon are not very aesthetic for hear, but it does not matter a lot to Klingons, I suppose.
Once assimilated all the rules, the game play seems to be very nice. I want see how long this game can be in average, I suspect it may be a bit long, but I don´t know how much. Observation: White Bishops must be more valuable pieces in the ends than Black Bishops, the Goal Squares are all White.
Correction, there are four Black Goals and three White Goals. I have seen a false optical image
Ough!, five Black (three accessible by a Black Bishop) and two White. I have some trouble with my eyes.
Jetan Sarang. A large variation of Jetan.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I don´t know how good is the game, because I have not played it, but Spratt´s graphics are superb!.
Has changed the e-adress: [old .com address edited out] to [new .org address edited out]?. If there are changes in some adresses, please give the information, I´m not sure how can I send things to you, and I want avoid the trial and error method.
The game and ZRF have been sent to editors. Hva you received it?
36th. FIDE-Chess Olympiad has finished in Calvia, Spain. The results by country in the men´s competition (Top 10): 1 Ukraine 39.5 2 Russia 36.5 3 Armenia 36.5 4 United States 35.0 5 Israel 34.5 6 India 34.0 7 Cuba 33.5 8 Netherlands 33.0 9 Bulgaria 32.5 10 Spain A 32.5 Major surprise?. Well, Ukraine in first place with a contundent notorious difference over Russia. But all the final table has some surprises, as you can observe. Some favorites are out of the table (England, France, and a few ex-Sovietic Republics, by example), and others not very favorites are in good positions: Armenia, USA, Cuba... Bulgaria in 9th. is also a surprise, it was expected in the five top positions...
Flying Chess. Some pieces can fly. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have tried this game briefly, and it is certainly playable. Game play seems to be nice, although it is not so easy play it in a good manner, it can need some expertise, if not, many moves can be blunders. I disagree a bit with the different ways of flying, particularily with respect to the difference between Rooks and Bishops. Regardless some previous comments in which the game itself is not well analysized, objectively this seems to be a moderately interesting game which can be rated as 'good', in my particular opinion.
Alice Chess. Classic Variant where pieces switch between two boards whenever they move. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Excellent page!. In my opinion, new comments on strategy by Fourriere are of very high quality, I have learned a bit more about this nice game, but I doubt I can still play it as well as I would want, deep tactics are usually complex, and risks are much more important than in FIDE-Chess. Mastering this game needs certain amount of time, undoubtely.
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