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Comments by RobertoLavieri
Antoine: Bifocal Chess is excellent. I think it is not very known by other people, so i invite everybody to take a look to this Antoine´s game.

This game is not so easy to play in the opening!, tactics are enterely different than in FIDE-Chess, and it is very easy lose material if you try to develop fast your pieces looking for suposed 'positional advantage' that, in the majority of the cases, it is not advantage of any class, much times you fall in exposed positions, it seems better play it in a somewhat conservative way, being very careful with the support to all your major pieces in play. If you take not care, you can be checkmated very soon. The average number of moves to finish a game can be of no more than 20 moves. this game is extremely dynamic, and it must be balanced with the usual rule: in the first move, White plays only one move. If not, White advantage is notorious in the opening. Surprisingly, e2-e4 does not seem to be the best first move in this game.
Greg, you are right, all pieces have rifle capture capabilities, but much more than this, power of pieces is not only extraordinary, it is augmented by the fact that you can move not only the same piece twice, but two consecutive moves with different pieces too. On an empty board, Queen and Rooks can reach ALL the rest of the squares (63!) from any initial position. Ends are a madness, and for this reason the games finish very soon, in very rare cases you can play a game which finishes in more than 25 moves!

Please, put this poll in a visible place into 'What´s New?' Page, by example, in substitution of 'First Game Courier Tournament'. I´m sure there is people which has not seen this poll yet. Everybody is encouraged to vote, independently if one finally decides join the Tournament or not (but everybody is also encouraged to join the Tournament. Have you missed the First Tournament?. Join the second!. It is much more fun than you can imaginate). By the way, VOTE!!!
I don´t know if I got a prize for my second place in the First Game Courier Tournament. I don´t know if it is stablished a fee to enter the second Tournament. If I got some money and it is a fee for the second Tournament, I´ll use it in this manner: I´m going to pay my inscription, Antoine´s inscription (he payed mine in the first Tournament) and the INCRIPTION OF NEW PLAYERS (Those who have not signed the first Tournament), in order of inscription until the money of the prize fall down to zero or there are not more NEW inscriptions. Aah... Remember: VOTE!. (according to the results to the present, people is looking for VERY STRONG ACTION and adrenaline discharges!)

Can anybody re-arrenge the 'What´s New Page'?. This Poll must be in a visible place, I suggest in substitution of the 'First Courier Tournament' window. Other thing: the section 'POLLS' seem to be inutile. There is not information of any kind there.

Yes, it is a great software, I have tried it. To Gregory Topov: Chess V runs well in Windows XP, but it has some troubles under other Windows versions. The author (named Greg too) gives us this adress to download the program: http://sourceforge.net/projects/chessv

If you have not played the FIRST GAME COURIER TOURNAMENT, I have announced I´m going to PAY the inscription of the first FOUR NEW PLAYERS (Those who have not played the First Tournament), using the prize I have gained with my second place in the first tournament (30$). I´ll pay with it my inscription and the inscription of Antoine Fourriere (he paid mine the last time), The rest is 20 $, enough for paying four inscriptions (I suppose the fee is 5$, if this is not the fee, some re-calculations must be made) ( Observation: NEW PLAYERS ONLY, as an incentive!). If the number of new players is less than four, the remaining money is going to be added to the TOTAL AMMOUNT for prizes in the second tournament. If the number of new players is superior to four, only the first four formalized inscriptions are going to be free (i.e., pre-paid by me)

George, very thanks for your comments and observations. About Achernar, yes, it is in essence a 3-D game, but its presentation is 2-D. It was born inspired on Altair. Altair is more complex, Achernar uses like-Chess pieces and it is not the case with Altair, but the game play seems to be better in Altair. Achernar may be in evolution to a 3-D version (Achernar-3D or Achernar-II ?), particularily I think I´m going to diminish a bit the power of one or two pieces (Bishop is one of them, of course), augment the capabilities of promoted Soldiers (Grand-Soldiers) because some ends are very slow and there is not incentive enough for promotion, and it is very possible that some rules are going to be modified or added specially for dimensional perspective in a better way, I´m going to think on it seriously, trying to offer a good product, if I can do that. Maxima?, well, I have thought a lot in this game, and I don´t think it needs much more revision, it is nice as it is, and many of the possible modifications I have experimentally tried have not been convincent in any way, it is not easy find new improvements without the loss of personality of the game or a loss in the game play quality. Actually, The game play is notoriously balanced, attack and defense are in equilibrium, there is more clarity in the game play than in Ultima, and I have played a few good games in the last times in which I have seen all, from deep positional concepts to beautiful sacrifices. I agree with you in the fact there are one or a couple of rules (or piece movements, as the King) that may seem a bit excentrical, but nothing is out of place, I spent many months designing and testing this game before releasing it, and you must be sure, I was careful in all aspects. Thanks again, I´ll try to use your kind observations on Achernar .(II? 3D?).

Congratulations, Peter!. it is a good game!.

I can´t give a good reason on why the game play seems to be better in Altair than in Achernar, but I can point out that Altair´s pieces are weaker than Achernar´s. Altair is the precursor, and it was the first 'playable' game in which I introduced the Reducer. In Altair, power density is less than in Achernar, but some pieces are somewhat exotic. Mages are not my creation, of course. Griphon or Mage is a piece that has been used in many games, including a couple of historical old Chess variants. Mage works very well with Maxima pieces, and with Altair pieces. I don´t know the reason, but this piece does not work as well in like-Fide-Chess games, i.e., games with Rooks, Knights and Bishops (can anybody explain this fact?. I can´t), and in these like-FIDE-Chess games it is sometimes an incomodiuos powerful piece, difficult to maneuver in a good manner, as I have seen in a few experimantal games. I have been tempted to make a preset for Altair, but I´m not sure I´m going to find people who wants to play this strange game, and it has discouraged me for making the Preset.
I´ll need some help from editors for an Altair Preset. Board image must be pre-designed and used in the preset, because I can´t make the board using Courier tools, there are too many colors...
This is an excellent variant of Chess, I played it twice, some time ago. I think the inventor is Mr. Dan Troyka, but this game is not referred in the Chess Variants Pages. Has someone more information?
HEXETERA PRESET in Game Courier, using Galactic Graphics, has been changed. How it happened?. Has somebody the information about?. It need to be restored to the original form, because the new Preset has some wrong images and some of the backgrounds are not transparent, apart from being not very good for visualization and the icons not very suggestive for the pieces. Galactic images may suffered too by some manipulation, I´m not sure. Please revise and correct it, if possible, and if you need my help for something, let me know.
There is something wrong, the PRESET using ALFAERIE graphics is also corrupted, a few Alfaerie icons are not transparent. Can Fergus see what is wrong?. I can´t understand why Alfaerie icons are bad too, it does not happen in any other game in Courier using Alfaerie. And, as you can see, majority of Galactic icons are not the correct, a Deer is not a Man, there are not Lions in Hexetera,.. etc. Perhaps Tony has some information about what is happening. The first time the Preset was in Courier, it was absolutely correct.
This is a mistery. Only one Elephant is not transparent, but it is the same gif. One King is transparent and the other is not, and it is the same with Alphaerie or Galactic. I can´t figure what happens with this Preset.(???)
Tony, do you know what is going on with this Preset?. Are there some troubles with the board or with the images management?. Some bizarre changes were made in the Preset, I don´t know with which objective, Antoine tried a correction, but some problems persist, some images are transparent and others are not, it is the same with Alfaerie or Galactic, one Black Elephant is transparent and the other is not, but it is the same gif...And I´m not enterely sure, but I suspect there are some problems in the board image.
When you move a White piece, the problem dissapears, but it appears again after moving a Black piece. (Why?)

Remember: VOTE!!!. You have chance until Dec. 31th.

I don't know much about Marsellais, I have tried it a few times with a novice status, but I have not analyzed rare situations and fine details. I think this move can NOT be done, en passant movement is a Pawn move in which you capture an enemy Pawn moved INMEDIATELY before the en-passant capture. In your example, after the Pawn move you moved other piece in the second part of the turn. I think it is the same if you move the Pawn twice letting it in a position in which en-passant is permissed, you can't take the Pawn because the last move was not a two-steps move in the same PART of the turn, you moved one square in the second part of your turn, and this is the last move to the effects of the game. This is an interesant discussion, and it must be clarified by experienced players. If we are rigurous with the Chess rules that I suppose are translated to Marsellais, if you move a Pawn two squares and it lands in a position in which it can be captured en-passant, and after that you move other piece, this is the last move, so the Pawn can't be captured en-passant, but if you move first the other piece and after that the Pawn, it is vulnerable to en-passant capture, so order can be important to the effects of the application of this rule. Has someone an 'official' response?.
My interpretation of the 'two moves per turn' is simple: after you move the first move of your turn, the other player is forced to 'pass', as a permissed (and obligatory) 'move' in this game, and after completing the turn with your second move, the two-moves turn is to the other player.
No, I'm wrong about en-passant rule. It states: 'A pawn that is moved two squares in one move (half a turn) can be taken en-passant, even if the pawn moved in the first half of the turn. The en-passant taking should be done on the first move of the turn. However, when two pawns can be taken en-passant, this is allowed.' I have to see the comment that is going to be displayed in a few hours, because I'm now a bit confused with Antoine's question. Some clarifications are needed about rare cases, I expect that an experienced player can give detailed explanations about it.
Thanks to Doug, it answers Antoine's question, and it swhows that my initial interpretation was not wrong as I though: 'My interpretation of the 'two moves per turn' is simple: after you move the first move of your turn, the other player is forced to 'pass', as a permissed (and obligatory) 'move' in this game, and after completing the turn with your second move, the two-moves turn is available for the other player.'
I could not make my move in this game. When I tried to access the log, the following message appeared: ' I have made some significant changes to how loops, conditionals, and subroutines work. Let me know if these changes result in any bugs. Parse error: parse error, unexpected T_BOOLEAN_OR in /home/chessvar/public_html/play/pbm/polish.php on line 223 '
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