Comments by catugo

Fergus,

How many points would players get, or at least a victory in Gross chess should worth more that a victory in Omega chess as a tiebreak, in order to also increase stakes as the tournament passes.

H.G.

"So there now is a corrected file at http://www.membergraphics/MSinteractive-diagrams/betza.gif ."

It doesn't work from here. When I paste this link in my broser it says: Server not found.

HG,

Now it works well!

I've reached a conundrum. I am far from being a chess grand master, I blunder way to often usually full pieces, the last time I missed a pin, silly me. I can't test the game further into endgame because of that. At my level the game becomes played quite soon, as chances for blunders are increased. On the other hand it was supposed to be an enhancement to the play at high levels. Do you see the conundrum?

Thanks, H.G. As always helpful!

I was playing against myself, after you blunder a piece you can't go back, and I don't remember the whole game after 25 moves (actually less). Also I did not kept records. I think though it is a good idea now that I advanced a little bit to keep records as some games could prove interesting.

Thanks, for all the help!

I think there is a way with sjaak to implement my way of promotion. Just create 2 different promotion zones, allow promotion to pawn when the case and that's it. Not tried it yet.

One think I haven't confessed yet is that I partially like the idea of chess960. Having different starting position is interesting. But not ANY different position. I think in many games you can fine tune 2 to n different setups. And then choose among them. I'm not the first who thought at this I'm sure.

How this does affect this post. I'd like apothecary 1 and apothecary 2 to have 2 possible initial positions. The first one is the one already presented named from now until the hereafter the bishops in or knights out position. The second one name from now until the hereafter the bishops out or knights in has the bishops and knights (each variant with it's own knights) switched.

With sjaak I can just plug two variants with the 2 starting setups, but with the diagram from the presumed variant page it's more complicated, I assume a button switching between the two positions will be involved.

It's that hard to do H.G.? Can you help me with that , too?

H.G.,

I have not managed to define the Aanca and the Griffin in Sjaak. Have you any idea?

On the last matter I think the Aanca may be Leap(1,0)+Slide(d,a), but I have to check, the griffin is somewhat similar. The trouble with the griffin is that you have to ban 4 steps (the ones like an wazir).

well, for an Aanca I can use the property of sliders that their move is a union of many lame leaper moves. But you should see that formula, and moreover, I don't think that is recomended programming wise. I still haven't give up.

That doesn't work either!

what if I convinct myself to FairyMAx for both games, just for symetry, I think I can handle weird scripts!

It gave an error, forfeit due to invalid move, I guess white wanted to promote at 8 rank!

For some reason the AI pushes pawns very late.

Also, there is no pawn initial double move. It gives an error. Move rejected by first chess program or something like it!

What about Grand chess from where apothecary chess 1&2 take inspiration, wouldn't it have the same pawn problem?

H.G.

I tried to set up the second game the same way and I sadly failed.

Here is what I got:

Initial position:

r2zeel2r/1qnbkabnc1/pppppppppp/10/10/10/10/PPPPPPPPPP/1QNBKABNC1/R2ZEEL2R w - - 0 1

.ini file

/settingsFile=settings.ini
/saveSettingsFile=settings.ini
;
/cp
/fcp="fmax.exe"
/fd="./Fairy-Max"
/scp="fmax.exe"
/sd="./Fairy-Max"
;
/variant=apothecary2
/size=middling
/autoLogo true
;
/showTargetSquares=true
/pieceMenu=false
/sweepPromotions=true

fairy .ini file

// Large-board variant
Game: apothecary2 # PNBRQW.A..C......GKpnbrqw.a..c......gk # elven
10x10=3
7 3 4 5 10 11 9 4 3 7
7 3 4 6 10 12 8 4 3 7
p:100 -16,24 -16,6 -15,5 -17,5
p:100 16,24 16,6 15,5 17,5
n:340 14,7 31,7 33,7 18,7 -14,7 -31,7 -33,7 -18,7 45,6 51,6 -45,6 -51,6
b:420 15,3 17,3 -15,3 -17,3
e:370 15,7 17,7 -15,7 -17,7 34,7 30,7 -34,7 -30,7 48,6 -48,6 3,6 -3,6
l:320 47,7 49,7 -47,7 -49,7 19,7 13,7 -13,7 -19,7 16,6 1,6 -1,6 -16,6
z:300 46,7 50,7 -46,7 -50,7 35,7 29,7 -29,7 -35,7 15,6 -15,6 17,6 -17,6
R:725 1,3 16,3 -1,3 -16,3
A:1000 15,3 17,3 -15,3 -17,3 14,7 31,7 33,7 18,7 -14,7 -31,7 -33,7 -18,7
C:1100 1,3 16,3 -1,3 -16,3 14,7 31,7 33,7 18,7 -14,7 -31,7 -33,7 -18,7
Q:1200 1,3 16,3 15,3 17,3 -1,3 -16,3 -15,3 -17,3
k:-1  1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7
k:-1  1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7
#
# P& fmWfceFifmnD
# N& NmG
# L& CmW
# Z& ZmF
# E& FAmH
# C& RN
# A& BN
# K& K

Where am I wronG?

I did all that and it works, but I'm afraid that now I took away the zebra as a promotion choice as I moved the zebra to the 8th rank!

Well first, I decided to change the promotion rule to:

8th rank:less than a rook

9th rank:also to rook

10th rank: also to the 3 strong pieces

The reason for the initial rule was to not always promote to queen, but we got always promote to rook (I mean practically). The new rule is more flexible, but I'm afraid that it still leads to many rook promotions.

Second: the pawn double move still doesn't work, or it is something I did wrong?

Oh! Ok, Silly me!

Weirdly, no! Even pawns set back to the 2nd rank don't get the 2move!

The thing with the executables happens to me, too. I can't get the new version working. But I'm willing to give it up, as the new promotion rule chages the game significantly and it's unimplementable in Fairy-Max. And I still haven't found a way to write the aanca and griffin in Skaak II.