Comments by jean-louiscazaux

Thanks a lot

Very good explanation of major / minor notion. Your answer would deserve to be presented as an article on this site.

Yes it's true, they are not huge changes, anyhow it is quite interesting even for us, for example to look at the differences induced by different pawns.

For reason I don't know, I don't see the full diagrams: I only see the boards and the piece in its middle, but the possible moves are not shown.

Thank you Aurelian.

Can someone help us? We try to play Metamachy with Numerist, I have the black pieces. When I click on one of the 4 which are in the center of the board, it activates (with a framed square) the 4 squares in the center of my lines, but how to move the piece in those squares? I've tried to click, to hold and drop the piece, nothing works. I've tried with Safari and with Firefox. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you

We try to play Metamachy on Game Courier. I have blacks. I can't find how to move a piece to the central squares of my lines and then start the game. Is that preset bugging? Or are we missing something? Please help us to understand. Thanks a lot

Very interesting. I see no mention of it in Pritchard's Encyclopedias. It has nothing to do with Byzantine chess which was played on the spaces, not on the intersections. The closest similar game I know is Circum Morum or Jabberwocky chess invented by V.R.Parton in 1961. But this one was more complex with 5 concentric circles and 61 positions. Maybe your game has been inspired by Parton's one.

Thank you Fergus, you spotted our problem right!

I propose to add some ungulates I don't see in the list.

(Source: Le Guide des échecs - Traité complet, Giffard & Biénabe, ed. Robert Laffont-Bouquins, 1993. A big French book with a very large part dedicated to fairy chess and problems).

Okapi: Knight+Zebra

Auroch: Knight + Giraffe

Impala: Knight+Antelope

Zebu: Camel+Giraffe

And my own proposal for a piece that I never found named elsewhere:

Stag: a (2,4) leaper

What do you call an Aanca or an Anka? I can't see what you are talking about

Aurelian, the RNN is called Waran or Varan by problemists. (Source Giffard/Bienabe, 1993)

For the different bent riders, I suggest you take inspiration from different mythical monsters.

Please resist to use Aanca/Anka, I cry when I see that. It is not because the mistake was done once that we are obliged to perpetuate the mistake. Once we know, we are no more ignorant. Aanca is the word used in Alfonso X codex for the F^R. It was the medieval Spanish rendering of the Arabic word Anka. That word designated a mythical giant bird preying elephants like in Persian tales. Murray thought that giant bird was a Gryphon (which was a different monster). OK, Gryphon is too much installed in the CV word to change it, but calling Aanca something else is a mistake.

Especially if it is to designate the N^B which was an Unicorn (meaning a Rhino) in the same Spanish old text!

Look for Hydra, Basilisk, or a full list here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legendary_creatures_by_type

Too bad Aurelian you don't want to change your mind. Anka is the word used in Spanish for the Gryphon. Is like if you call a Bishop, a Torre. You can call your piece otherwise, a Simurgh or anything, why a Anka/Anqa/Aanca? Check that page: http://history.chess.free.fr/acedrex.htm

I agree with Chebetol. Also, "In the diagram below, the Sergeant can move and capture to all the squares marked with a black circle. The Sergeant can make its initial(non-capturing) double-step to the square marked with a green circle." In the diagram, the black circles are green, and the green is red! This page deserves a second look maybe.

This CV is quite interesting. I like this idea very much. As others, I'm a bit afraid of 2 Amazons per side. I understand the author's reason wishing to keep the standard respective chess lineup.

Then I wonder if it was considered to keep the 2nd row as it is but to modify the back row with Crowned Bishops (Missionaries) on d1,g1; a second Queen on e1 (behind the 1st one); and a single Amazon on f1 (behind the King) ?

Any thought?

I would like to move this piece is Zillions. I wouldn't say I'm good at programming Zillions.

I use this string: (define zslide ($1 (while empty? add $2 (verify empty?) add $1) (verify not-friend?) add)) I use 8 of them for the piece (nw ne; ne nw; nw sw; sw nw; etc.)

It works but then the value attributed to that piece is too strong because half of the squares it can reach are counted twice (those in position of dabbaba-rider).

Does anyone know how to fix that?

Thank

Many links in the "Name" column are pointing to 404: Eurasian, Rococo, etc.

Maybe there is a simple thing to do to fix that?

Alas this Man & Beast series for me is frustrating. For reasons I don't know, I see no moves on the diagrams, only a large chessboard and a poor lonely piece in the center. The accompanying text is so long, difficult to get something useful. Too bad because it is a huge work with probably a lot of good points inside. It will deserve a rework.

The name of the German author is Tressau, not Tressan. I know, it's confusing because the original book was written in gothic script and the u and the n are very similar (although slightly different). Here is a u, so Tressau.

It happened the same thing to me. I played Metamachy on game courier, my opponent resigned and now it is registered that I lost and he has won!

Can someone looks what's wrong?

Thanks