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Comments by sibahi
War of the Roses. Missing description (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Leaping/Missing Bat Chess. Large variant on a 16x12 board with many fairy pieces. (16x12, Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I have created a preset for this game. But I don't particularly like it so I won't post it in a separate page. Link : http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DMissing+Bat+Chess%26settings%3Ddefault This uses the Zebra variant.
War of the Roses. Missing description (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Fixed the typos. Thank you very much :)
The way I understand it, the Ralph Betza Rooks aren't the same as Raumschach Rooks.
Prince. 8x8x8 3-D variant with new pieces. (8x(8x8), Cells: 512) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Excellent graphics. I finally got to appreciate the starting position (and I just realized that there's no Prince in the starting setup.) However, I still don't think this game is playable for humans. Not because of it's complexity, but because of the many piece types. I made an attempt to simplify this game, a whole lot, to make it more playable and closer to Standard two dimensional Chess. I called it the Tower's Game because it's played on a tower-like board.
Queens Left Chess. Black king and queen reverse position in setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The variant is playable in FICS as wild/0. As far as i know, it is not possible in ICC. My favourite wild variant is, however, wild/1. Which has the two royals setup randomly on the e and d files. The Rooks always in the corners, and the bishops and knights and randomized, provided that bishops start on different colors. Black's setup needs not mirror white's. Castling is done by moving the king two squares to either side. Short castling is o-o, Long castling is o-o-o.
ExCoCo Chess. EXtends and COmbines the COurier variants. (18x12, Cells: 216) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I like it ! It sounds very fun and very well thought-out. The only thing I don't like about it is the Elephant. It probably would be better to have the Alibaba instead. (So that the Courier can be a combination of the Guard and the Alibaba as well.) I would rename the pieces, calling the Alibaba the Courier (which what it is called in Modern Courier Chess,) and the Jumping General (or Squire) for the Current Courier. In the preset, you might want to tick the 'Exclude pieces not in Setup' box. One Question : A pawn on the fourth rank, is it entitled to the double-step, as in Wildebeest Chess ?
I don't like the name 'Caliph'. Mainly because the Caliphs are royalty, and the name just doesn't fit the piece. I would suggest the name Minister, for no specific reason. (I like the name Mage as well.)
Crazy 38's. On strange board with 38 squares. (Cells: 38) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I can't make a Game Courier preset for this game, or i would've. Anyone willing to help ?
Thanks Tony, it's really great. However, there isn't a place for the pieces in hand, so I created another image. I hope you upload this one instead : http://www.chessvariants.org/membergraphics/MSkings/38.gif (Well, yes, i used a CV page to upload a picture. I don't do that usually, sorry.) I started to align pieces to the board, this is what i got so far : http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DCrazy+38%27s%26settings%3Ddefault Using the board i posted won't change the coordinates, so it's possible simply replace the board.
Kings. A modest variant with more than one king. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There are many approaches to games with more than one king. They're either all Royal (checkmating one king is enough,) or Half-Royal (capture all but one and checkmate the last.) Wild/9, and Kings use a totally different approach. It's more like adding a Guard next to the King than having two Royal Kings. The Guard is not exactly Royal, and is a very useful midgame and endgame piece. But it also have the exotic power of saving the King from an inevitable checkmate by taking over the throne himself. Another approach, and quite a fun one, is what Fergus Deniho used in Symposium Chess, which I liked best of his variants. 'King and Queen are initially replaced by hermaphroditic Monarchs. As soon as one makes a move that can be made by only a King (castling) or only a Queen (moving further than one space), the two pieces differentiate into King and Queen, with the piece that moved turning into what it moved as. If one Monarch is captured before they differentiate into King and Queen, the remaining Monarch becomes King. The object is to checkmate the King.' It can't be said that all these approaches create the same game. -- Derek, Actually, Kings is quite different from Mirror West Chess. In Kings, you only have one king to attack (naturally, capturing the other king makes the job easier and more like normal chess.) As I am told, Wild/9 experts play it simply as Chess (with a capital C) with an extra piece. (Actually, the highest rated player in ICC in wild/9 is an IM.) Of course removing the Queen alters opening play considerably. But Kings is still basically chess. Kings, in essence, is asymmetric. Because the Royalty, so to speak, is always oriented to one side of the board. Technically, there's only ONE Royal King. Checkmating the Royal King wins the game regardless of how many other kings the player has. Also, in Mirror West Chess no promotion to a King is allowed. Which I honestly found absurd about Wild/9. Mirror West deals with the two kings with a totally different approach, hence it's logical to disallow promotion to Kings. -- 'How about a variant based on the theme that the closest piece to a given square is royal no matter what that piece is.' This might be the craziest idea I ever read on the site, and I like it !! It even fits perfectly with any Diagonal Chess setup where the King is placed on the corner (so he gets to be the Royal piece in the beginning of the game, but you can always sac your king to give the opponent a hard time!) -- It might be fun if Kings was played with Losers Chess rules. You have to either be checkmated, stalemated, or lose ALL your pieces, probably including the other King. Capturing is obligatory (Losers Chess is different from Suicide in that you have to respond to checks. Escaping from a check takes priority to a capture, and if you can escape check WITH a capture you must do that.)
Ah, thanks. I've read that page before, but i thought you have posted it all along. I corrected the mistake.
Crazy 38's. On strange board with 38 squares. (Cells: 38) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Still not quite right. Is there anyway to make the board rotate 180 degrees with the pieces for the black player ?
http://abdulrahmansibahi.googlepages.com/38.gif This is a new background. Transferring the coordinates from the old to the new wouldn't be difficult.
I like setup 4 best. Thought : Wouldn't the Queen better be replaced by a Marshall ?
I have already invented my Capablanca variant:
Energizer Chess, which actually adds the two pieces to the 8x8 board.
I found it better in the game I am playing to NOT develop the Knights, but
to develop the other pieces from around them, since developing the Knights
blocked the Bishop's squares.
Btw, Sam, I sent a reply to your letter. But since I have a terribly stupid computer I will never know if it was actually sent. Please let me know.
I don't think that White's first move advantage is a flow in a game. Advantage of the field, or Home territory is a natural element of every battle, including Chess. And I am not a big fan of creating 100% symmetrical variants (a little symmetry, or system, would be nice though.) Personally, I think the only way to eliminate White's first move advantage is the one used by the completely chaotic variant _Balanced_ Marseilles Chess, which is also applied to most double-move variants, since the side to move is always half a move behind. White moves one move, Black makes two, White makes two, and so on. Progressive Chess also, following a similar principle, eliminates White's first move advantage. (Though I am not sure if it gives him something in return. I never played it.) [[Derek Nalls published his comment while I was typing mine.]]
I partially agree with M Winther. I have two points to say in this regard: 1. White forcing black to react from move 1 can give White a HUGE advantage in the game. An example of this, since White's advantage in Atomic Chess (which is played quite regularly in FICS,) is very well established that you are not required to give a rematch if you win with black!! 2. However, this factor didn't prevent Atomic Chess from being one of the most fun playable chess variants.
There's a bug difference between a checkmate THREAT, and a Fool's Mate. By definition, a Threat is : 'if you don't react accordingly, you're lost'. In RNBAQKMBNR , after 1.Mh3, which threatens mate, black is FORCED to react. There are many ways, like moving a pawn around the King, which is absurd; or advancing the King's bishop's pawn, which hardly a developing move; or by 1.. Nh6 which gives white a very early pin, or 1..Mh6 which leads to a very early exchange of Marshalls. In Falcon Chess and Omega Chess, the threatened mate is a mate in 3, which is less forcing than a mate in 2. It's easily refutable by very natural developing moves that don't offend the sense of a chess player. In chess, there's the famous Scholar's mate, which actually, with white playing it, probably gives a weak position for white. While white moves his queen around, black is developing, leading to a (=+) position. Responding to 1.e4 e5 2.Qh5 doesn't offend the sense of the chess player the way the above-mentioned Capa variant does. A Fool's mate is hardly worth discussion at all.
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSchieftainchess They don't have Capablanca Chess. There is, though, Embassy and Capablanca Random. I take it you mean the second. Btw, Joe, I never gave you my setup for Chieftain chess, but it was something similar to this : http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DChieftain+Chess%26settings%3Ddefaulty
Experiments in Symmetry. Several experimental games to test whether perfect symmetry makes a game better.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mulling over things, how about this setup : 10 r n b q k q b n r 9 r n b q q q b n r 8 p p p p p p p p p 7 - - - - - - - - - 6 - - - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - 3 P P P P P P P P P 2 R N B Q Q Q B N R 1 R N B Q K Q B N R a b c d e f g h i or this : 10 r b b q k q b b r 9 r n n q q q n n r 8 p p p p p p p p p 7 - - - - - - - - - 6 - - - - - - - - - 5 - - - - - - - - - 4 - - - - - - - - - 3 P P P P P P P P P 2 R N N Q Q Q N N R 1 R B B Q K Q B B R a b c d e f g h i -- If you don't like the five Queens, files d and f could be just removed.
In fact this setup has the same problem Derek complained from in Mormon Chess, all knights start on the same color.
Falcon Chess. Game on an 8x10 board with a new piece: The Falcon. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I've been looking at the starting setup of Falcon Chess, and I haven't managed to get a satisfactory setup on the 10x8 board where all pawns are protected. And where Bishops don't face Rooks. This is the major annoyance to me in most 10x8 boards, because it prevents a fianchetto.
The only setup I found, which satisfied this condition, FRNBQKBNRF, Cheops Falcon Chess, I think, has a major problem. The Falcon pawns are only protected by Knights (which are bound to move,) and they're originally attacked by Bishops, which can easily lose a Pawn and force the Rook to move (prevent castling) from the get-going. So I thought of considering other boards than the 10x8.
[[ Edit: After some examining, my favorite setup on the normal 10x8 board is RFNBQKBNFR . Even though the Falcon Pawns are unprotected, they are not vulnerable to quick attacks, and easily protectable after natural Knight moves. However, a player should be careful while advancing them because they expose the Rooks.
What Mr George Duke calls Tamplars' Falcon Chess, RBFNKQNFBR, is also good. However, since Bishops and Knights are not on adjacent squares you can easily forget about Standard Chess opening theory, no Ruy Lopez, for example. Also, Bishops face each other in this setup, so it's difficult to avoid early exchanges which might lead to some kind of awkward openings. But I believe it's perfectly playable.]]
One idea is the 8x8 board, in the setup I used for Energizer Chess.
r f b q k b f r
p p p n n p p p
- - * p p * - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - * P P * - -
P P P N N P P P
R F B Q K B F R
Castling is as in normal chess. The squares marked by * may or may not contain pawns.
Or the same setup on a 8x10 board. Just add two ranks in the middle. Pawns move as in Wildebeest chess.
--
Another idea is the board used by Templar Chess.
f - - f
r n b q k b n r
p p p p p p p p
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
P P P P P P P P
R N B Q K B N R
F - - F
A crazy piece to add here would be R. Wayne Schimttberger's (excuse my spelling,) Airplane.
The board and setup I propose are, A is for Airplane:
a f f a
r n b q k b n r
p p p p p p p p
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
P P P P P P P P
R N B Q K B N R
A F F A
I am not sure this will be a workable setup, though. It's also possible to add here Capablanca's two pieces. A is for Archbishop, M is for Marshal.
m k q a
r f n b b n f r
p p p p p p p p
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
P P P P P P P P
R F N B B N F R
A Q K M
No castling on these boards is allowed. A promotion square is where the pawns can't move. OR you can use a similar promotion rule to the one in Falcon Chess 100.
--
Or the nice old 10x10 board.
r n b f q k f b n r
p p p p p p p p p p
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - -
P P P P P P P P P P
R N B F Q K F B N R
Pawns move as in Wildebeest Chess. Here, it would take the Knight for ever to go checkmate the King, making the journey worthless. I am sure, though, Mr Duke has the 10x10 board in his notes. I wonder why he didn't use it.
--
Btw, to Jeremy Good.
The Coloring of the Falcon Chess 100 preset is, in a word, awful. I have created another preset. If you like it, I hope you post it instead of the current preset:
http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DFalcon+Chess+100%26settings%3Ddefault The Tower Game. A simple three dimensional chess variant. (8x(5x5), Cells: 200) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Added Tower Shogi, and changed the Ace's name to a Jester. I have no idea how to make the page appear on the Updated list, so I added a comment. Thanks to Mr J Fisher for the rating and the suggestion.
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