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Comments by J Andrew Lipscomb
ZZ-Chess 
. Large variant with a new zig-zag piece.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The new piece in this game is more commonly known as the Crooked Bishop (fou tordu) or the Boyscout.
Pocket Mutation Chess. Take one of your pieces off the board, maybe change it, keep it in reserve, and drop it on the board later. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]As far as using different piece sets: the 'eccentric' sets of a lot of variants would be bad choices, but I could see applying these rules to Grand Chess (the Nightrider power seems more workable on the 10x10) or to Chu Shogi with Schmittberger's hierarchy (a piece taken out of the promotion zone would promote either to anything in the next category up, or to its own natural promoted form).
Imperial Chess. Large variant with new pieces and victory by capture of royal pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]One source of confusion in the terminology. Normally, the term 'royal' in chess variants is used to indicate those pieces that form the victory conditions. Perhaps the non-decisive royals in this game should be demoted to merely noble ranks.
Chess Jester
. 4-player variant with two new pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I can't comment particularly on the quality of the game (not having played it), but ya gotta wonder about inventors who think a Camel (which its Jester is) is the equal of a Rook...
Triangle Chess. Chess for three players. (Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, vertex-then-side does not allow a knight to land on the same color. It will pass through its own color, then land on a different one. Also, what is the logic behind which three lines a rook/queen may use? The diagrams show three lines, but there are three others that equally fit the description of the move.
Cross Chess. Game played on a cross-shaped board. (Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hmm... all bishops are bound to the light squares?
Bario. Pieces are undefined until they move. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]My suggestion for castling would be as follows: the corner disk must not have moved, and must have the potential to be a rook (castling will reveal it to be a rook). Pawn promotion is also potentially awkward. I propose a variant of the Grand Chess rule (a pawn may not move to the last if the owner already has seven quantum pieces, revealed or unrevealed, but may still give check). I also propose that pawns promote revealed. I would also note that this variant can be combined with many others, such as Capablanca/GrandChess, Different Armies, or even Jetan (to practice the mechanics, you could also go the other way and apply it to Los Alamos Chess).
Proximity Chess. Players must move pieces nearest to the arrival square of the last piece moved. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]How is 'distance' defined in this context? Number of King-steps, number of Wazir-steps, Cartesian distance?
Capablanca's chess. An enlarged chess variant, proposed by Capablanca. (10x8, Cells: 80) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Uncovered pawns are not that problematic because any situation will have to be set up randomly very short before a game starts. Looking at the Shogi game there are indeed three uncovered pawns in the beginning and the game still does exist today. Capablanca's chess is somehow different to that because of the huge number of possible starting arrays viewing all shuffled combinations.' I think the problem is more a matter of the piece set and shape of the board. Even if a pawn is undefended in a Fischerandom setup, it can't be attacked instantly, unless it's an a/b/g/h pawn and the piece on its diagonal is a bishop or queen. But an archbishop or chancellor has a pretty good chance of being able to make an instant attack on that pawn by jumping over its own pawn row (as the chancellor can indeed do to the i-pawn in Capablanca's setup), and the diagonal discovered attack can affect 80% of the pawns instead of half. Upon further review, we're discussing opposite ends of the issue. The points I just made are why the no-undefended-pawn rule is desirable; the large number of positions is what makes it practical (i. e. you still have a huge pool of positions to choose from).
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEX! Chess. A game designed to be as different to chess as possible while still being the same as chess. (1x72, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Two other notes. First, ShoppingCarts should be able to promote on the square where a Rex began, as well as those you list. Second, you only need 71 squares--the last Fire is irrelevant to the play.
Transmitter Chess. Drone pieces have no movement until activated by one of three friendly Transmitters. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You also failed to allow Wazir Kings to move in any of the actions. Presumably they should move instead of a pawn/drone/engineer?
I'm a Wazir, Get Me Out of Here. A variant in which pieces disappear if left too long in the wrong place. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, on a plain 8-by-8 board, the Wazir with the opposition can force victory by simply closing in on each move and eventually cornering its foe. This may not be true on the board at hand, though; there is a possibility that the defender could thwart that plan by making proper use of the quicksand center region.
Invader Zim Chess. Chess based on the show, Invader Zim. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, no English-speaking countries remain that use the 'long scale' where billion is 10^12. The British officially abandoned the 'British system' in 1974, although there are those who still remember/use it. The only unambiguous way of saying it is '100 million million' ::)
Rules of Chess FAQ. Frequently asked chess questions.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Baring the king' (as it is traditionally called) does not end the game in standard Western chess--the player with the lone king cannot actually win (since there's no way to give mate with just a king), but can still lose or draw. If both kings are bared, of course, the game is a draw.
The FIDE Laws Of Chess. The official rules of Chess from the World Chess Federation.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If the scoresheet provided is electronic, then that's what the players use. As for personal electronic scoresheets, you'd need a way to prove that they can't also be used as playing aids, but that done, the arbiter would be within his rights to declare that an accommodation for a handicap, I would think.
Haynie's Primary Chess. On 6 by 6 board without knights. (6x6, Cells: 36) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]You could easily play with knights instead of bishops--that would be Los Alamos Chess plus castling.
Recognized Chess Variant: Wildebeest Chess. Now a Recognized Chess Variant![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Keeping in mind, however, that stalemate is a win in Wildebeest Chess, can a Wildebeest or two Camels (or for that matter two Knights, or Knight+Camel) defeat a lone king with that rule in place?
Sultan's Elephant Chess. Pieces can group together in fours to form giant pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The Waffle is for some strange reason linked to the Gold General. It actually appears in Chu Shogi under the name Phoenix.
Hafts. A denser Draughts, but with pieces only capturing those bound to the opposite colour. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Think of it as two games of checkers played at once, one on light squares and one on dark. (Thus, the starting setup is 24 pieces, solidly occupying the back three ranks.) Then change the pieces' capturing move to orthogonal instead of diagonal (straight ahead only for plain men, all four directions for crowned men)--so a piece in one game actually captures pieces from the other.
SUCCHESS. Missing description (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I believe that by 'attack' he means 'capture.' Always tricky writing in a non-native language...
Conclave Ecumenical Chess. Large variant with wide variety of Rook and Bishop compounds. (9x12, Cells: 108) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Ancress' is a pretty rare spelling. The more usual term is 'anchoress.'
Faster and Faster Chess. Pieces move one square, then continue two, then continue three... (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I think the 'and then three' comment is redundant for the Knight, since six Knight-leaps in the same direction would require a board of 13 squares in at least one dimension. Hmmm... using such a piece in a variant with a larger board, could the Rook and Bishop go 'and then four,' or is three the speed limit? Come to think of it, a piece like this with a 'speed limit' of 2 might be interesting-- the Rookwise piece would be color-changing, while the Bishopwise one would remain colorbound, but switch Alfil-bindings... hmm, I just reinvented the Panda and the Bear.
Checker-capture Chess. Pieces can capture as in checkers game. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Looking at rules 2 and 3 together, I assume this is the Russian-style multi-jump rule (no stopping if the piece has another jump, but you may take it in a direction that has fewer)?
Shogi 59. Shogi on half of a 9x12 board. (9x13, Cells: 59) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Hmm... all pieces are colorbound, and both players have all their pieces on one color--which is not the same as the color containing the opponent's pieces... I don't think the two players ever interact! (Think you may have meant 9x13, which puts both players on the same color and gives you 59 cells of that color...)
LiQi. Very Strong Chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Isn't the running-leaf by definition stronger than a queen, since the queen is a subset of it? (That is, if the 'degenerate' planar move in which one side of the plane is 1 is an allowable move.) And I can tell that the young-lion is not allowed to return to its original square (a limitation not shared by the Japanese lion), but there is one slight unclear point: is it allowed to make double captures?
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