Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Mastodon Chess. Standard pieces plus two Mastodons per side. A strategical big-board variant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

George Duke wrote on Sat, May 3, 2008 05:24 PM UTC:

Michael Howe recently Commented singling out one CV for attention, Mastodon Chess. The opinion should be respected because M.Howe has indicated serious involvement with CVs for over 20 years, well before Internet sites like CVPage. So what is Mastodon? An old piece, at least 100 years, except for the new name. Nothing but a ''reduced Queen.'' That is the term I use in my Falcon Chess article copyright 1997 and published here 2000. The class ''Reduced Queen'' may be one- and two-stepping or one-, two- and three-stepping ordinarily. Mastodon Chess is not Winther's best CV, and in fact outstanding bifurcation-piece line-ups are one and all -- all 3 or 4 dozen of them -- better than Mastodon with its tired concept. The pundits and experts should try a piece-value calculation on bifurcation Venator, Gladiatrix, DoubleCannon, or CrossRook for a challenge and to break the mold.

💡📝M Winther wrote on Sat, May 3, 2008 05:47 PM UTC:

Well, it's not a reduced queen because it can jump. It has some very interesting tactical capacities not known in standard pieces. Mastodon Chess is designed to be a relaxed variant yet with an initial weakness in the pawn structure so that games aren't too long and tedious. The tactical capacity of the Mastodon helps to shorten games, too. I think that big board variant can be designed to be easier to play than Fide-chess, yet not too drawish. Placing the pawns on the third rank is a concept that could be tried out more. My bifurcation pieces are interesting to the mathemathical  minded, but those games are more difficult.

The Mastodon is a very old piece. The earliest reference I know is Paulovits's Game, c.1890, where it is called Pasha. ( http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/paulovitsgame.htm ). King + Mastodon wins against King + Bishop or Knight, and draws against King + Queen.

Mats

💡📝M Winther wrote on Sun, Apr 26, 2009 09:20 AM UTC:

The Mastodon (10x10) and the Mastodon (8x10) presets now have
automated castling, en passant, and promotion (default is queen). The
new clicking method functions finely. However, it's confusing if players
now and then must input moves manually.
Mastodon Chess preset (10x10)
Mastodon Chess preset (8x10)
/Mats

Jose Carrillo wrote on Sat, Jul 18, 2009 08:36 PM UTC:

I just rediscovered the Mastodon in the shape of my Ajax Minister (inspired by enhancing the move of the Courier Man or Commonner):
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSajaxchess

Thanks Mats, for the historical research of the previous encarnations of the Man-Alfil-Dababah compound. I've added references to the games that used this compound before in my Ajax Chess rules page.

💡📝M Winther wrote on Sun, Jul 19, 2009 05:41 AM UTC:

Yes, but I forgot an important game. The earliest reference I know is Paulovits's Game, c.1890, where it is called Pasha.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/paulovitsgame.htm
/Mats

Walker wrote on Fri, Feb 5, 2021 01:06 PM UTC in reply to George Duke from Sat May 3 2008 05:24 PM:

Maybe Mammoths could do a trample capture similar to the Mad Elephant's rampage in Mad Elephant Chess. Trample capture is where the Mammoth goes the full 2 squares, but instead of simply capturing the piece at the destination it also tramples over the piece in between. Sucking pieces up its trunk and storing them inside it, only to blow them out on a later move, a temporary form of rifle capture, might be a hilarious move possibility, as you could easily find another use for disk pieces, storing them under the Mammoth disk.

6 comments displayed

~~Earlier~~ ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.