Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Shatranj Kamil Eight will be posted soon, which uses the same initial setup, but has a new definition for the Elephant: makes exactly two diagonal moves in a row, ending up two squares away. See the Padwar (Strict Interpretation) in Jetan (Martian Chess). [EDIT] Bumped the board up to 100 squares and added Cannons to the corners: Shatranj Kamil X.

Checkmate and Stalemate are the only victory conditions - the Bare King Rule has been dropped. Pawns promote on the final rank to War Elephants (moving either like an Elephant or a Ferz) - see the Padwar (Loose Interpretation). This nonleaping piece moves to the same squares as the FAD in Chess with Different Armies.

Proposed variant : Shatranj Kamil (72) :

I did some piece value experiments on the Templar Chess board, which adds half a rank behind both home ranks. And this game looked like it would suit such a board.

Proposed setup:

9      - e k -
8  r n s f e s n r
7  p p p p p p p p
6  - - - - - - - -
5  - - - - - - - -
4  - - - - - - - -
3  - - - - - - - -
2  P P P P P P P P
1  R N S F E S N R
0      - E K -

   a b c d e f g h

No castling, and all pieces move as they do in Shatranj Kamil (64). Pawns promote to Silver Generals at the eighth rank, regardless of which file they're on. (They start on the second.) All rules are as in the original game: Shatranj Kamil (64).

It's just an idea.

I would think that, instead of the Silver Generals (S) why not use S2 ? The S2 moves like a 2-step Bishop or a 2-step Lance.

I've made several updates to this page. The HTML had a number of issues, (unclosed tags and the like), although they mostly weren't obvious to readers. I also reformatted it to better resemble our typical game descriptions and edited the text to be clearer. The Computer Play and Equipment sections have also been updated to reflect what is (and is not) currently available.

I will try to post a more in-depth review when I have some time to write one, but for now, suffice it to say this game plays very well and I do not hesitate to rate it Excellent.

Thanks, H.G. I've added your interactive diagram under the Computer Play section.

WHITE mates in 8 moves WHITE: King (g3), Elephants (b3,c4), Ferz (c3) BLACK: King (e1)

1.Kf3 Kf1 2.Fd2 Kg1 3. Kg3 Kf1 4.Ed3+ Kg1 5.Fe3 Kh1 6.Ea6 Kg1 7.Ff2+ Kh1 8.Ef3 mate is the fastest line I could find. I rejected both stalemate and Bare King wins in my latest Courier Chess VIII, which renews my interest in chess problems like this one.

More such problems can be found in the article The Courier Game, by FIDE Master Paul Byway in Variant Chess No. 8, July-December, 1992. He uses "Couriers"(AD) for his Elephants, on a 12x8 board that includes Queens and Bishops. He offers the conjecture: "K + 3 minor pieces v. K is a general win" and states the exception that the Black King can draw against E,E,F by reaching a corner accessible to none of them. My unusual opening setups in this game and Shatranj Kamil X ensure that every square on the board is accessible. But Byway may not have considered the case of "same color" Elephants - he certainly was not studying my more feeble (AmD) pieces. Anyway, it looks like his full strength Alibabas can mate in only six moves:

1.Ee4 Kf1 2.Fd2 Kg1 3.Ed3 Kh1 4.Fe3 Kg1 5.Ff2+ Kh1 6. Ef1 mate.

Longest Stalemate Victory with K+N+(AmD) vs K

in 36 moves on the 8x8 board (98.8%)

in 55 moves on the 12x8 board (99.4%)

in 61 moves on the 10x10 board (99.4%)

The Checkmating Applet brings good news! My original creation, the (AmD) Elephant, can team up with a Knight to (eventually) stalemate a lone King. Pieces with four noncapturing moves are unusual in chess variants - the earliest examples I can recall are the Steward (quadra-pawn) in CENTENNIAL CHESS (1999) and the Bishop in Caïssa Britannia.

Knight and Ferz are another effective team, on the 8x8 board they can stalemate almost as quickly as the Knight and Bishop can checkmate. I was aware that a pair of Knights could force stalemate, but it is nice to have it verified.

Longest Stalemate Victory with K+N+F vs K

in 35 moves on the 8x8 board (94.4%)

in 55 moves on the 12x8 board (92.9%)

in 61 moves on the 10x10 board (93.6%)

Longest Stalemate Victory with K+N+N vs K

in 26 moves on the 8x8 board (99.5%)

in 37 moves on the 12x8 board (99.7%)

in 38 moves on the 10x10 board (99.7%)

Note that King + Bishop are not able to force stalemate, but that giving the Bishop a single extra non-capturing orthogonal step is already sufficient to genreally achieve this.