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Comments by GeorgeDuke
Gast's Chess. Large 1969 variant using the Cardinal (Guard) and the Chancellor (Archer). (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Looking like a Turkish Great Chess, Gast's is really recent CV with some novelty in Knight and Pawn making a more or less average game. (By ten ranks, something has to help the Pawns and this is a try.) N is (N+Camel+Tripper), Tr. as (3,3); the leaping logic extended for 12x12. 'Archers'(R+N) have that same compound-N power. After its start Pawn goes 1 or 2 forward non-capturing, 1 or 2 diagonal capturing; initial 1,2,3,4. A size like this needs win condition short of checkmate, because any interest is localized interactions in the middle game. In the 14x14 version of Gast, 'Pope' is Amazon(enhanced-Knight-wise).
Gala. Medieval game of German farmers. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': 4 Armies only superficially copies this array, because that one has the six FIDE piece-types; in Gala, also a decimal form, there are only four piece-moves to learn. The informed previous comment calls the deflection lines 'mounds'. Getting both Kings to a central-four square wins; the alternate win condition is to capture the opponent's two Kings. King is its now 1400-year-old counterpart and may also teleport from those holy-site squares. Sometimes Rook turns forty-five degrees to Bishop-direction in move after crossing a mound; the same comment clarifies that in fact two changes of direction are possible in one single move. Correspondingly, Bishop can start as Bishop, switch to R-direction, and back, all in the same move. Pawns are Berolina-like within corner fields and omni-directional in 'central board' area. The T-shaped, or plus-shaped, region is notionally derived from ancient Viking board game Hnefatafl. This CV has more striking originality than Courier Chess. Today Big Outer Chess changes piece ranges based on position. What other variant than Gala, or Pagan Chess, even 500 years later provides for combined Bishop and Rook movement in transition by square pattern?(Differently Gryphon has not been used with such board partitions.)
Geometric sequence of Chess Games. Chess variants as large as you want.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': In sequence 2(to n) x 2(to n), integer n > 0, 8x8 is the first non-trivial case. It is where we find ourselves today. 'The reader may (have) found extensive literature about the 8x8 chess game', featuring mirror-image symmetry.--A. Missoum. With n=4, 16x16: h8,i8,h9,i9 central squares and requisites are for Pawn 1,2,3 initially; Knight as (4,3)Antelope plus (3,2)Zebra. Where n=5, N is (7,4)Ibex + N + Antelope. (n=6) would be quite sufficient. However, exercise covers n=8; for example, number of Bishops is given by X = (An-1)+2(to n-1) with (An-1) = (An-2)+2(to n-2), and so on, so that 62+64= 126 Bishops.
Ganymede Chess. A 12x12 variant inspired by Ralph Betza's Chess on a really big board, Centennial Chess and Adrian King's Typhoon (among others). (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': The offshoot Europan is a definite improvement, because Ganymede's twelve piece-types confusingly have additional ten different promotees; although twenty-two reduces to about 17.0 piece-types, counting the potential group of them 0.5 each for comparison. Spearman borrows from Centennial Chess. 'Wall' takes up two squares at once, moves Rook-like, must rotate to point the other way, and altogether belongs in sub-cross-thread including Giant(Dev), Cobra, and Giant-King--pieces taking up more than a square. Where each of those others cover 4 squares, Ganymede's Wall covers 2 squares. Mark Hedden: 'In this game, like Shogi and its variants, most of the pieces promote'. But Shogi promotions are logical, not these.
Bachelor Kamil. Combines ideas from Bachelor Chess and Wildebeest Chess. (9x8, Cells: 72) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': Weak back rank means likely promotion to Queen or Gnu(Knight+Camel). Alternative win condition is checkmate of any Gnu. In Doug Chatham's Bachelor Chess there is win by marriage(K,Q adjacent), for which see Gilman's Notes. For all the play on words, Camel, or really any other variant leaper uncompounded, be it Zebra, Dabbabah, Alfil, Trebuchet(0,3), or Tripper(3,3), just do not carry the logic or effectiveness of Knight. Therefore, Alfil is not standard any more; and any CV that uses one of those six exotic leapers quickly scrambles for rules and array to make a playable chess.
Centennial Chess. 10x10 Variant that adds Camels, Stewards, Rotating Spearmen and Murray Lions to the standard mix. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': In 1999 Centennial Chess threw down the gauntlet for decimal form, the strict 100 squares, to wit, 'the holy grail', words of John William Brown. In 2005 Antoine Fourriere in current comment at The Future thread writes, 'If you shift to 10x10, you have problems with the Knights and Pawns. Still I don't like 10x10.' Brown's Centennial has above average piece-mix. Two Pawn-types by the addition of Steward, a 'quadra-Pawn' moving in four possible directions. Camel; Murray Lion; Rotating Spearman, which would be more effectively implemented with capture on retreat too. Theoretically, one can imagine library of thousands volumes Centennial Chess analysis, and so also for hundreds other CVs. Hence the benefits of evaluative criteria, however weighted and discounted, for perfect symmetry, mirror symmetry, number piece-types, power density, board size, ratios leapers/riders etc., in order to help determine which CVs best fit certain selected criteria.
Gridlock Chapter 4. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': 'Half of my team eats drinks, and sleeps Gridlock Chess (they are trying to catch up). The other half of the team is the best'. Chapter Four(10x10) develops Pushing Armour, the Missing Influence, Frozen Acres, Flanking the Crystal, Casting from the Second Sublevel, and Horse of a Different Colour.
Herb garden chess. Variant on 7 by 12 board with additional combination pieces. (12x7, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Too much power in paired Centaurs(B+N) and Champions(R+N) for only seven ranks. Besides, there are the specific flaws already commented like c- and j-pawns threatened by just one Pawn step. At least it names Carrera's Chess, unlike most other Carrera derivatives, and gives thought to its own castling innovation.
Influence Chess. Pieces on the top or bottom layer influence which chess pieces may move on the middle layer. (3x(4x7), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Good central idea bogs down in actualization. A square that a main Middle board piece sits on has corresponding square in Above and Below boards. These locations (departure square) 'influence' whether a move can be considered or not. To make the move, it also must be legal within the Middle board. Sometimes the Above or Below two piece-types move their one- or two-square way, and other times they duplicate a Middle board movement. Rules may very well be interpretable (including moving opponent's piece) in all cases. However, constant re-figuring of rules thwarts development of strategy. How about a simple 'influence' within just one board instead? For ex., Rook/Bishop/Knight based on black/white departure square, or else Berolina/Standard Pawn based on piece adjacent or not. Or an Eight-Stone Chess moving-blockade sort of influence?
Aberg variation of Capablanca's Chess. Different setup and castling rules. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': An important family of chesses, a crowded art(because 50-100 instances extant), Aberg's is a left-right reflection of the original 17th century Carrera's. 'H.E.Bird had made an earlier variation(50 yrs. before) of Capablanca Chess.' And Chinese alchemists made gunpowder 500 yrs. before it was invented in 14th century Europe. Seriously, extreme free castling, where Rook ends up not necessarily even adjacent to King, makes sense. Carrera's and Aberg's spread out the compounds maximally whilst keeping Rooks at familiar corners. Piece-value table shows Bishop ahead of Knight on 8x10 though still close.
Insect Chess. On a 12x12 board. All pieces are insect and arachnid representations, with some unique pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Theme-based on the largest board that works in a CV. Tarantula, which strengthens Edgar Burroughs' Chieftain, is not an insect; and neither is Black Widow. Missed opportunity to make 'Monarch', instead of Praying Mantis, the enhanced King (Butterflies are insects). [Thousands-yr.-old Monarch migration, once a billion, into Mexico's Sierra Madre was down 75% in 2005, because of 'advanced' civilization's intensive agriculture in USA and Canada.] Hornet is Gryphon; Wasp Renaissance Chess' Duke; Locust (D+A+Q). 'La Cucaracha' is never wholly eradicated. Horsefly is Shogi Dragon-king; Mosquito Dragon-horse; Maggot; Waterbug. The playable tip is to keep many pieces together to thwart Tarantula especially. Spiders and insects are 'bugs', saving its theme.
Grander Chess. A variant of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': 'Grand Chess completes the revolution in the game's rules that was started over 500 years ago,' says Kevin Scanlon. Then Grander Chess supposedly improves upon Grand Chess by three features. First, stalemate becomes a win. Second, en passant is dropped in favour of return to passar battaglia. Third, Queen is centralized, shuffling slightly just three pieces in array. Such minor revision is best left in Comment, which unfortunately Carrera's Chess imitators on 8x10 neglect, preferring to write up each version as if it were some new game.
Grande Acedrex. A large variant from 13th century Europe. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Eight piece-types. Gryphon is Arabian mythological 'bird so big it can lift elephants'. Lion is modern Trebuchet(0,3). Alfonso manuscript(1283) pre-dates Chaucer by about 100 yrs. and also widespread introduction of gunpowder into Europe from works of Arabs, who had learned it from the Chinese. Concurrently Alhazen's 'Optics' was translated into Latin and reached Europe in 1270. Gryphon starts one diagonal and can proceed Rookwise outwardly. Unicorn is Knight one move, then Bishop thereafter. Giraffe(1,4); Crocodile as Bishop; Rook; King mediaeval with initial leap option. Promotion to file piece as in Chaturanga. Chessically, Grande Acedrex precedes Timur's Great Chess(11x10), also called Tamerlane Chess(Timur the Lame). Timur's 'Giraffe' differs from G.A.'s Giraffe. In historical timeline, the three markers (gunpowder, Chaucer, and Timur's Chess) come within the century after invention of Grande Acedrex.
Canonical Chess Variants. A family of chess variants that blends Xiang Qi and Western Chess. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCVe': A 64-sq. board becomes 81 locations to move at its points, resulting in different sort of connectivity(unlike hexagonal boards and Fanorama Chess' Alquerque board too). These are Xiangqi points; Ralph Betza turns the board 45 degrees like this somewhere also. Bishop is Cannon-like. Pieces move in oblique directions along the lines, except Knight(Mao-like), which combines lateral and oblique each move, and Queen, which does one or other one-step per move. Maybe not enough distinguishment between Rook and Bishop. N needs strengthening vis-a-vis R and B, since they can slide up to eight spaces. Q and K are weak staying in fortress. This incorporates Western and Xiangqi elements, a sub-cross-thread. 64-space version is 7x7 square board off-oriented 45 degrees. Not clear whether Canonical Ch. has playability to match its originality; it seems play at the blue-cornered regions would be lost to the main action.
Hexmate. A two-player variant on a hex board made up of 127, 3-color hexagons. (Cells: 127) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCVh': 'Left and right sides of the board are mirror images, as is the setup of both opponents'--Michael Rouse. Such perfect symmetry tends to be discounted in this large CV thread. Too high piece density, though tri-colours help see what the pathways are; besides, pieces are prosaic. The case is not made in text for King's being so powerful: it appears games would be > 100 moves. Sub-cross-thread for hexagon-spaced boards starts here, as baseline. A general question: why so many CVs with hexagons in board, whilst triangles are virtually unknown? Triangles tile effectively too. Equilateral triangles throughout would look like subdivided hexagons and might be more visualizable. Triangles would have additional interesting transits, for ex., pieces related to Ralph Betza's Rose and Half-Rose adapted to some mixed 'triangles and hexagons' or 'triangles-out-of-hexagons' game boards.
Circular chesses, though square-based, create different patterns. For ex., Round Table 84 has triangular areas and also characteristics of Cylinder Chess. All sixty hexagonal CVs here can keep their same rules and subdivide each cell into six triangles adding connectivity for (rare) special move(s); this can be visualized in Shankaku Shogi drawings. Most all the 2000 CVP games actually have squares divisible into two isosceles right triangles, so would be playable with rules unchanged plus special-move feature based on triangular subdivision and orientation. Squared and hexagonal areas could also be combined in game boards, regardless discontinuity in tesselation. It would be no more distracting than Ultra-Slanted Escalator's having regions with squares offset.
Imperial Chess. Large variant with new pieces and victory by capture of royal pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Edgar Burroughs' ambiguity was tolerable in 1920's for original creation. Reader should not have to go to Comments or game logs to clarify movements in a version that borrows some rules from Jetan. However, the fairy pieces are interesting in being multi-pathers, and this thread credits effort of artwork or theme. Fifteen piece-types over 144 squares has the 10-percent comprehensibility. Original 'Charge' moves one piece in each of the 12 columns. 'Hitching a Ride' is more clearly explained than Gridlock's 'Mounting'. A third innovation: 'Rapid Deployment'. Still it is vague whether the mixed straight(square) and diagonal moves allow 135-degree changes of direction or doubling back. As another instance, 'move three spaces in circle'? Or, can a charge be mounted with only 11 of 12 columns having pieces? This Chess is not sharply enough defined.
Falcon Chess. Game on an 8x10 board with a new piece: The Falcon. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Cazaux's Comment is inept because even the Falcon article referenced dates from year 2000. It is a simple article tailored for beginners, non-players, and designer-dilettantes. The other more-detailed article on this game, 'Falcon Chess patent text' was written in 1995 and 1996 well before the single use that comment mentions, Cazaux's own (Buffalo=C+Z+N) in 2001 Gigachess. In any event, I submit that a non-jumping Falcon is the correct(mathematical) complement to Rook, Knight and Bishop, and far from obvious at first; whereas any (Camel + Zebra) is extremely over-powerful and moreover totally frivolous addition to Chess never used in any game until Charles Gilman's Great Herd in 2004. Falcon patent is not intended as a CV, but as a replacement for FIDE-type chess, just as FRC and Carrera-Capablanca forms are so held up. FRC is not promulgated as a CV by its adherents but a solution to contemporary problem of computers and memorized opening theory. Hostility to FC is not new, as the number of 'Poor's attest. After all, Chess Variant Page, readers, and members alike have own agenda not overly concerned with state of FIDE Chess. Yet it is peculiar that three of the last four or so games (over almost two years now) by one CVP Editor have featured a Falcon as the main attraction; Falcon thus appears to hold some undisclosed merit. The reference is to Aronson's and my Complete Permutation Chess, Aronson's Horus with the patented Falcon on quite interesting small board, and Prisoner's Escape with Falcon-Hunter. The name Falcon is somewhat inconsequential. I considered 'Phoenix', Horus and a few other terms; and the US Trademark previously approved by USPTO for 'Falcon Chess' is deliberately in abeyance by ourselves at the present time. As to 'anteriority', there is lot more researched material on file at USPTO from disclosure process than happens to appear in the two CVP articles. Most likely I have been aware of Karl Schulz's Falcon-Hunter Chess longer than any other commenter here(now without Betza). That Falcon and Hunter are nothing like the basic chess piece, Falcon. Commensurate in importance with Knight, Rook, and Bishop(actually preeminent to those three, because they would derive from F, not vice versa) is heretofore-undiscovered Falcon, as patented now until November 2017, after which date copyrights and trademarks will effect comparable coverage for many, many years.
Immersed in CVs as a player, personally I like to play other games more than Falcon Chess 8x10. Examples are Rococo, Switching Chess, Altair, and 3D Positional Chess. However, Falcon Chess is the 'correct' expansion of FIDE-type Chess, more so than Fischer Random and Carrera-Capablanca, in their same spirit of an evolving ideal form of chess. Most CV designers have a different philosophy about creating games preferring a multiplicity of versions. Yet imagine going into say a high school chess club and propounding dozens or hundreds of sets of rules one as recommended as another. The hostile environment of CVP to the other method, evidenced in FC, FRC, Capablanca-Gothic, is why Falcon Chess is never to be developed within Zillions of Games. I have told them to remove the Complete Permutation file later this year.
As far as Roberto's analysis, he is going to lose his first Falcon Chess in Game Courier because he cannot castle. The first ten moves in that game have been the ugliest ever(out of hundreds of games since 1992)when he unexpectedly advanced four central Pawns(for which I do need to think of a better defense in future). It has been a formless opening with no piece development. What Black is doing is good enough to win because some nasty forks are brewing. So 'weakness' of Bishops' long diagonal comes about because of the bizarre, imprecise opening moves that should backfire. Sorry this comment belongs in Kibbitz.
Falcon Chess 100. Falcon Chess played on an expanded board of a 100 squares with special Pawn rules. (12x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Intellectual property includes patents, trademarks and copyrights. All CVP games are copyrighted in their very publication. Viceroy patent, Quantum patent, Gothic patent, Falcon patent, Grand patent(a different one) and countless others have not precluded any CV being developed that I know of. Being inventions they open up new possibilities for forms previously untried. There is still the problem of bad game pollution to use 'Robert Fischer's' term. That may not even be strong enough. Somebody said that a 'junk CV ethos' sometimes rules--too extreme a description in my view. Yet just as some topics are over-discussed, there are also taboos never addressed. My progress through 'Large CV' thread ( about 25% so far) exposes games never even played by their inventor. Until about year 2000 most chess forms were published in treatise, magazine, book (copyrighted), or else patented. Now facility with computers lets anyone design something in an hour.
Grandmaster Robert Fischer, soon hopefully to reside in Iceland, has USA patent for a chess clock. The models and rationale are not chess patents per se so much as games patents broadly like Scrabble and Monopoly. The proper question is not what the hack designer-dilettante thinks of patenting games. Instead, the question is what patent holders and traditional registered-copyright inventors think of the present junk game ethos and resultant bad game pollution.
Double Chess. Two sets of pieces on 16 by 12 board. (16x12, Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'DEF,LargeCV': Publication in British Chess Magazine in 1929 evinces sense of humour in the great Thomas Dawson's day. No merit in extreme low piece density about 30%. Reminiscent of 1930's play by Charles Fort(living in London in 1929) on a board of 1000 squares so photographed.
Chess on a 12 by 12 board. Orthodox chess but with additional squares around the setup. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': Now this one would not be so bad as the previous 'Double Chess'(192 squares), even though it says Jose Capablanca wasted his time playing Double Chess. (A general criticism was that that world champion did not study scores enough.) Despite piece density just over 20 percent, even lower than DC, players just would not use the double outer perimeter a lot. So Chess 12x12 is better than Capablanca-tested Double Chess, conveniently having the same piece-types.
Weave & Dungeon(81 squares)by Dan Troyka 2002 has unusual connectivity and perfect symmetry. Among six piece-types specially suited for its 'weave' board, a sort of counter-tesselation, Triangles > Square > Pentagon > Circle in value.
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