Comments by GeorgeDuke

'DEF,LargeCV': Five 'Excellent's cannot be reversed to average, so Not Rated. Two problems are solved for Capablanca-played Double Chess(192 sqs.): no more Pawn 1,2,3,4 because no longer that 1917 Chess' twelve ranks; second, one King instead of two, but the rule is the same, to check one King. Recommended to admire not to play, as hey that is the usual goal in this artwork. Definite improvement over what Capablanca toyed around with. Ralph Betza uses the two-King back rank in some 'Chess On a Really Big Board' set-ups in 1996, so this one King may be new for the same popular 16 files. However, Pritchard 'ECV' has some entry like this between the 1917 one and Betza's not worth looking up.

'GHI,LargeCV': This is a mature war game, military-themed reminiscent of Yurgelevich's 1933 Chess-Battle(128 squares)among others. The implementation itself is even more similar to 1937 Novo Chess in having terrain. Invasion's 16-square sea is never traversed at all(it exists so to come out 84 squares), whereas Novo's Water and Railroad squares serve both for barrier and transit. Also, Novo's General and General Staff are an even more interacting but comparable pair to Invasion's Headquarters and Flags. Both the H. and Flags figure in alternative win conditions, ordinary checkmate by capture of H. or else placement of Flag where other Headquarters began. That is like mediaeval Gala too in that reaching goal square(s) a certain way wins. Seven piece-types manageable; 'Commando' and 'Paratrooper' borrow the earlier (1999)Divergent Chess' differing modes of moving and capturing. 'Trooper' has been described as quadra-pawn in other CVs(Centennial Chess). 'Bomb', when turned on, is placed anywhere and removes itself and all adjacent, like Rococo's Swapper self-destructs at option with one enemy chosen adjacent.

'GHI,LargeCV': Chapter 3 develops Knights of the Grid, the Hollow Horse, Footstools, Gridlock's Stable('Can't whistle for a Colt. Colts only load Riders through the Knights' Footprints'), the Colony Rook Class B, Forrest Rook, Jungle Warfare, and a Thief in the Knight. Future chapters are to divulge 'Taurus Class', 'The Earth Star' and 'Shock and Awe'. 'It takes capturing two Castle Rooks to Possess the Crystal.' 'Use the post off the Jump Gates and Doors and other Footstools you may use to climb.' 'Can you see the strategic advantage of being able to rotate the riding pieces over the Ground Level?' 'The Rook must be part of Tonks Chambers to have its primary armour activated.' That is just an offhand splendid sample.

'GHI,LargeCV': Chapter 5 furthers the Jump Gate and presents the Great Diagonal Wall, Pivot Points within the Ruins, Gridlock's Castle, and Bishops Work. 'With effective use of your Ruins, you can fortify holdings, control corners and block off passage through the Outer Row[gold].' 'It has always been my plan to introduce new levels to the game of Chess other than just stacking up boards. The other game promised you up to nine Queens. Did it ever deliver?' 'Knights of course can just jump right over but not on a locked Four Way.'

'DEF,LargeCV': Suspiciously Berolina-like, this same Pawn actually originates not here but in 1998 Missoum's 9x9 Rotating Chess. However, that one has Camels and other errors, and Double Diamond is better implementation. Unlike Berolina, these Pawns have additional lateral-orthogonal capture direction and one fewer(one) 'traveling' direction. Simple ideas with strategic implications are the best, but this is not so original apparently as the great Eight-Stone Chess, because of that other unacknowledged game. Removing the remote portions of the board makes sense in related principle, a minimalist approach whereever possible.

'GHI,LargeCVm': Gess would have to be played, which this cross-thread avoids. Is Gess generalized chess? Ten-year-old article and only 4 Comments. One-piece type is not unprecedented: witness Battle-Chieftain Chess. Sub-cross-thread of 'pieces occupying more than one square' applies to Gess: Gigachess, Giant-King, and Cobra have 2- or 4-square occupancy variously. Gess' 'mega-piece' occupies 9 squares but works differently. There is no piece unless only one side's stones are in a 3x3(See rules). Number of 'pieces'('mega-' and stone alike) will keep changing as configurations of stones change and stones remove. (Perimeter stones within a 3x3 determine directions allowable, as it explain well.) Not appealing that the array is not compelling: it seems any number of alternative starting set-ups and stones could work, such as varying the six 'outlier' stones. Also, no particular inevitability in '1-,2-, or 3-' step, when say omitting '3-step' would not hurt anything. Notice each side starts with one ring and better keep at least one ring, or lose. So, making more rings is part of strategy, but it never says this: a player is supposed to get into the intellection and figure some things out. Though an individual move can be visualized, that is just one move. It is uncertain whether Gess would play really tactically or just afford some claim for such in hindsight for whoever removes the other's ring(s). At least there is no flaw of a draw because somebody is bound to lose rings. Would this 'Go-Chess' hybrid-form Gess be partly 'guess'-work? Or commonly take an hour to find the best move?

'GHI,LargeCV': Izzard followed up with Philosopher's Chess, which won a 40-square contest, and no doubt is Excellent. As for In the Bin, another inventor's Conveyor Chess in March 1999 came up with idea of pieces on board entering conveyor square and being dumped to a specific square(f7 or g6 there). In July 1999, the similar idea of pieces off-board being 'dumped', or drop-placed, to one of three 'hot spot' squares is here implemented just as unsuccessfully as Conveyor Chess--or successfully making a bad idea worse. 'Bin-State Rule' requires keeping track of every number of every piece (for example, there are ten(10)Wazirs in the bin initially, neutral, so they may become Black or White) at every earlier move in the game. Atomic-orbital-theory-like there is no duplication of state, so as to be a new species(element), could be rough analogy. Already had a 3-8-6-2-1-4-9 for the seven piece-types in the Bin? Then a particular capture etc. is dis-allowed. No thanks, I would rather even make a move at Gess. Philosopher's Chess still looks fine, just calling each one on the merits.

'GHI,LargeCV': First rating ever for Golden Age, Mediocre. GAC and Chess on a Really Big Board now ten years old, Betza's increments for super-size are 64 squares for convenience in pushing boards together. Up to 64 game boards(4096 squares) are described in CRBB with Bishop long diagonal Ba1.a1-h8.h8, where preceding 'le point' is the sub-board itself. GAC is not so ridiculous, just 16x16, four boards. Betza Funny Notation does not make for natural reading. The opposite philosophy is to describe a method of moving in as many words as possible for clarity. 'WDD' is (Wazir + Dababbah-Rider) sitting in the corners on 16x16. So instead of one-fourth the squares DD reaches, WDD can reach all the squares in certain series of moves. Rose; Crooked Bishop; Gryphon; Half-Duck is nice piece, for which see Chess Different Armies. What Betza calls long Knight, others call Camel. What Betza calls long wide Knight, others call Zebra. Betza says, 'Pawns are probably worth less than a 'normal' Pawn.' You bet, even with these Pawns able to 'double-step' up to the mid-line. This GAC is not entirely serious game, but opportunity to expatiate on Funny Notation and Piece Values. Betza is simply wrong writing, 'take no longer to play a game of Golden Age than FIDE.' He gives a 'Foolsmate' which proves nothing about game length. Betza really only analyses half-deeply most of the time and curiously would not stick around to play at his Masters' level.

'JKL,LargeCV': Done under constraint of 84 squares, the transporter squares might work even better at remote regions of a decimal chess, say a2 etc. or b3 etc. Most likely Witches' dragging is unique and has good potential elsewhere. Games will go over outside Chess Variant Page having exotic pieces combined with orthodox pieces, as in Jacks & Witches. Cannon/Canon as flip piece; Murray Lion; Witch as Immobilizer. Finally, Jack's moving out of its Eye(See Rules) works by definitely-underutilized geometry that could be transposed to normal rectangular board experimentally.

'JKL,LargeCV': First comment for Janus Chess, which maybe first proposes Janus(B+N) paired on 8x10, a reasonable idea quarter century ago. CVPage 2004 Archbishop Chess copies the piece-mix and shifts Janus(Cardinal) to d & g. Cardinal is marginally more logical than Marshall(R+N); both compounds go back to 17th-century Carrera's.

'WXYZ,LargeCV': Xiangqi and Shogi are not CVs because they have been played for about as long by the same order of magnitude of individuals as Western FIDE Chess. Yet CVPage will always have each as some exotic CV in its peculiar world-view, and this reminder of ordinary connectivity can help. Even when playing over the normal Chinese grid, players who first learned 64-square chess visualize square-wise best. Somehow this square-picture also shows Xiangqi for what it clearly possesses: low piece density; dominating features of Rook, Cannon, and palace; minimal rules making deep strategy. Imagine any change in structure: just one example, supposing King not confined to palace would make checkmate too elusive. The same total coherence would not apply to Shogi (having different merit) in its family of sets of rules. Comment continues at Xiangqi-thread pages.

'GHI,LargeCV': Normally the line is drawn at 12x12 for working coherence. Contrariwise Europan(14x14) and IO(16x16), having lower piece-type density, are superior to Ganymede(12x12). Pawn initial five-step at option. There is the sense to pair the following pieces: Gryphon; Spider as diagonal equivalent of Gryphon; Supercomputer(Trebuchet + Alfil + Camel); two-square-occupancy Wall; and Crooked Knight. The latter is called Straight Narrow Crooked Nightrider by Jorg Knappen in 2002 Nachtmahr. Pieces promote as they do in more recent 2003 Pocket Mutation Chess(hey it's all about promotion, isn't it?). Promotees include Gnu(N+Camel); Fortress(R+N+A); Hippogriff(G+R); Tarantula(Spider + B); Moonrider(NN + Zebra); Quantum Computer(Supercomputer + K + N). A further innovation is that the act of castling itself creates an alternate promoted form of the Rook then and there.

'JKL,LargeCV': Only one game board(on approx. page 205) is 8x10 out of a thousand chess board drawings within David Pritchard's 1994 'Encyclopedia of Chess Variants'. Clearly before the 1990's eight ranks and ten files were not a popular size. Jester here is nothing but a Camel, the epitome of incommodious, as Roberto Lavieri would aptly put it. For another one, Charles Gilman in 2004 'Great Herd' points to the significance, 'Knight's dual, the 3:1 Camel.' That notion is based on movement two straight(orthogonal) thence 90-degree one-step, as companion movement of two diagonal thence 90-degree one-step. It is certainly one way to look at Chess geometry, in a clutch for symmetry in piece move-rules. Ten-year-old Cardinals Super Chess also has paired 'Camels' called Cardinal there but weaker as non-jumping.

'JKL,LargeCV': The pieces tend to just clog in mass of defense. Rook and Queen are different from Xiangqi Cannon, as Bishop and Queen are different from 'Canon'. I.e., Cannon/Canon replace the one they capture after a leap, whereas Jumping.Q/R/B capture the one they leap and move on. T.R. Dawson's older Grasshopper has modified jump along radial lines, leaping one piece one step along the Queen-lines and staying put either in move or replacement capture. These examples show the trouble with hopping along B and R paths; there is no absolute saddle point as to the best modality. Extension to multiple captures turns this Queen into excellent Rococo's Long Leaper. These jumping pieces mimic in varying degree the other 64-sq.(and also 100-) game's one (convertible) piece-type's jump-captures, and must have been re-invented(and discarded) from time to time. Some primary school teacher surely has had occasion to say: 'Wrong game, Roger. That's Checkers. This year we learn Chess.'

'DEF,LargeCV': A novel circular chess, Flipworld may not have erased all ambiguity about transit through its six Nexus cells(triangles), but there will not be the ridiculous bottleneck of Conveyor Chess or In the Bin. RNBKQP get two additions, weak Tocop and strong Starman, which could be explained better. The inner circuits will have most of the action. Really the Nexus, or tunnel, or lift, is not common to both Topside and Flipside, because player specifies which it is on if a piece stops there. Tesselations mixed square- and triangle-boards, like Round Table Chess, stretched topologically to over-all roundness, can play better than hexagonal ones once rules clarify. Games would be brief here for reason of traps, trades, errors.

'JKL,LargeCV': The uncommented ones are usually interesting because there has not been even self-promotion. First, ignore the links, there are too many of them. 'King one square orthogonal, diagonal, or oblique': what does 'oblique' add to the description? 'Queen any number of squares orthogonal, diagonal, or oblique': like a Nightrider too? These rules are by turns incomprehensible and frivolous, without the irony of Gridlock or humour of Cardmate. Mixed in are some legitimate moves for Pawn, Knight sort of. Who knows what 'the walls of an active Castle' are? Poor.

'JKL,LargeCV': This is whimsical and the spirit is there. 19 piece-types over 192 squares is the recurrent 10 percent showing good instinct. Nice logos represent slew of animal(fellow sentient beings) pieces. Tiger is Bishop-mover, Knight-capturer, as in Divergent Chess. Two newly-invented pieces are Bat and Rhinoceros. Colour-changing Bat is Root-65 Leaper(possibly used before), the same as Gilman's (1,8)Ibis plus (4,7)Ibex. Rhinoceros is rider moving circle-like along one of sixteen possible paths from 1 to 8 steps. Fully 8 steps always mean the null move. Therefore, Rhinoceros is able to perform a 'self unpin', nothing but that null move; but self-unpin can be blocked if no pathway is available. Analysis of Alfil and Dabbabah coverage. One would hate to spoil this chess by playing it.

Thanks for the information about Zillions of Games. It sounds like a reasonable organization. As to Complete Permutation Chess, this is a good 'idea game' of Aronson. I can evaluate because all I added was the Pawn two-move option. Having parallel in Betza's Tutti-Frutti Chess, the implementation of all possible compounds makes especial sense. Aronson e-mailed two years ago also about opportunity to explore Falcon compounds, meaning F-N, F-B, and F-R. I knew right away that was not particularly worthwhile. Falcon does not work well compounded and in fact doing so confounds or even ruins play of stand-alone B, N, and R. This CPChess is not really a very playable game, nor intended to be. Other 'concept games' would be Divergent Chess, Delegating Chess, Avalanche Chess, and a lot of other Betza games for that matter. Monkeying around with F-N, F-B, and F-R also enables one to see clearly the inferiority of N-B(Cardinal) and N-R(Marshall) too, compared to say Gryphon, Cannon, and Canon. Knight and Falcon are not properly compounded at all in serious Chess. They made the right decision when coming up with Queen(R+B) about yr. 1475 in Italy/Spain.

'JKL,LargeCV': Bostick's Insect Chess is recommended and was conscientiously reviewed here, no small task for many of these. This one is NR because of the format's difficulty even finding out what the pieces are. Yet putative 'Zillions of Games' values are all over the place: Dragon 6.75, which is the Marshall; Monkey 2.25, which is the Knight... Stop there, because guaranteed that that differential(6.75 minus 2.25) is off by at least 1.5 pts. when P(1.0). Wing Chun(10.25), diagonal equivalent of Gryphon, is called Wasp in the superior Insect Chess. RNBKQP are all in there, Disciple being the ordinary Pawn. Ng Mui (9.5 pts.) is conventional Amazon. Insect has better theme and more coherence.

Neat connectivity. In this case the board itself was patented(and not as a design patent) for use with any and every mix of pieces. Noticing the number 3652091 and comparing it to say Gothic Chess USP6481716, show that almost half of USA patents in all fields were granted in the last 35 years of 200 years altogether. That pattern, typified elsewhere, is partly explained by the flood of high-tech innovations, computers, biotechnology. 'Games' class of (method) patents go back at least to the 1880's when some interesting US Civil War board games appear patented.

'JKL,LargeCV': Central idea a good one: to get King to the final(10th)rank, maybe never used before. In this thread's own words, King is immortal and handed back each time it is captured, to replace some surrogate piece which dies instead. Inventor's vocabulary is better including 'transposed' and 'quid pro quo.' The other game is Quex(yr. 2000), where the pieces are explained for Keyles(yr. 1999) too. Battle Chieftain uses similar method of King reborn. Medieval Gala's King to a central-four square teleports, but that's different. Other games have pieces promoting in last rank, differently since here King wins there. Lavieri's Maxima has occupation of distant goal squares(two) by two pieces possibly including King as win condition, but that's pretty different. So, this is likely a CV novelty certainly in 1999 before proliferation. Too many pawn-types; auxiliary pieces are weak. The 'Lord' is not explained either in Keyles or Quex. Multi-path, i.e. two-path, Prince two-step move is ambiguous, but no worse than a Jetan description, to which two-stepper-types Thoat, Padwar, and Warrior this multi-pather does not appear to correspond exactly.

Gary Gifford and myself are playing steadily at Great Chess, but on the face of it Great Chess games would be expected to be longer on average. So be it. Of course anything can happen.