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Comments by GeorgeDuke
Jester Chess. Large variant, with four new pieces including Jester that imitates opponents last type of move. (10x11, Cells: 110) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'JKL,LargeCV': Brown's own Centennial Chess scales back board to decimal and borrows quadra-pawn Steward and M.Lion from Havel's Jester Chess, six yrs. uncommented. 10 piece-types, of which five promote uniquely, only Pawn doing so to an array unit(Steward); so that makes 14 piece-types possible. Jester originally mimics method of movement of last opponent's piece moved. Short-range Archer moves without capturing or captures without moving. It is two moves per turn until one's first capture, a rule which could benefit some other large chesses. This would be more fun, but Centennial's fewer features a more playable-strategy CV.
At ChessBase 23.03.2005: Bobby Fischer is due to be released from the Japanese detention center a few hours from now. Specifically at midnight GMT. 'The passed Fischer pawn has been shepherded home to the eighth rank,' wrote the RJF Committee, 'It can now be promoted into a piece, with complete freedom of movement.' Fischer will leave Japan on Scandinavian Airways and fly to Copenhagen at 12:40 PM on Thursday.
King's Court. Variant on 8 by 12 board with Chancellors and Jesters. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'JKL,LargeCV': King's Court, 'advanced chess,' is not Kasparov's Advanced Chess, because the latter merges man and machine. These Jesters are not just-reviewed Jester Chess' Jester, which mimics the last opponent's move's method. Jester here simply steps one or two diagonal to ferz, dabbabah or alfil locations, therefore being two-path(ipso facto multi-path)to dabbabah ones. Visualize the two paths to get used to multi-path pieces. These Chancellors are not Chancellor Chess Chancellors, which as (R+N) are just Marshalls commonly. Instead Chancellors here are restricted, or limited, Queens going one or two steps radially, plus Knights in option. KC has close to Falcon Chess(patent year 1996) method of free castling, though not necessarily allowing the final step to Rook adjacency before the Rook over-step. Add King's flight from the potentially suffocating Chancellor, nice board size 8x12, and otherwise standard features, and King's Court rises to the level of pretty Good. No boring unoriginal, awkward overused Marshalls(R+N) and Cardinals(B+N) here.
Infinite Chess 3D. Extends Chess to larger, even infinite, boards. () [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'GHI,LargeCV': Who has not played Chess infinitely, informally, in everyday life by observing tile patterns or making 'lines-and-squares' steps? Uncommented so far, Infinite Chess has the sense here that RNBKQP are as a cardinal set in western Chess, eschewing the Chess Variant Page extreme variform philosophy. Unfortunately, this write-up just recapitulates in tone(considerably tongue-in-cheek) and substance two others having more refinement and finesse(A. Missoum's and Ralph Betza's). It has some interest, for instance, in Rule 1 within that a move be either finite or infinite: the 'infinite' ones are rather Alice-like. Betza's indexing for boards(Chess Really Big Board) is used exactly A1 to H8, and so on here. It does not seem a problem is solved of decreasing piece density as space enlarges. The main precedent is A. Missoum's 'Geometric Sequence of Chess Games,' which stops at 64x64 squares with its 126 Bishops, but could go on. 'The implications for geometry and the theory of infinite numbers will not be considered here.' Well and good.
Janus Kamil Chess. A crossover between Janus Chess and Modern Kamil Chess. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'JKL,LargeCV': Janus Chess(8x10) first pairs Cardinal(B,N)calling them Janus, a quarter century ago. Archbishop Chess in Chess Variant Page recently mixes up Janus' array. Also under CVPage, 2002 'Modern Kamil'(10x10, or else 84-square 8x10 with four corner tack-ons) uses Camel paired instead: 'in Memory of the Thousand Years of Arabic Chess Tradition.' So what else, but the marriage 'Janus Kamil(JK)', logical. Computer could generate hundreds of alternate initial set-ups (nothing compelling about Rook at b1,b10 etc.)on 10x12, but maybe 8x12 would be better. Knappen's Quintessential Chess sharply tailors pieces to go with its neat Quintessence, also reaching Camel(and N) squares. This Janus Kamil seems more common variety 'cut-and-paste' popular since turn of millennium.
Rococo. A clear, aggressive Ultima variant on a 10x10 ring board. (10x10, Cells: 100) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Can Withdrawer, legitimately on x3, capture x4 by withdrawing across free squares to x0? Or does W only capture by going to x2? The answer to that is a parallel or helps clarify what Long Leaper should be able to do.
Mad Chess. Chess variant with unequal armies on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'MNO,LargeCV': Without Comment 5 years, Chess-unequal-sides game should cite Betza's Chess Different Armies, once called Chess Unequal Armies. Contrast 100 squares here to Wittman's recent 6-square Dueling Archbishops and 9-square Knight Court. Under eleven(11)squares are rare and some sizes thankfully nonexistent. White's pieces include Jester(=Marshall) not to be confused with Jester Chess Jester or King's Court Jester; General(N+D+A) dated before 1683 from Italy in Archchess as 'Centurion', called 'Squirrel' in 20th Century; Dragon as (Q + Trebuchet(0,3)); Crazy Footsoldier and Valkyrie both having their move and capture different, as in earlier(1999) Divergent Chess, which established a short-lived trend. Black's all different pieces from White's include Warlord(N + Trebuchet); 'divergent types' Berserker [not Battle Chieftain's Berserker] and Mad Infantryman; Spectre(Q + Tripper(3,3)). Altogether not bad, but with sake of clarity would avoid divergent move/capture pieces where already pieces are distinct between W & B. Yet these two could well be plugged into Ralph Betza's list with across-the-board weakening, such as Mad Chess 'pawns'(See rules).
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][This comment is hidden pending review. It will eventually be deleted or displayed.]
Mainzer Schach. Large variant with Janus, Marshall, and different setup. (11x8, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'MNO,LargeCV': This is simple and different, in itself more likely to mean an improvement, when not artificial like author's Janus Kamil is recently alleged to be. On manageable board size(rare 8x11), Knights Kingside and Bishop-types Queenside would be okay to try once. Not the novelty and interesting pieces of excellent Quintessential Chess. Amazon only by promotion; freer castling might work better.
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][This comment is hidden pending review. It will eventually be deleted or displayed.]
Modern Chess. Variant on a 9 by 9 board with piece that combines bishop and knight moves. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'MNO,LargeCV': Contemporaneous Janus Chess has doubled Cardinal(B+N), but with 9x9 board (year 1968)Modern Chess has just one and calls it Minister. Actually, this just takes now over 100-yr.-old Chancellor Chess and substitutes for the Marshall(R+N), making a marginal improvement. Those two, Modern and Chancellor, are both characterized by commercialization. However, same-coloured Bishops throughout are the drawback here. It seems the best CVs preserving the orthodox six(RNBKQP) go all the way to ten files if wanting to introduce new piece(s).
Mad Chess. Chess variant with unequal armies on 10 by 10 board. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]That Mad Chess was 'extensively commented'? Seven comments: discount the first by inventor himself. Second comment says in a few words that it makes chess 'unisexual.' Better 3rd and 4th comments do not seem to be aware of Betza's Chess Different Armies. That 4th compares the pieces among themselves; I have tried to add comparisons far and wide among disconnected large CVs. 5th comment cites Betza at last. 6th comment ridiculously compares Mad Chess to Ultima. 7th comment for 'F+' generally pans chess-unequal-armies types. Moderately commented back then, Mad Chess deserves some attention for some interesting pieces.
Armies of Faith 1: The Dawn of Civilisation. The first in of a series of 3d variants themed on various religions of history. (3x(9x9), Cells: 243) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Very poor description of Falcon from Falcon Chess (1992), USP5690334. See Comments under another oddball game Horus(2004). Falcon is not 'lame' and invention of Falcon precedes 'Bison' in a game by twelve years, so Bison would be an offshoot, or corruption, of Falcon, not vice versa. Etc.
Falcon Chess articles support Falcon as a Multi-path chess piece, not either a leaper or rider. 'Lameness' is an insulting term applied by Aronson in 2004 to Falcon after Ralph Betza initiated its use in 2003 for a specialized Dabbabah(then Betza disappeared). Pejorative 'Lame' was never used before 2003 for Chess. Actually, confusing the issue, Aronson says Falcon is 'not lame' or different from what a 'lame Bison' would be, without trying to define it. So 'lameness' is now bandied about for Falcon. No other piece that I know of is tried to classify as 'lame' since they came up with that in 2003. Friends use 'Multi-path'. Sorry, David, David P. had no Bison in 1994 ECV, and so what is known Falcon is first mover in a game to those Falcon-Bison 2-4,3-4 squares, and the best implementation, therefore it is Bison deriving. ECV has the 1920's Maus' Cavalry's R-Camel-Zebra leaper of little value since, showing no question compound leapers exist prior to proliferation.
Falcon Chess. Game on an 8x10 board with a new piece: The Falcon. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Editor Charles, Why don't you re-Rate Falcon Chess from 'None', its having half a dozen Poors and nothing else from your most active readership, surely really a compliment. Or why do you bother to solicit a favourable rating from me more or less outsider with one Poor-Average game under byline? Is it a taunt on your part? (Technically I realize you cannot rerate because of not using your CVP-identification, the same as Ralph Betza used to do with 'gnohmon')I can tell you that you have a Poor game to play in Armies of Faith, and I will give you the courtesy of analyzing why in a long paragraph later, the way I Commented systematically on 400 Large Chesses in 2004 and 2005, whereupon my privilege for unscreened Comments was revoked by your people.
AltOrth Hex Chess. Hexagonal variant using pieces moving only one way along each orthogonal. (11x11, Cells: 91) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I agree with Paulowich that Gilman hit a home run here, re-configuring hexagonal fundamentals for all time! Surprising 1 for 150 for Charles now, (you know the saying about finally hitting the fan, or wall, or broadside of a barn) although in fairness many dozens of the other 149 are enjoyable for their theme
and also for their humorous deliberately-pretentious, not to say pendantic, intellectuality. I rated before many Gilman games and articles Good themematically, but this the first Excellent(as one to play). Good work.
Armies of Faith 1: The Dawn of Civilisation. The first in of a series of 3d variants themed on various religions of history. (3x(9x9), Cells: 243) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Chess-Different-Armies type 3-player chess, 3d, 10x11x3 = 330 cells. No erudition in theme but adequate puffery to peak interest. Each team 1K, 4N, 4R, 4 Camels...(incomplete) tapering off to incomprehensibility. Enormous disrespect for reader, no reaching across with clarity in terms like 'root-3', 'root-2', when 'vertex' and 'edge' suffice. 'Triagonal' recalls pedantically its expatiated 100 Comments yr 2003. Redundancies: Occidental King 'must be kept out of check'; three times we are told there is one(1)King per army. Calculating the 'nearest army' for Pawn move is where AOF crashes not only because complications inhibit strategy but also 'nearest' would usually entail two other armies equidistant, whatever the set-up. Forgive Gilman's overreaching since 3p-3d is problematical, generating these poor ideas, or cheap excuse just to plug in such admired themed ones as Ibis(1,8) narcissistically or Falcon (three-square multi-path) spitefully, bad choices for 3d. Ibis' only four, or nine, cubes to move might work on stretched board but this 330 3-deep? Sin omission: no explication of Bishop Root-2 or Root-3? Over years Gilman may often aspire to mock-style of equally-incoherent Gridlock, never matching that one's wit and energy. Sin commission: over-use of leapers like Anu(2d 4,3 or 2d 7,1) etc. Crocodile is a self-described 'cheat' piece, tailor-made differently in each domain, in order to paper over unbalanced design among armies. Yet AOF is less a CV than recapitulation of Gilman's favourite obsessive nomenclature. And please take Gilman's AOF as first approximation, rough-edged, only to be subjected later to a 'refinement'; an awkward position, as Greg Strong says, to be spammed from within, or below.
Gilman's last remark, or question, is posturing nonsense because in this particular write-up, Gilman number 149 or 150, unlike most others, there is no starting array to look at (that's the point), no complete delineation of what each differing Army consists of. I cannot even tell how many Pawns there were. He points to slight error in our Comment about Bishop, because there are none here, I realize, but it states that a few piece-moves (Knight, Crocodile) depend on Bishop's being defined. Sure the usual root-2, through edge, but common dis-service to reader of not stepping carefully through Rules is deliberate, not amateurish obscurantism.
Win by noncheckmate (worth its own development) occurs when Pawn, however many, moves to a promotion-compulsory cube whilst its army's already having their full complement. In other words, Pawn x cannot move farther. 'Crocibised', 'Pawn-Forces', 'Piece Surfeit' --this Win by Noncheckmate figuratively. A fortiori, it defeats at once all other extant Armies in alternate win condition. Gilman's own 'The last player not checkmated wins', innocuous enough, is case thus of being either incomplete or redundant, a peculiar but logical dichotomy forced on the reader (not to say player when it's a Gilman) to select to tell what is meant. (Object of the game here is comparatively rather clear part of AOF write-up)
Game Courier History. History of the Chess Variants Game Courier PBM system.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Several of my games around March 2007 were posted Win for my opponent, and they were definitely not timed or finished games, just delayed moves of 2 or 3 or 4 weeks. My concurrent Kibitz Comment shows Falcon Chess game in progress removed to finished game after my move minutes ago, win 'JeJu'(loss Duke). What happened? I just made my next move 18, or 20, whatever, Rook to e8 Check. Thank you in advance for continuing the game, JeJu, or by way of Editor.
Hex Dabbaba Qi. A Wellisch-style hex interpretation of Xiang Qi, indluenced by Toccata.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Rating: Average, 4 out of 10 highest. 'It was seeing Toccata...' it begins illogically since fine Toccata's only Xiangqi piece is Cannon. References to Glinski(1936), McCooey(1978), and Wellisch(1912) for relevant connection are sham because those three have only RNBKQP analogues not Xiangqi. Notice no links to G,M,W but to Gilman's own instead. Peruse Toccata a few minutes and we know how to play unlike any Gilman. 7 piece-types. Here board's depiction of hexagonal connectivity without hexagons works okay. Gilman avers falsely that General appears in Toccata and Wellisch: wrong, because they have no Palace nine-squares or any area confining their King-type. Why always make far-fetched comparisons? Covetously to try partially to subsume others' solid work into own. Dabbabah 'a stepping one and the halfway square must be empty' is a good phrase, without pejorative 'lame'. (He'll go back to using 'lame' now) Yet thus Dabbabah is far afield from Xiangqi's counterpart Elephant, so even the Xiangqi analogue strains forcibly. In the midst of Rules, on the fly we get citations on origins of piece names and other pieces rejected -- very distracting style of presentation of one's new CV. Logical enough Viceroy's one-step being called 'Knight analogue' another awkward pairing-up and hardly 'what Wellsich did' at all, having rather all FIDE counterparts. Look at the two sentences for the Point (quasi-Xiangqi Pawn), and it is all but impossible to tell how Point moves. Okay, under Rules two paragraphs down, I get how Points move now. Can you? In all, it hangs together as one to play despite convoluted, preoccupied article.
4 out of 10 highest. Zig-zag palace excluding Viceroy squares to equal Xiangqi's nine is unnatural for a hypothetical player, Gilman being preoccupied to play own games. Built-in spin-offs a-plenty cloud description. For ex., it seems to be matter of indifference whether to use three-step Dabbabah 'bound to different sets of cells'. Also confusingly Viceroy on cubic is referred to having purported 8 spaces to move. 'Viceroy is bound', meaning restricted to subset(s) of board, needs explanation, as does the fact that it takes three of them to cover the board. Also not like Xiangqi because no second piece confined to Palace. Just as Aronson's mediocre Jumping Chess is work-in-progress to excellent Rococo's Cannon Pawn(hey a Xiangqi connection), so middling HDQ is missing link(not necessarily chronologically) to excellent breakthrough AltOrth Hex Chess. Intellectual dishonesty noted in first half-Comment stands as to prior art's relevance.
Long Yang. Applying the Nearlydouble principle to a variant with Cannons. (11x16, Cells: 176) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Rating: 3 out of possible 10. Proliferation in Number of games: Ralph Betza 150, Charles Gilman 150 now. CVs. Chess Variants. No direct comparisons intended. 'You've got 13, they've got 13,' says Peter Lorre in 1944 film 'Arsenic and Old Lace,' a comedy. MVs. Murder Victims. 13 + 13 altogether, by arsenic-laced elderberry wine of old sweet ladies in that Cary Grant (initials CG) movie. Leave it at that. Looking at the game Long Yang itself, backreading Introduction as necessary and ignoring Notes, the first picture 9x10 is not the game, but the second one 11x16 is. 'Set-up' is that picture and it's big, but really Jupiter (16x16), Giant Chess(16x16), Infinite Chess and many others are bigger. Seven piece-types are not interesting on 176 square, nowhere near idealized 10 percent. Knight is Knight plus Camel at option, Bishop, Rook, Cannon, King, Canon(diagonal equivalent of Cannon). Three different Pawn regions are a feature out of the mind of a non-player. Just enough of a twist for Gilman to put his byline, I guess, but still too much of a Yang Qi(Duniho) copycat. That Yang Qi itself is not particularly novel, being a competent hodgepodge of known pieces and dynamics.
Strong Yang. Another way of applying the Nearlydouble principle to a variant with Cannons. (13x13, Cells: 169) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Rating: 3 out of possible 10. Fractionally better than Long Yang with all the same reasoning applying but the board is 13 squared, a nice size. I think a cultural Turkish Great Chess or two, be they circa 1650 or 1700 or 1800, are precisely 13x13. Possibly this could have been incorporated into Long Yang itself. Next up is Partnership Mitregi, look it over for what you would say about Partnership Mitregi, above Poor I believe, a recent post 'What's New'.
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