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Comments by GeorgeDuke
Zonal Chess. Board has special `zones' at both sides. Commercial game of 1970's. (Cells: 104) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Let's not forget GM Sam Reshevsky as another proponent of status quo acting to innovate. Fischer never got past re-arrangement in FischerRandom. Reshevsky at least enlivens the board. The line of Bird, Capablanca, Seirawan and so on of Carrera copycats should include Reshevsky. It's really the same thing with or without Centaur(BN) or Champion(RN). Other tangents would be Four-Way(Stockman), Grand, Simplified Chess(2008), Slide-Shuffle, Maura's Modern(1968). Ignoring Mutators -- not considering Mutators at all -- there are still of course hundreds other examples all within this general class of CVs, ones keeping full Orthodoxy at root and deviating, in greater or lesser degree, by different board and arrangement of RNBKQP. The class includes concurrently-Commented Big Board(1974) by Professor Schoenfelder. Reshevsky here, like Seirawan, keeps the central 8x8 intact and adds an extraneous mechanism. Seirawan's is replacement pieces after evacuation, Reshevsky's is flank region of squares for off-beat piece-activity. Literally the 64-square region stays intact these two -- unlike Four-Way, Modern and most others in this class. Zonal's pieces' changing direction of travel within the side zones becomes pretty wild. But in purpose of classification, Zonal(1970) fits these class-distinguishments: no really new pieces, only new array, or drop, on any board. Thus Zonal's zonal areas are less mutator(they only operate there) than simply new board created for standard Staunton units. For this class, think of long-time Carrera Centaur and Champion as the substitutes, the other two (lesser)standard units not quite up to par or first-string, always having been available remaining since the very century after small 64-square Mad Queen had emerged. Earlier three Comments explain the 45-degree, or other, turns permitted in Zonal Chess move. Now announcement of Seirawan Chess in 2008 by another GM is tantamount to saying Reshevsky forty years ago -- and GM Capablanca 80 years ago -- had it wrong. Better to keep the regular pieces on the regular board, would say Seirawan(2008), Slide-Shuffle(2004), and Fischer(1996). The art advances. Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
Bland Chess. Chess with no diagonal moves. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bishops cannot move at all, and Pawn cannot capture. King is royal Wazir. The brother's opposite Sharp Chess permits only diagonal moves. So, in Sharp Chess, Pawns can only capture, and Rook cannot move. How to expand Rules minimally-aesthetically to make it playable? Stipulate cannibal Pawns, still unable to move as such -- no orthogonal allowed at all -- may capture backwards diagonally too. That would be the correct completion of Sharp Chess. Then the opening strategy would be Pawn capture(s) of own back-rank piece (frozen Rook likely candidate), Pawn takes own Pawn probably couple of times too rather early, and then everything opens up fine for normal-enough development. Nice game Sharp ''all-diagonal'' Chess.
Chessopoly. Board with a hole in the middle where pawns move clockwise. (12x12, Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Humorously, newcomer Gilman had the chutzpah to rate Betza's Chessopoly 'Poor' in 2003: '''The setup in my diagram is not a mistake' is a matter of opinion'' opines Charles. Explaining asymmetry, Betza defends he was ''rushing to finish chessopoly so I could write up Race Chess, a great game. Who can remember so far back?'' Thus already in the particular year 2003, year 1997 of inventing both Race and Chessopoly was characterized as long ago by Betza. Betza's most prolific time had of course been the 1970's (not very much 1980's), and at 1994 publication of David Pritchard's 'Encyclopedia of Chess Variants', ''Betzas'' are second only to ''Boyers.'' (chess-design-artist Boyer mostly worked during 1940's and 1950's.) After all also, ancient year 1997 recalled by Betza in the very last Comment here, is well back towards that entire quiet decade for CVs pre-Internet of the 1980's, and just after FischerRandom was announced at Buenos Aires in 1996. Some might argue it would have been well worth pondering FRC for all of the last ten years and not to have designed any purportedly-new CV at all in interim until fully resolving that one's implications. Such was not to be. The quiet period from 1980-1994 itself saw less production numerically than all the prior decades after World War II, yet having among them Schmittberger's Airplane Chess(1981), Gygax's DragonChess(1985) and Duke's Falcon(1992). Then in 1994 Sam Trenholme among others had begun to bring CVs from all eras to wider audiences in new medium Internet. The halcyon pre-Internet days now forever gone, when you would prepare thoroughly to publish new invention in modest chess periodical and eventually present it publicly at club or college with some confidence in field-testing, progressively passing muster.
Glenn's Decimal Chess. A 10x10 blend of FIDE, Shogi, and Xiangqi influences. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Excellent graphics, representative of the early 21st century period school of Chess Variant artistry, some would say art for art's sake. Actually, Overby's Beautiful Sun conveys a deep message not to abuse Pawns. Shogi Gold, Shogi Silver, and Orthodox Western Pawn get equal respect and billing in milieu of splendid colourations. ''The broken line of Pawns is a Xiangqi influence,'' explains Glenn, ''Meriqi attempts to blend features of the three largest branches of Chess.'' Editor Peter Aronson joyfully evaluates 'Excellent', ''This looks fun, Glenn, I'll have to try it.'' Michael Nelson gushes: ''A most pleasing blend of Western Chess, Xiangqi and Shogi. The piece set is most entertaining and seems to work well together.'' Overby itemizes self-adulating, ''The Gryphon comes from the 13th Century European great chess game Grande Acedrex.'' Far more interesting than this game itself -- or any recent CV really -- are assorted trivia that come up on case basis, notably here several number of acceptable English-language spellings, probably all-time record in the language, of the particular widely-used 700-year-old bent rider: Gryphon, Gryphen, Griffen, Gryphin, Griffin, Griffon and Griphon, roughly in descending order, one and all good-enough usage. A spinoff new CV could tweak each back-ranked alternate with King: 7 different-moving ''grfns'' on 8x8, each clearly demarked as separate in having own directions and/or distances.
Books of Joseph Boyer. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Boyer has more CVs than Betza in 1994 'ECV'. In CVPage are Boyer's Football Chess(1951) and Grasshopper Chess(1950's). Appropriately, Grasshopper piece is invented by T. R. Dawson, actually first in the field; but specialising instead in new fairy pieces and problems, rather than Rules sets, is T.R.
Glenn's Decimal Chess. A 10x10 blend of FIDE, Shogi, and Xiangqi influences. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Glenn, what you did was only good art. Good science, good communication mathematically treated. The seven proper spellings of ''grfn'' starting with Gryphon can be subverted. If rebelliously printing ''greephane,'' not one of the 7, simply claim use of a metaplasmus. Sometimes ''misspelling'' is 'mispelled' like this to make a point, another metaplasmus, a deliberate effective misspelling. When 5 Comments back, we say ''...matter of opinion, opined Gilman,'' that figure of speech, same root different words, is more polyptoton than pure anaphora. ''Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof'' would fall within anaphora. Three Comments back ''...is T.R.'' is an anastrophe. Mathematicians like myself and programmers tend to use noun-verb-adjective logically and responsibly enough, but rather uninterestingly; and moreover much of the truth gets lost in the reductionism. When some have referred to ''unmentionable CV,'' recognize aposiopesis, in intentionally breaking off. When maintaining Bishop preceded Knight historically, that is hysteron-proteron. My favourite, used in Chess poetry, is not rhyme, but so-mathematical anonymous palindrome, ''never odd or even'' or ''are we not drawn onward, we few, drawn onward to new era?'' Meiriqi (Beautiful Sun) is metaphor and a good one, capturing for Overby essence of his decimal art-form, as is name of 1/2 CVPage artwork (the 3000 games) metaphor -- finding just the right name for the piece or for that artistic expression sought to convey.
Most of the following are also metaphor. Euchess is prosthesis. Chessence is proparalepsis. ''To Betza'' or ''to Gilman'' is an anthimeria well-understood. Pillars of Medusa is antiptosis. Duniho's Game Courier ''Kibbitz'' epenthesis. The last sentence is scesis onamaton, omitting the only verb. Flee! is an asterismos. Chess programmers need critically to distinguish between paradiastole (disjunction) and polysyndeton (conjunction).
Blizzard Chess. What would Chess be like if it had been developed by the computer industry?[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Patch 1.01 d- and e-Pawns no longer move 2 squares. Patch 1.25 deals with asymmetry. Castling asymmetry. 4 possibilities now, Queen castles Queenside, Queen Kingside, King Queenside and King Kingside, all fixed as before.
Gridlock, Stanley Random, and Blizzard are satire. Yang Qi is pun. Extreme shortage of T.R. Dawson material is practical praecisio. Weave & Dungeon is metalepsis, a transumption. Twenty Chess Moralities 2001-2007 are allegories. Philosphers Chess' seven moving choices properly arranged are form of auxesis. ''Control the center'' is aphorism. Most of triagonal, trigonal, orthogonal and mutator are neologisms in the sense(s) they are used in chessboard and grid variations after year 2000.
Poems on Falcon chess: Chess Morality III: Caissa's Comet. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]''Chessic Latin fragments not so cryptic'' is parembole, followed by brachylogias and polysyndeton.
Betza's last Comment before leaving in 2003 ''I can't wrap my mind around that [piece values]'' is aporia. ''Can't'' itself is synaloepha. Half-duck and multi-path are hyphenations. Falcon Chess(2000) is periphrasis to reductionists. Armies of Faith is metonymy. Jacks & Witches is synecdoce. Elbow Chess is catachresis. CVPage title page begins with anaphora using ''some, some.'' There are 600-1000 useful literary terms, rhetorical devices and figures of speech easy to find concrete examples in any developed field of study or body of work. These everyday words are guaranteed to raise test scores and improve intelligence. Mediocre outside-link Blizzard Chess unfortunately presents cacemphatons. Bird's and Capablanca's are arguably plagiarism. There may not be single term for V.R. Parton's Rettah usage, spelling hatter backwards -- oddly related to Carillo's current post Reverse Symmetry.
Tmesis: Capablanca, as Capa Blanca, is white cape. Epanados: Amazon is Rettah, and Rettah is Amazon. Isocolon: ''The further the Pawns advance, the more and stronger their promotion choices become,'' say rules of Quinquereme. Antithesis: Win by removing Check, not by Checkmate, as Anti-King. Dungeons and Dragons is hendiadys.
''For definiteness, let us suppose that there are nine main roads in the atom--nine possible orbits for the electron. Then on any occasion there are nine courses open to the electron; it may jump to any of the other eight orbits, or it may stay where it is. That reminds us of another well-known jumper--the Knight in Chess. He has eight possible squares to move to, or he may stay where he is. Instead of picturing the atom as containing a particle and nine roads or orbits, why should we not picture the atom as containing a Knight and a Chess-board? It turns out that my suggestion would not do at all. However Metaphorical our usual picture may be, it contains an essential truth about the behaviour of the atom which would not be preserved in the Knight-Chess-board picture. We have to formulate this characteristic in an abstract or mathematical way, so that when we rub out the false picture we may still have that characteristic--the something which made the orbit picture not so utterly wrong as the Knight picture--to hand over to the mathematician. The distinction is this. If the electron makes two orbit jumps in succession it arrives at a state which it could have reached by a single jump; but if a Knight makes two moves it arrives at a square which it could not have reached by a single move.'' --Arthur Eddington, ''The Theory of Groups,'' chapter of 'New Pathways in Science' 1935
'' The pieces and the squares of the board correspond to the elementary signs of the calculus; the permitted configurations of pieces on the board correspond to the axioms or initial formulas of the calculus; the subsequent configurations of pieces on board correspond to formulas derived from the axioms (i.e.,to the theorems); and the rules of the game correspond to the rules of derivation for the calculus. A meta-chess statement may assert, for example, that there are 20 possible opening moves for White, or that, given a certain configuration of pieces on the board with White to move, Black is mate in three moves. It is pertinent to note, moreover, that general meta-chess theorems can be established, whose proof involves the consideration of only a finite number of permissable configurations on the board. The meta-chess theorem about the number of possible opening moves for White can be established in this way; and so can the meta-chess theorem that if White has only two Knights and the King, and Black only his king, it is impossible for White to force mate against Black. These and other meta-chess theorems can thus be proved by finitary methods of reasoning, consisting in the examination in turn of each of a finite number of configuratiosn that can occur under stated conditions. The aim of Hilbert's theory of proof, similarly, was to demonstrate by such finitary methods the impossibility of deriving certain formulas in a calculus. --Ernest Nagel and James R. Newman ''Godel's Proof'' 1956
Passed Pawns, Scorpions and Dragon. More Falcon Chess Variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]There are 6 or 10 definitions of Falcon move around, all describing the same three-step three-way darter. (That's one incomplete definition right there.) Falcon is mathematical complement to Rook, Knight and Bishop, of which there can be only one. The particular definition in this article at the start of section ''Scorpion'' reads: ''Falcon slides three squares to reach squares leaped to by Zebra and Camel. Falcon follows any of six patterns OOD, ODO, DOO, DDO, DOD, and ODD, where 'O' is orthogonal (one square rook-like or straight, rectilinear) and 'D' is diagonal (one square bishop-like or oblique, slant). Falcon does not jump like Camel or Zebra and so must have a clear path.'' A good definition is offered 27.June.2008 Comment at ''Falcon Chess'' year 1999 essay, also never revised: that the Falcon moves to squares at opposite corners of (2,4) and (3,4) along ''any of the three shortest paths to its destination consisting or orthogonal and diagonal steps, which can be blocked on any square it has to pass over to reach its destination.'' The term ''shortest path,'' or as minimal pathway, is used before and always benefits from fuller explanation. For example, related Scorpion, four-step versus Falcon three-step, reaches squares at opposite corner of (2,5), (3,5) and (4,5). Among Scorpion's pathways are odod and dodo, entailing two changes of direction. They are ''short-path'' routes just as ddoo and oodd, all travelling same distances. It just helps to spell out all fourteen of the patterns within the Scorpion's definition.
An error occurs in this article never revised because of being before self-posts. Scorpion is four-way to its (2,5) and (4,5) squares, and six-way to its (3,5) squares. [''(3,5)'' is used to mean opposite corner of 3x5 rectangle from a starting square.] Dragon is in fact five-way to its (2,6) and (5,6) squares, and ten-way to (3,6) and (4,6) squares. All of course are required five steps for Dragon. Also Buffalo (Knight+Camel+Zebra) should be Bison (Camel+Zebra).
Falcon Chess. Game on an 8x10 board with a new piece: The Falcon. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]True, this is not a Rules-set, instead as it says an essay. It adds to official 1990's copyrights variance-material to suit CVPage in 2000. Right away under the first picture, it refers to having five Pawns as alternative, as Chinese Chess. (Later Overby in Beautiful Sun adopts similar starting array.) Of course, five Pawns would be just ridiculous artwork of no playability. Still in Chapter I, under ''other embodiments'' I mention replacing Queen on 8x8 with Falcon -- something close to what 2008 Seirawan-Chess derivatives might envision in back-rank piece substitutions. Also speculated are 9x9 set-ups. We like to think that preliminarily we are anticipating in 1996-1999 the 10^50 or so CVs (one for each atom between Sun and Mars) using Falcon developed later in 2005 ''91.5 Trillion...'' article including under Comments. What's one hard and fast Rules-set in early going of inevitable widespread experimentation? Figure 23 establishes Free Castling, invented in 1992-1993 along with Falcon, now becoming more prevalent on large boards, whether King goes 1 or 2 over, and always going more at option. Chapter IV ''Symmetrical Expansion'' lays the groundwork for Scorpion, actually described here and publicized fully-definitionally in 2003 ''Passed Pawns, Scorpions and Dragons.'' Elsewhere copyrights show Scorpion, Dragon really invented 1996. Only one of several rationales within Chapter Five ''More Variants'' is illegal infringement of USP5690334 and accompanying copyrights. For example, Rook is still Rook if going 1-, 2-, and 3 steps only, but we would probably not object if someone implements new Falcon along with all fully-short-range movers like Squirrel, Dabbabah, Ferz. That raises the 20 claims of this patent that have never actually appeared in any website, other than USPTO itself online.
Roberto Lavieri's Achernar, Altair, Alpha Centauri and Deneb are astrothesias. Abecedarian by Glenn Overby is itself figure of rhetoric. Nemeroth is topothesia. Stanley Random represents noema. Calling Shogi the Pawn's Game is tapinosis, a meiosis. Falcon move-definitions are systrophes. Alliterations all by Ralph Betza: Amazon Army, Colourbound Clobberers, Cylindrical Cinders, Nutty Knights.
This was interesting series. R>F 356-320 F>R 676 is subdivided into R>F 120-93 F>R 213 followed by R>F 236-227 F>R 463, the latter being less than 51% to over 49%. How would I value Falcon now in light of Muller's findings, that Falcon + King mates as it does and the above statistics. Initially Falcon > Rook until some number of pieces have been captured. Certainly by 20 pieces on board Rook > Falcon. The valuations at different stages of play by criterion of how many Pawns and pieces remain are in flux, as more scores get studied. Falcon of course is never in general so much as 6.0 to Rook 5, nor so low as 4 to Rook 5. As my inquiry seeks clarification, I guess it is same style of viewing in this series so of course please leave it in.
Worse than Worthless. A discussion of pieces with negative value, and the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Betza recalls his writing for 'NOST-algia' in the 1970's, publication of Knights of the Square Table. As figure of speech, NOST is acronym. Nattering Nabobs of Negativity are another alliterative Chess-Different Army. Linked is the leveling effect. Peter Gelman's six-year-old Comment 6.January.2003 refers to Philip Jose Farmer's ''Riders of the Purple Wage,'' a utopian cashless society. Now Chess Morality XII quotes Farmer's ''Sail on, Sail on.''
Chess Morality XII: Piece-Makers. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Gelman cites Farmer's 1967 ''Riders of the Purple Wage'' with respect to Betza's ''Worth Than Worthless.'' By coincidence, in our collection and used here is the same P.J. Farmer's chessic quote from novelette 'Sail On, Sail On' as introduction: ''Black and White, they presented a solid Chessboard of the seemingly empty cosmos....'' Test question: Is ''As live as a bird and dead as a stone'' Simile or Metaphor?
Man and Beast 03: From Ungulates Outward. Systematic naming of the simplest Oblique Pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Among many others Gilman defines radial pieces in his first sentence as ''pass(ing) through the centre of a cell or only its borders.'' Radial, or line, means Bishop and Rook and their ilk, as opposed to oblique. Oblique covers Camel, Zebra, Knight and their ilk.
Meta-Chess. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Ten years ago in 2000 Brown made Glossary, which is not indexed but can be read from the different title pages. Glossary should get more prominence. Many definitions there are newly-cast, -coined, or frankly tentative, in anticipation of CVPage's whack at proliferation for its own sake. In particular for today's series of several Comments, Lame Piece is defined ''A piece whose move is impeded by one or more pass-through squares.'' Then ''pass-through squares'' are defined ''For certain line pieces a square that must be passed through in order to proceed to subsequent squares. A piece may neither stop nor capture on a pass-through square.'' I never saw the term lame before, so it is rare and by authority of CVPage Glossary for line pieces. (Some history here is for newcomers even many with expertise, because of high drop-out rate.)
Horus. Game with Royal Falcons where all pieces start off board and most captures return pieces to owner's hand. (7x7, Cells: 44) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Here Aronson rejects lameness. Aronson left. The string of leavings: Betza, Duniho, Aronson, Good, (the other Good first to leave back around 2000). Not to mention mentor David Pritchard's untimely death from a fall. [The last sentence is Anapodoton, omitting a clause. Test question: Which of the two also is last sentence before brackets, Praeteritio or Aporia?] Pritchard was consulting Fergus Duniho for add-ins to second edition of 'ECV', hence many 'Dunihos' there. Anyway, Aronson had two achievements, Rococo and Complete Permutation Chess. CPC perfectly uses F-B-N-R, the four fundamentals. Here Aronson adds couple of good definitions to the Falcon-movement inventory. Especially see the first paragraph under ''The Moves of the Pieces.'' Under ''Notes & Comments'' Aronson cannot resist the stab, or stoop, to extend ''lame'' from accepted line-piece to oblique directions. What Aronson tries below in his 3rd definition would be better in entire essay. ''Falcon is somewhat weaker than actual Bison since it can be blocked, but it is much stronger than a lame Bison would be. One result of the Falcon's multiple movement paths is that, UNLIKE WITH LAME PIECES, if Black's Falcon attacks White's Falcon, White's Falcon also attacks Black's Falcon.'' [Case added] At any rate, Aronson succeeds in clearly contrasting some inventive Bison ''lame'' (He means one-path, but which one of up to dozen possible pathways?) and well-established natural three-path Falcon. Lameness and ''multi-path-ness'' are different concepts -- neither opposites nor synonyms. Keep them apart, and please keep ''lame,'' if we use it at all, strictly for line pieces, as intended. Words instead that should and do figure in definitions of oblique multi-path movers like Falcon, Scorpion and Dragon include: Darter (see Jeliss), Multi-path, Two- Three- Four-path, angled-45-degree, angled-90-degree, diagonal, orthogonal.
Chess. The rules of chess. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]This popular thread from 1996 falls off in Comments during 2008. It's self-evident that the board's too small. Shogi outsizes 64 with 81, and Xiangqi dwarfs 64 with 90 spaces. Only so much can be done on 64 squares that has not been done already. Yet 64 trucks on in international competition like the archaism or the addictions it is. Sure it's neatly hexadecimal times 4 (2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2), but so what? 64 squares have simply outlived their usefulness. Its only use anymore, other than paramount historical interest really, is for early instruction to 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds first learning the moves. The Biblical 40 days and nights, totalling 80 watches, is the optimum size and still fewer than Shogi and Xiangqi. Now 100 squares is too big because Pawns cannot be made to work right. If you get the size right first, it is possible that almost anything fits. 64 squares are too tucked in and narrow, too squat a size for Pawns most of all. No elbow room, no free rein for Knight either. Knight-a3 or -h3 is hopeless on 64-square board size, but N-j3 within the first 10 moves may make sense sometimes. 64 is practically size 8x6 for Pawns, because poor a- and h-Pawns cannot capture to their outside. All the action gets channelled up files b, c, d, e, f and g. They squeezed an extra 100 years out of 64 squares by standardizing Castling. 80 squares is the new Orthodoxy. Castling is not even necessary on 80 spaces, being the orthodox size now to the cognoscenti, but most prefer keeping castling there and even enlarging the possible squares King can move in his castle maneuvre with the Rook.
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