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Comments by GeorgeDuke
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]True. I mentioned Novo Chess, and Michael Howe could not have been notified and yet appeared within hours, unheard from in years. Likewise Greg Strong and ChessV recently. Here Aronson responds in 48 hours after 1-2 comments all year 2008. I have predicted within our circle even who will comment on a controversial topic and right on cue, presto!, they appear, after month(s) at times, their worn established creode true to form, some with same old tired and incorrect message(Trice), others with nice new well-thought defence (like Aronson) or novel idea. Just assume any given chess enthusiast is in fact still reading and listening for better result, despite disillusionment or long abandonment.
These are effective mnemonics, to connect many CVs with the available 600-1000 English language figures of speech and rhetoric, rather than artists or board sizes. Betza's occasionally talking about baseball in Rules write-up or forest scenery in ''The Game For the Trees (2002),'' are examples of digressio. Gothic Chess' writer threatens cataplexis. Tamerspiel's mixed-up starting array has grammatical equivalent in cacosyntheton. Betza begins Amontillado (2001): ''Amontillado is a variety of sherry, and sherry is an augmented wine with a distinctive taste...'' That sentence exhibits anadiplosis or even gradatio as he goes on. On baseball, artist Betza begins Chatter Chess(2002), ''Hey, let's hear some more chatter out there,'' as what a coach might say. Betza adds, ''In ancient telephony and modern telecommunications, chatter refers to the tendency of an electromagnetic signal in one wire of a multiwire cable to cross over (by electromagnetic induction) and be heard on a different wire.'' The dual lively descriptions are enargia, ecphrasis or hypotyposis.
Polymath Ben Franklin was first North American chess writer with 'The Morals of Chess' (1779). At Paris in 1783 Franklin received letter from Baron Wolfgang von Kempelen, developer of automaton chess-player The Turk. Von Kempelen showed Franklin other inventions as The Turk defeated Franklin. [See ChessboardMath.] Now Franklin in autobiography recalls how he used Chess to learn Italian. He played with fellow students on the condition that the loser would have to learn pieces of Italian grammar before next game. Likewise, figures of speech and rhetoric are used to learn CVs this ChessboardMath2, and conversely the panoply of chessic art can easily help build vocabulary for language and logic.
Grasshopper. Moves along queenlines to first square after jumped over piece.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Author Bodlaender says in first sentence, ''Probably tens of thousands fairy chess problems have been composed using the Grasshopper.'' T.R. Dawson's (1889-1951) fairy pieces appear in problems to solve in Chess magazines. Dominant style for all the centuries of Chess was infrequently to embody entire Rules-sets. That is, until artists Boyer and Betza trended towards designing personal collections of CVs never particularly to be played. Chess Variant Page now pursues artistic free rein, only half-mindful of prior similarities, to absurd extreme with hundreds rules-sets, mostly mediocre and poor to outsiders familiar with OrthoChess and standard alternatives like FRC. To historians, it is self-evident that Dawson, Sam Loyd, J.R. Capablanca, GM Emanuel Lasker and other variantists 100 years ago (before Boyer and Betza) could easily have made a thousand different Rules-sets if so inclined. Rather, they had the sense and courtesy to discriminate, self-select, and forbear. It becomes difficult after 2000 to find the 1-2% that are potential gems, or solutions, when proliferation begins in earnest. Strewn about are all the false leads and red herrings taking investigators up the garden path [MIXED METAPHORS galore!] , once personal artistic expresssion is the normal object. Now Dawson's most famous pieces out of many dozens are surely Nightrider and Grasshopper. Grasshopper invented 1912 moves along Queen-lines, jumps and stops at the next square, capturing if possible. The jump is mandatory (unlike Schmittberger's Airplane 70 years later). Grasshopper cannot move at all unless it can jump. Grasshopper is first piece of its kind altering Xiangqi Cannon -- unless someone finds earlier example(s). Please correct, if knowing of other past use of jumping along radial lines. It is very possible, as for example Winther's research finding Pasha from Paulovits' Game around 1890, as the earliest precedent for Winter's own Mastodon ( a legitimate solution on 8x10). Otherwise we assume Dawson is first with this genre of chess piece, consciously and respectfully differentiating from ancient eastern Cannon; and follow-up will look at Schmittberger's Airplane (1981) in the same class.
''[Year 1809] The automaton was sitting on the ornate flooring behind a rope barrier with Maelzel at its side. Napoleon and his entourage came in the grand ballroom and it was easy to see Napoleon's excitement. Maelzel asked that they take seats in the chairs provided while he began the exhibition. He opened the doors, showing the lit candles through the back door. He wheeled the Turk around and opened and exposed all the areas inside as Kempelen had done before him. Once the audience felt that they had seen the impossibility of having a human hidden inside, the Pipe was removed, the candles lit, and Napoleon was invited forward. When he went to cross the rope barrier, Maelzel politely and diplomatically explained to the Emperor of France the rules that would apply. The opponent would play at the chess table set upon the side of the Turk. This was done to allow an unobstructed view by the spectators. Napoleon acquiesced and took his seat at the side table. Maelzel explained that he would move back and forth between the tables, relaying the moves of the players. Napoleon sat and quickly shoved his King's Pawn two squares forward. He awaited the Turk's response. Usually the Turk had the first move in all games. Maelzel, surprised by Napoleon's brashness, decided to let the powerful General have the first move in this contest. Clockwork sounds filled the air as the Turk's arm positioned itself above its King's Pawn. The General who was in the process of conquering Europe with his armies was obviously enjoying the spectacle.'' --Gerald M. Leavitt, 'The Turk, Chess Automaton' 2000
The Turk's life extended 1769-1854, when fire destroyed the Chinese Museum. Maelzel constructed for friend Ludwig van Beethoven many ear trumpets to mitigate progressive deafness. Beethoven's ''Battle of Vittoria,'' piece written specifically for Maelzel's automaton Panharmonicon, premiered along with Beethoven's 7th Symphony, 8.December.1813. French patents covered musical chronometer, Maelzel's metronome (hence 'MM') endorsed by Beethoven. Before Maelzel's purchase, the Turk's originator Wolfgang von Kempelen himself happened to experiment and wrote 'The Mechanism of Human Speech'. The book influenced Wheatstone to build one, demonstrated to young Scotsman Alexander Graham Bell. Earlier Reverend Edmund Cartwright witnessed Kempelen and the Turk at London, ''Now you will not assert, gentlemen, that it is more difficult to construct a machine that shall weave than one which shall make all the variety of moves required in that complicated game.'' Napoleon's son Eugene Beauharnais succeeded in pressuring Maelzel to sell him the Turk to learn its secrets. [source: Gerald M. Leavett 'The Turk, Chess Automaton' 2000]
E.A.Poe's doctor's son, Dr. Silas Mitchell, the Turk's last overseer: ''The writer of this sketch was near the deceased at the time of his death. It was in Philadelphia, on the night of the 5th of July 1854 about half past ten o'clock. The east roof of the National Theatre was a mass of whirling flames. A dozen dwellings were blazing fiercely, and the smoke and flame were already curling in eddies about the roof, and through the windows of the well known Chinese Museum. At the eastern end of this building, nearest to the fire, our friend had dwelt for many years. Struggling through the dense crowd, we entered the lower hall, and passing to the far end, reached the foot of a small back staircase. The landing above us was concealed by a curtain of thick smoke, now and then alive, as it were, with quick tongues of writhing flame. To ascend was impossible. Already the fire was about him. Death found him tranquil. He who had seen Moscow perish, knew no fear of fire. We listened with painful anxiety. It might have been a sound of crackling woodwork, or the breaking window-panes, but certain it was that we thought we heard, through the struggling flames, and above the din of outside thousands, the last words of our departed friend, the sternly whispered, oft repeated syllables, ''echec, echec!!'' [Find Polysydeton, Personification, and Synecdoche. Over-all, is the passage most exemplary of (a) ETHOS (b) BATHOS (c) LOGOS (c) PATHOS? ]
Mad Queen Shogi. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bodlaender's Chessgi article shows Chessgi is invented many times since 1827. [Incidentally Alexandre invented what we call FRC today in 1820's also. 1820's were the very high point of activity for the Turk throughout Europe and North America under Maelzel. Alexandre authored 'Encyclopedie des Echecs' and introduced algebraic notation including castling O-O and O-O-O. ]
Drop, Mad Mate, Reinforcement, Turnabout, Schizo, and Neo-Chess are all examples in the class of derivatives and copycats of what is known as Chessgi from Betza's renaming. Moreover here ''Players could opt...'' and ''Players can decide'' in the short write-up of Larry Smith are unpresentable. Joe Joyce's famous ''not worth the aether they're printed on'' goes for Mad Queen Shogi. How about hapless paragraph two of Smith ''...the first player being the one with the King to the right of the Queen''?
Such noblesse oblige as ''I am well aware'' does not apply to newcomers who would like to understand reasonable guidelines for the hobby of off-Chesses. Is Smith seriously defending this bunko Mad Queen Shogi? Why not maturely thank or apologize for omitting Chessgi reference? Why not use one sentence to place rules in context drawing on 200 years of similar forms, as example for readers? Smith started ten years ago with nice analysis of historic Jetan, a rewrite of it appearing this week; and none of his own artistic rules-sets since have attained the competence of ''Jetan'' -- by Burroughs or by Smith. Forget that there are so many untried alternatives, including for example Problems after T.R. Dawson or Sam Loyd. Or fiction after Bill Wall's collection of hundreds of Chess-related poems, novels, films. Or critiques of others' contributions like Smith does with Burroughs, or done in Comments by myself, Gilman, and others. Or summaries of related historic forms like Jose Carillo does nowadays with such as 8x10 Chesses from Carrera to date. Another unoriginal Rules-set, oh great, number 3001, and by veteran Larry Smith. It just encourages mediocrity. Who waste people's time, how about or when will there be moratorium, considering that new ones differentiate less and less from prior ones, at least in instances like MQS? How many ways and times does it have to be expressed that many sincere appreciators of novel Chesses simply reject the particular prolificist ethos? It is their extremism, not ours, to diverge from 1500 years of rare and cautious development of new alternate-Chess set-ups, out of respect for past existing ones. Not alone, Mad Queen Shogi is not worth the aether it is printed on.
Chess Morality XII: Piece-Makers. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Both correct, broadly speaking, well simile wins. The ''double rhymes'' are hard. Battered by rockets, scattered in pockets. Perish the notions, cherish the motions. They would be written out with other interesting rhymes month or year before finding a use. Similarly, I had ''The Glowth'' to replace The Big Bang, too late to enter after 'Sky & Telescope's' contest in 1993. Judges Carl Sagan and Hugh Downs rejected all 13,000 entries and Big Bang sticks. I would enter The Glowth if they ever hold it again and finally published the Glowth 2003 in Poem XI ''Pleiadic Dialogue,'' the one right before this one. It might stand a chance. What would you name the Big Bang -- which after all Fred Hoyle came up with derisively in 1949? It was a serious year-long contest pre-Internet days. Hoyle's and others' Steady State had equal billing through the 1950's until physicists found the cosmic background radiation.
Mad Queen Shogi. Missing description (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Sorry Smith resents the 'Poor'. ''So it is not the same game'' is Smith's interpretation that educated public would reject. We intend to express proper and correct Chess-invention principles longstanding from Carrera through Loyd, Dawson, Boyer, Parton, Betza. It is the responsible ethos before ''the Zillions mentality'' took root here around 2000. ''Rant'' is insulting word that if I were Editor would tend to delete (Empathize Editors' tough choices at times). Rather, each Comment is containing considerable extensive substance. Worse has been expressed (and sometimes gets removed) about accurate analysis, and I realize it goes with the territory of being expert most others are not. Smith explains his misguided rationale minimally adequately. Two Poors are perfectly fitting, and no more are necessary notwithstanding Smith's plea and rant, and we shall get to other Larry Smith ''inventions'' by and by. Actually, Mad Queen Shogi is no worse than 20% of CVPage game-rules posts, ones with the square blue marker -- generally avoiding this lowest pentile. As Smith concedes, MQS is basically tweak of Chessgi. Most would settle for brief Comment describing it under Chessgi. Lack of support for Smith proves consensus of ''the community'' in this instance. Focus here is deliberate singling out pitiable MQS, in order to contrast the two different philosophies, which ought to be on equal footing. Let's get back to some quality material.
Altair. Altair is a modern game with an oriental flavor. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Altair, in process between Carlos and myself, is almost embarrassingly neat game whilst at first seeming over-complicated. Lavieri should stick with Grand-Bishop and omit the alternatives. As noted in other thread we will revive, somehow '9x9's have disproportionate over 50% excellent. Tri-colour squares are necessary for *Ch*, in which most pieces may at any time ''drop'' themselves to vacant square three ranks removed, as a turn. Lavieri's best game over Maxima.
Double Diamond. Irregular board with diagonal orientation. (9x9, Cells: 73) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Here's another perfectly-good '9x9', technically, to add now we did not throw into our major list on 9x9. Technically, because of 73 squares to accomodate better the Berolina-related Pawns. See first comment for 9x9 Missoum's Rotating Chess where this DD Pawn actually eventuates earlier. Aiken's best other one is Eight-Stone, 8x9 and 72 squares. These Pawns may beat Berolina for half of all possible arrays, depending how we think about it. Brainking has similar game and Pawns under different name Legan from 1913, likely point of origin.
Three Player Chess. Commercial Chess variant for three players.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Possibly three-player chess is solved for all time, and we do not need to make any more of them, thanks to the patented board of Robert Zubrin.
Quintessential chess. Large chess variants, with some pieces moving with a sequence of knight moves in a zigzag line. (10x10, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Over 4 years incredibly since excellent Quintessential(2002) is even Commented, where the best Nightrider appears from Knappen's 'Nachtmahr' article earlier in 2002. The previous Comment is Game Design Analysis, of which I charted up to 100 for different CVs, requiring piece values and using formulaic evaluation.
One supposes ''Chess'' means King. Shah is King from Sanskrit.
(Easterners may enlighten.) 'Shah' passed to Persian and to Arabic. No
one reads Murray's 'History of Chess' (1913) for style, only content.
Invented in India 600 CE, Chess spread and mediaeval Europe (9th, 10th
Centuries) needed Latin words for the premier game. Most Chess writing was
in Latin up to 1600, like scientific writing up to 1750. Latin scacus,
scac, scacum (''a check''), all pluralized as Latin scaci for
''Chess,'' were thus late adaptations from Arabic. (Even today we
Latinize words for scientific classification -- and on small scale, updates
for at least one extant religion.) It became at the time for the game
itself Italian scacchi, Middle French esches, Catalan scachs, English
chess. Roughly, mainstream Europe had no ''sh'' aspirant then, so
Arabic shah became ''sca - '', the closest equivalent. Mediaevil Latin
scacus is also chess piece and not just King piece. Latin plural scaci
being Chess itself, by year 1000 the other major Latin name for Chess is
ludus scacorum, ''ludus'' as game. Chiefly, ludus scacorum became
Chess. Well before Chess appeared, Classic Roman ludus latrunculorum was
their singular game of skill. [Gary Gifford's Latrunculi is in fact late Middle Age rare alternate name for chess appearing in Murray as latinization. Latrunculi could not be Roman Latin because there was no Chess then. Gifford's account does not mislead, but several other 'Gifford CVs' feature classical Roman times. Roman L.L. was different board game with rules only conjectured.] Coherent Chess. Variant on 9 by 9 board with special knights. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]All the Excellent '9x9's fall 2007 were apparently never grouped as one, so as convenience we put them here for follow-up use with Cetina's indulgence. Coherent, Omega, Sissa, Weave & Dungeon, Hanga Roa, Melee, Three Fat Brothers, Modern, Altair, Kristensen's all 9x9. Coherent is as good as any for the pinnacle because of actual lengthy, interesting game scores with annotations and novel multi-path piece Sissa. What factors cause disproportionate excellence among the chosen 81-square size?
Editor Joe Joyce made the most comments and did the most work in this 2007 thread. It was classic discussion. Joyce stated, ''I found 22 people who qualify as prolific, having posted 15 or more games.'' Developments since include my ''91.5 Trillion..'' Comments' creating all of 10^50 CVs by way of taking Mutators in combinations of no more than 32 at a time. Also, current year 2008 sees increasing characterization of what prolificist CVers do as artwork, artistry, aesthetic art-forms and as such not major art like sculpture or painting, but minor like orthogonal basketweaving or needlepointing. The conservative viewpoint, held by millions in the majority, would be that only one Chess as Game, Sport and Science -- or 10, 20 distinct variations of it -- would ever be accepted at a time as expressive of the zeitgeist, and worthy of full scientific and mathematical treatment. David Pritchard holds to that, saying disparagingly in Intro ''most CVs should be consigned to oblivion.'' H.J.R. Murray holds to that, scoffing, ''Of the making of these games, there can be no end.''
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]Here is where all the '9x9's are recently listed at prior comment. So, to add to ones at Coherent are Bifocal, The Travelers, Achernar, Canonical, 9x9 Squares Rotating, Chesquerque, Chancellor, Symmetric Sissa, Nine-Square, Rotary. [Shogi is the only bad 9x9.]
Keyles. Large variant with special king capture rule. Variant of Quex. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Keyles has the novel objective to get the King all the way across to the 10th rank. The King is handed back each time it is captured and usually has to start farther back than where he is captured. Quid pro quo is the maneuvre, a special arrangement for a King captured, in which another piece is handed over, to get the King back. Hey, another exclusivity for kings, Castling was not automatically popular right away.
Navia Dratp. An upcoming commercial chess variant with collectible, tradable pieces. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Gary Gifford recently refers to Navia Dratp 17.April.2008 as ''truly fantastic variant.'' Let's keep this one in mind when comparing, categorizing and cataloguing CVs. Two-player N.D. is 7x7 of 49 squares. I strongly agree with Joyce of Short-Range having bias against over-strong pieces like Marshall(RN) and Cardinal(BN) that can ruin things; and there may be none of those here. How many piece-types, represented in ''figurines to be numbered in the hundreds,'' and in cards too it says under ''Pieces,'' are there to be in Navia Dratp, or are there already by now? Article cites ''anime/manga-styled gods, angels, demons, faeries and some comical critters as well.''
There are well over 100 Comments 2004 to 2006, a discussion I for one had to ignore -- and none at all directly this 2008 -- so several enthusiasts may be expert to enlighten on the benefits of Navia Dratp. Or is it trade secret requiring purchase that must be tred lightly like Seirawan's or Trice's? If there are many piece-types as suggested, is the model for design the large Shogis, such as old Taikyoku Shogi with over 100 promotees alone? Or Adrian King's Typhoon (1999) having 75 piece-types imitating large Shogis as short-range? Any updates of substance on Navia Drapt?
In everyday language ''according to Holye'' means on the highest authority. Before astronomer Fred Hoyle (1915-2001) came up with The Big Bang to ridicule mainstream cosmologists, there was Edmond Hoyle (1672-1769), Whist expert and author of definitive textbooks on card games, including Bridge forerunner Whist. More recent publication 'According to Hoyle' was first published in 1935 (Bridge was invented by Vanderbilt in 1925.) and now has Richard Frey as author by 1996 Edition. 'According to Hoyle'(1996) describes under Chess among its 200 standard rules-sets for card and other games, ''The Knight has a peculiar move, best described as ''from corner to diagonally opposite corner of a rectangle three squares by two. (Dr. Lasker)'' So, current 'AtH' uses authority of GM Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941), since after all Chess was well-described before F.I.D.E. formed at Paris in 1924. Lasker and rival GM Capablanca of course were openminded about significant variants of Chess (unlike today's practical censoring of all but mild-mannered FRC or Chess960). Follow-up could connect Lasker and Capablanca with dozens of rules variations. It might have been better for FIDE, in hindsight, if at their inception was sanctioning of some other specific forms too, like then-new Kriegspiel or even Capablanca-Carrera's.
Mutators. Gifford writes 20.May.2008, ''If we start with Shatranj, it is easy to vary it and get Chess Shogi, Xiangqi etc. It is easy to see these three games as Shatranj variants. Of course one can keep varying pieces, boards and rules to the extreme, and by doing so end up with having something no one would recognize as having come from Chess. In this manner for example, an artist could start with a drawing of a rabbit, and create a horrific beast by increasing the size, replacing fur with scales, replacing ears with bat ears, fluffy tail with long reptilian tail, etc. When the artist is done, we have nothing that would be considered as a rabbit variant(though it is).'' --Gary Gifford in ''Tzaar a CV?'' 20.May.2008
So one design can morph into another systematically, and we can get more methodical, even mathematical, in treatment of applied Mutators. Let's start with how far removed are Xiangqi and OrthoChess. (1)Trim 10x9 board to 8x8 and ignore divisions of river and palace. (2) Enhance Knight to leaping. (3) Enhance Elephant to all-diagonal but never jumping. (4) Replace two weak Guards with one strong Queen. (5) Add 3 Pawns repositioning all to Rank two, with Western way of diagonal capture and one-time two-step. (6) Omit Cannons. (7) Polish off with specialized en passant, castling. /// So, Xiangqi and OrthoChess are arguably roughly only these seven steps apart. If we wildly tolerate margins of 7 Mutators, Xiangqi and Mad Queen are even same game.
How far is Rococo removed from C-Carrera's(10x10 version)? (1) Drop border square distincion of Rococo. (2) Add paired Rooks. (3) Add two Pawns and change Cannon Pawns to all Orthodox Pawns. (4) Change Long Leapers to Bishops. (5) Eliminate Immobilizer and introduce now ordinary Queen. (6) Change Swapper and Withdrawer to Knights. (7) Change Chameleon to Champion(RN). (8) Change Advancer to Centaur(BN). (9) Add en passant appropriate for 10x10, castling. /// So where Xiangqi & OrthoChess are (6 degrees) or ''7 degrees'' separated, Rococo & Capablanca-Carrera are (9-) or 10-separated. [ Tangential postscripts: (A) Programmers would recognize preparatory algorithm in such above points. Using computer program functions, differing in languages, themselves could distort measurement of Mutators looked at plainly linguistically or mathematically. (B) ''6 (or 7) degrees of separation'' in popular culture happens to refer to how far 7 billion people (laughably tripling since 1950) are maximally separated stepwise by ''knowing'' mutually other individuals. (C) Scientists in terms of wavelengths recognize colours in infinite numbers, but all-time human languages would recognize only from 10 to 10^3 colours; the rainbow is taken to have seven(7) ROYGBIV colours over its particular infinity. -- all proving Rules-Mutators inevitably impinge on subjectivity. ]
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