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Comments by GeorgeDuke
Jumping Chess. Pieces capture by jumping. Board has extra edge squares making it 10x10. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Jumping Chess is another contest winner (Aronson won several contests). This one is not recommended, mostly because generalized jumping eliminates the uniqueness Knight has. There are only two Game Courier log-scores the last one a year ago, indicating an apparent verdict. Besides, somewhere Aronson himself says jumping-chess concepts, or jumping pieces generally, were invented before. I did not bother to look that comment up, or jumping predecessors in Pritchard's 'Encyclopedia Chess Variants'. This set of rules is just one from a potentially infinite set of sets of game rules featuring jumping pieces. All that said, the board is important towards development of later Rococo. Also, jumping Pawn was a work-in-progress to its Cannon Pawn. With David Howe's contribution, they hit a home run with Rococo! Jumping Chess is a strike out.
Chess-Battle. War variant from the Soviet-Union, 1933. (12x12, Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In this 1933 game from Russia, Cavalry is (Knight+Camel), but over enemy pieces it requires a specific pathway, only one being allowed. Both (N+C), or 'Gnu', and (N+Zebra), or 'Gazelle', have been used sometimes under varying names, both compounds about ten times in Pritchard's 'ECV'. Only once in Pritchard is there a piece that is (N+C+Z), a triple-compound leaper. Cazaux's 2001 Gigachess here in CVP re-uses that thirty-year-old (N+C+Z)leaper calling it Buffalo. Gilman's 2004 Great Herd is apparently the first ever use of (C+Z), or 'Bison', in a game.
Chess on a Really Big Board. Chess on multiple chess boards. (16x16, Cells: 256) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Continuing alphabetically thru the 'Large CVs', informally and retrospectively, 'Chess on a Really Big Board' is more like Ralph Betza's changed style by 2001-2004. Gradually Betza becomes equally interested in being entertaining as CV analysis. Making his game rules, or piece-value methods, clear was more of a priority in 1970's and 1980's. Never fatuous, Betza's sarcasm always has a point and this makes another 'fun' Betza 'read'. However, sorting out the CVs proposed from the irony becomes problematic. Is Betza serious or not about a 256-square board? Here he is both serious, and he is not, about 576 squares in a Chess embodiment. Somewhat prolix bombast and in-your-face leave-taking come to mark Betza's last 20-30 CVP pieces(and Comments).
Carrera's Chess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Mark Thompson in the classic article 'Defining the Abstract' uses the term 'their present perfection' referring to families of games including chess. Unfortunately CVP has never reprinted that article. I probably would have changed use of verb 'perfect' if Thompson's comment had not intervened. I mean 'to make better'. I think of the various Carrera embodiments as like rolling terrain with higher hills hard to discern with our tools which protrude, but with limited time we make the best estimate, and give supporting facts, including game scores.
Ultima. Game where each type of piece has a different capturing ability. Also called Baroque. (8x8, Cells: 64) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]In contrast to the Carrera family, which have less differentiation, Ultima-like games are more sharply delineated in their features, metaphorically like USA Colorado's 54 'fourteeners', not somewhat similar hills of Carrera-Capablanca terrain. I would much rather have invented the 'Rococo peak' within the Ultima family than the 'Gothic hill' in its family; yet that one stands out within its environment.
Chessma 84. Game with elements of Chess and Ultima on a board with two levels with special corner squares. (2x(10x10), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Continuing alphabetically retrospectively thru 'Large CVs': Do not be deceived by seeing 132 squares. Most of the squares are common to both halves, and there are only 84 unique spaces to move. There are 14 piece-types, the same number as Large Variant Contest winner Vyremon Chess on its 132 squares. The independent two rows of the two halves evince vague similarity to Altair, which comes later. Antoine Fourriere knows I like Jacks & Witches, Pocket Polypiece, Bifocal, and Chess on Larger Board, all his inventions. This Chessma might be too complex to go in detail into its strategy.
Alpha Centauri. A very complex game, somewhat exotic, with some elements from Rococo. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since Lavieri's Altair turned out to be a superlative game, to my surprise beyond Excellent, Alpha Centauri probably is too. Further a priori evidence for that is Maxima's being Excellent, as everyone knows. Ten types of pieces on 81 squares is within the realm of playability. The coloured board facilitates 'Change' and 'Horizontal' movements, too technical to explain in one sentence. Read the rules. Alpha Centauri's Change and Horizontal are obviously works-in-progress towards Altair, having those same features.
Coherent Chess. Variant on 9 by 9 board with special knights. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Having rated Carlos Cetina's Coherent Chess 'Excellent' before, I like the annotated sample game from 1998 that actually takes up most of the text. Sissa squares overlap Rook squares, some Crooked Bishop squares, and Nightrider squares. Sometimes Sissa is two-way, sometimes four-way.
Alpha Centauri. A very complex game, somewhat exotic, with some elements from Rococo. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]How do you rotate anyway? Orthogonally, or diagonally, or a combination? Why not just drop the Rotor and put in a Falcon, or a Mage, or a Cannon/Canon? --in order to make it a playable game like Altair. Actually, Rotor does as a piece very much what Fourriere's Pocket Polypiece does continuously for the entire game.
Carrera's Chess. Large chess variant from 17th century Italy. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]What was really written 'years ago': Carrera's Chess was written up about 1617. This one's eight-piece mix is still being debated. I guess it stood the test of time. 'Mad-Queen', now 'FIDE' or Orthodox, Chess developed about 1480. Mediaeval ingenuity had more common sense than we do today. Or, think about the heyday of Chess Variants and novelties (before these poor degenerate times): Sam Loyd (1841-1911), Henry Ernest Dudeney (1847-1930), Thomas Raynor Dawson(1889-1951). Use the hat-pin method to pick any game developed after 1950. Would Loyd or Dudeney or Dawson devote more than an hour or an evening, if that, to 99% of them? They did not need a method of exhaustion to allocate their time, because they still had standards. (Actually Dudeney is fond of looking at every possible permutation for his number puzzles.)
Assassination Chess. On a 10 by 10 board with teleporters and assassins. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Still in the 'ABC's in review of Large CVs, here's one never commented, never played probably except by Blanchard and Hogarty. Despite the name 'Assassination'(1998), it appears the game will revolve around the ten Teleporters. A T switches any other piece to its own square and then itself goes to Home Row, i.e. rank 3(8). I think there is only same-colour 'switching', but it is not entirely clear. This 'swap' is like Swapper of Rococo (V.R. Parton's Chimaerine), except the T goes elsewhere. That makes it different from Switching Chess' way of swapping too. The disruption in established positions 'T's can wreak is reminiscent of Lavieri's Alpha Centauri and its Rotor, just commented; and having a whole row (the Home Row) for the Teleporter to go connects to 'Positional 3D Chess', itself a panoply of games featuring promotion to any square in an entire row.
Riveting discussion (including remarks under Gothic Ch). Not having read the 'View Entires', this discussion is reminiscent of Chess-Variant-Page-encouraged posts in 2003 of 72-times-commented Constitutional Characters about the nuances of 'triagonal'. For all the intelligent remarks: -- How many angels CAN stand on the head of a pin? How about 100 lines of computer code right about here? Or that deus ex machina 'Robert Fischer' popping in? Only partly flippantly, I mean to convey [that a lot of] this topic does not do much CV analysis.
Beastmaster Chess. Large chess variant with a fantasy theme, emphasizing leaping pieces. (8x11, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Yet within the 'ABC's of 'Large CVs': Some games have to be judged by their unifying concept more than playability. It is a subtle distinction that needs to be made with the proliferation of forms because of computers. One example is 'Rolling Kings', a fine 'idea game'. Beastmaster Chess is centered around the plan of having all leaping pieces. That has only been tried a few times before: an instance is Cavalier Chess, though the latter is not a Large CV and has one non-leaper. Beastmaster extends the leaps up to five steps away in the 'Wyvern'. By 'leapers' we tend to mean 'oblique leapers'. Of dubious playability, Beastmaster is still a great notion. It does not go so far as to include any of Charles Gilman's Bemes(11,3), Soll(7,4), Albatross(9,2), Deacon(8,7), Stork(7,2) etc. of 'From Ungulates Outward'.
Bird's Chess. Chess variant on 10 by 8 board from 19th century England. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bird's Chess deserves its first comment. After 250 years Carrera's natural compounds (R+N) and (B+N) are moved toward center in initial position for first time by Henry Bird, a chess master. Is the further centralization of Bird's 'Guard'(R,N) in Gothic Chess a slight improvement? I think so. Is Knight centralized to d,e,f,or g also playable? Yes. It's better to cover all Pawns in array when there are so many long-range pieces. Bird fails to do this since c-pawn is not protected, but credit him with playtesting his own inventions. This family of chess has four Knight-capable pieces out of ten in the array.
Camblam. On a 12x12 board with archers, catapults and other enhanced pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The squares are not in fact skewed, like Ultra-Slanted Elevator has squares offset. It's the programming, I can visualize it fine. Nine piece-types is minimal for 144 squares. Six of them sound FIDE-like but mostly they're not. Bishops and Rooks enhanced by four-way one-steps their other way (Shogi-promotion-like), and up-to-three-step Pawns make sense. Knight enhanced is where this falls apart: in addition to own Knight-squares, N goes more or less to Camel AND Gilman's (1,5) Zemel squares. (Gilman never intends Zemel squares actually to be used.) There are Rook-modified 'Catapults', rifle-like 'Archers', and quasi-Sissa-like 'Prince'. Enough said, P-rated.
Bird's Chess. Chess variant on 10 by 8 board from 19th century England. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Charles Gilman is one interested in names and has used Bird's 'Equerry'. From David Pritchard's ECV: To fight 'book knowledge', in 1874 Bird's version went to 10x8, d1 and g1 representing generic pieces. Quickly he recommended (R+N) at d1 and (B+N) at g1. He had 9x8 alternately but that one's piece was (R+P)! There were other 9x8 forms trying Camel(1,3 leaper). Since Ben Foster's Chancellor Chess(9x9) toward 1900 picked up on (R+N) and Capablanca after 1920 (R+N) and (B+N), we tend to highlight Bird's RNB(R+N)QK(B+N)BNR.
Al-Ces. Variant on 10 by 10 board with 30 pieces per player. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABC' Large-CV thread: Charles Gilman's Comment here is concerned with the naming. I would cite the 13 piece-types in making strategy difficult to picture. Having different moving and capturing capabilities for three of them results in effectively dealing with 16 piece-type-moves. 16/100 (= 16%) for piece-types is rather unfriendly to players. However, the mix of FIDE types and exotic pieces is usually good practice.
Bach Dang Chess. On board with 100 squares, with crafts and other special pieces and rules. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABC-Large-CV thread': 'The rules are simple' says Vu Q Vo. 8 piece-types, after predecessor Quang Trung Chess has seven. Do its piece powers overcome the low 'Xiangqi-like' piece density of 40%? At first blush, no, Counsellor is weak, and Elephant(=Camel) is weak and unpopular. Chariot here is a nice piece as a cross between classical Cannon and T.R.Dawson's Grasshopper. However, Chariot does not have enough supporting material. Why call the Bishop-mover a 'Cannon'? That's confusing even though just nomenclature. Also confounding is having a central 'palace' between files c and h for two pieces but maybe that works. The new piece 'Ship' is somwhat Sissa-like. The game is reminiscent of Outback Chess in being an unusual mix of piece-types. This Bach Dang would have to be played. It may have unexpected merit.
Alice Chess. Classic Variant where pieces switch between two boards whenever they move. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating](Large CVs 'ABC' thread): David Pritchard says 'Alice Chess is confusing. Blunders are commonplace.' Antoine Fourriere's excellent script on strategy added within clarifies a lot. Still Alice Ch. is more of an 'idea game' than one of the highest playability. Alice is compatible with 'Positional 3D Chess' concept in article of that name.
Bach Dang Chess. On board with 100 squares, with crafts and other special pieces and rules. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The previous 'Good' is for Quang Trung Chess, an okay-enough embodiment. The inventor says about the 'Ship' added in Bach Dang, 'Please figure out why it is so!', dividing board into quadrants. Answer: to visualize 45-degree and 225-degree turns. One group of Ship's destination squares is 'Zebra squares' at (2,3) distance from departure square. Ship is a failed piece, worsening Quang Trung. QT establishes unique alternative winning condition: Pawn in the last row remaining uncaptured. That is the sense of the special c to h range. Maybe Excellent were QT played.
Avon. Four-player game; two players sharing the White and two the Black pieces. (8x10, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABC,LargeCV': 'The form of partnership is suggestive of the card game Bridge, appropriate for a river with two such distinguished cities on it and thus so impressive a range of bridges.'--Charles Gilman, supporting the provision that one player drops out at times, becoming 'Dummy' like in Bridge. When the theme cuts so sharply across the rules, it probably detracts from play-worthiness. Excellent 'theme': a third criterion to judge games, to go with playability and central idea. There are 8 Marshalls(R+N).
Beau Monde Chess. Large variant where pieces move with variations of the Queen move. (11x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV' -- Beau Monde has 100 squares, a decimal variant. Queen, Amazon; 'Marquis' and 'Baroness' are Falcon and Hunter from Falcon-Hunter. 'Beauty' is a cross between Renaissance Chess' Duke and Cavalier. 'Princess' is (Cannon + Canon). 'Duchess' moves queenlike but diagonally must reflect once off either an edge or a piece. 'Countess' is a rifle piece that after a radial move fires at 45 degrees. Having half a dozen extreme-heterodox features, some original, could better be distributed over several different games. Having both FIDE and Berolina Pawns, on top of everything else, even more convoluted.
Attrition Chess. Played on an 11x10 board, each player starts with 33 pieces. (11x10, Cells: 110) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': 11x3=33 pieces to start. Forfeit one: 33-1=32. Now the game begins. The idea here is not to checkmate but to achieve bare King. Each turn is both a forfeit of one own piece and a move. The goal reduces to whoever makes more captures wins.
The Courier Game. Description of Courier Chess, with printable pieces and board. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'ABCLargeCV': Two Couriers move modern-Bishop-like and with Rooks are the strongest pieces. One 'Man' is non-royal King-like mover. One 'Schleich' moves like Wazir (Weijden's 'Spy' of Novo Chess is more interesting). With or without the four-fold assize-mobilization shown in the other Courier Chess link, b-Pawns, i-Pawns, and k-Pawns are all unprotected in initial position. Quelle horreur! Three unguarded Pawns in array against four long-range units! Apparently Courier Chess culture lasted 600+ years.
Delegating Chess. 84 square variant in which pieces delegate moving powers. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'DEF,LargeCV': Moving on to 'DEF' (with some 'ABC' ones yet to review), the triads help organize another brief exegesis. Delegating Chess is one that has excellent central idea but lesser play-worthiness. The concept is that a piece gains its movement ability from any friendly piece that can presently move to its square. This specific embodiment of a rule used before makes sense in having strong pieces and narrow board, so King cannot slither away.
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