Comments by TonyQuintanilla

Below is a copy of a message posted by Mr. Spratt: 

Dear editors:  Just a note to inform you that I've posted a bunch of
pictures of the large, highly-detailed versions of Imperial Chess, Jetan
and Sarang on my website, www.sprattart.com.  I have a number of
unfinished castings of the individual pieces that I'll sell to the
general public for $l0 apiece, if anyone cares to finish and paint
themselves, and editors of chessvariants can feel free to contact me for
a few free samples, if you'd like them.  Thanks, James

I have posted a link at:

http://www.chessvariants.com/link2.dir/chessv.html

For historical research, may I recommend Murray's classic, 'A History of
Chess'. It should be in print or available at a good library:

http://www.chessvariants.com/books.html#bookmurray

I would like to share the following correspondance with Freederick.

On Sat, 21 Aug 2004 Tony Quintanilla wrote :
>...
>Very nice! How did you learn about this game?
>...

Thank you!

I learned about Elephant Hunt secondhand from a francophone friend of mine
in my college years, who had an interest in anthropology.  The notes in
Father Morceau's diary made much ado about the game being played on a
10x10 board; he theorized a lot about the Pygmies either borrowing the
game from a more advanced culture with a base-ten counting system, or
starting with a 5x5 field for the elephant (the Pygmies, it seems, use a
base-five system) from which the 10x10 board arose by subdivision.  All of
this is not germane to the rules of the game, and I don't remember it
well anyway.  The actual rules were given a skimpy and incomplete
treatment in the notes.  The author did mention that the Elephant moved on
the 5x5 field on which the 10x10 field for the Pygmies was 'overlaid by
halving', and that the Pygmies moved 'by hopping about, like our
chess-knight' but I personally doubt they actually made a Knight-move,
which is sort of abstract.  However, other possible alternatives (like D
and/or A) seem to me to be out of the question, as the Pygmies cannot
possibly win if colorbound.  Thus, not having other information, I
implemented them with a Knight-move, which makes for an interesting game. 
The Shaman (witch-doctor, IIRC, was the term employed) was described as
making 'double moves'.  I implemented this as W2F2; it could just as
well be t[NN], or perhaps the move of the Lion in Chu Shogi: t[KK].  These
variants also seem interesting and playable.  Unfortunately I have lost
contact with the friend who provided the information, and I have no idea
of other sources.

Sincerely yours
Freederick

The following e-mail was received by the editors: 

Great website! You write:
 

	'Fischer Random Chess has 960 legal arrays. This number is determined as
follows: 

	First, place the two Bishops. There are 16 different ways for one bishop
to be on a white square and the other Bishop to be on a black square. 

	That leaves six empty squares. Now, place the King somewhere between the
two Rooks. There are 20 different ways for a King and two Rooks to occupy
six squares with the King in between. 

	That leaves three squares for the two Knights and the Queen. There are
three possible ways to place these pieces. 

	Thus, there are 16 x 20 x 3 (960) legal arrays in Fischer Random
Chess.'

	 

	The most complex step is that 20 in the middle. It can be removed like
this:

		Fischer Random Chess has 960 legal arrays. This number is determined as
follows: 

		First, place the two Bishops. There are 16 (4 x 4) different ways for
one bishop to be on a white square and the other Bishop to be on a black
square. 

		That leaves six empty squares. Now, place the Queen. There are 6
different ways to do this. 

		That leaves five empty squares. Now, place the two Knights. There are 10
different ways to do this. 

		That leaves three empty squares. Lastly, place the two Rooks and the
King. There is only one legal way to do this. 

		Thus, there are 16 x 6 x 10 x 1 (960) legal arrays in Fischer Random
Chess. 

		Regards 

		Peter Ridges

The following e-mail was received by the editors:

Hello,
 
I can't find any name here on in the Encyclopedia of Chess Variants for a
variant which seems like it should be known : the game where no piece can
be moved twice in a row. I asked John Beasley and he told me that he
invented this as a problem theme under the name 'fuddled pieces'. But do
you know whether it has also been designed as a game?
 
Best regards,
 
Fabrice Liardet

The following e-mail was received by the editors:

Do you have any information on NOST and how to join or who to contact (it
seems their web site is no longer active). 

Any information you have would be appreciated.

Thanks 

Bob Salvas

Cumberland RI 

USA