John Vehre wrote on Sat, Jan 11, 2003 01:55 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I have played in two Grand Chess competitions and can highly recommend
both the game and the organizers at mindsports.net who now have held three
cyber world championship events. Grand Chess combines good ideas from
both east and west. It is fast paced like classical chess and the long
range pieces have considerable striking power. The promotion rules and set
up remind one more of Shogi and these same promotion rules tend to reduce
the number of draws. If you could reach such an endgame almost all basic
pawn up king and pawn vs. king endgames are wins unless the weaker side
can capture the pawn and even the notoriously tough Rook and pawn endings
should also be easier for the stronger side. Of course saving a bad
position is much tougher!
Classical chess playing skills also translate well in this variant and
a good chess player most likely also will quickly become a good Grand
Chess player. The mindsports site provides boards to play the game with on
their server and postal chess players tired of computer interference in
their games ought to give this variant serious consideration.
The only criticism I have of the game is that perhaps a piece
arrangement more like Duninho's (spelling?) variation of Capablanca's
Chess
with the Cardinal on b2, the minor pieces Queen and King moved in towards
the center and with the Marshall placed on i2 might be a more efficient
piece arrangement. I have also experimented at the Dayton Ohio Chess Club
with some friends with adding a king's leap of three squares which seems
to work well with this alternate piece arrangement. Maybe an addition
that might be considered for the Zillions engine?
I have played in two Grand Chess competitions and can highly recommend both the game and the organizers at mindsports.net who now have held three cyber world championship events. Grand Chess combines good ideas from both east and west. It is fast paced like classical chess and the long range pieces have considerable striking power. The promotion rules and set up remind one more of Shogi and these same promotion rules tend to reduce the number of draws. If you could reach such an endgame almost all basic pawn up king and pawn vs. king endgames are wins unless the weaker side can capture the pawn and even the notoriously tough Rook and pawn endings should also be easier for the stronger side. Of course saving a bad position is much tougher! Classical chess playing skills also translate well in this variant and a good chess player most likely also will quickly become a good Grand Chess player. The mindsports site provides boards to play the game with on their server and postal chess players tired of computer interference in their games ought to give this variant serious consideration. The only criticism I have of the game is that perhaps a piece arrangement more like Duninho's (spelling?) variation of Capablanca's Chess with the Cardinal on b2, the minor pieces Queen and King moved in towards the center and with the Marshall placed on i2 might be a more efficient piece arrangement. I have also experimented at the Dayton Ohio Chess Club with some friends with adding a king's leap of three squares which seems to work well with this alternate piece arrangement. Maybe an addition that might be considered for the Zillions engine?