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Three Fat Brothers Chess. On a 9x9 board with 3 royal pieces. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Wed, Apr 9, 2008 11:17 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
This is the first Comment ever for Three Fat Brothers(2000), a gem on 9x9. Sirotkin in Herd from year 2001 makes the second use, after Falcon in 1992, of piece moving to Falcon (2,4) and (3,4) squares. Somehow that was never done in a CV before well-known multipath Falcon invented 1992. The name chosen in 8x8 Herd is 'Bison', after a one- or two-time problem theme usage(not a CV) from 1970's. So, the (2,4)(3,4) leaper occurred a decade after multi-path Falcon. Remarkable that so long a delay, full nine years, between the Falcon in 1992 and the same-destination particularized leaping 'Bison' in 2001. Piece-mix of this one, TFB, has more to recommend it than typical, unappealing one or two small 'nuanced' changes (there are some exceptions, just speaking relatively) passed off as new CV in these degenerate times. Follow-up Comment sometime will evaluate very deserving TFB piece-mix with more attention. The current theme is '9x9 blockbusters'.

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Mar 27 09:19 PM UTC:

Does anyone know what this "leaps N squares and M over" means? And the Nightknight, do its two N moves have to be in the same direction, or can it change? And can it continue after capture?


Daniel Zacharias wrote on Thu, Mar 27 09:39 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 09:19 PM:

Does anyone know what this "leaps N squares and M over" means?

I understand those as 3,1 3,2 and 4,1 leaps. The Nightknight is ambiguous. Without further clarification, I would guess it's NaN.


Jörg Knappen wrote on Thu, Mar 27 09:49 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 09:19 PM:

I don't know, but I read three squares in any direction as a combination of Dromedary and Gecko (or Threeleaper and Tripper, of HG) and the stipulation "and one square over" as an indication that it can jump over one piece (friend or foe) but not over two pieces.

I have no idea what the NightKnight's move is, a conservative interpretation would be a Nightrider restricted to two steps (NN2), but a more free interpretation could indicate a piece resembling a Chu Shogi Lion with Knight moves. Or a Knight version of the Prime Minister (like the Lion, but must stop after a capture).


H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Mar 28 05:53 AM UTC:

OK, so it is completely ambiguous. There seems to exist a Zillions file for this variant, though. Could someone who has Zillions test that?

The Interactive Diagram should not have trouble implementing any of the mentioned posibility, but to include an I.D. I would have to know which one to pick.


HaruN Y wrote on Sat, Mar 29 10:10 AM UTC:
files=9 ranks=9 promoZone=1 promoChoice=NRQ graphicsDir=/cgi-bin/fen2.php?s=50&t=utrecht&w=826755&b=&p= squareSize=50 graphicsType= royal=K royal=G royal=M royal=Z whitePrefix=W blackPrefix=B borders=0 firstRank=1 coordColor=#e8c7b0 lightShade=#9e7e68 darkShade=#4f433c rimColor=#1c1c1c pawn:P:ifmnDfmWfceF:Pawn:a2,b2,c2,,a8,b8,c8 berolina pawn:P:fmFfceWifnmA:BerPawn:d2,e2,f2,,d8,e8,f8 morph=* morph knight:N:N:Knight:g1,,g9 rook:R:R:Rook:a1,c1,,a9,c9 queen:Q:Q:Queen: chancellor:C:RN:Chancellor:i1,,i9 Sen bro:Z:CK':SenBrother:e1,,e9 morph=K/"/"/"/"/"/"/"/" Mid bro:M:ZK':MidBrother:h1,,h9 morph=K/"/"/"/"/"/"/"/" NightKnight:I:NmcaN:NightKnight:f1,,f9 Spy:S:W2F3:Spy:d1,,d9 Universal Pawn:U:ifhmnSfhmceK:UniPawn:g2,h2,i2,,g8,h8,i8 morph=Q Jun bro:G:FXK':*_%King--Giraffe:b1,,b9 morph=K/"/"/"/"/"/"/"/" King:K:K:King:

Edit: Fixed. Thanks AscendingNewAeon!


hirosi Kano wrote on Sat, Mar 29 01:53 PM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 10:10 AM:

Nightknight is similar with my piece, Green Mage.


Lev Grigoriev wrote on Sun, Mar 30 08:01 AM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from Sat Mar 29 10:10 AM:

Seems you messed up moves of sen and mid bros


Bn Em wrote on Thu, Apr 10 05:47 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Fri Mar 28 05:53 AM:

I don't have Zillions, but from what I can make out looking at the source code of the ZRF, Daniel seems to be right: the brothers make camel/zebra/giraffe leaps and the nightKnight two knight leaps in independent directions. My knowledge of Zillions is alas insufficient to be able to tell whether it double‐captures (the code only tests that the intervening space doesn't contain a friendly piece, which suggests it might?) or whether it implicitly forbids null moves (no explicit check seems to be made).

For what it's worth, “two out and one over” seems to be a semi‐common way of describing the knight's move


H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Apr 10 08:02 PM UTC in reply to Bn Em from 05:47 PM:

Another point of doubt: Does the Universal Pawn only capture forward, or is it a Silver General? And does it have some kind of initial double push? (I suppose the Berolinas have that.)


Bn Em wrote on Fri, Apr 11 06:59 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from Thu Apr 10 08:02 PM:

Neither, apparently. Per the ZRF the Universal Pawn moves as a compound of the normal and berolina pawns, moving and capturing one step in any forward direction. All three kinds of pawn can double‐push and they can all capture each other e. p..


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