[ List Earliest Comments Only For Pages | Games | Rated Pages | Rated Games | Subjects of Discussion ]
Comments by GaryK.Gifford
Shamanic Chess
. Pieces may be transformed into 'Shamans'.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I just played several games of this against the ZRF and had a great bit of fun. The Shaman principle can be used to create some beautiful mating nets. This game is a nice change of pace.
The Bermuda Chess Angle. Pieces can vanish in a central grid (The Bermuda Chess Angle) depending on dice-determined coordinates. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I made a beta version game courier preset for the Bermuda Chess Angle. It is at the link below. Square colors may be changed as it currently looks like a square cloud is hanging over Bermuda region (perhaps that is appropriate?)... I cannot add the pre-set link to the rule page as I am locked-out. Now that the '10' contest is over perhaps the lock can be removed? ? QUESTION ? Does anyone know how I can get 2 simulated dice to roll in this game so the Bermuda Chess Angle Disappearance Factor can be randomly generated? Once that is implemented the game can be fairly played with random disappearances. Thank you. http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DThe+Bermuda+Chess+Angle%26settings%3DBermuda
Feudal, by 3M Game Co. (which no longer exists) sounds as though it may be the game you are talking about. The board is plastic, with peg holes and is in fourths which fold out to make a complete board. There are 3 shades of blue pieces, and 3 shades of brown (for up to 6 players). There are mountains (solid green) and rough terrain, green stripes. There are castles... but no rivers. A partitian divides the board so players can secretly set up their castle and armies. That is then removed for game play.
This Chess Variants link has photos of the Sceptre 1027 game you mention: http://www.chessvariants.org/d.photo/sceptre1027/
The Bermuda Chess Angle. Pieces can vanish in a central grid (The Bermuda Chess Angle) depending on dice-determined coordinates. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Antoine and Fergus: Thank you for the dice/random related comments. I cut and pasted cde from Vegas Fun Chess and tried to edit it. The Goal is this: 1) Player # 1 moves. 2) 1st Dice rolls a letter 'CDEFG or H' 2nd Dice rolls a number '34567 or 8' (Combined, these indicate a board coordinate like F6, where a piece or pawn, if present, gets removed from) 3) Player # 2 moves 4) Action 2 repeats So, these are post-auto move actions, instead of pre-auto move actions, as in Vegas Fun Chess. I imagine it is a simple thing.... but I've been playing around and keep getting error codes. On the last attempt I tried adding some quotation marks at the front and back of the dice possibilities... but still no go. If easier, I could use one 36-side dice... but the two will work if coded right. Here is my latest error. Fergus and/or Antoine, if you know what I should do to fix this I'd be much obliged. ERROR IS AS FOLLOWS: on line 1 ['CDEFGH']-Dice7 is not a valid expression, because ['CDEFGH']-Dice7 is not a recognized piece, coordinate, command, or subroutine. For the sake of debugging, here is the full GAME Code program that this error occurred in. The lines have been properly indented to help you spot scope errors. 0 sub postauto1 1 ['CDEFGH']-Dice7 2 ['345678']-Dice5 3 endsub 4 sub postauto2 5 ['CDEFGH']-Dice7 6 ['345678']-Dice5 7 endsub 8 moveindex 0 9 f2-f4 10 postauto1 11 end The game in question is located here: http://play.chessvariants.org/pbm/play.php?game%3DBermudaChessAngle%26settings%3DBermuda Thank you...
Fergus, thank you very much for the code. The Bermuda Chess Angle is now
functioning, and I witnessed 3 pieces disapearring in my partial test
game. But I think it is functioning at 1/6th power. Here is why.
While I earlier had commented that a piece would disapear when on the
random coordinate, such as 'F6' I was expecing F and 6 to show up in the
two dice indicators. But the game currently has no code for visible dice
values. If dice could be seen [after a move was verified], then I
expected that the second player would manually delete the affected piece.
But it goes beyond having a piece actually residing on the affected square,
for if a piece passes through the square it also disappears (i.e., not just
when it lands there or is already at rest there). That is why I pictured
visual dice and manual removal.
However, your code method is far superior! Far superior because the piece
automatically disappears if on the random coordinates. [Though not if it
passes over - or maybe it does... I don't know.] I can't tell from the
following:
set BCAF or (>= rank dest 2 and <= rank dest 7 and >= file dest 2 and
file
dest 7) (>= rank origin 2 and <= rank origin 7 and >= file origin 2 and
file origin 7);
and the pre-move's code of:
if #BCAF:
set BCAF join chr + ord c rand 0 5 rand 3 8;
capture #BCAF;
endif;
Anyway, thanks for the excellent code you've provided and if you know
what it would take to get the Bermuda Chess Angle up to 100%
functionality, again it would be greatly appreciated.
Sincerely, clueless and codeless Gary
Chess/Xianqi/Shogi Tournament #1. Enter the First Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Game Courier Tournament![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I'll give the Chess/Xianqi/Shogi Tournament #1 a go. Please sign me up, thank you. Gary
Catapults of Troy. Large variant with a river, catapults, archers, and trojan horses! (8x11, Cells: 88) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]'Broken link? ' For the Week ending Feb 22 lisiting in What's New I looked at ' Games for Game Courier. Updated lists of most popular games . . . by Author: Fergus Duniho.' I looked at the page to see what games are played the most and saw Catapults of Troy listed in the column for one of the games most often played in the last 90 days. I then clicked on the Catapults of Troy link [in that list] and got the following message: ' Not Found The requested URL /pbm/presets/catapults_of_troy.html.html was not found on this server. Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.' I then checked several other game links in the list... those links checked worked. I then checked CoT in CV's alphabetical listing. That worked.
Chess/Xianqi/Shogi Tournament #1. Enter the First Chess/Xiangqi/Shogi Game Courier Tournament![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Most important for me when I play chess here is that I want to be able to use Alfairie (sp?) type pieces, not Abstract. The board you mention should be okay. When it comes to Shogi I can use Japanese pieces or the modern (silver moon type - as I did get quite use to those, much to my surprise as I use Japanese characters when I play over the board and on-line in real time)... but I do not want the dark blue marble board... the other 3 CV boards I saw look fine to me. When Xianqi comes around, I will need to revisit the CV board and piece options. I think I used light and dark wood Chinese character pieces last time.
Pillars of Medusa Preset for Game Courier. Play this variation of Turkish Great Chess with two additional pieces, the Morph and the Medusa, on Game Courier .[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I did not make the preset for Pillars of Medusa, nor did I give it the extended name. I have no problem with the graphic name being removed.
Many who like (or love) Chess Variants also play traditional chess but have a flair for unusual chess openings such as the Grob (1. g4), Blackmar-Diemer Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2. Nc3 d5 3.e4 dxe4 4.f3...), King's Gambit, Owen's Defense, and so on. If that is the case with you, you may be interested in the Unorthodox Openings Newsletter (which I believe can improve your chess game as Masters often contribute games and analysis). UON 12 was 110 pages, UON 13 was devoted to the bizarre but powerful Halloween Gambit, UON 14 has a bit of a mix and is about 75 pages long. I just became the Senior Editor of this publication and you might want to check out issue #14 by sending an e-mail to the following address: It is free. [email protected] P.S. Most ChessVariants members I know are highly intelligent gamers and, when it comes to traditional Western Chess, may just happen to like this unorthodox aspect. In any case, great chess to all of you and best regards. -gkg
In response to Michael Howe's comment, which reads in part, '.. . the game apparently does not love me back. I'm really quite awful at orthdodox chess and oh how I wish it was otherwise.' Well, this stuff is unorthodox and is a good opening weapon to use against booked up players of Ruy Lopez, Sicilian Defense, Queen's Gambit, etc. But I am referring to players who get by on memorizing lots of variations but do not necessarily have good chess understanding. And Michael, you may be happy to know that Captain Evans, a chess amatuer, created the Evan's Gambit which took the chess world by storm and is still being played today. So, perhaps in a year or two we can see the Howe Gambit or the deadly Howe Attack? Time shall tell.
Hello Mr. Trenholme. I thought a while before choosing the Dunst. Other considerations were The Blackmar-Diemer Gambit, the Colle, the Orangutang, and believe it or not, even 1. e4. But in the end I could not resist the uncommon Dunst. You say, that your own 'favorite lines in ortho-chess are the somewhat dubious gambits--the Evans, the Latvian, the Fried Liver Attack, to name three examples.' If you want to send any of those to me for possible inclusion in UON, please do so. Others here please feel free to send unorthodox chess games as well. Thanks.
In regard the Dunst Opening (1. Nc3) which was discussed briefly in an earlier comment, Tim Harding has written a short, but informative, article about it at www.chesscafe.com. Harding points out that players who want to get their opponent 'out of the book' like to use it. He also provides a few nice White wins and mentions that the Dunst Opening has been a favourite of the FIDE International Master, Zvonko Mestrovic [from Sarajevo]. I will be writing a book review on Bill Wall's Dunst Opening book for UON # 15. Bill and I are currently writing a chess book about a different opening system for both white and black. That system pertains to: The Hippopotamus, Krazy Kat, and Paris (Amar) openings. These are even more removed from mainstream than the Dunst. But getting back to 1. Nc3 ... I believe it to be an extremely solid opening. You can, in many games, get both your knights on your Kingside (where you castle in this line), achieve a pawn lock that isolates the Queenside from the Kingside, and allows for you (as white) to launch a major Kingside attack on Black (who has castled Kingside in this scene). Of course, that scenario can be avoided [as was the case in my game here at CV], but white can still have a solid game... just not as much fun. As a last note, Harding's article mentions a file of Dunst games that players can download and play through.
Chess Opening Statistics: Sam Trenholme stated that he wanted me to lose my Dunst game because he wanted to 'to prove that you have better winning chances when you play a more mainstream opening.' Well, Dunst Statistics already exist. Here is what I found at the below mentioned link. The Dunst only has 38% wins, 37% Loss and 25% draws. So it appears that Sam Trenholme's comment is correct, in this case.... and in the case of many other offbeat openings. To see opening statisitics based on 500,000 match games since 1991, showing % Win White / % Win Black and / % Draws visit: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/adam.bozon/stats.htm That site also lists whites's best openings, black's best defenses... based on statistics.
David: Thank you for looking into the Dunst stats. However, your statistics indicate 52% in favor of White, based on 3315 Dunst games with: White having 1294 wins, 864 draws and 1157 losses. But using the same method as in the statistics table which I sited below, in which draws are counted, we see 39% wins for white, not 52%. Thus: DUNST RESULTS 39% wins, 35% losses, 26% draws (using David's numbers) 38% wins, 37% losses, 25% draws (using the table sited in my previous comment) Very close results.
Sam Trenholme wrote, in part: ' . . . modern chess matches are under shorter time controls than older chess games, making it so that one is better off having a great deal of memorized opening lines so as to use less time in the first moves of a chess game. Or it could be that one gets a better position playing a mainstream line.' -ST GKG Reply: This opening memorization is a sword that cuts both ways in over-the-board play. When you play a main line, your opponent responds main line. Book Knowledge 1 vs. Book Knowledge 2. I once played against a young kid's Queen's Gambit. After 10 moves I thought, my gosh, this kid is great. Every move perfect 'book.' But then we left the book and the kid couldn't play the position at all. I wiped him out, and knew if I had played an off-beat opening I'd have had him from move 1 or 2. With e-mail games uncommon openings lose much of their luster because the opponent can research them and study the off-beat positions in great depth (not like over-the-board). Sam wrote: 'The problem with the Dunst Opening [1.Nc3] is 1... d5 followed by 2... d4, forcing white to move a piece twice. GKG Response: And yet this is the line I love in the Dunst. And I will move that knight yet a third time. Great. I get 2 knights in front of my castled king. We get a great opening imbalance. You say white moved his knight twice... I say it doesn't matter in the Dunst. Dunst players want this. Sam wrote: The problem with 1. Nc3 d5 2. d4 is that White now can not do the Queen's gambit. GKG: But White does not want to do a Qeeen's Gambit. So we could, using the same reasoning say, 'The problem with 1. e4 is that White can't do a Queen's Gambit. It is a moot point. Sam wrote: These disadvantages may be offset by getting black out of his book, and playing a line where one knows the traps far better than the other player. GKG response: I see no disadvantages in playing the Dunst as white. But agree with the out of the book part. Sam wrote: Ralph Betza once pointed out that if you want FIDE (modern western) chess to feel like a chess variant, play the Boden-Kieseritzky gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Nc3 Nxe4 5.O-O). GKG: But there is strong chance this won't work. Here is why. After 1. e4 you need black to play e5. But in tournaments and matches we often see 1. ... c5 (Sicilian). And, if we don't see that we can see French Defense, Pirc/Modern, Caro Kahn, Scandinavian Defense, Owen's Defense, etc. But with a Dunst, you get your 1. Nc3 in and could care less what black does. You, as white, are where you want to be instantly... of course, there is a long battle ahead. Sam wrote: The way I see it, anything that is reasonable in the first ten moves of chess has already been analyzed and studied by someone. FIDE Chess is a very well-trodden area, where interesting novelties are hard to find. GKG response. Agreed. However, most humans do not walk around with all this knowledge. So, in over the board play you can take many by surprise. One man's Dunst is another man's novelty, so to speak. Or 1. g4 (Grob) has likely never been seen by many tournament players just starting out. Sam wrote: However, there are literally an infinite number of chess variants (Chess is probably more malleable than any other abstract game) and very few of the variants have been explored at all. As just one tiny example, the variant that I just published (shameless plug) shares many pattens with FIDE chess openings, but is a almost completely uncharted territory for people looking for new ground to explore. GKG response: Agreed.
Amazon Grand Chess. A combination of Grand Chess and Amazon Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I agree 100% with Fergus's comment regarding '. . . a ban on letting any game be called something 2 unless it has been created by the inventor of the original game.' Would we expect Genral Motors to come out with Mustang 2, for example? No. Or an author, other than Steven King, to come out with The Shinning 2' ? Hardly. Both common sense and respect indicate that names followed by numbers should be a naming covention reserved for the game's creator.
I see no problem with the Grand Shatranj name. It is akin to the naming convention seen with Grand Chess, Great Chess, Chess with Different Armies, etc. I see no problem with these types of names. But, if I made a game and called it Grand Shatranj 2, or Chess with Different Armies 2, then those names are indeed problematic.
Joe: You may have misunderstood my comment. When I stated '...But, if I made a game and called it Grand Shatranj 2, or Chess with Different Armies 2, then those names are indeed problematic.' I meant that 'me' not being the inventor, should not use those names. You [Joe] having created Grand Shatranj, have every right to have a Grand Shatranj 2, 3, 4 , etc. Whereas I should not make any game called Grand Shatranj ____. Case in Point is Pillars of Medusa. I first called it Medusa Chess... not knowing there was already a Medusa Chess. 'Medusa Chess 2' would be inappropriate, for reasons indicated in other comments here. Thus, a third name was chosen.
Joe: I suggest you re-read my related comments slowly, perhaps one word at a time. I have no desire to name a game Grand Shatranj 2, 3, 4 or Grand Shatranj with any other name extension.
Sam wrote: You're the first person I have known to like the Dunst; I have always read that it is weak. GKG response: There are lots of Dunst players. Bill Wall is one of them and his book lists games of many Dunst players. Revern Tim Sawyer (author of Blackmar-Diemer Gambit books) also plays the Dunst frequently. Sam wrote: I researched it a little since Zillions likes opening with the Dunst.... GKG response: I was very skeptical of this comment; But I looked into it before responding and you are correct. Out of 11 games Zillions, to my surprise, played 1. Nc3 4 times, 1. Nf3 6 times, and 1. d4 once. Not one 1. e4 or 1. c4. Unbelievable. I was expecting to see all e4, d4, and c4 openings. Maybe an 1. f4. But on a related note... I play my Dunst as follows: 1. Nc3 d5 2. e4 ...; Zillions plays his Dunst: 1. Nc3 d5 2. d4.... That second move aspect makes a tremendous difference in the game. In my case I allow (encourage) black to play 2 ... dxe4 or 2. ... d4 (driving the knight to e2). Zillion's method blocks black's d-pawn, preserving the Knight on c3. I'll have to see if that line is in Wall's book, I imagine it is. I know that, presently, I don't care for the Zillion's variation at all.... but maybe if I look into it I will find something good. I'll check it out.
In Bill Wall's '1. Nc3 Dunst Opening' (c) 1995 by Chess Enterprises, there is no mention of 1. Nc3 d5 2. d4 as played by Zillions. After 1. Nc3 d5, then 2. e4 is the most common continuation. So, what is Zillions playing? After 1. Nc3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. Bg5 we would have the beginnings of a Richter-Veresov Attack. But, I tried 2. ... Nf6 against Zillions and saw the unexpected 3. Qd3 !? Very strange. So, my conclusion here is that Zillions is not playing a Dunst, nor a transposed Richter-Veresov Attack. It is, as far as I can tell, playing an un-named opening.... a novelty. Note: The 1. Nc3 opening has many names. The name Dunst is from New York Master, Ted Dunst (1907 - 1985) who analyzed and played 1. Nc3 with much success. Dirk Van Geet, an International Master also plays 1. Nc3 and so the opening is also known as Van Geet's Opening. And there are other names too. As for 1. Nc3 d5 2. d4, perhaps we should call that the Zillion's Dunst?
Grander Chess. A variant of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Joe wrote, in part, 'But, reading the rules, I see Mr. Scanlon is paying homage to Grand Chess in his own way.' GKG response: But I see that Mr. Scanlon wrote: 'Despite its admittedly minor aesthetic and functional flaws...[refering to Grand Chess] then adds 'Grand Chess is easily the best and most playable reinvention of Chess I have ever seen.' So, he is stating that it has minor aesthetic and functional flaws; and is elswhere stating that he has taken this game and improved it.... has taken the Grand Chess and made it Grander Chess, aye, there's the rub.
Navia Dratp. An upcoming commercial chess variant with collectible, tradable pieces. (7x7, Cells: 49) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]I agree with the previous Navia Dratp comment, except for the last line, i.e., I doubt that it will become a standard. I also have the feeling that it will not gain a large following, for instance, when compared to Chess and Magic the Gathering. Time may prove me wrong.
In a few days I get to play Navia Dratp via e-mail against a chess master who had also won the Grand Chess Correspondance World Championship a few years back. Though I expect to get clobbered, I do think that it will be a blast of a game. First phase: take turns picking our 7 warriors from a pool of 29 first edition pieces.
25 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.