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Comments by JaredMcComb
Contest to design a chess variant on 43 squares. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Passed Pawns, Scorpions and Dragon. More Falcon Chess Variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It seems to me that the Scorpion and Dragon are pretty clumsy, always having a fixed large range. Aren't they a little too difficult to use well? --Jared
Taikyoku Photographs. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The question that comes immediately to my mind is 'Why bother? Isn't it just a little too big to handle?' --Jared
84 Spaces Contest. 84 Spaces Contest begins![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Well, admittedly, it wasn't a very good game -- I designed the whole thing in less than ten hours. (Although I'm still honored that someone liked it that much!) If I could redo it, I'd remove the extra move and demotion rules, and make the board wider. Maybe I'll do that later.
Ryu Shogi. Large modern shogi variant. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]The reasons I have a somewhat low opinion of this game are: 1. I did not spend very much time (in fact, almost no time at all) designing it. 2. I did not (and still do not) have a competent opponent to play it with. 3. I didn't win a prize with this game (admittedly, this is kind of juvenile, but it had a small influence nonetheless). I am honored, though, that so many people find this game attractive. However, I agree that the demotion rule is a very bad one (who was it who said a beautiful rule may not be a good one?), and would like any editor who happens to be passing by to remove the rule, and all references to it. I am working on a larger version of this, but I do not know how to say 'great dragon' or 'expanded dragon' in Japanese. In conclusion, if you would like to thank me for this game, email Steve Evans and ask him to incorporate it into his SV program. --Jared
I'm thinking about eliminating the entire double-move rule altogether. I do know that the demotion has got to go, though, and I like the 'no drops in zone 4' rule -- if you could drop there, they could drop adjacent to it and capture your piece with the just-dropped piece, assuming they have something in hand (unless I illegalize that, too, which I'm also considering). I'll probably send Mr. Aronson a revision sometime next week. (And I'm totally clueless when it comes to advanced ZRF programming techniques.) And as for the large version, the main reason I would want to do that would be to make more space (I'd like a piece density of about 40%). So I would probably be able to keep all the rules from the small version intact, and add a minimal amount of pieces. (And thanks, Mr. Lawson, for that name suggestion. Dai Ryu (Dairyu? Dai-ryu?) sounds good to me, too.) --Jared
I know Rules 2 and 6 are going, and Rule 4 modified to match. Rule 7 looks like it will be edited to say that a player with a bare king has the option of forfeit at any time. The Pawn-drop restriction will also go, except for the checkmate part (dropped pawns are much more powerful in this game than in normal Shogi). As for Rule 1, I like it because it forces the players to come up with somewhat more strategic methods of checkmate. (However, your suggestions have not gone unnoticed! How does Michael Nelson no Ryu Shogi sound for a variant name?) I will send an update in shortly. (My computer crashed recently, so I no longer have the original document. I will not be sending in a new file altogether, but rather some plain text.)
I've submitted the modifications, but I haven't got a reply from Mr. Aronson yet. Hopefully they'll be up by next week or so.
Contest to design a chess variant on 43 squares. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Grrr! I lost my Internet access yesterday and was in agony about the results, and I get online today and find that nothing happened! --Jared
Does anyone know who this 'under review' guy is, what he's doing, and what his messages mean?
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]I have always been an Ultima fan. This game was the major inspiration for Rook Mania (which incidentally spent about three years in development, and which I am developing a more 'traditional' version of). It amy be true that this game favors defense over offense, and it may not be a perfect game, but the concept -- having all the pieces move similarly, but capture differently -- is a purely beautiful one. I also agree with Mr. Aronson that the imbalance of pieces is not necessarily bad, although I do not necessarily agree with his analogy -- the reason those games faded out of popularity was probably in favor of more balanced ones.
Contest to design a chess variant on 43 squares. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It does look as if you may be waiting until 2004 (or at least November 2003) to announce the prizes, Mr. Overby. Also, when will the 44SC start? I've been working on my first entry for about a month now, because I just can't wait for you to announce it. --Jared
The first thing that I thought of was Double Royal Queen Chess, which should be self-explanatory. The second thing I thought of was Anti-King Chess or Anti-King Chess II with a queen replacing the original King, and thus removing the entire King Thing. I dunno about anything else, though.
Where is Mr. Overby? I am (and probably everyone else is, too) still waiting for an official prize announcement for the results of the 43SC and I'm positively aching to enter the 44SC! --Jared
WWW site: Play Banchi 
. Members-Only Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Since this comment is for a page that has not been published yet, you must be signed in to read it.
Shogi Piece Graphics. Graphics of shogi pieces and symbols.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Isn't one king supposed to have a different marking, without the little 'tick' mark on it? --Jared
Contest to design a chess variant on 44 squares. Our annual N-squares chess variant design competition.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]When will last year's winners get their prizes? Or did I miss something? --Jared
Ryu Shogi. Large modern shogi variant. (7x12, Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It would be really nice if this game could be linked to on the Oriental variants list. Could someone with mysterious editing powers do that for me, please? Also, I've been focusing on school and other variants lately, so Dai-Ryu is currently on the back burner. (I'm currently working on 44SC entries, a page for Yonin Shogi (which has precious few English resources available for it and which really ought to be a recognized variant), a page for a game which I compiled ages ago called Grand Shakomega, and a variant using Icehouse pieces which is based loosely on Yonin.) Thanks all, --Jared EDIT: Whoops, I forgot to mention something! I'm looking for someone who can provide me with traditional-style Kanji for the pieces of Ryu Shogi (and some pieces which will debut in Dai-Ryu). Anyone who can help, post here, please (don't email!).
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]Yes, that assumption would be correct. In fact, in the illustration, the white chameleon imitates four different types at once and puts the black King into check, since it could capture the King by replacement. This, however, brings another question to mind: Must a chameleon be adjacent to a King to capture it? Since there is an orthogonal restriction for them when capturing pawns, is there also a one-space restriction when checking the King?
--Jared
Tetrahedral Chess. Three dimensional variant with board in form of tetrahedron. (7x(), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]It seems to me that a true tetrahedral form of chess would have 'cells' which, in three dimensions, would take the form of rhombic dodecahedrons, which would allow the board to be pyramidial with 'hexagonal' tiled layers. (Rhombic dodecahedrons tesselate space quite nicely, you know, and naturally lend themselves to making tetrahedra with.) Does the current setup of this game allow for such an analogue? The board can be easily translated, complete with cell coloration and the same twelve directions, but can the rules be translated as easily? I'd love to see an attempt.
Contest: the 9 Queens Problem. Put 9 queens and 1 or 2 pawns such that queens do not see each other. Send your solution before Feb 29, and win a book![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]If anyone is interested, I have a problem of my own that could replace this one for the book prize.
Tetrahedral Chess. Three dimensional variant with board in form of tetrahedron. (7x(), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Here's the deal. The boards are topologically identical, but I find the directions easier to visualize when the board is reoriented like that, since it is easier to see that the orthogonal directions are parallel to the edges of the board. I do not have any RT software at the moment, but I'm working on a variant using this setup myself, so you may see an MS Paint interpretation sometime soon. Here's a quick'n'dirty diagram of what I mean, on a 10-cell board: R Y G B R B R G Y R (Each layer is centered on top of the previous one.) As you may be able to see, when the board is reoriented in this way, each layer has a four-color tiling that makes Dabbabante (spelling?) moves about ten times easier to see, and it opens itself up to interesting interpretations of 'triagonal' movement. For example, the two green cells in the example above could be considered 'triagonally' adjacent. If you use a Glinski interpretation of a bishop, and extend it into all four 'hexagonal' planes that come out of a single cell, you get a non-colorbound piece. The problem with this setup is that it muddles your interpretation of pawn moves a bit, since 'forward' is in a totally different direction. If I'm not making any sense here, don't mind me. I came up with this a couple years ago on graph paper, and had been thinking about it a while before the 84SC, but I'm only now realizing the parallells.
I was going to use an order-4 octahedron for my variant, with armies on opposite faces. See if you can figure out why I'm using that shape.
Contest: the 9 Queens Problem. Put 9 queens and 1 or 2 pawns such that queens do not see each other. Send your solution before Feb 29, and win a book![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Actually, I was thinking something along the lines of 'maximize the number of queens on a standard 91-cell hex chessboard,' because nobody's done that yet.
Tetrahedral Chess. Three dimensional variant with board in form of tetrahedron. (7x(), Cells: 84) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Oh, don't worry, I've got something in mind. *wink* Also, in an effort to remain on-topic here, I think it would be a very bad idea to make that sort of distinction between 'rook' and 'bishop' moves. since they are all topologically the same move. Rather, you could replace the 'rooks' and 'bishops' with differently defined pieces altogether. (For example, see D. Nalls' pages on the Zig-Zag, etc. pieces in the Piececlopedia.)
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