Comments by Bn Em
Man and Beast 04: Generalised Generals. Systematic naming of part-symmetric coprime radial pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Bn Em wrote on Thu, Oct 9, 2014 06:37 PM UTC:"Motorcyclists may be disappointed that the name Goldwing is not used!" Wouldn't a Goldwing simply be a wing which can also make one step in the remaining Goldgeneral directions? Likewise for e.g Silvermitre, Brasswing, Foresthorn, etc.
Bn Em wrote on Sun, Oct 19, 2014 03:57 PM UTC:I see that you have added the goldsowon etc. to MAB 11, but am confused as to what the different possibilities are for silversowon etc.; as I am interpreting it, both options come out as a wazir+silverpickpocket, by extrapolating in the same manner as with silversow (which I'm pretty sure is at least the second interpretation (extending the long moves of the silversow)); if not, what exactly is the first interpretation? If this is taken as the case, I suppose it would also be possible to likewise extrapolate the raj pieces (e.g. silversahibon, brassmensaon, azurenobobon, etc.)?
One other thought for the moment: what about pieces moving in 3 different types of distance or more, e.g. goldsowon+elephant? How these could work is, at the moment anyway, beyond me...
Btw, sorry if I seem impertinent/rude/etc. I don't mean to come off that way, rather enquiring out of genuine curiosity. Answers to any/all of these questions and potentially the many more that I have now or in the future would be greatly appreciated.:)
Bn Em wrote on Tue, Oct 21, 2014 06:37 PM UTC:I assume you mean replicating only the FO moves on the orthogonals for goldboaron and on the diagonals for silversow, rather than on the diagonals for goldboaron?
Hourglass Hex Chess. 2 overlapping triangles form a hex board of just over FIDE size. (9x9, Cells: 65) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Sun, Oct 26, 2014 08:04 PM UTC:I think your descriptions for the Vicerine and Duchess are the wrong way round...
Promote King Chess. King can promote into Cthulhu, and white pawns can promote into black pawns. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Nov 26, 2014 07:16 PM UTC: Euqorab. Anti-Baroque. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Thu, Jan 22, 2015 07:35 PM UTC: Thoughts on large numbers of players in one chess game. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Mar 11, 2015 08:11 PM UTC:The turn-order thing looks kind of similar to what I have in my 3-Player Chess I, complete with rules for king threats (although as yet no provision for consecutive checks), although I have also added rules making sure that trades do not go on for too long; presumably this would have an effect on trading tactics. I have wondered about extrapolating to more players; aside from longer escape clauses to accommodate the larger no. of players, would anything else need adding?
Meirav. Pieces are buried before they are captured, buried pieces may capture other buried pieces. (2x(8x8), Cells: 128) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Jul 8, 2015 01:15 PM UTC:I'm not entirely clear on how the bottom-board mechanics work, specifically on two points:
(a) Does moving onto a square where an opponent has your piece buried capture your own piece or the opponent's?, and in the former case what would be the advantage of making such a move in the first place?
(b)When a piece on the bottom board moves, must it capture another buried piece or does it capture a piece on the top board and thereby resurface (or may it do either)?
Overall, this seems like an interesting concept and I might try it if these points could be clarified. Thanks in advance :)
Bn Em wrote on Wed, Jul 8, 2015 01:37 PM UTC:How about this?:
Pirahna plants can emerge from Warp pipes, pieces which cannot move on their own but work in pairs like teleporters and can be carried similarly to shy guys; the pirahna plants could move like a king to any square within a 2-square radius of the pipe and would come along if the pipe were moved while it was outside. Promotes to Venus Fire Trap which has rifle capture. It cannot be captured when it returns to the pipe (and obviously doesn't warp).
Bullet Bills move like rooks in the direction they are fired from a bullet bill launcher, which are similar to warp pipes but uncapturable and unable to work as teleporters. Bills may or may not be subject to Momentum Chess rules and there could be limits on how many can be on the board at one time and I'd guess no double Bills (only one bill on one file/rank going vertically/horizontally respectively), esp. if momentum doesn't apply. If Banzai Bills are desired they could be the same except take up a 2x2 square.
Boos could be mobile (if not quite as much as lakitus) and can ignore all pieces in their path but cannot move if threatened by an enemy (and maybe even a friend). Probably cannot be captured by replacement as in originals.
Idea for moving pipe and bill launcher is from the fangame SMBX where there are versions of those which can be used by the player; perhaps if you decide to later make a 'Great Mario Chess' with more pieces one could try to include things like Bowser, Water (and of course then cheep-cheeps, bloopers, maybe frog suit), buzzy beetles (koopas but can't be fire-flowered), and many more...
This was meant to be a reply to the other thread with this title, see here for original thread.
Bn Em wrote on Mon, Feb 27, 2017 07:31 PM UTC: Bent Riders. A discussion of pieces, like the Gryphon, that take a step then move as riders.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Dec 16, 2020 02:53 PM UTC:Wrt piece names, Gilman's Man and Beast series is always worth looking at if you can find your way around (it's invaluable for its comprehensiveness if equally forbidding for its density)
In particular wrt bent pieces, M&B09 suggests Anchorite for W‐then‐B (“after a kind of religious hermit” that sounds like ‘Aanca’, which he rejected for similar reasons). D‐then‐B (Osprey in another variant that came out earlier this year iirc) is suggested as Lama, and its counterpart A‐then‐R is a Zephyr.
N‐then‐B (the GA unicorn/rhinoceros) is omitted, presumably as being too similar to Anchorite (since it can be equivalently described as W‐then‐Ski‐Bishop, perhaps it's a ‘Ski‐anchorite’?).
Cazaux's suggested Dragon and Basilisk are, as HGM found, Betza's Reaper and Harvester (mentioned also in M&B13) — their compund the Combine probably also qualifies as ‘more than crazy’ :D
Piece 3 is, for Gilman, a Fimibrated Gryphon, while piece 4 (if not a typo for “(W-then-B) + (D-then-B)”, which would be a fimibrated anchorite) is M&B13's Ancress, except that the rook component is Ski‐; the ancress' counterpart, gryphon+bishop, is a Metropolitan.
Fwiw, M&B09 suggests Contra‐ versions as well, which make the sliding move before the leap
Not sure if any besides the Tripunch set have been used though…
Bn Em wrote on Thu, Dec 17, 2020 08:29 PM UTC in reply to Jean-Louis Cazaux from Wed Dec 16 06:39 PM:Iirc what happened with the diagrams was that after they were added some changes were made to Fergus' Diagram Designer which meant that the FEN Charles used no longer generates dots in the images (M&B09 actually got off pretty good here as most of the diagrams there have numbers); Charles seems to have disappeared though so noöne has fixed them.
I agree it's a long and difficult piece of writing, all the more so because of how much it has to get through; and it takes some time to get familiar with (though as you say, there's a bunch of interesting things in there, including stuff which he's thought of by exhaustion that occasionally comes up in these comment sections with questions as to whether anyone's though of this yet). Not sure how easy it'd be to rework though without making it several times longer still… (maybe it'd work as a series of videos??)
Hit and Run Chess. After the first move, players may move 1 piece twice or two pieces once, capturing only on any piece's first move.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Fri, Jan 1, 2021 08:54 PM UTC:Any movement (aside from the null move if you count that) has a direction; in the knight's case, as with oblique leapers in general, it happens to be between the usual ortho‐ and diagonals, but it's still a direction just as a dabbaba's or alfil's (2‐square leap ortho‐ resp. diagonally) leap. Hence also the nightrider, which makes multiple knight leaps in the same direction (e.g. from a1 to b3,c5,d7 or c2,e3,g4 on 8×8), and with which many readers will be familiar, hence the confusion over the knight's ‘path’.
Fwiw the queen diagram is cool, if a bit daunting‐looking at first
Play-test applet for chess variants. Applet you can play your own variant against.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Tue, Jan 5, 2021 08:35 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 07:21 PM:Or we could introduce a special XBetza notation for virgin moves that cannot be played when in check
If that's the chosen option, it seems like it'd make sense to expand it to any move that can't be made while in check — see, for instance, David Cannon's Lemniscate Chess where a checked king can't move at all. (That variant in particular is probably well out of scope for the applet, but similar rules are concievable for other more mobile kings as an alternative to excluding movement through check)
Hyperchess. 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.
Bn Em wrote on Sat, Jan 30, 2021 12:44 PM UTC:Are you sure the rather extensive Alfaerie: Many set doesn't have what you need? If not, what do you feel you're missing?
Bn Em wrote on Sat, Jan 30, 2021 02:42 PM UTC in reply to Aurelian Florea from 01:52 PM:OK so for the birds (I assume based on previous comments that ‘thunderbolt’ is a typo, though I suppose md or something suggests some kind of energy) I'd go with either modified bird pictures (things like _PA_cd, _PA_wa, _PA_wc, _jc_af, !aaf, !aak, !aaw ⁊c) or something which suggests the move (so the likes of _JG_bgr, _JG_bspgr, _JG_co, _JG_gr, _JG_ha, _JG_raa, _JG_rc, _JG_rcd, _JG_rcflaa, _JG_re, _JG_rspaa, _MLV_si2 ⁊c.).
The humanoids could, given their moves, also draw from the same set as the birds, or you could just go with the various human heads (ge, maybe th or ch, _MLV_ge, _MLV_ma ⁊c) — as far as the cyclops is concerned, you can only see up to one eye at a time(!) Alternatively _MH_ge kind of looks like an eye.
As for the Valkyrie, idk how I'd represent an actual valkyrie so I'd suggest some kind of augmented bishop. _MH_b, _JG_ap2b, or _JG_apb2b perhaps?
Insect Chess. On a 12x12 board. All pieces are insect and arachnid representations, with some unique pieces. (12x12, Cells: 144) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Feb 3, 2021 12:22 AM UTC:George Duke's comments interpret two- and three‐square leaps as along radial lines. It's not clear to me, however, esp. given the talk of the tarantula being ‘easily most powerful’ and of ‘smothering’ towards the end of the page, that it's not referring to oblique leaps as well, making the Mantis and Waterbugs WFNAD's rather than WFAD's and the Tarantulas full (and indeed very powerful) 3‐square area‐leapers.
Bn Em wrote on Wed, Feb 3, 2021 06:47 PM UTC:Good point. I took a look and although I don't have Zillions, the code seems to define 24 leaps for the Waterbugs and Mantis and 48 for the Tarantula, which indeed corresponds to the area leaping rather than just radial moves.
Interestingly the header comment in the .zrf calls it Entomology Chess rather than Insect Chess. Perhaps he deemed it too obscure a word?
Copycat chess. Members-Only Variant centered around piece which copy, and also a cat is there.[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.
Manticore. Moves one space orthogonally, then slides outward as a Bishop.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]📝Bn Em wrote on Sat, Feb 13, 2021 08:31 PM UTC:This is now ready for editorial review — there are a number of notes/question at the bottom that will need resolving but I'd like the eds' (and any other) input on those.
📝Bn Em wrote on Sun, Feb 14, 2021 09:18 PM UTC:I suspected the naming would be the most immediately controversial part of this :) The ‘angry’ in ‘angryph’, even if only in written form, is a bit unfortunate — I suppose one could compromise with ‘angriph’, though griphon/griphin is completely unsttested afaik and imo looks a bit odd.
I share only weakly the reservations regarding Aanca as the primary name for the page (H. G.'s point about Alfil is imo a valid one, and even more pronounced in the case of our Queen, which is still Ferz in Russian and Wazir in Arabic iirc); in any case, given its wide use, it is, as mentioned in the notes, probably worth having at least as an alias link.
The problem with both Manticore and Alicorn, from the perspertive of a Piecelopedia submission, is that both are afaik completely without precedent in actual games: on that account Aanca wins outright, with Rhino and Spider somewhere behind.
My own reservation with angryph — and H. G.'s suggestion of using the ‘gryph‐’ root generally for bent riders, is that it suggests that the (ferz‐then‐rook) gryphon is somehow more primary, which is true neither mathematically nor historically — it just happened to have a name commonly established first. Though apparently it may be etymologically connected with ‘cherub’, so that may be an option for future usage (though still perhaps not for this page aþm) — ‘angel’ even starts with A (though M&B09 uses it for ferz‐then‐dabbabarider, David Paulowich's ‘Spotted Gryphon’ — there's no winning this, is there??︎)
The name suggestions for the ski‐ and lame versions, while perhaps somewhat interesting (though I'm less interested in nomenclature myself), are imo a little beside the point: as far as I'm concerned the discussion is about the title of the page as a whole, and thus the name of the main piece described on it.
I've added the note about mating potential to the paragraph on colourswitching.
@Jean‐Louis: My apologies for the orthographical error. One of those occasions where a basic familiarity with spoken French did not work in my favour :)
📝Bn Em wrote on Tue, Feb 16, 2021 06:12 PM UTC:Re names, I much prefer Acromantula over Rotated/Tilted/Complement of/Altered Griffon as I consider neither one more/less basic. As for a generic term for pieces with ortho‐/diagonal components swapped, something with ‘complement’ seems appropriate (suggesting a symmetrical relationship) — perhaps ‘diagonal complement’ or ‘radial complement’? For pieces with only one kind of radial move Charles Gilman uses ‘dual’, but for pieces mixing them that's subtly different. The concept is more complicated on 3D boards so the terminology needn't take that into account.
@Aurelian: fwiw, Daniil Frolov's variant (mentioned on the page) uses Gryphon for its usual referent and Dragon for the t[WB], so that way round wouldn't be without precedent — in fact I'd initially forgotten the name change from Gryphon/Aanca and assumed that the Dragon was the t[WB] when drafting this.
Grande Acedrex. Missing description[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Bn Em wrote on Wed, Feb 17, 2021 09:21 PM UTC:According to Jean‐Louis' site the king can make an initial two‐square radial leap
Edit: just took a look at the code and saw that those are already there and the question was about knight leaps in addition to those. But yeah there seems to be no indication that those are available
25 comments displayed
Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.
Admittedly, though, I have not played draughts in a *very* long time, so I cannot remember exactly whether this is actually how it was. I do remember that:
(a) it is played on the diagonals of a 10x10 board, with each player's 1st 3 rows filled
(b) the unpromoted piece moves as in this variant, though I cannot remember whether it must be forwards. It could make multiple captures as described; I do not recall any obligation to capture
(c) the promoted piece, or 'queen' ('dama' in Spanish; the namesake of the game and isonymic with the chess queen) moves as the promoted draught in this variant. I think it must have had to stop on the square after its victim (otherwise it is quite overpowered), but I do not recall how multiple capture worked... What I have opted for in this variant seems a logical choice
With regard to the artificiality of the board, I agree, having playtested two prototype versions of this. However, it works, and, once you get used to it, it's not that difficult to deal with. :)