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2007-2008 Chess Variants Design Contest. Chess variant inventors gather round! We're doing it again! Exact nature of contest to be determined with YOUR help!![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Gary Gifford wrote on Sat, Sep 1, 2007 06:38 PM UTC:

Joe: You mention lack of constraints and chaos.  But, given the choice of (a) design a chess variant while abiding by numerous restrictions or (b) design a chess-variant - I would pick 'b.'  That is essentially what we have been doing at CV and I do not see the 'chaos' that you mention.

You stated that, 'The contest is to design a sufficiently chess-like variant that it [sic] could be 'the next FIDE chess'.'  I think this is wishful thinking.  There are many excellent Chess-like games, like the Fischer Random Chess, for example... yet Fide Chess just keeps hanging in there.  We can try, of course to create the next evolution of Chess...  But, when the boards are made waxed and polished... when they sit proudly in the sunlight with their pieces casting shadows while waiting for the logic of their masters... well then, we have our game.  But I truly suspect that Chess will remain supreme.  

As a side note, when I played Roberto's Maxima I had a great appreciation of it and could easily picture that game as the chess variant for future generations... yet such a future is far away and likely not to happen.  Time will tell... but as we all know, Fide chess is quite endurable.

Joe Joyce wrote on Sat, Sep 1, 2007 11:33 PM UTC:

Hey, Gary. It wouldn't be right to let you go on without knowing the background here, as you've been away from the Comments for a while. George and I, coming from totally different directions, have more or less agreed to meet in the middle to get things we both want; specifically, the area of the Luotuoqi and the concept for the contest I just proposed. My 'sufficiently chesslike to become the next Fide' remark was meant strictly to rule out things like any of my variants, for example. And none of the example games I mentioned is really very far from FIDE. A chess player with no experience of variants would find them very easy to learn, understand, and play [play well is another matter]. They have basically the same depth, complexity, and mode of play as Fide. In my variants, the average chess player will often recognize only the king and pawns, and in some, not even that - no good. I have no expectation that FIDE chess will go anywhere soon. And if it did, it wouldn't be going in my directions. So as a challenge, I'm certainly willing to try to design something unlike what I've done before. And there are a large number of people who only like those kinds of variants, giving me a new audience. For me, this is a definite challenge and a new direction.

Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Sep 2, 2007 12:36 PM UTC:

I must admit I am not clear about this contest.  On one hand I was getting the notion that there was a 45/46 square contest with freedom to design rules and pieces; on the other hand, I see a chess constraints contest which was having dimensional restrictions still being discussed.  

Perhaps there are two different topics going on within the same '2007-2008 Chess Variants Design Contest' heading? 

I made a board in anticipation of a 45/46 squares contest... I've not added pieces or rules because I am very much in the fog as to what is allowed.  Are the 45/46 squares even allowed?  Are there two contests planned?

Jeremy Good wrote on Sun, Sep 2, 2007 01:07 PM UTC:

Gary, yes, this has evolved into two contests and I need to make a new post to announce the first one, which I'll do later today. Sorry for the confusion. The first one is for 45 or 46 cells, only restriction that 45 or 46 cells are used. [I say cells because they don't have to be 'squares' per se.] Deadline for Submissions: November 30, 2007.

The other is of a nature yet to be determined but you can fully participate in that determination. It can have lots of restrictions or just one and there are many choices ['dimensional' is just one possible restriction which may or may not be instituted] and choices about how many restrictions as well. I'd like to create a poll for this in the nature of the MAM Condorcet polls.

Gary Gifford wrote on Sun, Sep 2, 2007 04:50 PM UTC:

Thanks Jeremy. Your last comment was very helpful.

Jeremy Good wrote on Wed, Sep 5, 2007 02:19 PM UTC:

You're welcome. I'm moving up the deadline for selecting the next chess variants contest (contest two) to January First, 2008, so people can concentrate on the 45-46 variants contest (deadline November 30th, 2007) and then have an extra month to think about selecting the next design contest. This will also give more time to poll for a choice.

Reinhard Scharnagl wrote on Wed, Sep 5, 2007 08:13 PM UTC:

Because the rules still are unclear to me, I have decided not to work on a 'Chess with Varying Squares' variant entry any longer this time.

Thomas wrote on Sun, Nov 2, 2008 01:38 PM UTC:

Is this contest still ongoing, or is it already over, or has it died silently?

Joe Joyce wrote on Sun, Nov 2, 2008 06:17 PM UTC:

Thomas, the contest split into 2 contests, the 45-46 square contest, which is now complete, and a nebulous design contest that actually did die a silent death. There have been discussions about a contest, but they have not actually coalesced into a contest. 

To actually have a contest, you need a few things. One is a decent theme, or a central reference point, for the contest. Another is a workable method of judging the contest. A third is a reasonable number of contestants. 

I am certainly willing to hold contests. But I'm not willing to be reduced to begging for help judging ... again. ;-) The 45-46 square contest started with me being a contestant and ended with me not only being the main judge of the contest but also an editor here. I may be slow but I don't need to get whacked upside the head more than twice to know that the next contest I get involved in is going to have a very different set of groundrules. :-)

That being said, the floor is open to all. What do we do? How can I help?

🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Thu, Mar 17, 2016 07:49 PM UTC:

I changed the itemid for this page from MP2007-2008chess to MS2007-2008chess, because MP is reserved for Game Courier presets. I also added a contest pseudo-directory to the semantic URLS.

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