ChessV has played Great Shatranj since the early days. The original versions (0.x) supported it fully. But about eight years ago, I abandoned that code and rewrote from scratch (versions 2.x). These also supported GS but the other day I noticed - to my horror! - that the promotion rule wasn't fully implemented. I think I meant to talk with Joe about simpilifying it first and then forgot about it. So the current version doesn't allow pawn promotion at all! Obviously that needs to be fixed.
I notice on your 'person info' page, the link to Chess V .... doesn't seem to work.
Wow, yes, that link was very old indeed. Thank you for pointing this out. The new home is http://www.chessv.org/ You should check it out if you haven't seen it since the rewrite. It's a huge improvement.
Regarding a new promotion rule, the options discussed are fine with me. Should promotion be to General or Jumping General? I guess it depends how decisive we want promotion to be. A possible shortcoming to allowing promotion to only Jumping General would be the (admittendly very rare) situation where promoting to that piece would trigger a stalemate. My personal suggestion would be either (A) pawns always promote to Generals, or (B) pawns may promote to a choice of Minister, High Priestess, or Jumping General. But I'm not really picky. My main objection to the current rule is that you cannot tell what promotion options are available by looking at the board - you have to know the game history.
ChessV has played Great Shatranj since the early days. The original versions (0.x) supported it fully. But about eight years ago, I abandoned that code and rewrote from scratch (versions 2.x). These also supported GS but the other day I noticed - to my horror! - that the promotion rule wasn't fully implemented. I think I meant to talk with Joe about simpilifying it first and then forgot about it. So the current version doesn't allow pawn promotion at all! Obviously that needs to be fixed.
Wow, yes, that link was very old indeed. Thank you for pointing this out. The new home is http://www.chessv.org/ You should check it out if you haven't seen it since the rewrite. It's a huge improvement.
Regarding a new promotion rule, the options discussed are fine with me. Should promotion be to General or Jumping General? I guess it depends how decisive we want promotion to be. A possible shortcoming to allowing promotion to only Jumping General would be the (admittendly very rare) situation where promoting to that piece would trigger a stalemate. My personal suggestion would be either (A) pawns always promote to Generals, or (B) pawns may promote to a choice of Minister, High Priestess, or Jumping General. But I'm not really picky. My main objection to the current rule is that you cannot tell what promotion options are available by looking at the board - you have to know the game history.