Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

The word ugly is inappropriate. The colour of the squares can be altered. Its the rules and play that matter.

To play the game of Bishops first you have to buy it or make a home made version on your coffee table maybe. Then you will see
how excellent it is. With double the squares and 3 opponents it could be said there is an element of chance in the game.

I see nothing inappropriate with using the word 'ugly'.  I share the
anonymous poster's opinion of the graphic, primarily because of the
garish colors.  But I have no objection to the appearance of the board and
pieces in the photograph on the linked page.

Rating your own game, however, really is inappropriate.  And I don't
think you'll find many people willing to pay nearly fifty dollars merely
for the right to find out whether a game is good.  To suggest that we
should do so takes a great deal of chutzpah.

The reason I used Pink and White for the Prototype originally was to try
and make it appealing to more women. Women tend generally to not play
Chess to the extent men do. So that was the intention from a commercial
marketing perspective. But it is a mute point now. It could I suppose be
on an ordinary coloured board. I won't rate my game again here, maybe
for
fun I will in later months. 

Anyone interested can make their own test board. Just take a standard
Chess board and draw in the rest of the squares on your coffee table
around the Chess board. Then take 2 sets of chess pieces and paint one
set
pink and grey. 

Then go online to print out the rules in your language.

Then make 4 more boards ( or buy some from me ) and have a Tourny. The
ultimate final 2 players of the Tourney will be playing 'as Chess' ,
which is how Bishops the long game ends. Which is only fitting for an
excellent Chess Variant, to end 'as Chess'.

oops , sorry I rated my game excellent again. sorry.

Any investors out there with $750,000 , kindly contact me and lets get
making this game commercially in China and sell it at Walmart. Its the
only way to go. It has to be in a white and pink box however to attract
the lady consumer. Also it has to be quality looking for about 39.95 or
49.95 . Also it has to be storeable, like using a folding board like
Trivial Pursuit, in a nice neat Box.

Ok, maybe $650,000 will suffice. .. :) 

Any takers ?

Contact me asap at [email protected] 

Ed

I was surprised to see a request for investors posted here... but that is
not the real reason I'm commenting.  I don't care for the 'pink' board
at all.  The 'pink' aspect certainly turns me away from the game.  This
has nothing to do with the game itself (which might be good, I don't
know... I looked at the pinkish board for a short while and had to turn
away).  Some may think that the board does not matter, but research color
theory and you will see that color and appearance are very important.

It is similar to the fact that I don't play chess with Scooby Doo or
Simpsons sets, etc. But these are okay for collectors and kids. Still, 
 I see no desire to collect Pink Sets. As for women needing pink sets, 
I think that is a silly notion.  The Polgar Sisters, Maria Ivanka 
(9 x Hungarian Women's Champion) and many other great Women Masters have
no problem playing with standard official FIDE and USCF accpeted colors. 
I defeated women at the chessboard, not once did they imply that they
lost because the board was not pink.

One last thought, if the game is truly aimed at women, why call it 'Bishops' 
(a masculine religious figure association)?  Perhaps 
'Lady Clergy in Pink Chess' would be more fitting?
Of course, you mention selling the game in China, so 
translation considerations must be looked into.

Holy cow, I hit the preview button after typing 5 @#$%^&* paragraphs and
then came back here and its all gone. Can someone in the Engineering room
fix that? I did not see the OR  word. 

so I will try to remmember what I wrote.

Well its all gone until another day, the main point I was making is I
give
on the board colour. It can be whatever the board colour committee
decides.

But I still want the pieces to be White, Grey, Black, Pink.

I will post the things that were lost when I hit the preview button
another day.

I think 'feminized' pieces, or entire teams, even, are a pretty cool
idea, and in keeping with the open-minded spirit of our times.  I've had
people ask me for just the female counterparts to make a whole female side
for my Jetan-Sarang sets (there's a link to the graphics etc. in the
alphabetical index under Je), so that one side would be all females.  
I made counterparts for all the male pieces, naming them by just dropping
the final consonant on the male names, and empowering them with slightly
different but similar moves, e.g., Than (male) moves two orthogonally, and
Tha (female) moves one OR two orthogonally, based on the theory that male
and female have different survival strategies which average to equal in
the long run. Panthan (male pawn) does not move straight backward, but
Pantha (female pawn) does, with no loss of face; we understand the
differences and forgive them, y'see. Girls have one bag of tricks to help
them get through life, and guys another, different set of assets, and
that's that. The overlap is that we're all playing the same game, which
you might call 'Seeking Pleasure and Avoiding Pain,' or 'Stiff-Arming
the Reaper'.
  As long as we remember it's a game, vive les differences, sez I, and
anyone who gets hot about gender issues can take it somewhere else, as far
as I'm concerned; I don't see it as a war that anyone wins.
  Pink works well with black, white and gray; four good connotations to
counterpoise--happiness, evil, purity and doubt.

In regard to feminized pieces, I have no problem with that aspect (which
hopefully is not assumed from my previous comment).  I have trouble with
mixing 'pink' and chess.  I do own a 'good angels vs bad angels' chess
set.  The white pieces are all female...mostly white and gold and skin
tone... many of the black ones are female too.  I have it only as part of
a collection... but if they were pink and / or on a pink board, then I'd
have to say 'yech.'  

However, my artistic views must not be considered to be better than the
views others hold.  The rest of the world, for example, could love pink
boards and pink pieces (hypothetically), but I still would not care for
them.

In regard to James Spratt's Jetan-Sarang, I say, 'A work of art.  Very
nice.' I've watched part of a  Jetan-Sarang game in progess, and it is
like a piece of moving art work.'

Hi, Gary:  I think I know what you mean with the 'pink' business. 
Someone wanted me to do some doll-heads, hands, etc., and after seeing the
doll-show, it dawned on me that they're overdoing their gender roles, in
the same way macho tough-guys overdo theirs, and I feel some revulsion for
it, sort of like they're trying too hard to be what they have no choice
about anyway.
  Thanks for the kudos on Sarang; I put a lot of work into that whole
thing, and still am.  I think I'm still in a couple of games of it here,
too, if someone would make a MOVE!(Yeah, I know it's new and tricky..)
  Big Suzie sez she's decided not to beat you up after all, you MCP
you...(har-de-har-har!)

Well I will try to answer some of the questions so far. Like I say I had a
big reply to Gary and since I put in BOTH my ID and name it rejected it and
then when I come back to the editing section all the words are gone. That
is SO frustrating. So this problem can be fixed I know somehow so the
webmasters should try and fix it. It could cause a loss of customers. :)

Regarding the name Bishops , it is named Bishops because of the Bishops
Rule in the game. When a King enters any corner square he is in Sanctuary
then and his Bishops immediately become Queens. When 2 Queens are captured
the King must re-enter the playing area on his turn. If he cannot enter
without being in Check, then that player misses a turn. He could
theoretically be stopped from further play in the game and thus lose.

Now I see there is 3 more posts about the Pink issue. I admit to defeat on
the pink board, dis i say that already? But here is the reason for the
colours. Chess has 2 sides , white and black. So a 50-50 mix of white and
black will give you Grey. Notice the English spelling of Grey , as I am
Canadian. Hence not Gray. Also a 50-50 mix of white and blood red would
produce a Pink. As i said I am not a lover of Red or Blue or Green for
Chess pieces. But anyway the Pink has to stay for the Chess Pieces ,
otherwise I will be fire the whole engineering department and hire new
people. ( kidding )

In summary I hope some people can ACTUALLY play Bishops and rate it,
irregardless if you want to buy a game or not. You can paint some spare
chess pieces and put extra squares on your coffee table or something. It
may be easier to just order a game from me for $48 US total and have a
collectors item as well. 

The Long version ends 'as Chess' remember and theoretically when all the
pieces return to the 64 square playing area it is Chess. The Short version
simply ends when one palyer forces a Checkmate of the player to his left.
ie Black Checkmates Pink.

Any technical questions , just ask. 

........actually I think I just cause a minor wording change revision in
the rules. When 2 of the 3 Queens are captured makes sense, it does not
have to be the 2 original Bishops. because then identical pieces can be
used in the board version. In a computer game the computer would know when
2 of the 3 Queens are captured and the next move would need to be the King
entering the playing area again.

Ed ( The Inventor of Bishops )

Hi, Holy geepers , yer right. Me being a ordinary hetero guy I never
thought of the gender or sex issue , just the moving of the pieces and
there power on the board. If the Bishops were transformed to a Queen piece
or on a computer game , it would appear a bit transgenderish. We can blame
religion on this problem. So now what do I do. This is going to be a major
rule revision for sure. 

The name has to stay Bishops. Its copyrighted and everything. Plus its a
neat name. 

Off the top of my head I have no ideas how to correct this problem. I will
need a day or two maybe. Maybe some other ppl can give ideas. Its obvious
we cant have a Bishop undergoing a sex change. This will save money on
extra Queen pieces however for the board version. 

Actually if the Bishops stay Bishops and only gain the POWER of a Queen,
whats wrong with that?

later

thx, I missed that , silly me.

Actually....its Knights...originally in 1991 I thought to give the Bishops
the power of Knights!! From a speed playing view point and power , I think
Knights hold lots of power. The idea of having the King in sanctuary was to
speed the game up ,, with more power on the board. I think if the Bishops
are given power of Knights it might work? Thus no controversial issues
regarding the S word. 

later

''Kings may enter their own coloured corner square and become immune from
check or checkmate, provided that both of their Bishops are not captured.
When a King enters his corner square, both of his Bishops obtain the power
of a Queen instantly. If both Bishops are captured, the King must on his
next move return to an unoccupied space around the corner square, but may
not move into check. If the King cannot re-enter then he must wait (miss a
turn) until a square is available. ''

......I had to re-read the rules, it does say only the power of a queen. I
had thought of a computer version making it a queen image,, but the Bishops
will stay as they appear and just gain the POWER of a queen. No werries now
about transwatever. 

Bishops rules on certain webpages have not been updated.....it is ANY
corner square....the King may enter ANY corner square. This allows a quick
castle to the King side and into the opponents corner square.

each side has a heraldic emblem,, each emblem contains colours of all the
opponents. Hence the ongoing mideaval battle ...wars generally involve 2
sides , right vs wrong so to speak,, but often there are many opponents
not just 2. Who is right and who is wrong. Hence a game for 4.

White is the Helmet.
Grey is the Shield.
Black is the Sword.
Pink is the Torch.

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
My heart to greater loyalty,
My hands to larger service,
My health to better living;

A spinoff of the 4H motto.

Any 4H clubs out there are welcome to start a Bishops Club or add it to
your roster. The 4 corner squares emblems and mottos of the sides are
molded after the 4H motto.

In order for any side to win, they cannot ignore their 2 neighbours on
their right. For if they do they will also lose. Therefore helping one or
two of your enemies is sometimes needed. A trait not found in many games,
while still playing offensive to the left.

Any Chess Variant must also withstand the unswerving wrath of Chess
purists. In fact and I agree, all Chess Variants will fail this challenge.
However when I invented Bishops, I did not intend it to replace Chess, as
nothing could ever. However with the ending played 'as Chess' it may
calm some purists and lull them into buying a game of Bishops from me. Or
2 or 3 or 1,000,000 or .....geepers.....pinch me, Im dreaming I think.


later

GreyBishop99


PS ...There is one false rule which must remain until the right time.

There are several small travel versions available for $10 US plus
shipping.

I will see if I can get a picture posted.


Ed

here is some pics of small game board

http://www.yellowmall.ca/Bishops/FRONT.jpg 

http://www.yellowmall.ca/Bishops/BACK.jpg 


thx

Ed

$10 US plus shipping

The packaging for the game looks quite good.  The green box looks nice, the
black and white board is a pleasant change from the hot pink.  I imagaine
the board folds in 1/4 sections to fit in the box.  I visited the web-site
listed in the picture and saw this message:

This domain name expired on 02/19/2006 and is pending renewal or
deletion.

Will the bishopthegame.com site come back under your control?  
Do you have another site?

Yes, that was a prototype too. I paid for 40 pieces from China , received
20. Some got lost on the boat I guess. The design work and build was free
though. To order, it would need to be 10,000 pieces minimum. ...lots of
moolah needed. :)

I could resurrect it at some future date. It should not say 'Chess' on
the cover and notice the white and black pieces were backwards in the
cover pic.

minor problems tho...

These guys gave a good review in their May/June 1999 magazine,

http://www.chessvariants.com/nost.html 

page 8

Mr John J McCallion ( NOST ) likes the game concept and rules.


No, the website will be at Netfirms......its free.


later

Ed

Hello
I cannot seem to login here or join.
Could someone in admin help me out ?
My email contact is .....
[email protected] 

My game here is Bishops, The Game

I would like to update all my info.....

Thanks

Edwin Wilhelm

Ed, I have sent you an email concerning registration.

Hello,
This is the inventor of Bishops, The Game.

I would like to ask a question to the audience and get some opinions:

Question:
If and when an "online version" of Bishops. The Game is introduced someday in the future , should it allow "robots" or computer players ? ie the program would also supply a robot if requested. 

Or would it be better to only allow "REAL people" who are logged in to play?

Please add comments and say "Yes" to have computers and robot play or "No" to only have REAL people log in and play.

As the Inventor/Owner I am leaning toward "No" myself, but am undecided as yet.

A future online site may be resdy and "live" sometime in July-August 2014.