Fwiffo: Not only have I played it, I wrote a ZRF for it. An article by Jean-Louis Cazaux on http://history.chess.free.fr/hiashatar.htm spells out an important limitation on the bodyguards' zone of influence on the movement of the horse. He also includes photographs of pieces.

http://www.geocities.com/kisslook/eng/mongeng.html
anyone ever played the 10x10 variant?

is anyone interested in dark xiangqi? The game is quite popular, but not quite the same as dark chess. It is probably the most widespread variant I have seen.

http://www.chessvariants.org/xiangvar.html

Thad: Yes, with perfect play, both pente and ninuki-renju have been solved as a win for the white player.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pente

this is how Keryo Pente came about. I'm not sure if that one's been solved though.

Thad: Yes, of course. I forgot the classic chess is symmetrical too :-)

Fencer: Ah, I see, it's the order that is the same as classic chess. The missing square causes the color flip. And whether the queen is on her own color or the opposite, it's still symetrical. ;-)

Thanks.

Thad: Nope, this variant is symmetrical.
http://www.chessvariants.org/small.dir/losalamos.html

Shouldn't the queen start on her own color (as in classic chess)?

redsales: Pente is not solved.

@AbigaiII It's my own idea, I tested it in some blitz game with a friend. It seems to be similar to normal chess, but there a few new possibilities, it's intersting. I like it...

for the new chess games. And one of them just a week after suggesting it. ;-)

Doerdich: Is that just an idea, or have you play tested it?

Hi, I developed a New Chess Variant, I want to suggest (I call it "Capture-Chess"): There are the same pieces and the same board like in normal chess, but additionaly it is allowed to capture own pieces. If someone captures his own king, he cannot be checkmated. But then he has to checkmate the other in a maximum of 50 moves (this is of course variable, but I took 50 in analogy to the draw-rule of 50 moves), otherwise he is lost. If someone has already captured his own king, the opponent may not capture his own king.

Is pente solved? I didn´t know that...

Geometry is a subject studied often, with the goal of understanding; although the "proofs" stand--the idea is to spread the knowledge amongst masses of people. The essence of the process hold innovative ideas, even if they are old, and a few know the solution.

Our games have such depth we play, and most don't know the "solution", or they would fall into disuse. Our games are not yet "past their time", because those few who do "know the solution" haven't transmitted it to the rest of us by osmosis.

So there is plenty left to see in these games. And even when they are solved, there will be plenty to see....

pente and 5 in line have been solved, but i still play em!

Fencer: Yes, you're right. It's Connect4 (7x8) that is solved.

But still, "having been solved" doesn't mean the game can't be enjoyable. Or not be a challenge. Certain chess end-games are solved as well - but will still be huge challenge for a human to play. And there are still people out there that enjoy playing tic-tac-toe.

fungame: It's solved in the sense that there's a lookup table for each position and die role to see what the best move is. In fact, for any position one can calculate the winning chance.

Fencer: I thought classic line4 was 7x6.

AbigailII: There cannot be solution for dice-dependent games, solution in meaning one side always wins or draws in all variants. Of course in gammons best probability for each move can be counted, but probability and reality are quite different.

AbigailII: I think only the classic 8x7 Line4 is solved, 8x8 is not.

AbigailII: line4? really? do you have a link for the proof?

fungame: Hyper bg solved? That must be a joke.

http://www.bkgm.com/variants/HyperBackgammon.html claims it is. Considering the relatively low number of positions, this isn't at all surprising.

AbigailII: Line4 solved? I thougt 8x8 wasn't solved yet. Hyper bg solved? That must be a joke.

Fencer: I've no idea whether it's solved. But is that a problem? Line4 and Hyper Backgammon are solved as well, but people still play it. And in PakTum, with perfect play, black cannot win. But people still play it.

AbigailII: Isn't this game already solved?
On the other hand, it still seems to be better balanced than Horde or Maharajah Chess.

Hyper backgammon, as regular backgammons smaller brother, is a huge success. Perhaps Los Alamos Chess can be successful too. It's played on a 6x6 board. There are no bishops, there's no en passant taking, no initial 2 step move for pawns, and no castling. It was the first chess game that computer played - way back in the 50s. Next year, it's 50 years ago that computers first tried playing chess - and it was Los Alamos Chess they first tried.

"Lost Pawns Chess" looks interesting.
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/chessvariants/message/1668

And doesn't seem to be patented...

Fencer: O yes I see....What a pity!

Caissus: No more patents, please.
http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/falconpatent.html

is an interesting chessvariant played on a 10x8 board: http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/falcon.html

Perhaps we can have it as third 10x8 variant anytime?

Probably I am not the first one to see it, but chessvariants.com is back online - seems just a little slower than it used to be.

Here is a Xiang Qi (Chinese chess) tournament with a prize of a one-year Brain Rook membership. Everyone is welcome to participate.

http://brainking.com/es/Tournaments?trg=10680&trnst=0&tp=68

Fencer: maybe a strategic alliance is in order?

Nasmichael: Too much resources for the comments script? It cannot consume more resources than BK's discussion board system :-)

BIG BAD WOLF: From chessfriend Hans--

(an email to me today)--

"Dear Michael,

Thanks for the mail. Yes, there is a problem - the hosting firm thought we
use too much resources with the script that gets the comments at the bottoms
of the webpages. I've forwarded your email to David Howe (and cc him with this
email), who is currently one of the chief editors of the website.

Best regards,
Hans"

I offer a Shogi tournament for those who love "drop chess" games, this is the Father of them all.

Come and play.

Paul, this one's for you!

I also think so. It would be too much an invaluable loss if this site didn't reappear in one way or another.

People that wrote this huge site with all their great efforts, it is sure they will come back........!

that's a shame, that site was so popular, but I do get the same message.

Fencer: I would guess the site went over it's limit for something where it is hosted.

I know where I'm hosted at will suspend my site if I go over bandwidth or possible a DOS attack against the domain name, etc.

If it was "closed" or "expired", I'm sure the hosting company (ipowerweb) would not replace it with a note saying to contact them.

Fencer: Yes, I misspelled his name, --Bodlaender-- and I just emailed him.

Just waiting for response.

Fencer: Yes, 99.99% chances he is the founder of chessvariants.org . I remember that he was from Utrecht.

Nasmichael: I guess we are talking about this guy, right?

nabla: Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Fencer: Oh I've got another one : chessvar@yahoo.com with the owner described as "The Chess Variants Pages"

Fencer: Somewhere in my mailbox I have got the editors@chessvariants.org address, but I guess it would not work either :-(

Fencer: I will be sure to do that.

Nasmichael: Please let me know if you get some info from Hans Boedlander.

Fencer: Yeah, I got the same thing. Unsure of what is going on....

I hope it is very temporary.