echec-et-mat: How much would TUTTI-FRUTTI chess add, given that BK already has Embassy chess, Grand Chess and Capablanca Random Chess which all three feature the same "new" pieces TUTTI-FRUTTI features, although with a different name. And one of the pieces also appears as a Janus in Janus Chess.

agentofchaos: Hmmm, the rules say "The rules of Neutral King Chess are identical to those of International Chess, except when noted below.", and below it doesn't mention anything about pawns. Yet, in the initial configuration, each player has exactly one pawn on their second row, and one pawn on their first row. Which means the white player can play 'd2-d4' twice. But not as a first move. And as a second move for the pawn starting from the first row. It would have made more sense to limit the pawn movement and forbid a double step as the move from the second row.

And the unsymmetric starting position irks me.

(BTW, if Fencer is going to make new games, I'd prefer to see some Mancala variants instead of yet another chess variant.)

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fencer: So I can promote a pawn only to a piece which is contained in the opponent's prison? And the promoting pawn goes to the opponent's prison, being exchanged for the piece to promote to?

That's my reading of the rules as well, and, in my opinion, it's a sensible way of dealing with promotions.

Fencer: Time will tell, I guess. I'd certainly try it if it became available. And it seems that it's fairly easy to implement, beside the extra pawns, there's just one difference with standard chess rules.

A couple of year ago I played at FICS. One of the wild variants I fancied there had the traditional setup of an 8x8 board, 8 pawns on the 2nd row (7th for black), and 8 pieces on the first (8th) row. The pieces were not only randomly placed, but also randomly drawn - with the restriction of having exactly one king. Blacks setup mirrorred whites. So you could have a game with 3 rooks, 3 bishops, a knight and a king. Or a king and 7 queens, if you were (un)lucky enough.

Fencer: And the pawn on the e-file? Promote to a second king? ;-)

Chessmaster1000: It's not that bad that a pawn can only promote to a knight after capturing a knight. The mere fact it promotes means escape for a rook, a bishop and either the queen or the king.

Sumerian: Because there are really only 480 different positions. Each of the 960 positions can be paired with its mirror image. So the 960 positions is really 480 pairs.

Walter Montego: "Anybody know what's become of him [Robert Fischer]"

Chessbase regulary posts articles what's going with Fischer. Its most recent article on Fischer, which includes links to previous articles: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2156

As for the name of the game, I prefer "Fischer Random Chess". "Chess960" sounds too much like "Windows 2000" and other brand names with pointless numbers. Besides, "480" would have been a more appropriate number.

Sumerian: "Which position you are talking of, that it should be andvantageous for White?"

I never said there are positions that are advantageous for white. Or black. All I said that if you have a tournament in which you play the opponent twice, and you have the same setup for both games, that if there's an advantage for one of the sides, it's compensated because you face both sides.

Sumerian: "Please specify it and proof that statement."

No proof is needed. In fact, the crux of the matter isn't whether a position is an advantage for one side, what's important is whether people think a position has an advantage for one side.

Sumerian: "It is essential in Chess960 that the position is known first when the clocks will be started."

Yes, did I suggest otherwise? Note that on BK, all games start at the same time.

Fencer: Yes, that's why I suggested two things: 1) an option which approach to take when creatin the tournament, and 2) if you have a tournament where you play each person twice, you play the same board twice against that player. If it's a position that favours one side, you play once with that side, and once against that side.

But as I said, it's just my preference - I won't get upset if things stay as they are.

Fencer: My personal preference would be to run the generator for each single game (or perhaps for each pairing - if you have a tournament where you play each person with white and black, you get the same board, once with white, once with black). And perhaps it could be an option when creating a tournament. But I can live with it staying as it is. There are enough games on this site to choose from, and for most games, this isn't an issue anyway. (FRC, Corner Chess, Fortress Chess, Froglet, Anti-Froglet, that's it, I think)

Fencer: "On BrainKing, all games of the same tournament start with the same position."

Yeah, I found that out when I joined a Corner Chess tournament. I like FRC and CC because of having different setups. Then getting 12 games at once all having the same setup kind of spoils the fun. I don't mind that this happens with Froglet or Anti-Froglet, but I don't think I'll join another CC or FRC tournament.

Draughts (related to checkers) is played on a 10 x 10 board. In some countries (for instance, the Netherlands) were draughts is popular, most wooden chess boards can be turned over giving you a 10 x 10 draughts board.