grenv: 8 sided is a doulbe 4 sided priamid (sort of diamond).

Dice: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice (Some links at the bottom of the page go to others which talk about different dice.)

BIG BAD WOLF: Right, my mistake, the 8-sided is regular but the 10-sided wasn't.

I had 4,6,8,10(used for %age),12,20 . I think that was the standard set.

grenv: Octagonal dipyramid. lol

The rules say : "If a pawn is to be promoted (would advance to the last row), the player
can move it even if the die does not show 1. However, he can only
promote it to the piece chosen by the die roll - for example, if 3 is
rolled, the pawn can be promoted to a bishop only. If 1 is rolled, the
pawn can be promoted to any piece."
I have two questions:
(1) What does it happend if it´s rolled a 6? Could be promoted to a second king?
(2) In case of a pawn in the 7th file: If there isn´t queen on the board, is it possible to get a 5 and get a queen playing the pawn to the 8th. file?

Matarilevich: 1) No. 2) Yes.

Matarilevich: It should also be possible to get a queen even if there was one on the board!

WhisperzQ: Matarilevich mentioned there being no queen on the board because he wanted to check specifically that the 5 could occur solely as a pawn promotion possibility.

Any opening strategy tips ? I usually start with the c-pawn (1.c4), so that the queen gets into the game and other pieces, rooks bishop and the king are still blocked ...

I'd bring out a "a" or "h" pawn up two, so that the rook can get out. Nothing's worse than having 3 or 4 rook die rolls in a row with only one space to move it too.

Pafl: I always like to start to move the "g" pawn up quickly - that way if you are lucky, you can capture the "f" pawn and capture the king the next move of the pawn.

Of course most of the time it gets blocked or the king moves, but I think it has worked out for me in a couple of games.

BIG BAD WOLF: I prefer the e pawn, if I had rolled a 2 before, I prefer the a or h.

hi all ...dice chess reminds me of how I started chess 30 years ago I taught myself how to play because I had no opponet...ty for the new addition well done Fencer...all please feel free to invite me to a game. ty

Chess64: In the last week I finished 31 games of dice chess, and I have several games still running. It reminds me of Russian Roulette more than anything, with the six-sided die akin to the six chambers of a pistol.

emmett: ive only got 5 games so far...with one win on another im slowly adding more when reguar chess is done...and russian roulette so true lol

Wooohooooooooo ! Thank you Fencer, this variant rules !
Talking about rules, here are them in short :

A player can capture a piece of his own (except the king), which then becomes part of his stock. When a player has got a piece (or more) in his stock, he can - exactly like in Loop Chess - anytime, in place of a normal move, drop it on any empty square, except the first and last ranks for pawns. One can deliver check or mate in this way.

A king can escape a check by capturing one piece of this own. Unlike Loop Chess, all pieces captured to the opponent are removed from play forever. One cannot capture an own pawn en passant !

nabla: So you can play moves like 1..Bxb2?
Sounds pretty cool.

joshi tm: My favorite move is 1. Kxd1

Fencer: I never heard of this little gem. I should play and get a BKR for tyhe game.

whirlybabe: There ya go: Dice Chess (joshi tm vs. furbster)

furbster: LOLOL. That's fabulous!! What an obliging king. ;O)

whirlybabe: A good argument for not moving the pawns in front of the king early maybe.

Is 1. 0-0 a valid move in Recycle Chess (taking both the bishop and the knight)? If not, should it?

AbigailII: It is not, in the same way that you cannot capture adverse pieces while castling. Similarly, after 1.Nf3 you can't play 2.f2xf3, but you can play 2.g2xf3.

grenv: Another argument for not opening the centre is that it immediately reduces the odds for moving a particular piece. Specifically the knights and rooks are 1/3 to be moved while the bishops, queen and king are asleep in their beds, and that increases the odds of a blitz.

I'd love to see the * longest * dice chess game here ... what if someone gets into an endgame King+Rook against King ... or even worse K+B+N against K ... what a NIGHTMARE ! :-D

Pafl: The game with 54 moves (finished in pawn endgame): Dice Chess (AbigailII vs. andreas)

I am trying to make move 21 of an Ice Age Chess game, and it keeps reverting me back to the previous position so that after I move I have to continue trying.... game

Pafl: K vs K+N+B is not a nightmare in Dice Chess. And it's the lone king that has the upper hand. In Dice Chess, a lone king is a very strong piece. Its strength lies in the fact that since there are no other pieces, the king is garanteed to move on each turn - if it's its next to the enemy king it will take the king on its next move (assuming it survives the opponents move). In a K vs K+N+B end game if the lone king is on a square next to the other king, and it's currently not attacked by the N or B, it has a 67% chance of winning the game if it's the opponents turn to move, and a 100% chance of winning if it's its turn to move.

AbigailII: Right indeed. I got carried away too much by the idea and forgot that a dice chess endgame is really just a king x king game ...

I haven't played the game yet, but it would seem more logical if empty squares were filled with ice cubes after they've been unoccupied for a number of moves – say, five. That variation might be called Ice Chess, for example. It would have to be tested first, of course. I have no idea what it would be like to play such a game.

Just moving this Cheversi discussion from the Requests Board to here, so if you would like
to read the preceding posts, thats where they are ;)

AbigailII/Perfect information:
Say White has three equally good moves A, B, and C and Black has the Moves X, A',B' and C'.
X garanties a draw, A', B' and C' win against A, B and C respectively, but lose against the other two.
So Black should play X, but he might choose to play a mediocre move and get lucky and win.
In case of simultaneous placing of pieces, a player cant know the outcome of a game anymore
by solely doing enough calculation, so luck comes into play, hence there's no perfect information anymore.

AbigailII/Swap rule:
Of course in your example a swap rule wouldnt help.
That's because in that game there are no positions that are drawish.
But thats not the case in Cheversi.
If after any of White's possible first moves, Black is able to construct
a drawish position with his first move, then adding the swap rule after move 1
would cure the imbalance problem.

Ok, agreed, if White plays Qa1 in his first move, there probably wont be any drawish positions anymore
after Blacks first move, no matter what he plays,
so the restriction for White's first move might still be necessary.

dresali: I grant you that if there is a drawish move for black that a swap rule could "work" (although that would be a very different game, one that is decided on the first move). But it's not at all clear to me that, for any first move of white, there is such a move for black. Not that I really like games where blacks first move has to be a bad one.

As for your perfect information example, I'm a bit confused about your meaning of 'good' and 'mediocre'. Since all moves of white (A, B, C) can be beaten (A', B', C') and alternatively lead to a draw (X), I wouldn't qualify them as "good" moves. Although I guess that if white doesn't have any moves available that win, all moves are equally "good".

I still claim such a game would be a game of perfect information (nothing is hidden or determined by a dice roll). But I'm fine with you seeing it differently.

AbigailII:
Things are not determined by a dice roll, but by luck. Consider a game of rock paper scissors,
nothing is hidden there either, a single game of
it is still completely luck dependant.

And A,B and C are 'good', since if Black decides to
play A',B' or C', White will win 66% of the time,
so it would be irrational for Black to not choose X, so with everyone playing rationally, the game would end in a draw.

Concerning the swap rule, I see that its probably not as perfect as I first thought, since White can play really bad which leaves Black no 'bad enough' moves, so restrictions would still be necessary.
And all that bad play really isnt so nice at all, thats true ;)
Which still leaves this great game at a way too imbalanced state.

furbster: Lol. Another obliging king! ;-)

I was counting on the ice to freeze on move 60 in this ice chess game... But I am forced to move my king in check right now. It doesn't make sense since I know that the ice will be between the attacking rook and my king on move 60. I shouldn't have to move my king. Well, I could move him to A2. There is nothing in the rules defining this situation. I was counting on the ice, so I should not have to move my king. Responses?

emmett: Well if you don't, black will capture it... since the ice does not come back until after blacks 60th move (right before your 61st move)

But it is an interesting position - that is if white puts black in check on the 20th move, should black have to move his king even though right after that ice will block the check?

BIG BAD WOLF: Well, you are right on the first point. I didn't quite realize that the ice came after black's move on 60. I thought it was after white's on 60.

You are also right on the 2nd point.

it is a big advantage to play black in this game, imho

In normal chess king+knight+knight VS king = draw, does this also apply to dark chess???

I'm playing a game at the moment with king+bishop VS king+pawn, is the game a draw when I take his pawn?! i.e. should I try to capture his king instead of the pawn or should I take the pawn and then go for the king?

does the 50 moves rule apply when all pawns are gone as in chess?

Regards

Mezzanine

mezzanine: There is no such concept in Dark Chess, since no matter what the makeup of the pieces, you can still win by capturing the king. Even K vs K is allowed.

Of course you can always agree to a draw, though this is more common when the pawns form a line that is impossible for either side to break without losing the exchange.

there is almost no draw in dark chess, because you can never know if the 50 rules exist (how can you be sure your opponent did not move a pawn). So even after playing 500 moves, if your opponent still refuses to draw, you can do nothing.

Also in normal chess, KNN against K is not automatically draw, only KN against K is draw.

If you are sure there were no pawn move and no captures in the last 50 moves, you can claim a draw by Fencer, but it will be hard to prove...

Thanks for the reply!

Although, it's easy to prove that there were no pawn moves if there's no pawns left =)

good point ;-)

mangue: I'm not sure the 50 move rule applies to Dark Chess, but if it does then the program would know if no pawns were moved.

Perhaps a good rule would be at least draw a K v K ending.

I've had many draws in games with 6 or 7 pawns each left, in a postion where they are all blocking each other. In this case it is not uncommon for both players to set themselves up defensively, but neither will attack because the risk is too great. Usually this is easy to agree on.

There is no automatic draw in chess, you have to claim a draw. But if you do not know if the opponent moved a pawn, you cannot claim a draw.

It is like the 3 times the same position. In dark chess, you often do not know what the opponent moved, so it is impossible to claim it.

Just my two cents on dark draws...

Just making sure, in Horde Chess, can pawns that
advanced from the first rank to the second rank make
a double step from the second rank if possible?
Thanks for the help.

I'm not sure, but I thought that my black knight at b4, and my black bishop at g2 should have disappeared under the ice after move 20 in this game. Is it because they were touching an enemy piece, and that saves them?