Pythagoras: ... and I have invested so much time to find intuitively unterstandable new symbols ...

SMIRF Engine:
Aaaaa no, the _only_ thing i don't like about Smirf is its Archbishop and Chancellor pieces.....

Kipling: Well, I recommend symbols like those I have invented myself. You could have a look on them at the right side at http://www.chessbox.de/Compu/schachveri1_e.html

plaintiger: On this site the icon that represents the Chancellor is the one that has the horse's head on top of the upside down Rook's top. The Archbishop is the icon that has the strange fill up the square tassled thing. These icons are also used to represent the Cardinal and Marshall of Grand Chess. Though the pieces have different names, they move the same way. Henry Bird made up the modern version of these 8 X 10 games circa 1874. He named the two pieces Guard and Equerry. I'm not sure if Capablanca had firmed up the names to his version of Bird's Chess around 1920, which is called Capablanca Chess. It's identical to Bird's Chess except the Bishops and Guard/Chancellor and Equerry/Archbishop are in different places. Grand Chess was made up in 1972. It uses the same pieces, but has a 10 X 10 board and some different rules.

Guard = Marshall = Chancellor = (Rook+Knight)
Equerry = Cardinal = Archbishop = Janus = (Bishop+Knight)

You have a point in the rules not clearly saying which icon represent which piece. Perhaps a little diagram added to the CRC rules description would clarify it for new players. Janus Chess has its own icon. As for Capablanca Random Chess, I'm not sure why it uses those icons since the inventor of it has his own icons. Perhaps it is easier for Fencer to use the old ones. Fencer still has the notation using A and C in Grand Chess. He said he was going to change them to C and M so that they would fit the game.

Kipling: that does indeed help *me*. thank you. :)

but it doesn't fix the problem to which i referred: that information needs to be presented in the rules for the game, so new players don't have to hunt it down elsewhere.

plaintiger: The Archbishop looks like a bishop and the Chancelor looks like a knight.
I hope that helps.

nobleheart: don't quote me on this, but i think you can put just about any old game online as long as you don't use any trademarked or copyrighted terms to refer to it. like battleboats: if Fencer called it "Battleship", he would have been served with a cease-and-desist order by now, and had to remove it from the site - if he didn't have to take the whole site down as a result. but because he didn't call it "Battleship," it is (as far as i know) fully legal. bugcafe.net refers to their word game that bears an uncanny resemblance to Scrabble as "bugwords" and they continue to chug along fine, while e-scrabble.com met with a rather different fate...and a damn shame, too, because e-scrabble.com was the best form of that game ever available online.

i think if you never refer to a game by its trademarked name or any other protected reference, and maybe if you change one minor rule or two just a little to be on the safe side, you should be alright. but i'm no lawyer...

i was just reading the rules for Capblanca Thingamajiggy Chess and they say the Archbishop and Chancellor have been added to the usual lineup of chess pieces, but they don't say which of the two new pieces is the Archbishop and which is the Chancellor.

they should say this. the rules for one game shouldn't presuppose knowledge of the rules of some other game (least of all a game that's no longer available on brainking).

thanks. :)

upwords love that too..but I bet hasbro wont allow it anywhere online

In the midst of all this turmoil, I have achieved an adjusted all-time high in my personal Nackgammon BKR (i.e., highest on my current BK ratings chart). This is not an all-time high in adjusted ratings, however, as nstre apparently rated 2036 after his first game (compared to my current 2033 after 375 games).

alanback: Hm upwords perhaps?

nobleheart: Just a totally unfair dig at furbster's spelling :-)

alanback: alan,can I ask,what was that about?I love scrabble?
this is a cool unique word game:
http://www.littlegolem.net/jsp/games/gamedetail.jsp?gtid=gwg

furbster: Shh i was in a rush when i typed that lol, my fingers move faster than my brain. WAIT! does my brain move? :-?

Absolutely last call for questions for REZA's interview! If you have any please send them me in the next 24 hours because I'll be putting all the questions togethe rtomorrow ready for sending to reza. If you have anything to ask him, don't miss out!

furbster: Hm, Scrabble variant perhaps? ;-)

Yeh more vairents of other games, would be cool, especially as i'm not much of a chess player hehe!

pauloaguia: That was a guess only.

Fencer: still 40 or more chess variants? I hope some other game variants show up before those 40, especially original variants.
Chess is starting to take over.

But at this rate, the 100 game barrier will be broken sometime early next year. Then my dream of being rated in all of them will finally be impossible, and I'll stop worrying about that

yUp

Gotta piccie?? LOL

sLaM hAs MohAWk nOw.

sUbLiMe: Awww how can anyone not forgive a cute face like that.. awwwww

Hey Slammerz!

yOm KiPpUr iZ nEXt MoNth.
MaYbe iF i rEpEnT 4 My sIn 'gAiNst bK, i WiLL Be pErMiTted By 'LoRe bACk iNTo tHa pRoMiSed LaNd.

lol....nOw

Am gOOd sLaM nOPw.

wAs rEtRo.

sUbLiMe: ??? After only one day back?

sUbLiMe: Already?! ok, PM then!

SoRRy...Am bAnNed.

sUbLiMe: missed you too but you should still do this on general chat ;oD

hi hOn.
MiSsEd yOu.

sUbLiMe: hiya sUbLiMe :O)

hArLEy?

cOMe gIVe Me 100 pOiNTz iN hYpEr.

Doerdich: That's only in the first 25 games and it's a false impression given by the calculation of interim provisional ratings.

The established rating after the 25th game is effectively the sum of the 25 opponent's ratings plus 8 for each win and -8 for each loss. These 8s are the result of averaging the +/- 400 over 25 games.

Rather than wait until the 25th match has finished, the calculation keeps up a moving average. This can produce big swings from game to game but the gains and losses aren't "real" because the rating, within the first 25 matches, is not real either.

This message may be illustrative.

@matarilevich yes, you are right, K can have a greater value. But usually it is 10 or 15. But compared with the BKR: Here it is possible to lose about 100 points in game, too much I think.

Doerdich:
The formula Fide for variation of rating is:

NR = OR + (SG - SW) * K

NR is New Rating
OR is Old Rating
SG is Score Gotten
SW is Score Waited
K is a Constant

K can have three values :
K=25 when the player hasn´t finished 20 games
K=15 when the player has finished 20 games and his rating is lower than 2400
K=10 when the rating of player is upper than 2400

Score Waited is calculated with a list of percentage, but you can calculate approximately in this way :
SW ~= 0.5 + [(RP - RO) \ 800]
RP = Rating Player
RO = Rating Opponent

The highest value of [RP - RO] is 350 and the lowest is -350. If the different is higher than 350 or lower than -350 then we have [RP - RO] = (+-)350

All this means that the highest variation can be:
Rating Player = 2000
Rating Opponent = 1500
Different above to 350
Score Waited ~= 0.5 + [(2000 - 1500) / 800] =
= 0.5 + [500 / 800] =
= 0.5 + [350 / 800] =
= 0.5 + [0.4375] =
= 0.9375
If the player rated 2000 loses the game then
New Rating = 2000 + ( 0 - 0.9375 ) * K =
= 2000 - 0.9375 * K
With K=10 => New Rating is 2000 - 9.375 = 1990.625
With K=15 => New Rating is 2000 - 14.0625 =
1985.9375
With K=25 => New Rating is 2000 - 23.4375 = 1976.5625

The highest variation is (+-)23.4375 for players with rating lower than 2400 and no more of 20 games and for strong players is only (+-)9.375

sUp

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.

Doerdich: There is a special board about chess variants, you can post the details there.

To 2): Could you also consider my idea? I also found some interestng others in the internet. Of course it is not necessary to realise them immediately but I just want to show them to you.
To 3)Fide Rating is more "fair" in my view. Here, no strong players will play vs. weaker rated players, because they simply lose to much points. Some low rated players even don't play so bad because they are maybe new to this site.

Doerdich: 2) Yes. About 40 or more. 3) I don't know, I never used FIDE rating formula.

Well, Fencer, I read that, but it doesn't give much information. Seems that there is a problem with the creator or something like that?!
What about question 2. and 3. ? ^^

Doerdich: Please read this.

Doerdich: Just hours before you posted it, two new chess games have been added to the site - bringing the total of chess variations to 25.

New questions:
1. Why has Gothic Chess been removed?
2. Will there be new chess variations in the future? I developed one by myself...
3. I think the BKR calculation should be more like e.g. FIDE-ratings. Here you can lose to much points in one game I think. In FIDE_Rating, the maximum you can win in one game are 12.5 points, the maximum you can lose of course are also 12.5 points.

Andre Faria: Thank you, now it is.

Fencer, the link for Los Alamos Chess is not the right one...

Hrqls: old BKR = 1859, new BKR = 1895 (+36)
alanback: old BKR = 2001, new BKR = 1980 (-21)
I have 390 counted games in Nackgammon -- still getting adjustments as high as 21 points