nodnarbo: I think it's an interesting concept ...

Hi guys, it's time to create a new, smaller version of KnighFight ... here is a proposal:
1. Game is played on a regular 8x8 board
2. Each player has one knight of different color.
3. Fields are assigned numbers from 1 to 64 ...
4. The first player to play is a white Knight which can be position on any chosen square.
5. The players collect and accumulate points that correspond to the numbers assigned to fields.
6. The second player is Black of course, and than White and so on ...
7. Unlike in Knight Fight players CAN place their Knights on the fields that are under direct attack of the opponent's Knight ...
8. Winner is the player who collects more points when the game is blocked or there are no more fields to jump to...
9. BUT WAIT , there is a new feature ... game can ends also when one of the players will manage to collect 5 consecutive numbers in the course of his/her fight.
10. These numbers do not need to be collected in one swap, nor do they need to be in a special order ...
EXAMPLE: white player collects : 62, 52, 17, 39, 53, 24,
51, 49, 13, 50 .... and that's enough to win since he got numbers 49,50,51,52,53 during his tour ...
EXAMPLE: black player collects 2, 49, 56, 5, 1, 35, 42, 4,
18, 3 and this secures his win since he collected 1,2,3,4,5 .
REMARKS: we have two independent objectives in this game ... one has nothing to do with the other (except for the tactics) and choice belongs to the players ... this new feature successfully eliminates known "problem" from KnighFight namely the ability to block white player by choosing the opposite color of the color white player started ... or at least it loses its power significantly ...
In this game we have to watch constantly what route opponent chooses ... total points or consecutive numbers.
Hope you like this new, refreshing idea to play knight games.

ChessVariant: some links to illustrate my idea:
http://gameknot.com/mt.pl?id=35733
http://gameknot.com/mt.pl?id=35088
http://gameknot.com/mt.pl?id=35098

ok, we have thousands of chess variants plus 960 or Fisher Random Chess ... I would like to introduce the whole new Class of Chess Openings, where figures stay in their traditional positions but PAWNS can (and must)be positioned anywhere (still chess rules apply though) on players half ... it's more like topical playing and for every white pawn black pawn is positioned symmetrically on the board ...
thje smallest number of pawns used for these games should be 3, the biggest 8 ... it's very creative approach to the game, everyone can be a creator of his/her game
and the number of different starting position is astronomical ... I play this kind of game on internet ...
it's never boring and even Fisher Random looks like it's younger brother ... I wish we could have this feature on brainking ...
Andy.

coan.net: very nice idea ....

ChessVariant: Hi, I tested this game with a very strong player at GameKnot ... I lost (of course, lol) 34 to 25 and this is what he wrote to me ...

Hey Andrzej,

Based on my experience of just one game, I think the strategic twist is interesting. I think (possibly) once one player is a solid pawn up, he can, with accurate play, ensure victory. This is true of chess, but even more so with pawn power chess because of the pawns' incremental values. Therefore the opening sequence and exchanges become crucial and the endgame less so (if it even occurs).

In some ways it is the opposite of three checks chess; instead of sacs its rewards cautious positional play. There is no doubt that it 'works' as a chess variant. Maybe we can experiment with the points system and see how that affects strategy.

Thanks for the games. It has been an enlightening few days!

All the best
Samie

***
It's really exiting to play this "point version" of chess ... hope we can try it ... anyone ?
Andy.

I designed another funny and exciting chess variant ...
This time it's real, orthodox chess game with all the rules traditional chess game use. But, there is a second goal players trying to achieve (first one is of course check mate)... namely 32 points which are collected during the game (and collecting is nothing more than killing opponent's piece)... why 32 points ? Here is the explanation:
Figures are assigned points and there are 64 points total. List below tells the story ...
BISHOP = 2 points
KNIGHT = 3 points
ROOK = 4 points
QUEEN = 10 points
PAWNS :
1st taken = 1 point
2nd taken = 2 points
3rd taken = 3 points
and up to
8th taken = 8 points
KING = 0 points

As you can see, value of pawns increases. exactly like in every chess game, but this time, more than ever, players try to protect their pawns due to increasing value they have ...
So, 32 points being exactly HALF of 64 is the goal ... either you check mate or collect 32 points by killing your opponent's men ...
I have chosen 64 points just for one reason ... to match the number of squares on a chess board ... there can be any other number, but 64 is just elegant ...
Hope you like this idea ... chess and point scoring feature will change the tactics and strategy significantly ... and this is the whole idea behind any chess variant...
Andy.

Fencer: Thank you ...

Fencer: I am glad you like it ...

wetware: Yes, it is .. and is played at:
http://www.schemingmind.com/

is a must ... this is the most beautiful and rich in unexpected turns chess variations ... actually, it has little common with usuall chess goals ... it uses chess pieces and movements but the goal is to race (Kings) to the last row on a board ...
here is the link:
http://www.chessvariants.com/diffobjective.dir/racing.html

I hope it will be available in real-time only ... I cannot imagine playing cards in turn-based system ...
Andy.

mctrivia: sure, but temperature of this board goes way beyond a silent wish list ...

mctrivia: And you expect the owner of this site to make you happy (and many others) and do nothing but to listen to your demands ? Show me other site like this one that the owner is "visible" and you can actually talk to him ... show me ... tell me please, because I am getting lost ... do you still have fun playing a game or making a move after 7 days of vacations ? Do you still remember what you were planning to do ?
Fencer granted you services but he never promised you to add/modify anything ... and this is what you want constantly ... and MadMonkey has the whole arsenal of site remodeling ... sometimes changes are so unimportant that it makes me laugh when I read them ...
Andy.

diogenysos: I don't know, maybe I am really funny ... If it was me, the owner and programmer, there would be only half the features you "enjoy" ... it will be pure gaming site with probably many more games, but much less forums, boards, talks and albums ... but this is me and Fencer probably pays the price for what I would try to avoid ...

Jason: I don't think so ... they are coming here to play not seeking vacations ... Even if we loose some players, new players will come ...

mctrivia: You know what ? I do not really understand this kind of arguments. You say: " I can't play no vacation games because I like to take vacations some times and work forces me to keep to 7 days per move ..." ... then you should probably try to find a correspondence club and if you take vacations, just blame UPS for any delay ... if you don't care if someone takes 40 days +seven then PLEASE accept also 120 days BECAUSE someone likes to take vacations, but a little bit longer than yours ... all these makes no sense ... internet made you lazy, you abuse the privilage of not being forced to move like in life tournaments ... If I want to play in a tournament I like the competition, NOW and HERE and taking vacations kills the whole fun ...
If I were Fencer I would never create any vacation option ... forget it ... you would like my torunament
from day 1 and you would take your vacations after the tournament is over ... period. Fencer was trying to please you, to be as flexible as possible, but like in a famous saying: give someone a finger and he/she soon will take you the whole hand.
Vacation idea should be completely removed from this site. I someone cannot find time to play 28 days of tournament, or 21 days tournament, then I have a proposal ... find another job or stop playing tournaments ... vacations are good after the job is done and not in the middle of it.
Andy.

Rose: Are you talking about Fencer ? I think he was too good for many of us ... In my opinion he gave you too much freedom and of course it has been abused ...

MadMonkey: Would you accept a system like this one, having 5 options ?
21 days, 14 days, 10 days, 7 days and 3 days tournaments ? It will give what you really want ... flexibility ...what else would you like to have ? Tornament starts and ends on a certain date ... period. you like like it, you sign up, you don't you find or create another one ... all these problems are because of too many options ...
Andy.

coan.net: I think guys this whole system is too complicated ... tournaments should be for 7 days ONLY(or 5, 3 ), including weekends, vacations, and sudden uncle's death .. I f I do not like it, I do not sign up ... period ... when I go to Reno to play my gin ournament I agree to go there for my weekend ... it's too complicated even to read all these complains of yours ...
Andy.
Common,

Due to a big popularity of dice games I think I may have some challenge for dice lovers. Here is the new game called Dice War:
1. It combines a setting from Gothic Checkers and some ideas from Hasami Shogi plus of course dynamics of 2 backagammon dice.
2. Initial setting like in Gothic Checkers. Two first rows on either site are taken by checkers.
3. Checkers can move in any of 8 directions as many fields as are shown on a rolled dice. But, here are restrictions:
4. Odd number on a die allows diagonal moves and even number allows horizontal or vertical move.
5. Like in backgammon moves can be conmbined.
One checker can move using two rolls or two checkers can split the roll of two dice.
6. Doubles has no special meaning and are treated as any other roll ...
7. Enemy pieces can be killed if the number on a die
correspond to the number of fields that need to be jumped to replace the piece. There is no jumping over pieces of any color. The first row of both sides is a row of heaven for enemy pieces and they cannot be killed after reaching this row. So, when they reach these rows they are safe and can operate freely.
8. The game ends when one site loses its all pieces ...
Hope you like it. It's an easy game with all the dynamics of dice games. Plenty of ways to play, no boring strategies but still many fine points of tactics.
Best regards,
Andy.

nodnarbo: ok, I got it ... do you think it would be better to collect two squares in the first move ? it would solve this problem, since starting at a1 and moving to b1 (as a one move) will open the door to j1 ...
Andy.

nodnarbo: you are not stupid, do not say this about yourself... we are learning and trying to invent something ... I honestly do not know how you got this idea about two edges ... but, do we really need to care about this ... look, as a first player you put you plow on any numbered square and collect points from this square ... your opponent does the same. After these two moves any mirrors are removed or, if you stepped on a double you chosen any double to be removed. In your next move you move two places in any chosen direction and collect points for this move. At the same time any two mirrors are removed from the board ... game continue this way until there is no more numbered squares on the board ... when the board is becoming emptier, plows are racing two spaces to get to numbered squares ... in my opinion all the numbered squares can be cleared unless there is a situation I cannot see right now ... but even then it's easy to determine the winner ...
Andy.

diogenysos: you wanted to say that plow HAS to remove two numbers ? right ? no matter how long is the path ? I think it's s a trap ... look at the diagonal, for example ... there are two numbered squares at the other end that plow resides ... so the plow has to go along the whole diagonal to get the numbered squares, simply because, empty squares do not count ? No, it wasn't my idea. Plow moves 2 squares no matter what ... thanks for your comments ...
Andy.

nodnarbo: I am talking about 100 squares board like for Knight Fight ... I think you are trying to play solitaire-like game and go around the board and make some kind of record ... this is not the idea I have in mind ... don't worry how many squares you cover during the game, think about collecting points while you move and if the game stops (for whatever legal reason) ... it stops, compare your points and that's it. They have one piece each, not two ... it's enough problems to solve with one piece on each side.
Andy.

nodnarbo: no choice, 2 squares at the time.
It's faster and powerfully strategic. Each and every move not only removes points from the squares Plow goes thru but also cancells mirrors and any chosen double .somewhere on the board. So 4 tiles are stripped from the points after each move... now, the whole idea is to choose the proper direction and not only to collect points from the squares you go thru, but to eliminate points from the opponent's path ...
Andy.

KnightFighter: one more thing: remember, that many squares will be cleared by the rules of mirrors and doubles ... so there will not be a need to touch every square and not even required.
Andy.

nodnarbo: please note, there will be two players, and you can move in any direction including empty spaces ... I think it's possible to cover all the squares unless blocked by the opponent. In case moves are blocked, the player with more points wins the game ... I do not see this as a problem, since this is not a solitaire game with the objective to touch every square ... thanks for your comment.
Andy.

people like to destroy, smash, push etc ... how about a game based on Knight Fight layout ... this time, instead of Knight, the main character would be a plough (or american plow) ... Plow would move two squares in any directions combing all the points it goes thru ... game would continue until the last tile is taken ... plows can run thru an empty squares as well, but cannot be placed within the reach of the enemy plow ... all the rules, mirrors, doubles behavior from Knight Fight apply ...
what do you think ? something tells me this game has a potential to be a great hit ...
Regards,
Andy.

I think it's time to make this MOVE for all the variants still holding to an orthodox setup ... there is a place you can play Anti Chess with fisher setup ... let's make it available here too.
I would go even further and "fisherized" both sides separately ... unexpected is what excites the most ...
let's forget about opening theory and the same setup all the time ... be to chess what impressionists were to art of painting ... break the tyranny of rules ... be free to dance on the board, everyday differently ...
Regards,
Andy.

I think Dice Chess should be played in such a way that 16 pieces should be randomly mixed (pawns and figures)and placed on the first two rows on the board ... with one exception ... king should be always in the first row ... opening play wouldn't be boring and there will be practicaly no chance to play the same setup again ...
Andy.

MadMonkey: You will be the first to be asked for play when Fencer implements this version ... be ready

MadMonkey: Sorry my Friend, I didn't know ... I will rename it into ... BUZZCHESS ... is it OK now ?
Andy.

I wonder why people like to play such a move-limited/dictated game like Dice Chess ? Is it a lack of skills to play regular chess or its sophisticated variants or just something else, like the need to have some thrill of unexpected ? I think the answer should be common for any game played with dice, including backgammon ... people like to play and risk percetage ... there are many situation in Dice Chess that chess skills do not count at all and the vision type of "what if" plays the role. Can one master the game ? Like in any game of chance and skill the better player will win in the long run.
This is not the place to discuss little, tiny tricks in Dice Chess ... the only thing I would like to point out, that they exist.
I propose another game of Dice Chess, but this time with 2 dice ... the funny and original feature in this game is this: one of the dice tells the player WHICH piece can be moved and the other one HOW it can move ... let's look at the example.
We got 4 and 3 ... since 4 stands for a rook and 3 for a bishop, so we have two possible moves: either rook (WHICH) can move like a bishop (HOW) or bishop(WHICH) can move like a rook(HOW) ...
Of course the beginning moves are somewhat limited and any (1)(?) pair will move pawns(WHICH)
in few possible way(HOW) ... example: 1 5 moves a pawn like a queen ...
Doubles are nothing special in this version. They just moves once for particular number/piece.
there is one restriction however: pawn can eliminate opponent's king only as a pawn so the only chance to kill the enemy king by a pawn is to get 1 and 1 ... it's to limit a tremendous power pawns have in this game (there are 8 of them after all and in the first row of attack).
I call this game MADCHESS, because no piece really moves like they suppose to ... with the exception of doubles ...
regards,
Andy a.k.a ChessVariant

there is a little but very promissing group of games that use cards and they are played like board games ... I cannot imaging playing bridge at turn-based site and wait 2 weeks for for my partner to respond, or even fast Gin would be unbearable when time frame for a game would be 30 days or even more than 1 day ... card games have also something more unsuitable for turn-based site ... they are by nature closed games, and players memory plays a crucial role ... so, what you remember now, in just few hours would disappear from your depository and the whole tactic would be useless ... making notes what you are to remember is just boring task and it takes the whole pleasure of playing cards away from the players ...
but card board games offer simple solution to this dilemma ... the best example of thi kind of games is poker itself played as a poker squares, and the other one being cribbage which is even better than poker and can be played on 4x4 or 5x5 grid ...
Below is a link to David Parlett's game called Get Stuck ... please look at the rules ... it's fantastic game and worthy implementation:
http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/oricards/getstuck.html
or the other game, also by David Parlett:
http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/oricards/abstrac.html

Rambo37: Rambo, I am the one who bugs Fencer about new games and I suspect there are many, many others who do the same ... In my opinion, we got into the situation, that in order to satisfy all our demands Fencer would have to hire 2 or 3 programmers ... he does all the job alone ... it was also some 6-8 months ago when I express my thoughts about the necessity of all these little things players ask him to do and he DOES most of them in their own time ... sometimes he is not able to follow ...
I am not in a position to talk for him to all of you ... he has to do this all by himself ... but one thing is for sure that someone, in this case him, has to do more important things than all our new versions of games ...
Thanks,
Andy.

I think we should start slowly with cards ... their nature is completely different than open board games ... for the start it would be nice to have Poker Squares (though I think that Cribbage Squares are much better) . Cribbage is virtually unknown in non-English speaking world ... but it;s a great game and this card game requires no memorizing the cards ... so it's an excellent choice for turn-based site ...
Andy.

AbigailII: I think you are wrong ... do not try to play with guys from Professional Dominoes Association without "historical" knowledge of the situation on the board ... Logik is a bad example since you do not actually play agains the opponent, and you do not have to remember anything he/she did and why ... you play against yourself, it's like golf, darts, bowling etc ...
Chess ia a game of perfect information, cards are not ... you have to assume some plays based on your calculations ... this is why cards cannot be played well on turn-base sites without (sometimes) complex notes ... card game I gave you a link to, is a rare card game with 100 percent perfect information, and you do not have to assume anything beside the consequences of your move ...
all your "pieces" and opponent's are known ... isn't it a board game using plastic cards instead of wooden pieces ?
And you do not like games, like dark Chess, for the reason you consider not important, contradictiong yourself ...
Regards,
Andy.

There is a small group of card games that would fit into turn-based site. These are open card games with perfect information ... I played dominoes at Goldtoken, and it work fine but only with the ability to make notes ... you have to make notes when and why your opponent passes ... it makes this game difficult to follow ... we have the ability to make personal notes at brainking ...
Here is the link to excellent card game with perfect information. It works somewhat like a board game
http://www.davidparlett.co.uk/oricards/stucco.html

in regular Dice Poker, either single or triple, you score once, and in most cases you push to the last
roll to maximize your score ... in Trioker, it seams at least so, you do not lose your chances too much ...
lets look at the roll 44455 ... when I got this roll in most cases I record it in Full House and my turn ends .. in Trioker I have choices:
1. to record it as Full Hose (in one or more columns)
2. as 3 of a kind (again in one or more columns)
3. as 4's (same as above)
4. as chance (rarely but still possible)
5. not record at all and wait for a next roll ..
Now, let's say I want to play diversified game and
record this score in 4's and make the second roll ...
I keep 444 and try for general (yahtzee) ... I get 44441 ... I decide to record this core in the second column as 4 of a kind ... my option are wider, for example to record 4's in the third column, but I postpone this move and roll for the third time ...roll wasn't succesful, I got 44442 and I lose nothing recording 4's in the third column ...
As you can see on this example, there are plenty of ways to play and score, every roll brings dillema: to score or not to score, if score, what to score, and where to score ...
I would be happy to see Trioker in "print" ...
Regards,
Andy.

Hi, have you ever had the feeling that some scores coudl be recorded in 2 or more categories ? look at 66555 ... does it qualify for 5's, for 3 ok a kind, Full House or maybe even for Chance ? Here is the new idea, actually new dimension in old Dice Poker.
***
All the rules for Dice Poker apply but this time we have 3 columns and the scores are recorded not only at the end of the third roll, but can be recorded during the first, second and third roll in any chosen column and in any chosen category ...
Example: you roll 13556 ... you record nothing and roll the second time, keeping two 5's ... your hand now looks like: 55543 ... you record this roll as 5's in the first column and 3 of a kind in the second column (order of column has no meaning at all) ...
you continue rolling and you got 55561 and you decide to record 3 of a kind in the third column ...
***

after the third roll all three columns should get their score ... of course you can stop rolling after the first and the second roll, but all three columns has to be used during your turn ...
***
Here is the rest of the story ... you play actually 3 games against the opponent ... sort of Hollywood scoring in Gin or Triple Yahtzee ... and you have to win 2 games (columns) in order to win the game...
***
That's it. It takes into account that we have 10 X-of- a kind categories and we can used the scores in different places ... this is quite original idea.
****
Regards,
Andy

how about playing Hypergammon but with the mixture of Ludo rules ? same direction of run, no bearing off but finishing like in Ludo ? and of course one die ... this way backgammon board can be used in a new way ..

diogenysos: sure, why not ? let's double everything .. . some of us even have dubya as a president ... but seriuosly, it would work fine with HyperLudo ...

only 3 pieces per player ? board something like mancala board, 15 holes on each site ...

it makes perfect sense, it only from the surface looks like idiotic situation ... tell me, please, would you rather play 6 hours with a very good players, knowing that you are going to lose, or play 2 minutes and give up ? this is just funny illustration .... but seriously, good player is going to win with you anyway so do not sit to the game
using a doubling cube with this sort of players.
If this is going to be within a tournament, well, you have no choice, you have to accept and fight, and miracles happen, this is your only hope ... when you accept you lose 2 points, if not, you lose 1 point ... you will only shorten your pain by refusing ... another question ? what do you expect
from the player, who doubles the stakes after the first move ? If you know this player personaly, he will not do this, for what ? If you play on-line, you just accept and play . I was playing backgammon many times with doubling cube used right away ... but I wasn't the one who offered it . For me, this abusive use of doubling cube, can happen anywhere with any sort of game ... this is a matter of ethics rather than sportsmanship ...
Regards,
Andy.

for draw situation there is a suggested provision that says: if you offer a double (or redouble or more) and it was accepted and the game ends with a draw
you get no points and the player who accepted the double gets half of the points ... so its obvious that you better play for win if you offer a doubling cube ... read the link I posted below.
Andy.

gammon and backgammon and the lack of draw doesn't make this game suitable for doubling cube ... in poker you have a "feeling" that you may win but not only ... you can just trick your opponent ... and then you increase the stake ...
in chess you want to look for a nice combination or threat to call for double ... and scare your opponent ... I think this old "melody" that :
"A doubling cube just doesn't make sense for the other games." doesn't make sense ...
Any competetive activity played for points, money, rewards can use doubling cube ... it's just an old thinking that, because it started with dice game,
it has to be used with a dice game ... only. This is wrong thinking ... look at the game of chess ... I figured out a nice attacking combination and I offer you a doubling cube ... you either see this combination or not ... if you dont, your ignorance may push you to accept my double, if you do, you may risk to accept or knowing a power of this combination, refuse to accept ...
What is wrong with using double cube in these kind of situations ... ? can you make your point ?
Regards,
Andy.


Regards,
Andy.

below is a link to very interesting discussion on using a doubling cube with chess, and for that matter with any board game ... it looks promissing, I hope this link will work. Fencer, maybe this discussion will supply some strong points to consider introducing a doubling cube to other games ...
http://www.chesscircle.net/forums/computer-chess/28159-how-about-adding-a-doubling-cube-to-chess.html

let's put the use of doubling cube into the normal language, we would use without using a physical cube ...
"Hey dude, we are playing now for some time (any gamefor example) and I feel like having some advantage over you. We agreed to play to 5 wins but we have no time to sit another hour and play this "lost" game for you. Would you agree to give me 1 point immediately or continue to play for 2 points, which you can still win (God be with you)
or even play for 4 points if I fail to lead this game ...
What do you think, dude ? "
***
OK, this is the working of a doubling cube. It's just a tool that revived backgammon back in 30-ties last century ... I can give you, in any kind of game, an example of situation that doubling cube could be used ... in any game ... no exception.
Andy.

doubling cube has its role in any kind of game ...
in open games like chess, checkers etc, its beauty can be senses from the very first move ... let's say I play chess with nabla ... I know that I have to be concentrated from the very beginning, there is no element of luck so there is no help from random elements ... if I deconcentrate, and nable gets his advantage he will double me, and my only choice would be to resign ... or contiunue this game and lose 2 points ... There is of course a chance, that nable will make a mistake later on, but I cannot count on this like waiting for a happy roll in backgammmon ... so doubling cube is amazing motivating tool to play well ... you can count only on yourself and not only check mate can kill you but a doubling cube as well ...
Andy.