Congratulations tenuki on winning the Second Quarter 2006 Embassy Chess tournament. Wow, that can take some time, can't it? I'm glad I set the playoff to two wins. Three can take along time.

2006 Second Quarter Open Number 2 Embassy Chess

2006 Second Quarter Open Number 2 Embassy Chess
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Walter Montego: Thanks!
I recommend reviewing last game:
Embassy Chess (panzerschiff vs. tenuki)
which involves a knight sacrifice with black pieces at an early stage of the game.

Hi 10*8 chess friends,

the Gothic Chess live site is re-opening. You can play at www.gothic-chess.com.

Hope to see you there sometimes.
Greetings

Which side is the k-side from white's perspective? What are the possible positions for the king and rooks after castling?

mahavrilla: there is no identified K-side. As in traditional chess the King is moving to the c-file when castling O-O-O (three squares from a-side) or he is moving to the i-file when casting O-O (two squares from j-side). The involved rook will be placed upon the kings' inner neighbour square. Thus the resulting castling positions of K and R are identical (seen from outer sides) as known from traditional chess or from Chess960 / FRC.

SMIRF Engine:

Thx. How does one generate an acceptable random position in capablanca chess without a computer?

mahavrilla:How does one generate an acceptable random position in Capablanca chess without a computer?

I suggest using a standard 6 sided die.

1. First place all pawns on the 2th (7th for black) row. Then fill the first (eight for black) row using the rules below.


2. First place the a bishop on a white square using the following technique. Roll the die. If you roll a six, re-roll (keep re-rolling till you don't roll a six). Count that many white squares from the left and place the bishop there. Do the same thing for black squares.


3. Now we are going to place the queen and the archbishop. One of them has to be placed on a white square, the other on a black square. Roll the die; if you rolled even, the queen goes on white (and the archbishop on black), otherwise the queen goes on black (and the archbishop on white). Roll the die, re-roll a five and a six. Count that many white (or black depending on the odd/even roll) squares from the left, skipping squares containing a bishop, and place the queen. Do the same for the other coloured squares and the archbishop.


4. You now have six unoccupied squares left. Roll the die. Count that many unoccupied squares from the left. Place the Chancellor on this field.


5. Roll the die again, re-roll on a six. Count that many unoccupied squares from the left, place a knight here. Roll again, re-rolling on a five and a six. Count that many unoccupied squares from the left, place the other knight here.


6. You know have three unoccupied squares left. Place the king in the middle of the three. Place the rooks in the remaining two.

This requires at least 8 throws of the die, and 10.1 throws on average.

Does anyone know which of the 8x10 chess variants is the most popular?

mahavrilla: Here on BrainKing, the number of running games (see http://brainking.com/en/Statistics?p=2):
67. Janus Chess 120
73. Embassy Chess 96
117. Capablanca Random Chess 41

Do you happen to know the difference between Gothic chess and Embassy chess?

Can anyone tell me which sqaures the white K and R will land on in Capablanca Random Chess in algerbraic notation?

mahavrilla: O-O (two "O" symbols) will bring the King on the second square from the right side.
O-O-O (three "O" symbols) will bring the King on the third square from the left side.
The involved Rook will be placed then at the King's inner neighbour square.
This is similar to how castling is performed in traditional chess or in Chess960.

SMIRF Engine: HI Reinhart!
Which is your new URL? I can´t found your page anymore...

I once heard about a game called "Palladan Chess, I believe. It was set up the same as Janus Chess except for having two Arhcbishops (Januses) it had two Chancellors (Palladans).

Has anybody else heard anything about this?

cpaul_d2004

cpaul_d2004: SMIRF pages and more at http://www.chessbox.de/Compu/schachsmirf_e.html

Paladin is another name for a B+N mover at least according the the http://chessvariants.org website. Having a R+N mover at the edge or close to the edge of the board would avoid having a couple of pawns unprotected at the beginning of the game, which is one criticism that Janus chess and some other 10x8 variants recieve.

I think the chess variants site also has in the zillions of games engine a big board variant that does use two R+N movers, but I can't remember its name. I think traditionally it has been more typical to mix the two pieces like in Embassy or Gothic Chess rather than having two of the same. Carrera's original 1617 suggestion contained an array similar to Janus chess, but had the R+N mover on the same side of the board as the king. More recently Aberg's variant of Capablanca Chess has used a similar arrangement, but with free castling. (The king and rook can interchange with each other anywhere along their castling path.) However Janus chess seems to work pretty well and maybe a variant with two R+N movers would as well.

Changing the subject slightly, In my view variants the 10x8 variants that move the minor pieces in closer to the middle of the board have sharper and more concrete opening play. Where the minors are further from the center like in Embassy or Gothic chess you often have to spend another move to have them properly developed, which slows the opening play down somewhat.

Anybody have a chance to try out Seirawan chess? I know it is an 8x8 variant technically, but it does use the B+N and R+N movers found more frequently in 10x8 or 10x10 variants.

I have tried it and like it. Will Brainking host it?

mahavrilla: Sadly, I don´t think so, lately Brainking is only hosting no-brainers (Dice Chess, Behemot Chess, Ludo, etc) or member´s inventions which mostly are boring or flawed (one side has huge advantage)...

Anybody like to try it the old fashioned way with notion by email or email on this site? I have not played a complete game although had seen a few games scores that were posted by Bruce Harper.

panzerschiff:

Lets play a 2 game match. Lets email here.

mahavrilla: Even though this site has been bringing other non-chess games to this site, the site owner at heart is a chess player (as the 34 chess variants on this site can show)

So a good chess variant probable has a very good chance of being brought here. Does anyone have a good link to some good rules for the game?

http://www.seirawanchess.com would have the rules. Not really that different from regular 8x8 chess except for the entering pieces.

I am trying to get an Ice Age Chess Team going in the GBU Fellowship. This is a fun and friendly Fellowship. I am not good at this game but I like it.
Pm me and ask for an invite if you are interested and available. Thanks very much.

mahavrilla: Starting positions of the King and the Marshall are reversed.

I have read where Janus Chess is popular in Germany. I am told there are even tournaments for the game.

That being the case, can someone tell me where I can purchase a Janus Chess set? Preferable one with a vinyl board.

Cpaul_d2004

Anyone interested in playing?

-Eric

happy hermit: Sure, I'll send you a few invitations.

Walter Montego:

Thanks Walter. I'll try not to time-out this time. -Eric

happy hermit: I hadn't realized that we'd played before. An old alter-ego or account it would have to be. Embassy Chess coming next.

At http://www.chessbox.de/Compu/schachsmirf_e.html there is a free SMIRF version to be downloaded, which might work also under Linux Wine or Mac Crossover. Maybe some are interested to get some experiences. Feedback at best to my email address.

I've posted six Embassy Chess games in the waiting games area. Three of each color with a Fischer clock time bonus of 2 days 8 hours.
Anyone up for a game or two?
12-18-9 Edit-->One left, though if you'd like to play drop a line and I'll send a game or two your way.

1-7-10 Edit I posted nine games of Embassy Chess if anyone would like a game or two. Slightly faster Fischer Clock, but plenty of time after a few moves.

1-24-10 Edit I posted nine games of Embassy Chess.

January All Games over 1600

I joined this tournament and am hoping to get a few more Embassy Chess players into it to make it a good tournament.
It starts January 26th. 5 player maximum section, so at most it'll add four games to your list with a three day time control.
So sign up and let's play. :)

Mousetrap: Hi.. I'm up for an ice age tourny

Great you also join nmchessknight :)

Which one do you people prefer and why?

Lightbug: I like both games, but I prefer Embassy Chess.

Why? I like the structure of Embassy Chess.It is very regular Chess like in appearance. But even familiar looking openings are a completely new game. Though regular Chess often has amazing subtleties in slight differences in openings it often transposes into the same game or the difference matters little, and of course it has been studied for centuries. In Embassy Chess all this is true too, but even more so as it can very fast from the start. So far it seems to me that Embassy Chess is much more tactical in the beginning of the game which I'm sure is caused from having more pieces, and powerful ones at that, on the board while the King is still the same. The board is larger, but I think over all the power increase is more than the larger board dissipates as compared to the same pieces on the 10 × 10 of Grand Chess. Comparing those two games and a more or less harmless check in Grand Chess is often just a matter of moving the King back a square, whereas in Embassy Chess these checks can cause a major problem as the check often has to be blocked and you must be on guard for this.

Positional players will have a hard time against the tactical player, though I've played a few that play positionally. Unfortunately I am not a strong enough player to see if I'm right or not. I wish stronger players and regular Chess masters would take up Embassy Chess and give it some of the study they devote to regular Chess, but I suppose this can said of much variants.

Janus Chess is a good game. I don't play it as much as Embassy Chess. The power is almost the same as Embassy Chess, but the positioning of the pieces makes it play less like regular Chess. For those that like the random set ups, this might appeal to them. I think an interesting variant of Janus Chess would be to play it Extinction Chess style as it has the two Jauses and I'm sure this would add to the already wild tactical play of Extinction Chess.

I've been watching some games played between top players, and realize that the game has more merit than I was led to believe at first. Since I am not that good at it (1600 or so), it often frustrates me, but a game needs to be judged by how the strong players play it, and the number of strategies I see being used with the 2 new pieces creates a very different game that not all of your 8x8 Chess skills can account for. The outward push of the bishop, knight, and rook also require different thinking, and I still see regular knights being used very effectively in 10x8. They look pushed out further, but if you know how to use those things, they can still be pretty effective.

I just viewed one game played by the #1 rated player, and he essentially defeated black with just his RN (Marshall) by threatening a fork of his opponent's king and queen. He didn't castle and sacrificed his rook just before his opponenet resigned.

Chess has far more active players on this site, but Embassy has shown to me at least that it has a great deal of value, but the majority of the chess playing public has a hard time opening itself up to an expansion of Chess.

Janus Chess is probably the easier game to play between the 2, but I've found that it's a little too easy for the Janus piece to attack the queen and king right from the start. There's not as much need to come up with a specific plan in that game.

I believe that with more promotion, 10x8 Chess with the RN and BN can make a difference in the chess world. At the height of its complexity, it is about as complex as Shogi but requires far less moves than Shogi which is a good direction for Chess.

Lightbug: In my preferences, it is:
1) Embassy
2) Grand Chess (because of the early promotion)
3) Janus

Janus Chess is the one with the devil looking K+B piece right?

I never played it and it seems an interesting game but having to choose between a game with a wider variety of pieces like Embassy Chess that has a K+B piece as also a R+N piece i think it's a better choice than having just one piece like in Janus.
It creates more interesting concepts inside the game. More different tactics, more difficult choices, e.g when to trade K+R for a K+B or a queen etc.

The "short" castle of Janus game is also a bit of a big journey for the King. :) Doesn't seem natural.

Obviously the abbreviation K i use below, means the knight piece. I should have wrote it N and not K that denotes the King.

Atrotos: The old abbreviation for Knight was Kt, but that faded away many years ago.

I agree with Atrotos, Embassy looks more interesting. Grand Chess likewise, but the setup somewhat artificial.

I looked into grand chess but i didn't like it more than embassy as the initial piece placement is unattractive, there is no castle and 10 ranks are too much. promotion scheme is interesting but doesn't compensate for the odd and somewhat bad initial piece setup.

I have analyzed 3 Embassy Chess games and put them on video on youtube. Perhaps some will try them useful or interesting.

Perhaps someone will know other interesting games also for me to have a look. I'm always interested in seeing nice games. I have found some other nice games that i will try to analyze. But brainking has thousands of games so perhaps someone had played a really nice game so it would be good to give it for us to see it.

The first one, is between me and a very very good player Shaboo.
GAME: Embassy Chess: Atrotos-Shaboo
VIDEO: Atrotos-Shaboo

The second game is between 2 of the best players of this site:
GAME: Embassy Chess: panzerschiff-tenuki
VIDEO: panzerschiff-tenuki

And the last one is between me and Tenuki again.
GAME: Embassy Chess: Atrotos-tenuki
VIDEO: Atrotos-Tenuki

btw you can play anytime Grand Chess online at http://www.iggamecenter.com/info/en/main.html
Playing it fast looks more interesting, although there still are few players to compete with.

Thanks for great contribution on youtube. It really seems like hearing GMs comments about chess games. Very instructive.

This may seem like a trivial thing to bring up but I've recently printed a page showing the final position and score of a game of Embassy Chess. For some reason, the squares and the outline of the board did not print out. The pieces were there, the notation around the edge of the board was there; all of the flags down the side were there in bright colour...
When I printed out the current position of a game of go I am playing (5743518) The board printed out with the grid and pieces and everything.
As I mentioned previously, this is a trivial matter; what I've got is sufficient for my purposes, and I could draw the squareas on myself if it was that important... but if anyone has any advice on this issue I would welcome it. :)
P.S. I only want the game score to study and am in no way challenging the copright, intellectual property of either Brain King or the players involved. :D
Sometimes it's handy to be able to study a position away from a computer screen, and more importantly I want to find a good move before my time limit rather than being compelled to make a wrong move to avoid timing out...