to jcarrillovii/Caissus: Be aware to use an actual version of Arena. I have tested Arena 1.1 Build 1847. Here castling seems not to be allowed.

Oh - I have to correct myself. Entering the situation in Arena as FEN would not allow to castle. Entering it via PGN would - strange!

Funny! "Betsy" and "The Baron" allow castling, "frenzee" does not!
"PGNtoJS" allows castling too.

Sumerian/Caissus: You keep identifying bugs in the coding of FRC castling!

Good hopefully the developers will correct the code someday.

I can't understand why so many different cases of software allowing castling in this case, as the FRC castling rules are clear.

I hope we all agree though, that by the raw definition of FRC castilng, in this situation, castling is illegal.

to jcarrillovii: I have posted on that error at http://www.exactachess.com/ , the exactachess GUI forum (Arena Support Forum).

I saw that you refer that the castling problem has the OLD Arena. But i tried Arena 1.1 (the newest and it has it too)...............?!?!?!?

I am curious if the players of shogi who read this board have a favorite shogi castle? I have been impressed how shogi castles may evolve from one configuration to another in response to developments in the game, e.g., Mino → High Mino → Silver Crown.

The science of play in shogi has always impressed me. Is this an opinion that others share?

Karterobrontis: Shogi and the "drop chess" variants have wonderful gameplay. Tell me of the differences between Mino--High Mino--and Silver Crown.

Nasmichael: I agree with you about shogi having wonderful gameplay, but respectfully, I am not equally enthusiastic about some other variants that have added this feature. Chess-gi inexplicably lacks the elegance of shogi. Shatranj-gi or makruk-gi seem more enjoyable, but, in my opinion, they lack the charm that shogi possesses.

Mino is a castle, as I understand it, whose arrangement aims to defend against an attack coming across the rear ranks; High Mino balances against an attack that may come along the rear ranks and the files around the head of the king. Silver Crown aims at thwarting an assault that comes head-on from the files.

I do not want to pretend to a knowledge that I do not have, so I truly hope to read the thoughts here of experienced shogi players and their evaluation of proper gameplay. When I have seen games played at the Shogi Dojo online or the ThaiBG shogi site, I admire the moves but am at pains to appreciate their depth.

When playing stronger players, I have been most gratified that the very well constructed handicap system of shogi permits play on a near even footing. I have seen some exciting games where newcomers were able to play against shogi professionals and come close to (and occasionally score) wins. The truly nice thing is that the handicaps have themes whereby progress through the various handicaps teaches tactics and strategy progressively.

The three castles you mention are all ranging rook (furibisha) castles. These days, due to the popularity of the anaguma by satatic rook (ibisha) players, furibisha players tend to use the Fujii system. This leads to a type of mino with the king behind the silver, previously this was only used against quick attack strategies. Apart from the Fujii system the other popular opening among professionals is the yokufutori, in this case the king is left relatively unprotected.

Here's a page where one can replay annotated professional shogi games from title matche: http://gamelab.yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp/SHOGI/shogipage.html

ughaibu: Thank you for the reply and the comments. Are there standard opening sequences that you could describe, and do you recommend that an inexperienced player like myself play an opining like the yokufutori?

Yokofutori has a lot of forcing lines so it's not really suitable for inexperienced players, it needs study. I dont like studying openings myself so I try to play ibisha against furibisha players and furibisha against ibisha players, these openings are more to do with ideas than exact sequences of moves.

ughaibu: Am I correct that furibisha is what we call in English "ranging rook" and ibisha is "static rook"?

If these are not best learnt as opening sequences of moves, could you describe what you think are good opening goals of the openings that you play? What would you think of as key developments by the opponent to begin seeking to attain those goals?

I have observed a number of players playing a central rook opening that seems to bear a resemblance to the 2-piece handicap games in which I have received odds, i.e., the opening looks somewhat similar but with an added rook and bishop for the attack. Do you think that there is a commonality in goals for the central rook opening and the play of the odds-giver for a 2-piece handicap game?

You mentioned in an earlier posting the anaguma castle. Is there a natural order of piece arrangement of which anaguma ("bear in the hole"?) is the outcome? What would you think are the relative strengths of the bishop-side or rook-side anaguma?

At home, my son was asking about one castle that he remembers is called the "snow cave." Do you know what characterizes its formation, what are its strengths and weaknesses, what are the methods for assaulting such a castle, etc.?

Thank you for entertaining these questions.

Some of your questions are difficult to answer. You're correct that furibisha is ranging rook and ibisha is static rook. I think the central rook formation you're refering to is probably an anti-yagura strategy(?) About the general goals of ibisha and furibisha; generally furibisha is a counter-attacking system so traditionally associated with gote (the second player), in simple terms an exchange of bishops tends to be good for ibisha but an exchange of rooks or both bishops and rooks tends to be good for furibisha. I've never used anaguma (badger is the literal meaning) myself, if I suspect my opponent is going to build one I go for a quick attack. I think your son means snow-roof, it's an ibisha castle but probably rather difficult for inexperienced players. My advice would be to contact George Hodges and buy copies of his now defunct magazine Shogi or Tony Hoskins for his book (I've forgotten the title), these are easily the best resources in english.

The term Smothered Mate is applied to a checkmate by a knight where the opposing king is "smothered" by his own pieces.

Has anyone heard of this term for a checkmate by any other piece?

I was rating the following game for our club:
http://brainking.com/game/ArchivedGame?g=662445

and realized that the mated King is in a way smothered by his own pieces as well.

Can this be considered a smothered mate?

Jose Carrillo
FRCEC Moderator
http://frcec.chess960.info/

As i know the answer is NO, it can't be considered as a smothered mate. The smothered mate should involve only a Knight threating and mating the King.

Notice also that a mate with a double check with a Knight delivering the one check, is not a smothered mate. For example the following is not:
r1b1k2r/p3qppp/1p3B2/2pP4/8/2P2n2/PP1N1PPP/

R2QKB1R w KQkq - 0 9

Fischerandom Chess email Club
(http://frcec.ches960.info/)

BrainKing's Top 10 players - February 2005
(minimum 1 finished game)

Rating Member Name Country Origin W-L-D
1 1634 José Carrillo Puerto Rico 44-20-10
2 1558 Uwe Kreuzer Germany 3-0-0
3 1516 Daniel Lostlyrics Germany 1-0-0
4 1512 Larry Shannon USA 2-2-0
5 1505 Sagi Gabay USA 2-2-1
6 1500 Markus Nemetz Austria 1-1-1
7 1490 Vincenzo Dell Italy 0-1-0
8 1489 Jean-Marc Hebrard France 0-1-0
9 1488 Michael Farris USA 2-3-3
10 1486 Reinhard Scharnagl Bavaria 0-1-0

... are games with random positions similar to FRC or Corner Chess.A very interesting wild variant is "Style 3" at USCL:
" In this variant the set of pieces is randomly chosen (subject to the constraint that there is one king of each color).It is quite possible to get more than the normal number of a given piece, such as three rooks or two queens. The pieces are
placed on the first rank behind the pawns, the position of Black's pieces mirrors White's placement, and castling is not allowed."

Three game examples played by me with a time of three minutes each player for the whole game:

[Event "GCS"]
[Site "GCS"]
[Date "2005.03.23"]
[White "Caissus"]
[Black "MrLudovit"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1804"]
[BlackElo "1762"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[FEN "bbqnnqkq/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BBQNNQKQ"]


1. c4 e6 2. Nd3 a6 3. f4 Ba7+ 4. e3 Nc6 5. b3 Nd6
6. Nc3 Nf5 7. Qe2 h5 8. Kf1 h4 9. Nf2 b6 10. Bxf5 exf5
11. Nd3 d6 12. Nd5 Qfe8 13. Qg1 h3 14. Qgf2 Ne7 15. Qg3 hxg2+
16. Qgxg2 Nxd5 17. cxd5 c5 18. Qef2 b5 19. Qfg3 Qcd7 20. Qxg7+ Qxg7
21. Qxg7#
1-0

[Event "GCS"]
[Site "GCS"]
[Date "2005.03.23"]
[White "MrLudovit"]
[Black "Caissus"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "1755"]
[BlackElo "1865"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[FEN "rrbqnrnk/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RRBQNRNK"]


1. f4 f5 2. a4 Ngf6 3. a5 d6 4. Ngf3 c5 5. c3 Bd7
6. Qc2 Qc8 7. d4 cxd4 8. Nxd4 Nc7 9. Nef3 Nb5 10. e3 Nxd4
11. exd4 b5 12. axb6 axb6 13. Rxa8 Rxa8 14. Ng5 Bc6 15. Be3 Ne4
16. Qe2 Nxg5 17. fxg5 Be4 18. Rbe1 Qc6 19. Bf4 Ra2 20. Rf2 Rfa8
21. h4 Ra1 22. Rxa1 Rxa1+ 23. Kh2 Rb1 24. Qh5 Qb5 25. g4 Rxb2
26. Rd2 Rxd2+ 27. Bxd2 Qe2+ 28. Kg1 Qg2#
0-1

[Event "GCS"]
[Site "GCS"]
[Date "2005.03.23"]
[White "Caissus"]
[Black "MrLudovit"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "1906"]
[BlackElo "1749"]
[TimeControl "180+0"]
[FEN "brrkqqqb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/BRRKQQQB"]


1. b4 b6 2. g4 e6 3. Bxa8 Rxa8 4. f4 c5 5. bxc5 Qxc5
6. Qxc5 Rxc5 7. Qf3 Rac8 8. Bc3 g6 9. Bxh8 Qxh8 10. f5 gxf5
11. gxf5 Rxf5 12. Qb7 Qe5 13. Qxa7 Qe7 14. Qxb6+ Ke8 15. Rb3 Q7f6
16. Rg3 Rg5 17. Rxg5 Qfxg5 18. Qbf2 h5 19. Qef1 f5 20. Q2g2 Qxg2
21. Qxg2 Ke7 22. Qg5+ Kd6 23. Rb1 Qxh2 24. c3 Rc6 25. Qg7 Qh1+
26. Kc2 Qe4+ 27. Kd1 Qh1+ 28. Kc2 Qe4+ 29. Kc1 h4 30. Qf8+ Kc7
31. Qb8#
1-0

Fischerandom Chess email Club
(http://frcec.ches960.info/)

BrainKing's Top 10 players - February 2005
(minimum 1 finished game)

Rating Member Name Country W-L-D
01 1622 José Carrillo Puerto Rico 50-24-10
02 1572 Markus Nemetz Austria 5-1-1
03 1558 Uwe Kreuzer Germany 3-0-0
04 1556 Daniel Lostlyrics Germany 3-0-0
05 1545 Maurice Laplanc France 6-3-0
06 1530 Filip Rachunek Czech Republic 2-0-0
07 1529 Jean-Marc Hebrard France 3-2-0
08 1512 Larry Shannon USA 2-2-0
09 1507 Raúl Eduardo Palacio Argentina 10-11-0
10 1490 Vincenzo Dell Italy 0-1-0

Location: BrainKing
KO-0006
1. open
2. open
3. open
4. open
5. open
6. open
7. open
8. open


** Looking for FRCEC members for KO-0006 **

To join the KO:

If you belong to FRCEC, send an email to:
frcec-ko@yahoogroups.com

If not, and you want to join FRCEC, email:
frcec-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

or send me a private message.

FRCEC Homepage:
http://frcec.ches960.info/

I have been watching the games on and off, and I have been interested in many of the ideas I have seen. ...(edited and deleted at the request of Moderator)

I very much like Janus Chess also, and can, if you like, do a similar collation for Janus Chess players. If more folks here like Janus (and I do like the tactical strength of the game) I will keep the subject more solely on Janus. It has been my wish that more people would discuss the Janus games as well, maybe adding some annotation to particularly strong games, or even games of lower strength that were enjoyable. Does anyone have a JanusSchach game that she/he is particularly fond of, even if that person was just a spectator?

Nasmichael: This is not the Gothic Chess discussion board. Therefore, why not put the same questions about Janus Chess who is at least of equal interesting game?

Friendly yours, Paul (close to teasing ;-) )

Spirou: probably posted here by mistake. I have asked him to move his posting to Gothicchessboard.

Caissus: Wise advice. Though the same questions about Janus Chess could also be wise! :-)))

Caissus: As I did too. All the tournaments that he lists are Gothic Chess. He said he didn't want two copies, but if there's only to be one he ought to delete the one here after he puts a copy on the Gothic Chess board.

"Message corrected.Any favorite Janus games?..."

moved to the board "Januschess"

A tournament has been created to honor Mr. Ed Trice:

http://brainking.com/game/Tournaments?trg=8217

Let's hope Mr. Trice joins. His intelligence and courage will be a a great asset in this endeavour.

Hi chessfriends, here please only comments about chessvariants which are not implementet on Brainking yet.Exception: FRC. Thanks.

What about this one? Interesting and playable or not?

Every game is interesting............!
This is of course playable but there is no new idea. It just have one more line with Pawns. Nothing impressive.........
I think you have to add games that will be based on something new.........

I don't think there should be always a new idea. Have a look at hyper backgammon, how popular it became although it's just a simplified copy of standard backgammon with no additional rules.

Fencer: I agree, because the many pawns make the game perhaps a little bit viscously.Why not"wild 3" ? The game is very originally and you need no new pieces.Game examles are below.

Hmmmm OK, but i will always believe it's better to add variations that will be based on something new.
The game you proposed it's a bit slow, how about an Atomic variation of this one......?

Chessmaster1000: Ohhhh... I'm not a chess fan, but the mention of an Atomic Variation of that setup is an interesting one - since it would offer an extra line of defense.

Yes after Nf3or Nh3 black would not have to answer f6 all the time...... But with a reconsideration, i believe that this would be a slow game too.......

I would definitely scream for Progressive Chess!!!!!!!! This game is amazing...........
The rules are simple. We have a Chess starting position and all Chess rules apply. The difference:
White makes his first move.....
Black then has 2 moves to play....
White then has 3 moves to play.....
.............
And every time one side play +1 moves of the last side.

(The other rules: If one side on a series of X moves for example, makes a check then the series stops for this player and the other side starts to make his X+1 moves.
The player that could not get out of check in his FIRST move is checkmate!)
If you think for a moment on the above 2 rules, you will find the idea very clever.....
I'm awful at this game but it's one of the most entertaining and quick..............

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.

Progressive chess ! Sounds really good and it's been a long time since we had a new chess variant ...

<Progressive Chess is a definite candidate ! Although it is not one of my favourite variants, it has the advantages of being already very popular, and to produce fast games (games >10 moves are an exception).
I would imagine that implementing multiple moves would be more expensive in coding than some other variants. But once done, we could gain a lot more : other popular games like Marseillais Chess or Double Move Chess. These are two different two-move variants. In Marseillais Chess, like in Progressive Chess, if you check with the first of your two moves, you lose the right to play the second one. In Double-Move Chess, you can win by checking on the first move and taking the king on the second.
Other excellent multi-move variants are Avalanche (after each of your moves you have to push an enemy pawn one square forward), and various asymmetrical games where one side has only 3 or 4 pawns against a whole army, but can play two moves at a turn.

Location: BrainKing
T0029 Points 1 2 3 Country
1. Jean-Marc Hebrard 3 - 2 1 France
2. Maurice Laplanc 2 0 - 2 France
3. Leonardo Alvarado 1 1 0 - Guatemala

Location: BrainKing
T0030 Points 1 2 3 Country
1. Reinhard Scharnagl 4 - 2 2 Germany
2. Leonardo Alvarado 1.5 0 - 1.5 Guatemala
3. Larry Shannon 0.5 0 0.5 - U.S.A.

Congratulations to Jean-Marc and Reinhard on their wins!

This first public beta of Smirf (about 1.3 MB) is unrestricted until 2005/06/30.

Of course this program is subject to further improvements.

http://de.geocities.com/rsmuenchen/SmirfBeta.zip

Comments are welcomed.

Regards, Reinhard.

Can anybody explain this rule to me?

"Promoting a pawn: You can move (rather than drop) a pawn onto an eighth-rank square, but only if your opponent's prison contains a queen, rook, bishop or knight. The pawn at once vacates the square, going into the prison. You then carry out the promotion by filling the vacated square with whichever you choose of the queen, rook, bishop or knight."

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?

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.

AbigailII: Thanks. I've just wanted to make sure I don't misunderstand it.

Fencer: Here is a position in Hostage Chess I played recently; I control the Black pieces. In the gamescore, the Asterisk (*) indicated a piece is being dropped on the board. Two piece abbreviations in parenthesis indicate that a piece is being exchanged for another piece, and that shorthand is followed by the piece that is being dropped and the square on which that piece is being dropped. EX: 7.(N-B) B*c5 means that White exchanged a white bishop for a black knight, and the bishop is dropped on c5.

r3kb2/pp3pp1/1qpp2n1/6p1/2P1P1N1/bB1P1nP1/
PPPpN3/RKrR4 w - - 0 29

I invite you to set it up and play along.

In White's prison: black rook.
In Black's prison: white pawn, bishop, queen.

Free Pieces: white bishop.

White is in check. White to move.

I want to continue the process of executing the smothered mate.
29. Choices between RxR or NxR. The c1 square is being occupied and attacked 3 times, and defended 3 times, but the king is one of the defenders. The black Knight on f3 is threatening mate as soon as the black pawn on d2 vacates the square. When the pawn promotes, anyone in the prison (in this case the rook) can be redeployed. Because the rook is giving a contact check, no square is left for the freed bishop or queen to intervene. They, in this case, are useless. The decision to drop the piece could have been to drop the rook anywhere along the 1st rank. Also I could have kept the white queen in prison and sacrificed my queen to re-deploy it. But would that have been a good idea? My bishop is sitting en prise at a3, which a moment ago would have forced a mate for black if unanswered or would have weakened the b2 square and allowed the bishop to reinforce the c1 square for attack. I have to come up with a plan.

29a1. RxR--Rd1xc1, d2xc1 = *R (pawn goes to prison in exchange for Rook) + ; 30. Ne2xc1, Nf3-d2 #.
29a2. RxR---Rd1xc1, d2xc1 = R +; 30.Kb1xc1, Qb6-e3+ and either dropped piece is captured with a contact check by the queen at d2, and then the rooks can be exchanged with check and a won game. […(R-R) R*d1+, and queen & rook can force a drop, and the knight comes to d2 anyway for a smother.]
29b. NxR----Ne2xc1, d2xc1 = R +; 30. Kb1xc1, and the e3 square is protected by the N at g4. So re-deploy the pawn, 30…(P-P)*d2+; 31. Choice of RxP or moving the king to b1 again. There is a powerful sequence which brings the white king to a5, which I forgot to annotate, but here is the position, which entails NOT taking the rook on d2, but instead forcing checks and captures with Ba3xb2+; KxB, (N-B)B*c3+; Kxc3, Qd4+; Kb4, d2-d3 (discovered check with Bf8)+; Ka5 (forced), Qb3 + with at some point an exchange and drop of pawns at *b4 with check, and here is the FEN:

r3kb2/pp3pp1/1qp3n1/Kp1p2p1/2P1P1N1/1B1P1
nP1/P1PR4/R7 w - - 0 1

Hopefully that will give you an idea of how play moves in Hostage Chess.

Nasmichael: Thanks but this strategy is too complicated for me. I was only asking for a clarificarion of pawn promotes in this variant, with a simple example. I don't have time to study anything longer.

Fencer: No problem. Abigail gave you the correct answer, I just offered something more for you or for those who may want an example. Thank you for asking about the game.

Fencer: I read Hostage Chess games commented by the author and yes, this seems to be the correct interepretation.
But there is one more point in this rule (probably it was stated later and you know it) : if no piece is in the opponent's prison, then the pawn cannot move onto the last rank. It means that in this case, a pawn on the seventh rank is not even checking a king on the last rank.

By the way, I fully support / am looking forward to the implementation of Hostage Chess, which is an excellent game.
Sorry to be on the "user always want more" side, but Recycle Chess (http://www.chessvariants.org/difftaking.dir/recy
clechess.html) is a close and simpler relative that definitely deserves the same consideration !

nabla: I consider both variations.