facteurix: I did not know there was a site that had Chu Shogi live play. Which is it? I have played it on Richard's Games a few years ago.

http://www.gamerz.net/pbmserv/gamerz.php

It looks like it is still up and running. I have not visited this site in a few years. I do not remember my password or handle, though I might be able to find them if I look. It seems like this site is turn based.

AbigailII: It might add a lot being on a smaller board than those other games. The name lags in my opinion, but the game might be a good game. Lots of concentrated power and yet still a Chess game.

ChessChampion: It's not unprogrammable. Zillions of Games has it. I think the Chess Variants site has it too, but I'm not sure of that. I and others have requested Ultima on BrainKing.

The dread Immobilizer is coming your way! :)

Lambik: In fact that site doesn't even mention the Emperor!

Lambik: The www.superchess.nl link worked fine. I went there, but it doesn't really have much in the way of how the game is played aside from saying you play it just like regular Chess after the pieces are set up during the prelude. Nor does it mention the Emperor being a second piece to have to threaten, nor any of these other powers you guys have been talking about. It just mentions adding some pieces at the begininng of the game and playing it just like regular Chess from there. It sounds as if this Superchess has been evolving on its own elsewhere. Deciding which pieces are allowed is half the game as far as playing it is concerned. IT also only mentions playing on a 8 × 8 board, but I see no reason that a different sized board couldn't be used.

As for playing on this site. Fencer's plan of having the creator make the game and then the person wanting to play would accept the set up and rules or not play will work, though it will eliminate negotiation for a tournament. It will have negotiation for games between to individuals though. As the invitee won't accept and start the game until some of his wants are addressed. This will force either player to create a new game and again have it reviewed and accepted by the other.

Nasmichael: I thought it was a simple question, but no one has told me how to win a game of Superchess.
So checkmating the King doesn't win the game? Or does it? And why should I care about the Emperor? What's this royal business? It sounds like this game adds new powers and restrictions besides the new pieces. From what I've seen posted it appears you get to choose your initial set of pieces from a catalog of pieces that you and your opponent agree to before the game starts. What size is the board? Is that negotiable too? Is there a link to the rules and description of this game?

Lambik: So you checkmate the King to win? What's that got to do with the Emperor?

Lambik: How do you win a game of this Superchess?

The Immobilizer sounds just like this Wizard you've described. In Ultima the Immobilizer, in fact all the pieces except the King and Pawns, move as a Queen moves in regular Chess. The difference is how they capture. In regular Chess the pieces all move differently but all capture in the same manner. They capture by occupying the square held by the opponent's piece. I've heard this called, "Displacement". In Ultima, the pieces all move the same, but capture in different methods. The Immobilizer can't even capture at all. I will argue that it is a stronger piece than the chess Queen though. This Joker you've described is similiar to a Chameleon in Ultima. The Chameleon captures the piece that it is capturing in the manner that that piece captures! Longleapers are like the flying Kings I've seen in some of the Checker variants played on this site. The Coordinator is unique and can be hard to stop. He only guards two squares at a time, but threatens plenty just sitting around. The Withdrawer is a weak piece. After seeing how an Amazon works, I wouldn't mind trying Ultima with an Amazon in the place of the Withdrawer. The Pawns in Ultima move like Rooks. The capture by trapping an enemy piece between themselves and a friendly piece or Pawn.
There's no promotion in Ultima. A stalemate is a victory for the side that moved last. Checkmate is still what the object is. The King is the same as in regular Chess. You may also suicide your own piece if it's immobilized. This counts as a turn.

Does this game have an Immobilizer?

I still am waiting for Ultima to be added to the site. The search for this game is what brouught me to play on the internet in the first place. I've been directed to various sites because of precieved flaws to the original version of Ultima. Rococo and I forgot the name of the other one are "fixes" and seem like they might be good games. I would also like to play regular Chessmen against Ultimamen. Just to settle the which set is stronger argument.

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.

Fencer: It looks like the creator made a typo when describing where the Pawns get promoted to, unless he really means the "H" file!

Caissus: AbigailII:
Thank you both for the links. It looks like I had most of the story right. It sounds like a saga now. I wonder what'll happen next to him? Moving to Iceland?! I guess we'll just have to wait and see. I really doubt that Bush will pardon him, but Bush could call off the dogs and let him move to Iceland.

Sumerian: I like the T-Shirt offer at your link! :)
Free Bobby Fischer! That's a good one. I get the feeling he's still in custody.
I have to leave now, but I think I will try to track down what has happened to him when I return. He was rather eccentric back in the 1970's when he won the championship. I imagine he still is.

Caissus: Yes, Caissus I can see that the name was changed or atleast you are calling it by a different name. Is this OK with Bobby, are did you do it on your own? If so, why? When did the name change come about? Or are there two names for it? Or is it that your group has one name and over here it's called Fischer Random Chess?

The link you sent me to is all in German and I can't read it. I was able to see that someone was playing a simultaneous exhibition of Fischer Random Chess. They even had name plates made for the participants. A right nice deal that must've been. Were you there?

reza: Unfortunately, I think ol' Bobby has gone off his rocker. Seems like they arrested him in Japan not long ago and were going to deport him to the U.S. for playing Chess in Yugoslavia against the wishes of the State Department many years back and also not paying income taxes on his winnings. I believe he spews a lot of anti-American rhetoric nowadays also, though he's still an American himself. Anybody know what's become of him, or should I look through the news on the internet? Maybe this has some of the desires for Sumerian to call the game by a different name. You know, for political correctness and such?

jcarrillovii: Perhaps Sumerian should ask Bobby Fischer what the name of it is?

Fencer: I'd make it so the tournament creator can choose one system or the other, then a player could decide which kind of tournament to play in. Or did you say that was what you are working on?

Sumerian: You certainly aren't making your position very clear to me. Perhaps it's me, eh? :)

You're wrong about what you just said. You could've a few year ago and I bet today too, buy a Chess playing program called Chess Master. The user doesn't have to play it at its highesst level and can choose to play it at a lower level giving him a chance to beat the machine if his Chess playing ability is like the most of us. Chess masters play the game so much better than the regular Chess player that to them computers or chess masters are all the same, and then it's time to get the cards out and deal them.

By the way, I can beat a ferrara in a number of races. I can move sidesway lots faster. I can jump higher off the ground. I can climb stairs faster. I can get on two wheels easier. I bet the list goes on and on. As for just racing around a track, I suppose the Ferrari might win in that one instance. But only if it has a person drive it! Just setting there parked it won't make it one lap and I'll win that race too!

If computers continue to improve as they have been, how long will it take for three orders of magnitude to be made up? 15 years? I imagine as computers get better, people and computers will also find better ways to solve problems further lowering the time it takes to solve Chess and simular games. Why can't a current Chess playing machine have the pieces set up for each position of FRC and work out a book for them? Imagine computers that work a 1000 times faster than the current models, or have chips with parallel processing, or a bunch of people all sharing their computers.

That link you sent me to is full of wishfull thinking. There's not a chance that computer makers are going to stop trying to improve their machines! Arms race, indeed it is. You might be able to organize a tournament where you set limits for the computers, but such a thing will get left way behind the actual developement of computers. It goes against human nature. We always want the best, so who's going to be interested in a bunch of limited computers playing Chess at our level when it can be played at a higher level?. In a just a couple of years computers will play Chess better than even the best human player. There won't be a doubt in anyone's mind about it like there is today. This is one of the reasons for the growing popularity of the larger Chess variants. Just a slight increase in the board and the addition of a couple new pieces doesn't make it much harder for a person to understand or play the game, but it greatly increases how much computing has to be done to play it. Chess's popularity and newsworthiness might drop when this happens, but I imagine the computers will then play against each other and the prizes might go up for that. Kind of like that show called "Battle-Bots" except it'll be Chess that they'll be playing. There already are Chess tournaments for computers, right? Perhaps one reason people don't care so much about them is that there's still a few people that play better than them. Do they let the computers enter regular human type Chess champion tournaments?

Computers! Maybe it's too much for humans to know all 960 starting position, but that sure doesn't stop a computer. Especially nowadays. For people, that's three orders of magnitude. Almost like making the start of the game an extra one and a half moves to think ahead before the game starts. This will work with people and the Chess will be more on how well you can move the pieces and how they work together, instead by rote and memorization. Computers on the other hand can start with all 960 positions and start working things out way in advance and have nice book ready for when the game starts. With the time it takes on the internet, even more so. This FRC Chess 960 is just a temporary solution for computer aided games, but I think it will work quite well with peple.

I thought you guys said you didn't licenses for board games in Europe. Why's this any different? From the looks of the game, you wouldn't even need to use animals, just regular Chess pieces should work fine. The creator should be happy to have the exposure that BrainKing will bring his game and I'm sure that's worth more to him than a hundred euros. Maybe he can pay you to have his game on the site? :) A little negotiation is in order. I for one have never heard of this game until you mentioned it. Is it widely played in Europe?

If you need more or different games, I still think Ultima would be a good addition to the site.

I'd like to play Ultima on this site. Any chance of getting it Fencer? If you do, don't use the upside down Rook for the Immobilizer. Do what we do, put a bottle cap on top of him. :)

The Grand Chess people make 10 X 10 boards. They make the pieces too. I like there design of the Cardinal and Marshall. I'm going to get one of there sets soon. I eventually make some of my own too. When that happens, I'll post here and let you know. Seems like any woodworking shop that already makes regular chessboards could make what ever board size that you might want for a reasonable price. I'm going to think of a way to have the board interchangable so it'd 10 X 10 on one side and 8 X 10 on the other. That'd be cool for playing various versions. With a 10 X 10 board you could also cover up some rows and files for different configurations. It'd be a challenge to make a board like that that would still look nice though.