Didn''t the great master Capablanca propose a widening of the board and the introduction of more pieces, or did I dream that? haha! Found the link, I didn''t dream it!
Check out: http://www.mindsports.net/Arena/GrandChessIntroduction/AboutGrandChess.html

quote: Original post by zerwit
Ever heard of a little thing called checkers!

checkers = dumb man''s chess

quote: Original post by TechnoHydra
I think on a couple of episodes of Star Trek: TNG there was some sort of multilevel game that looked similar to chess.

And where might that idea have come from? I''m fairly certain the original Star Trek series had a three or four level chess game, often played between Mr. Spock and somebody else.

Dragon Magazine had a modified chess version that ir reprinted the rules for in a couple issues. It was called "Dragon Chess" - go figure. It was based on a 3 board system representing Sky, Surface, and Subteranian. Different types of peices on the levels.

Surface was a lot like standard chess. Sky had dragons and flying things. Undergraound had dwarves and trolls and stuff. Some peices could change levels. Dragon could capture peices on the sky board as well as directly under them on the ground board without changing levels.

Was a lot of fun. I'll try to find a link to the rules.

Landsknecht

P.S. Found the link. here

[edited by - landsknecht on April 22, 2002 1:41:38 PM]

Hmm, I didn''t realize that there were so many variations of chess already available. It figures though. I had though about the piece building(exp, or something) but it seemed that it would easily unbalance it and had the potential to turn it into more of a power game. Where winning would be by brute force. Probably wrong, it really depends on the guidelines and restrictions set out for it.

It would be nice to either take one of these variations or create another and set it up for online gaming. Using something like Java to create a 2 player game. Again the rules and design would have to be extremely well thought out ahread of time and some sort of tutorial would be nice to go along with it. Seems to me it might be easier to create a 2 player game and have a server act as ref then to have to create a complex AI opponent.

Any thoughts on this?

Multiplayer would be MUCH easier to implement than an AI. I am pretty sure you could probably find a pre-built chess ai on the net somewhere, but modifying it to the extent needed would be a project all its own.

Landsknecht

Back in school I used to play ''swap chess'', in which a team of two plays another team of two on a pair of boards. Basically you run two games side by side, but whenever you capture a piece, you give it to your partner who can place it on his board in lieu of a standard move. First team to checkmate either board wins, and stalemates get broken with a new piece introduction.

There''s also Golden Dawn chess, that''s a kind of four player chess played on a special board. It was developed by members of the Golden Dawn society (duh) and there are ways you can play it that reputedly tell the future.

CANNABALISM CHESS

Victory Condition:

The player who first loses all his pieces wins.

Rules:

-Add the checkers rule that when you CAN take a piece, you HAVE to. If you can take multiple pieces, you can choose which one you will take.

-All regular chess rules apply, except that losing your King piece does not matter (as such, ''check'' and ''check mate'' do not apply)

Many variants were devised by chess players like:
- phantom chess: you can place back pieces you lost where they were captured
- shogi variant: you can use pieces you took from your opponent
- cannibalism chess: already quoted before
- cylindrical chess: the left and right side of the board are connected
- fantasy chess: it is not the kind devised above but the use of pieces with different move (the tao, the pao and the vao).
There is a book on those devised variants. I will try to find the reference.

You can add to that other chess games:
- Shogi : japanese chess already quoted
- Xiang-qi : chinese chess with ministers, canons, charriots, ...
- Indian chess: from India with elephants, rajahs, etc...
- three player chess: the same chess game but with three set of pieces and an hexagonal board

Have fun.
Ghostly yours,
Red.

All I have to say is ARCHON!

Best C64 game!

Jeff D

[edited by - Jeff D on April 23, 2002 2:50:54 PM]