Anybody Want to Play Omega Chess On Google Desktop?

So there's a variation of chess I'd like to try because of its "funky fresh" new kinds of pieces and a larger board, but most of the gameplay still resembles classical chess, only new and exciting.   The website is http://www.omegachess.com/home.html  but basically if you already have google desktop and google talk all you need to do is search "Omega" on their gadget list and get the Omega Chess google gadget.   If anyone is game, message me on here and we can set up a time, because it's not like the "open seek" option here--you have to personally invite chat friends to the gadget.  So what I found out after loading all this google stuff is it still doesn't work till there's other folks willing to play.    (The website listed above has instructions found under the "Play" menu at the top of their page.) 

Not looking for month-long games here, just quick games of embarrassingly bad Omega chess.

No thanks, I love playing here on chess.com

http://www.pathguy.com/chess/OmegaChs.htm

I found this playable beta version of Omega, and that cut down on the sleazy hot yearning after 30 minutes or so.  It's not high powered, so you'll feel at ease trying out Omega if you've never looked into it, and the possible moves for the new pieces are highlighted so it's a great learner.   It's a nice way to take a break from "serious" 8x8.

thanks for the resource

Seems like the idea behind it is the same as Capablanca Chess, probably something he would have endorsed.

I am trying to raise interest in Omegachess here in the UK as well as globally, I realize that this thread is a little old but I would really like to hear from anyone interested in Omegachess and particularly the advanced rules. Visit my site at http://www.omegachess.org.uk to contact me.

Just starting to look into this variant (the truth is my standard chess is not that fantastic yet). So far I very much like what I see. Incidentally I did not find the computer to be a very challenging opponent on the http://www.pathguy.com/chess /OmegaChs.htm site, but it is a great chance to play with the new pieces and study their movement.

I really hope in near future, there will be an better site to play Omega Chess!

I also need a software to save my games to be analyzed afterwards.

I tried to promote Omega Chess in Taiwan and had no luck. People thought it was interesting for a moment and everyone just goes back to normal Chess because you can go out into the world and play in the Chess Olympiad.

Regarding Omega itself, the layout of the pieces is not quite correct. The Champion is in a random place and is too strong later in the game. It's almost a major piece. The Wizard is not well placed and has only 1 real development square. The Knight is too far behind to catch up to 3 space moving pawns. Castling your King doesn't make it that much safer and the corner squares are not utilized enough. The extra 4 squares in the corner just doesn't seem right and hiding from Rook checkmate just doesn't seem right.

The good thing about the game is that the middlegame can be very interesting once everything is actually out in the middle of the board, but players don't seem to be using the new pieces because they are starat out in the corner. I find myself reminding new players not just to use knights, bishops, the queen and rooks.

The new pieces are interesting, but the original placement and development of the game is too slow to make people keep playing it.

I like omega chess and it would be really great to have a site to play it online. The pathguy AI is too damn easy to be anything enjoyable.

Some people raised interesting points e.g. the knight becomes too weak. I think that could be easily solved by making the knight slightly more powerful, e.g. can move 2x1, but also 3x1. I think a bigger chess board and new pieces is the way to go to make the game more enjoyable, since one century ago Capablanca has been saying that. Fischer thought the same way but with a different solution (random chess) which we thankfully have here on chess.com, but we could also have capablanca's variations (he has a 8x10 and a 10x10 if I'm not mistaken), it would be fun!

If anyone wants to play big chess variants (8x10 and 10x10), against the computer with a high challenge, I recommend a program called ChessV, just google it. It doesn't have Omega, but has some other ones that are just as fun.

PS: If you find the computer too hard, you can make it easier by reducing its thinking time. I had to reduce it to 0,0001 seconds in order to win, BTW.