New Position Workshop / Testing Thread

ok guys hear me out:

Using the Infinite Seirawan thing, make it Crazywan, so that when you capture a piece, you can immediately "deploy" it by placing it down where another piece was, making crazyhouse less sharp.

4603rd comment!

bots as one of the players always act dumb and shuffol

also what is infinite seirawan thing

i did that in the second limited life but limited it to the first two ranks

tell me what you think:

New and improved Duplex House

Is this not just Pac Chess?

what if I add fatal

Then nobody can make progress.

Thoughts on this position? It’s like Makruk (Thai chess), but (hopefully) more fun.

Rules:
1) Players with only one remaining piece forfeit
2) Pawns promote to a ferz on the 6th rank.
I have two questions: 
1) Is there a way to make it to where the king can’t castle?
2) Is there a piece that moves diagonally or one space forward?

You might want to buff the promo options -- ferzes' tango doesn't really work.

Additionally, is this different enough from Chaturanga? It seems to only changes are 1) pawn rank is pushed forward, 2) alfils are replaced with an actually useful piece, and 3) promo is closer.

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Answers:

1) Yes. Switch off all sliders here (not the zombie ones, though)

2) Sergeant would be the closest match.

Thank you! That helped. Also: I do feel like it is different. Something else in Chaturanga that is different is stalemate. In Chaturanga, the stalemated player loses. In mine, it’s just a draw. But I do agree that they are kinda similar.

Here is a test game I played that shows the initial position:

https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/92986154/37/3

Rules: Crazyhouse, sideways pawns, promote to general or dragon bishop.

My variant is inspired by the compact chaos of "Tinyhouse", so I made a larger version with similar piece density (unlike "Minihouse"). Thinking of naming it "Partyhouse" for the density of the position.

My main concerns right now are as follows:

• Difficulty to form a cohesive plan to attack the king in the opening:
  • Pawns and lower value pieces can hinder the development of most of the higher value pieces in the opening
  • Might lead to sluggish/shuffly opening stage (likely counteracted by crazyhouse)?
• Pawns have difficulty protecting each other, not sure if it's an interesting quirk of the variant or an annoying hinderer of development?
• Pawns might promote to pieces that are too powerful?
• Not sure if sideways pawns have much of an effect on the game.
• Maybe weak play on light color complex: all major pieces are aimed at dark squares, tried to counteract with ferz, but not sure if it's enough.

Overall, I need a few more test games to see if the variant is worth developing, and if it leads to interesting play, thank you for your help!

The problem with the variant itself is that it is just too similar to already existing crazyhouse ideas and variants. Many WoFs and NCVs play around with these ideas, such as https://variants.world/posts/1311, https://variants.world/posts/1622, https://variants.world/posts/1704, many others that have been declined, and most notably Minihouse itself. It doesn't make sense to add this many similar variants which the ones that already exist have more unique gameplay, as adding a few uncommon fairy pieces and sideways doesn't quite make the cut, and creating more concepts like these would be an uphill battle.

Even without regarding the issue of similarity, the piece choice isn't the best. Pieces like the alibaba-rider and ferz are extremely weak due to their incapability to move many squares on the board and being color-blind (essentially, they serve as a defensive piece that rarely gets used, especially the alibaba-rider). The grasshopper also doesn't get used much other than a first move check, so it usually comes off to the knight, rook, and the pawns for attacking and defending. At the end, it just becomes the pieces from minihouse that remain being the most powerful except for when a pawn promotes.

first move threats/check are bad

Talking about Makruk, Leapers is directly inspired by it.

I can help you through if you're making some type of Makruk.

Awesome

https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/93177413/78/3 but without GoP

A bit of a generic starting position, but there are a lot of defense/attack tactics. Feels surprisingly balanced, considering that there are grasshoppers.

Should I add torpedo and/or change promo rank/options?

Edit: Wildebeest was too powerful early on. Here's the new position:

Trying to make a variant with crazywan rules: balancing upgrading to new pieces with development and attacking the king.

Lastest iteration of the starting position (not a real game, more just to showcase position): https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/93198651/0/1

Slightly older version, with a more fully fleshed out game (still haven't reached an endgame with a recent position yet): https://www.chess.com/variants/custom/game/93197444/0/1

Wondering if this is an original enough idea, or already been thrown around?

If it's worth more development, I'm also wondering if there were any ideas to help balance the knight a bit, as it is one of the only pieces on the board that can directly access the 'upgrade pieces'. It hasn't been as bad in this board setup as in previous versions, but still not the best (currently 8 moves to capture the chancellor entirely within a player's half of the board, not sure how much space gaining/attacking ideas can be developed in that time).

Also thought about adding King of the Hill to the squares with queens on them to perhaps help a low mobility endgame (although I'm worried it will highly deincentivize attacking the soldier guarding the entrance, a key idea to win sometimes).

Thanks for the feedback, I should be available to play the position around 6pm Eastern Time if anybody is interested!