ChessV - Forgotten but not gone

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skowtura


ChessV a software program capable of playing over 60 Variants using a strong engine with analysis possibilities. The author preferred to allow new variants to be easily added providing they share a commonality with the existing games structures, permitting a stronger engine to be constructed. 

It is a shame that it seems to be forgotten, but maybe it is time to have another look [click here] .

Zillions of Games seems to have resurrected itself after an absence and a great variants encylopedia is available on Scribd at https://www.scribd.com/doc/73339358/Chess-Variants-Collection.

HGMuller

ChessV was a great and ground-breaking program. It is getting a bit outdated. But recently its author, Greg Strong, returned to Chess programming. So we can look forward to a follow-up.

In the mean time there are alternative configurable multi-variant programs, mostly as WinBoard-based engines, so they can be played against each other automatically. (E.g. Fairy-Max, Sjaak II, Nebiyu). They are usually stronger than the good old ChessV. There is also a large number of WinBoard variant engines that are not configurable, but play just one variant, or a closely related group of variants (e.g. HaQiKi D for Xiangqi, Shokidoki for Shogi variants with drops, HaChu for large Shogi variants without drops).

Note that the 'great variants encyclopedia' at scribd seems to be a copy of the Wikipedia page on Chess variants, for which they then charge a fee...

HGMuller

I don't know what exactly you mean by 9x9 Chess (modern Shogi is played on 9x9...), but if the rules are not extremely weird, you could use Sjaak II or Fairy-Max. The latest version of Fairy-Max supports boards up to 14x16, and Sjaak II boards up to 128 squares.

final_wars

@BettorOffSingle

Any 9x9 game in particular?

Tongue Out

Warlord

EscherehcsE
HGMuller wrote:

I don't know what exactly you mean by 9x9 Chess (modern Shogi is played on 9x9...), but if the rules are not extremely weird, you could use Sjaak II or Fairy-Max. The latest version of Fairy-Max supports boards up to 14x16, and Sjaak II boards up to 128 squares.

BOS probably doesn't know either. He was probably just trolling.

BlargDragon

I'm assuming 9x9 Chess is developed by dropping a Grand Chess board--breaking it--and losing some of the pieces.

BlargDragon

I had never heard of ChessV, but now I absolutely must acquire and play with it.

skowtura

Also there is https://www.jocly.com/#/games for some amazing 3D games particularly Raumschach as shown in the image below - smooth 3D allowing change of perspective makes these games at least approachable

 

skowtura

[HGMuller] Yeah you're right about the SCRIBD Encyclopedia, but it is well formatted and organised - if you have a Scribd account already still worth a download.

EGleb
final_wars wrote:

@BettorOffSingle

Any 9x9 game in particular?

 

Warlord

I think something like what he mentiones here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess960-chess-variants/chess9602, which can be easily played with SjaakII, but seems rather boring as variants go... it's basically Chancellor Chess, but with a Queen replacing the Chancellor.

I have a beta-version of the new ChessV GUI that Greg sent me for testing; unfortunately I couldn't get it to run.

EGleb

The following game definition for SjaakII should play something like the proposed variant (with an initial colour-changing W move for the Bishop):

 

Variant: Chess 9x9

Board: 9x9

FEN: "rnbqkqbnr/ppppppppp/9/9/9/9/9/PPPPPPPPP/RNBQKQBNR w KQCGkqcg -"

XBoard pieces: "PNBRQKpnbrqk"

Zone: rank9 = a9,b9,c9,d9,e9,f9,g9,h9,i9

Zone: rank8 = a8,b8,c8,d8,e8,f8,g8,h8,i8

Zone: rank2 = a2,b2,c2,d2,e2,f2,g2,h2,i2

Zone: rank1 = a1,b1,c1,d1,e1,f1,g1,h1,i1

 

Piece: Knight

Move: leap (2,1)

Symbol: "N", "N,n"

Value: 320

 

Piece: Bishop

Move: slide (D,A)

Special: rank1, rank9, leap (1,0)

Symbol: "B", "B,b"

Value: 325

 

Piece: Rook

Move: slide (H,V)

Symbol: "R", "R,r"

Value: 500

 

Piece: Queen

Move: slide (D,A,H,V)

Symbol: "Q", "Q,q"

Value: 950

 

Piece: King

Move: leap (0,1)|(1,1)

Symbol: "K", "K,k"

Flags: royal

Castle: white e1-g1 with i1

Castle: white e1-c1 with a1

Castle: black e9-g9 with i9

Castle: black e9-c9 with a9

 

Piece: Pawn

Move: step N

Capture: step NE,NW

Initial: step 2N

Symbol: " ", "P,p"

Flags: set_ep,take_ep

Promotion: rank9, rank1, "QRBN"

Value: 100

 

Rule: special init

Rule: checkmate = win

Rule: stalemate = draw

Rule: repeat3 = draw

quadibloc

I had only just heard of the existence of ChessV, and so I was quite excited.

But I tried to play a game of Courier Chess against it. Since the pieces were in the advanced configuratiion, I figured it was playing by the old rules. However, after I played a pawn move, its Queen captured my King's Rook. Which is odd, as the Queen should only have the single-step move of a Fers.

I couldn't see any link on the site for reporting bugs.

Since I posted this, I read the scripting language documentation, loaded the source, and found what needed to be changed in the .cs file for Courier Chess. But if no one is maintaining the program any longer, even a recompile with that in apparently can't happen.