Tournament Summary - Chess on an Infinite Plane

Pending search for chess on an infinite plane Jan 30 2018

I will play you

yes

I can only start one more thread for now. hitthepin: you're already in two games. Do you want to start a third game now, or let aidanB1 play first? (this is opponent for @HorribleTomato).

thanks

um hi?

Having thought more about castling, I really like my "guarding" idea, where it's the same as regular chess except the guard moves with the king, not the rook. This is the most naturally defensive move I can think of (bringing the guard next to the king), while it also avoids complicating matters... everyone should quickly understand it, not least because the guards occupy the classical rook's squares.

The rooks will tend to be quickly used defensively by moving to the 0th or 9th rank, so if we're sticking with rooks for castling, well it just won't happen so much because the rooks will already have moved.

Obviously I'm happy with whatever is settled on, I just wanted to share my thoughts.

Thanks for your thoughts on castling - I like your idea. It's something I'd like to add if for no other reason it's a time-honored manuever in normal chess and I'd like to carry it into infinite chess. I've also noticed in a lot of game, the king does become isolated, so this may help give the king some neighbors for defense.

I like all your ideas, except (although the guard is used) I would prefer to keep the name "castling". Here's some advantages to this way of castling:

1) The guard in this game starts where the rook normally does, so it preserves the normal move distance (and not too hard to clear the pieces).
2) The guard is an excellent king defender, so it's perfect for it to finish next to the king. It's a "low-value" minor piece, but has maximum manueverability to fight with or defend the king. They're actually "buddies" because they have the same moves.
3) The rooks can do other things without preventing the king/guards from castling.

A diagram is below. More than likely I'll add this in one of the next games. Thanks for ideas!

I'm not sure what to think of castling. In classical chess you hide the king in the corner where it is safer and you bring your rook into the game. In infinite chess I think neither of those things are accomplished. The king does not find himself closer to any corner when castling (since there are no corners). To me it rather sounds like the king is getting further away from his army and just becomes more exposed to flank attacks. If you have an army that can be attacked from any direction, then I think naturally the middle is the safest place.

Also worth mentioning is that the biggest problem to the king safety is how exposed it is from behind. No castling move will change that.

When it comes to activating the rooks, there are just more efficient ways than castling to activate them. They don't need to work as hard for finding open files as they do in traditional chess.

The main reason I would want castling is to make it more similar to classical chess, not for practical use.

I'm glad the idea is getting discussed, and I agree its main practical use is the bring the guard close to the king in a single move. I do agree with Martin's point that perhaps the centre is the safest place for the king, but that option obviously remains. The safest place will differ, so it gives defensive options. And while no castling move will defend from rear attacks, freeing the rooks up to move allows them to perform this duty.

It would be nice to have something resembling the classical castling, even if its defensive strength is somewhat limited.