Queen and Chancellor look very similiar. It wouldn't surprise me if there was a case of mistaken identity otb at some point.
Has anyone played Seirawan Chess?
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seuss68 wrote:
I like the premise of Seirawan chess, but the hawk and the elephant seem out of place on the chess board when compared to the standard pieces. Plus the elephant was an early version of our bishop 1000 plus years ago. Here is a picture of the gothic chess set, also known as Capablanca chess. I would much rather use pieces that look like this in Seirawan chess because it maintains the feel of the chess board and the design of the pieces. After the queen is the chancellor (elephant) and archbishop (hawk)
I kind of like the look of the elephant and hawk. I actually don't like the look of the pieces in the picture you've posted of the Chancellor and Archbishop; they look too much like the queen.
I looked about ordering a set of elephants and queens from house of staunton but unfortunately they shipping costs would be more than the items themselves! I'd really like to try playing this variant but I'm not sure if I can stomach paying more for shipping costs than the items I'm buying.
Wouldn't it be GREAT if Chess.com became the first website where people could play Seirawan Chess online? *Hint* *Hint*
staggerlee wrote: Would it be GREAT if Chess.com became the first website where people would play Seirawan Chess online? *Hint* *Hint*
I think chess960 is still on the back burner, and it would require less modification than Seirawan. We may have to wait a bit. 
yes, what about random fischer?
now THAT is a puzzle...
pcfilho wrote: Random Fischer is much, much, much more difficult to play than these variations...
I don't know if it's really more difficult to play. Certainly more disorienting when you begin. (The first few times I played Fischer random it felt very much like playing chess drunk.)
Chessvariants.org has a page on it at:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MLseirawanchess
Covers most anything you'd want to know.
To get back on topic, has anyone else actually played this variation yet? Did you like it? What point value would you assign the extra pieces?
anyone tried japanese chess? shogi?
To answer my own question, I think that the elephant should be worth about 8 points (5 for rook power + 3 for knight power). I think that the hawk should be worth about 7 points (3 for bishop + 3 for knight + 1 for being able to change the color of square that it uses as a bishop). Does this sound about right to anyone else?
cwcaesar wrote: To answer my own question, I think that the elephant should be worth about 8 points (5 for rook power + 3 for knight power). I think that the hawk should be worth about 7 points (3 for bishop + 3 for knight + 1 for being able to change the color of square that it uses as a bishop). Does this sound about right to anyone else?
I was actually thinking about this myself. I was thinking 6.5 or 7 for the Hawk and 8 for the Elephant. Although, the Hawk actually might need to be higher, as it could deliver checkmate ALL BY ITSELF. For instance if the enemy King is on A1 and the Hawk is on C3, that's checkmate.
That's a good point. I had never actually thought of that.
cwcaesar wrote: To answer my own question, I think that the elephant should be worth about 8 points (5 for rook power + 3 for knight power). I think that the hawk should be worth about 7 points (3 for bishop + 3 for knight + 1 for being able to change the color of square that it uses as a bishop). Does this sound about right to anyone else?
I might put them slightly higher. Remember that a queen is a bishop-rook (3 + 5) but we tend to give it a value of 9.
I wonder how often the hawk-only checkmate would show up. Can anyone think up a good scenario that doesn't involve inept defense on the part of the mated?
Tried it!
It felt sleazy.
But also like a heavy hitting slugfest, with both armies totally shelling each other's center. Compared to normal, where everything is protected once or twice, now you're looking for what's covered only 3 times instead of 4, and when you see something only thrice protected you say "Oh yeah, I can smash through that." So it started to look like black was losing in the center, so I said okay let's try sending one of these new pieces after the king. It turns out the Hawk was able to chase the king out of the corner all by itself, and then black won back massive material with pins. So far, I'm finding the Hawk more usable than the Elephant, but maybe that just depends on what style of player you are. I assumed the queen is still slightly more valuable than the new pieces and tried to safegaurd the queens. Sacrificed? an elephant in exchange for a hawk and that made the difference, because a normal bishop was able to kind of incapacitate an elephant two squares away on the same rank and keep it out of the action.
It's like a re-awakening of the initial sense of wonder you had when you first learned the game. And this way there's no need to go out and make a special 10-square board. Cool.
I have played quite a bit of 10x8 and 10x10 chess and would value the hawk at 7.25 points and the Elephant at 8.25. The Elephant should be worth a bit more than its component parts but the queen in chess really gets its big bonus over the rook and bishop combination because the bishop component of its move is able to change colors. The Knight's ability in the Elephant is not so enhanced with the rook move it is combined with.
It would be interesting to see some website offer Seirawan chess, although you can play a few of the 10x8 and 10x10 variants using a server board on the Czech site brainking.com. Its basic membership is free although more privileges are offered for "paying" members.
Chessvariants.org offers more variants, but its playing interface is more clumsy.
We play in Hoston once/month at:
West Gray Cafe
415 West Gray
Houston TX 77019
713-528-2887 .
If anyone is interested the web site is http://www.meetup.com/Houston-Chess/calendar/10442200/
Else you can contact me at cowboynoel@gmail.com
I think the elephants should be worth about 8.5 and the hawk should be about 7 or 8 points.
cwcaesar wrote:
You can promote a pawn to one of these pieces as well as a queen. I don't know how the "purchase" thing would work, but if you keep thinking outside the box you may just come up with the replacement for chess (or at least a cool variant).
Really? You could? I have been wondering about this. I've never read it anywhere, and at first I thought you couldn't. I guess I'm wrong.
Actually, I changed my mind about the piece values. I don't think the Hawk is any stronger than a rook. I think it deserves a 5.
For the elephant, I guess I could still give it a 9. It is as powerful as the queen, and it works better in closed positions.
I like the premise of Seirawan chess, but the hawk and the elephant seem out of place on the chess board when compared to the standard pieces. Plus the elephant was an early version of our bishop 1000 plus years ago. Here is a picture of the gothic chess set, also known as Capablanca chess. I would much rather use pieces that look like this in Seirawan chess because it maintains the feel of the chess board and the design of the pieces. After the queen is the chancellor (elephant) and archbishop (hawk)