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#Post#: 497--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: chilipepper
Date: February 19, 2018, 12:37 pm
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--- Quote from: GothicChessInventor link ---
>
> There are many Gothic Chess programs that are not on the list.
> ...
>
--- End Quote ---
Thanks for the info about engines that play Gothic Chess. I'll
add them to the list.
Greg also mentioned ChessV. Since I believe he's the principle
programmer I trust that his info is correct. But I don't
understand HGMuller's comment that it's not "WB compatible".
Does this mean "Windows-based"? I thought ChessV runs fine on
Windows, and can't see any reason to exclude it. My summary
doesn't intend to exclude non-Windows programs anyway (if that's
what it means).
#Post#: 498--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: Panzerschiff
Date: February 19, 2018, 3:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
"Cyber" was just used in that Grand Chess event to indicate that
the play was conducted online using computers and not via email
or face to face. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, server
chess was still relatively rare. Even more so for chess
variants. Below is a game I once annotated many moons ago, and
is searchable on the web. There are pretty diagrams available in
its pdf and word versions.
There is no question that this game was the most important and
decisive game of the 2001 Grand Chess Cyber Championship. Wayne
Schmittberger is the man you have to beat if you aspire to win
this tournament. He has already been the champion twice winning
the 1998 event by a considerable margin and playing some nice
Grand Chess in the 1999 event as well. In winning these
championships he only lost one game out of the nearly twenty
played!
Of course desiring to defeat a champion and actually carrying
are two different things. Wayne has considerable experience with
Large Chess variants ranging from Grand Chess to Turkish Great
Chess, not to mention the various versions of Shogi, which even
in its basic 9x9 version is tough enough let alone tackling
versions played on boards that can be as large as 25x25. He
also has designed his own variants on our old workhorse, chess.
Unfortunately I can not say I overcame all this vast experience
with brilliant play. I was rather lucky to win this, as my game
was extremely shaky coming out of the opening. I was fortunate
that in a tough situation, I noticed a decent tactical trap that
was tempting enough for Wayne to test its validity.
2001 Grand Chess Cyber Championship Final
White
John Vehre Wayne Schmittberger
1.
1.c3-c5 or 1.g3-g5 may be more logical Grand Chess first moves.
In Grand Chess you do not have the castling privilege, and
playing chess at the head of your king, to borrow a concept from
Shogi, may not be the best way of conducting the fight. Still
after years of Orthochess it is hard not to touch those little
guys in the center, sending them off to far fields to battle for
truth, justice and one's rightful share of the center.
1. .....
2. Ni2-h4
3. g3-g4
4. Nb2-c4
5. d3-d4
6. e3-e5
AbiWord Image s06b.png
We have arrived at what probably is the basic opening position
in Grand Chess. White has occupied the center and has used his
d and g pawns both as supports for this center and as shields
against possible “Randloper” harassers that might otherwise be
tempted to emerge at a7 or j7 disrupting the harmony of white's
big guys in the center.
Wayne decides on a good waiting move, whose point will become
clearer after the next two notes. For white's part he has made
all the obvious easy developing moves, and must now in turn
decide on where he is going to put his king and rooks.
Unfortunately the best squares are not that obvious or easy to
choose at the moment and white in fact does not play in the most
accurate fashion.
Black could have played this position in a number of different
ways one of the more aggressive being 6...Bh9-d5 7.Bc2-e4 Bd5xe4
8.Cg2xe4 Nh7-g5 9.Ce4-d3 f6xe5 10.Bh2xe5 e8-e6 although
11.Be5-f4 leaves white perhaps more harmoniously placed.
Another big question is whether or not black can just continue
copying white's moves. 6...e8-e6 might be the Four Knights
variation of Grand Chess! White might try to punish black with
7.e5xf6 when natural recaptures seem to leave black with a
slightly uncomfortable position after 7...Bc9xf6 8.f5xe6 Bh9xe6
9.Bh2-d6 Now black can choose:
1)
be careful if 11...Kf9-g10 his king's position may be too
compromised after 12.Bc2xh7 i8xh7 13.Bd6xe7 Cg9xe7 14.Cg2-e4 or
12...Be7xd6 13.Rf1-f9 12.Bc2-g6 and at least optically white's
position looks threatening although black should be able to
defend this.
2)
risky. After 10.Mf2xf9+ Ke9xf9 11.Ra1-f1+ Kf9-e9 it now looks
like white can just take the Cardinal and get a good game with
12.Bd6xg9 Bg5xd2 13.Bc2xh7. The threat of 14.Rf1-f9+ allows
white to emerge with a Cardinal and a Knight for the queen which
would be a slight material advantage while remaining somewhat
better developed.
It is impossible really to look into all the possibilities here
this early in the opening although I hope the above variations
illustrate some of the problems the two players were facing. If
the opening theory of Grand Chess develops further this will no
doubt be a position that will require future exploration.
7.
Grand Chess like Shogi requires that your king find its own way
to safety. White obviously is telegraphing that he is going to
put his king on the right flank. Here he did not have much
choice as one of the points of Wayne's previous move was that
white can not make a Castle on the left flank since 7.Ra1-e1
would lose a pawn to 7...Bh9xc4+ 8.b3xc4 Cg9xa3.
In Grand Chess openings one thing you quickly learn is that your
a and j pawns are very vulnerable. This is a result of the fact
that the bishop's normal diagonal and the knight's most natural
developing square are both on the same diagonal!
7.
The other nice point of Wayne's last move was that it made a
nice tidy place to put his king without either giving away the
direction he wanted to go or committing a rook to a square where
it may not be optimally placed. If I had understood the idea
better at the time, I might have preferred 7.Bc2-d3 to the rook
move I actually played!
8. Ke2-f1
9. Nc4xe5?!
Centralizing the Knight was the most natural way of playing, but
as things transpire, it would have been better to have
recaptured with the bishop. Later on the Knight must return to
c4 to head for its natural outpost on d6.
9. .....
10. Re1-e2?
AbiWord Image s10w.png
If one considers how the game eventually ends this would appear
to be quite a brilliant prescient idea! However it really isn't
a good move and just wastes time at this point. White just does
not have any entry points for his doubled rooks and does not
look likely to create any quickly. Building a castle with
10.Kf1-g1 followed by a later Bh2-g3 and Kg1-h2 would have been
a safe approach and a better use of the time white has while
black is himself preparing a safe haven for his king
10. .....
11. Kf1-g1
12. Bc2-d3
Black obviously is not eager to have an open b line against his
king and refrains from taking the poisoned b pawn. In any case
after 12...Bh9xb3 13 c3-c4 Bb3-a4 14.Qd2-a5 Ba4-c6 15. Ne5xc6
d7xc6 16.Cg2xc6 white wins his pawn back with a strong attack
brewing.
13. Ra1-f1
AbiWord Image s13b.png
This is an interesting idea, which puts even more pressure on
white's center. Unfortunately it does have the drawback, which
only becomes apparent later, of putting the Marshall out of
play.
White's last move again offered a tainted pawn. If 13...Cg9xa3
then 14.b3-b4 and the Cardinal is trapped. If instead
13...d6xf5 then 14.Bd3xf5 when 14...Bh9xb3 still has its usual
drawbacks which are compounded by the addition of the tactical
idea of 15.Ne5xd7 c8xd7 16.Bf5xd7+. Wayne obviously saw through
this idea and the move he played took away this transparent
tactical shot.
14. Ne5-c4
Decentralizing another one of the big boys, but posing white the
question of what is he going to do against the threat of
...e6xf5?
15. Nc4-d6
16. Bd3xf5
Black plays consistently for the counterattack and this move
leads to a serious degradation of white's pawn structure. Greed
again probably is not black's best option although it looks like
black can more or less safely take the b pawn if he wanted it.
After a forcing line like 16...Bh9xb3 17.c3-c4 Bb3xc4 18.Nd6xc4
Ci10xc4 19.Qd2-b4 Cc4-a6 Less good is 19...Cc4-g8 since
20.Rf1-c1 gives white nice pressure for his two pawns.
20.Qb4xh10 Rf10xh10 21.Bf5-d3 Ca6-b7 22.Bf5xh7 i9xh7 22.Mf2-f9
white's position looks more dangerous than it actually is.
17.Qd2-b2 is a better alternative for white as the tempting
17...Bb3-d5 leads to complications that do not look all that bad
for white after 18.Nd6-e8 Nc7xe8 or 18...Bd5xg2 19.Ne8xc7+
Bc8xc7 20.Bh2xc7 b8-b7 21.Re1-e9 19.Qb2xb8+ Kb9-c10 20.Re2xe8
when the greedy 20...Bd5xg2 runs into 21.Re8xd8 and white has a
winning attack.
Whether or not the morsel could be taken, I think Wayne's
continuation was better as he is after bigger game than a measly
pawn.
17. Cg2-i1
18. i3xh4
AbiWord Image s18b.png
Black wins a piece with this move, but subjects himself to a
nasty attack. When we reached this position, I thought that
18...Bd5-e6 was a better way of conducting the attack. I had
prepared 19.Rf1-e1 as a possible antidote intending to meet
19...g7-g6 with 20.Bf5xe6 Rf10xf2 21.Bd6xi10 Rf2xe2 22.Qd2xe2
Mh10xi10 23.Nd6-e8 and if black chooses to do mass liquidations
after 23...Nc7xe8 24.Qe2xe8 Qd9xe8 25.Re1xe8 Ra10-e10 the
tactical trick 26.Bh2xb8 Re10xe8 27.Ci1-c7+ Kb9-a10 28.Cc7xe8
leads to an endgame where white certainly does not stand worse.
19. Rf1-e1
20. Nd6xf5!
Not the easiest continuation to foresee, and perhaps Wayne only
expected 20.Re2-e9 which would have led to a disaster for white
after 20...f5xg4! 21.Re9xd9+ Nc7xd9 when white has the choice
between a dismal material down situation after 22.Re1-e9 Rf10xf2
23.Re9xd9+ Kb9-c9 24.Qd2xf2 Kc10xd9 or since the Marshall really
does not have a good move to subject himself to a mating attack
after 22. Mf2-d1 neither is 22.Mf2-d3 Rf10-f3 or 22.Mf2-e2
Ra10-310 a particularly palatable choice g4xh3 (Q) 23.Ci1xh3
Mh10-g10+ winning the house.
Sacrificing the bishop keeps white's king's position closed and
gives white sufficient time to organize his own counter attack.
20.....
AbiWord Image s20b.png
Suggesting defenses is becoming rather hard now, and black
really needs to block the e file. 20...Nc7-e6 might be more
tenacious than the game continuation. I had now intended on
playing 21.c3-c4 when play might continue 21...Bd5-b7 22.d4-d5
Nh7-f8 23.d5xe6 d7xe6 Now the prosaic 24.Qd2xd9+ Nf8xd9
25.Re2xd6 nets white a clear pawn with continuing threats
against b8 and penetration to the 9th rank with his rooks.
24.Re2xd6 is also interesting since the avaricious 24...Qd9xd2
25.Mf2xd2 Nf8xe6 26.Md2-d9+ Kb9-c10 27.Md9-e9+ Kc10-d10
28.Re1xe6 Ci10xe6 29.Me9xe6 yields a position where white still
is much better coordinated and black's king still faces
unpleasant threats.
21. Bh2xc7
Sadly, black must lose the queen in any case so giving her up
now is better than delaying the agony with 21...b8xc7 22.Re2-e8
Qe8-e10 23.Ci1xc7+ Kb9-b10 24.Cc7-d8+ Qd10xd8 No fun either is
24...Kb10-a9 25.Qd2-f4+ 25.Re8xd8 etc. White also need not be
in such a hurry to win his material back and can choose
continuations like 24.Qd2-e3 or even 24.Rd8-e9 both which leave
black in a quandary.
22. Re2-e9+
23. Ci1xc7
24. Qd2-f4
25. Qf4-e3
AbiWord Image s25b.png
The only move, which meets the twin mating threats of 26.Qe8+
and 26.Qe7. Unfortunately the Marshall rather clumsily blocks
his compadre on i10 who now can hardly in any way help the
defense.
26. Mf2-e2!
This was my favorite moment in the game. I have now played a
couple dozen grand chess games in competitions, but have not had
a chance to quadruple my heavy pieces on a file before. It
would have been hard to resist the opportunity to play such a
move, if only to say I did it once. Fortunately at this point,
not only was it picturesque, but probably also the prettiest
continuation of the attack.
26.....
Taking the bait was of course out of the question. If
26...Re1xf5 27 Qe3-e8+ Mg8xe8 28 Me2xe8 black has no way of
stopping white's threatened mating pattern 29 Me8-c9+ Kc10-b10
30 Mc9-b9+ Kb10-c10 31 Re9-c9#. This variation is a nice
illustration of the power of a Rook/Marshall tag team on the
open 9th rank.
27. Qe3-e7
As in orthochess it is easy to make combinations when your
opponent's pieces do no coordinate well. White's quadrupled
pieces literally cut black's position in half. The sacrifice (or
exchange) of a queen for a Marshall really is not a big deal and
perhaps is just the equivalent of giving up a pawn. In any case
this transaction is rather tainted and white would mate rather
quickly after 27...Mg8xe7 28 Me2xe7 Bd5-b7 29 Me7-d9 Nf6-d7 30
Md9-d8+.
28. Qe7-e8+
The old grizzled veteran must finally give into her majesty's
provocative advances! The king can not fend for himself any more
and if 28...Kc10-b10 white quickly mates with 29. Qe8-d9 Nd7xe9
30 Me2xe9 Mg6xe9 31 Re1xe9.
29.Me2xe8
AbiWord Image s29w.png
29.....
Black rightly decides to throw in the towel. My main line had
continued 29...Nd7xe9 or 29...Bd5-b7 leads to an already well
known mating pattern with 30 Me8-d8+ Kc10-b10 31 Md8-d9+ and
Re9-c9# 30 Me8xe9+ Kc10-b10 Going the other way offers no hope
either. 30...Kc10-d10 31 Me9-b9+ Kc10-d10 32 Re1-e9 is the
simplest win although 31 Me9-c8+ Kd10-d9 32 Nf5-e7+ Kd9-e10 33
Mc8-c9+ Ke10-d10 34 Mc9-b9+ Kd10-c10 35 Mb9-e9+ also seems to
mate. 31 Me9-d9 Kb10-c10 32 Re1-e9 Ci10-f7 33 Md9-c9+ and white
mates in one.
In the final position my notes indicate that I also considered
the defense 29....Rf10-f8 30 Re9-e10+ Kc10-b9 31 Me8xc7+ Kb9-b8
32 Mc7-d9+ Kb8-a7 33 Md9-b9+ Ka7-a6 34 Re10xi10 reaching the
conclusion that this is a simple win. 34..., Ra10xi10 loses to
35 Mb9-b4+ followed by taking on d5. No better is 34...Bd5xi10
when 35 Mb9-b4+ Ka6-a7 36 Nf5-e7 looks strong.
#Post#: 499--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: GothicChessInventor
Date: February 19, 2018, 5:35 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: chilipepper link ---
>
> [quote author=GothicChessInventor link=topic=43.msg483#msg483
date=1518884284]
> There are many Gothic Chess programs that are not on the list.
> ...
>
--- End Quote ---
Thanks for the info about engines that play Gothic Chess. I'll
add them to the list.
But I don't understand HGMuller's comment that it's not "WB
compatible".
[/quote]
WB = "WinBoard."
It's a program that acts like a referee between two engines and
it can run automated matches, declare who won or lost on time,
etc. You have to write a routine called "Winboard()" in your
code that replaces/substitutes for "Main()." Some of us haven't
gotten around to it yet.
#Post#: 500--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: GothicChessInventor
Date: February 19, 2018, 5:59 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
I can't find any diagrams of this online. Do you have any links?
#Post#: 502--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: chilipepper
Date: February 19, 2018, 8:56 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: GothicChessInventor link ---
>
> I can't find any diagrams of this online. Do you have any
links?
>
--- End Quote ---
What diagrams are you looking for? ???
#Post#: 503--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: chilipepper
Date: February 19, 2018, 8:59 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Thanks Panzerschiff for the info about Grand chess - I added it
to the summary. Entries are now listed with most recent
tournaments at the top.
I also added the list of engines which play Gothic Chess. Based
on a quick survey it appears ChessV and Fairy-Max are available
as freeware and have active support. It's not clear to me if the
other engines are currently supported, although I'm sure many
hobbyists have the code.
Also, Martin0 (representing Sweden) has defended his title as
Bulldog World Champion for a third time, most recently winning
against a qualifying challenger from the Netherlands on February
9. (Prior to this, he also won title games against challengers
on January 24, and December 12, 2017, both from the U.S.).
Lastly, the infinite chess world's first title game is still in
progress now at move #45.
Let me know if anyone notices any errors or omissions. Thanks.
HTML https://imgur.com/0vczQAN.png
#Post#: 504--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: GothicChessInventor
Date: February 19, 2018, 10:28 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: chilipepper link ---
>
> I also added the list of engines which play Gothic Chess. It's
not clear to me if the other engines are currently supported,
>
--- End Quote ---
Well I did re-release my Gothic Chess program today, Gothic
Vortex:
HTML https://chessvariantforum.createaforum.com/variantproject-announcement-description-and-purchase-links/my-gothic-chess-program-for-sale/msg495/#msg495
So it should be clear that it is presently supported :)
#Post#: 505--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: GothicChessInventor
Date: February 19, 2018, 10:30 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: GothicChessInventor link ---
>
> [quote author=chilipepper link=topic=43.msg503#msg503
date=1519095542]
> I also added the list of engines which play Gothic Chess. It's
not clear to me if the other engines are currently supported,
>
--- End Quote ---
Well I did re-release my Gothic Chess program today, Gothic
Vortex:
HTML https://chessvariantforum.createaforum.com/variantproject-announcement-description-and-purchase-links/my-gothic-chess-program-for-sale/msg495/#msg495
So it should be clear that it is presently supported :)
And I claim I have the best "splash screen" of any Gothic Chess
program:
HTML https://i.imgur.com/B81dyId.jpg
#Post#: 506--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: chilipepper
Date: February 20, 2018, 1:39 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: GothicChessInventor link ---
>
> Well I did re-release my Gothic Chess program today, Gothic
Vortex:
>
--- End Quote ---
Very cool. I updated the table above showing Gothic Vortex as an
engine for Gothic Chess. Nice graphics! :)
#Post#: 507--------------------------------------------------
Re: Who are Today's World Champions in Variant Chess?
DIR By: GothicChessInventor
Date: February 20, 2018, 9:47 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: chilipepper link ---
>
> [quote author=GothicChessInventor link=topic=43.msg500#msg500
date=1519084744]
> I can't find any diagrams of this online. Do you have any
links?
>
--- End Quote ---
What diagrams are you looking for? ???
[/quote]
Sorry pepper dude I thought I was replying to Panzer.
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