World Fischer Random Championship

[Modern Times]

I've said it before, I'll say it again- as soon as the major engines support FRC, the CCC will play a 960 event.

*Glares at Lc0*

Allie plays FRC.

[Nordlandia]

So is the Komodo S-Chess project completely abandoned?

I recommend this website for popular chess variants. https://pychess-variants.herokuapp.com/

[jp]

I think that FRC is still considered to be just a modified version of chess, not a new game like some of the ones you mention. After the first dozen moves have been played, many games look like normal chess games, and the rules are identical once the kings have moved or castled. The same players are the best at both games.

Yes, it's not just a variant. It is a generalization, unlike the other variants people talk about. It has the same rules, but just a bigger set of possible initial conditions.


And even with a different starting position, the French Defence loses.

[lkaufman]

So is the Komodo S-Chess project completely abandoned?

I recommend this website for popular chess variants. https://pychess-variants.herokuapp.com/

I believe that Frank Camaratta has the rights to it, he paid for its development. If he is motivated to do something with it, he should still have the code and the rights. I guess S-Chess didn't really take off as he had hoped. I rather liked the game myself.

[lkaufman]

Looks like we'll have an American World FRC Champion; Wesley So is up 10.5 to 1.5, with 12.5 needed for the title. Anything more than one draw in the four rapid games plus one draw in the blitz gives him the title.

[Nordlandia]

The plausible reason why S-Chess haven't taken off is that no top chess website offer it as a playable variant. The argument is that it will be hyped at first but then slowly die off, maybe worse than Crazyhouse. That is all just speculation, we'll need to see it implemented before we can draw conclusions.

Unfortunately S-Chess was considered for lichess couple of years ago but the idea was likely scrapped for unknown reasons.

Lichess podcast metioning chess variants and S-Chess - https://youtu.be/jjUadErc8-k?t=896

[Ovyron]

Unfortunately S-Chess was considered for lichess couple of years ago but the idea was likely scrapped for unknown reasons.

This was the case for several variants that they said they were going to implement, but then they just stopped.

I recall lichess's website was cloned and chess was changed for Draughts, I wonder if someone else could clone it and implement all those variants (so people would go to this new website to play variants, with a proven winner lichess interface.)

[jp]

... The argument is that it will be hyped at first but then slowly die off, maybe worse than Crazyhouse. ...

What happened with crazyhouse?

[Nordlandia]

... The argument is that it will be hyped at first but then slowly die off, maybe worse than Crazyhouse. ...

What happened with crazyhouse?

Crazyhouse is the top variant played on lichess. The popularity corrersponds to about 1% compared to all classical games on lichess.

In other words; for every one hundred games played in classical chess, there is atleast one game of crazyhouse played.

What i tried to say is that S-Chess will be hyped at first then played considerable less than crazyhouse. Atleast that is what few people have believed will happend but just speculation.

According lichess game database website, number of classical chess games per September 2019 is 36,996,010 and total number of games for variants is 140,293. 36,996,010 / 140,293 = 264. So classical chess is 264 times more popular than variants.

[jp]

Crazyhouse is the top variant played on lichess. The popularity corrersponds to about 1% compared to all classical games on lichess.

I'm curious about why people prefer "variants" to other ancient games, such as xiangqi, etc. (Of course, I know that isn't available on lichess.) FRC/Chess960 has the same rules as traditional chess. Once the rules are different, I don't know why crazyhouse, for example, would be more appealing than xiangqi, shogi, go, etc.