hgm wrote: ↑Mon Jan 13, 2020 2:58 pm
I think that what Daniel meant is that if b1 gets attacked, and your Cannon is at b0, you would not gain anything by playing Nc3 without gating the Cannon, (even if that was allowed, which I think it isn't), as this would surely make you lose the Cannon without compensation, as it could never be gated again. So gating at all times is automatic. This is why one can think of the Cannon as being already on c1 from the start, stacked under the Knight, both being captured at the same time when an enemy moves to b1. In the face of such a threat you can escape with the Knight, but the Cannon is a sitting duck until it is 'uncovered'.
Hi
This could be an interesting concept. In fact, it can be used to make engines ponder (research for optimal piece choice, optimal gating selection with each piece choice etc) converning various possible piece combinations etc.
As i said, this will be used for research (Neural Network) and not fir engine vs engine play. This research could result in an opening book for the first moves (for variety of game play in engine vs engine matches)
inventor of Musketeer Chess. A modern commercial chess variant.
Daniel Shawul wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 3:41 pm
@Ferdy Thanks, I now understand how the piece selection rules work
@HG My implementation was rather limited because I assumed that the fairy pieces are already in play. I did not even
implement how they get into play properly. It is my understanding that ranks 0 and 9 are "water" and can not be moved to
with other pieces. I have a holdings area just like that but is not file-restricted. So are there represented in the FEN as
e.g [C2D1c4d3] where they are preceded by file numbers? The drop rule is not a regular one and I probably need to implement a
special rule for it ( Not moved piece + drop-to-from square -- I like Ferdy representation with promotion letters but since I have a combo move
capability it may be easier for me to do "move b1c3 move C@b1" ) Edit: In a way the drops of pieces is square-restricted because it can only go to first/last rank. So the first time the target square becomes
empty, I drop it or lose it forever. In the latter case, do we just remove the piece from the holdings list forever?
@musketeerchess Thanks for the piece values. King's value is just a placeholder ( is actually infinity ). Anyway, I may decide to train
a neural network for it if it turns out to be simple enough.
Hi Daniel
The NN idea is great.
If the drop is lost the piece is removed and can no longer be dropped again. It’s possible to have it back when a pawn promotes. It can promote to any piece than begun the game. Even though the drop was lost it’s still possible to promote to this lodt piece as many times as there are promoted pawns
inventor of Musketeer Chess. A modern commercial chess variant.
The WinBoard-AA package now contains a WinBoard version that no longer needs a gating suffix to the move in holdingless Seirawan. WinBoard already had code that made it resistant to missing promotion characters, supplying a default in that case (usually Q). So I just had to make the legality test recognizing first-rank moves with something behind it as a promotion. The promotion character was not as insignificant as I thought, so I now set it to the piece behind it, in a bit of a kludgy way. (It would not work with an odd number of ranks.) But for now that should do.
It will still add a gating suffix in the moves it sends to the engine.
Daniel Shawul wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 5:58 pm
@Ferd
I get the first perft all correct.
Ok good.
The second one is wrong after and including perft(3)
That position is complicated not sure if mine is even correct. If we don't agree at perft 3, here is the perft divide at 3. Can be of help to track down the issue.
The third one I miss it all. I thought you can gate whether the Knight becomes pinned or not.
Is there a complete list of all the rules of musketeer chess ? The official webpage I am sure
does not have this pinning rule.
True, can't find it there too, I just remember that musketeer chess is like seirawan chess, and it does not allow such move. But there is actually a web page where you can play musketeer chess. https://musketeerchess.net/games/musketeer/index.php
I tried it there and pinned piece even with gating capability (to make the gated piece as cover from attacking the king) is indeed cannot move.
Ferdy wrote: ↑Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:42 pmI tried it there and pinned piece even with gating capability (to make the gated piece as cover from attacking the king) is indeed cannot move.
This could of course be due to a bug in the Jocly implementation. It doesn't say anywhere that in case of doubt what Jocly does is decisive.
Surprisingly enough KingSlayer-Aramis also doesn't want to gate with a pinned piece. And WinBoard certainly considers it illegal.
