This is an interesting form of chess with more possibilities

[pichy]

To replay the game you first have to click reload
http://www.omegachess.com/scripts/ltpgn ... etBorder=1

[jmartus]

Humans would do even worse vs computers in that form of chess.

[hgm]

Except that there are no computers that play this...

[pichy]

Except that there are no computers that play this...

I just found one Omega Chess Engine, can you include it in your Winboard 4.6.2?
http://games.softpedia.com/get/Tools/Om ... gine.shtml
http://www.pathguy.com/chess/OmegaChs.htm

[Daniel Shawul]

Maybe you haven't heard of Nebiyu chess ("the prophet") . It seems to me it can definitely play this one when it can play more difficult ones such as triple/quadruple chess. Larger board & almost same rules are piece of cake, all you have to do is edit an Omega chess ini with the board size and piece placements. I can do it for you if you are really really into it.

[pichy]

Maybe you haven't heard of Nebiyu chess ("the prophet") . It seems to me it can definitely play this one when it can play more difficult ones such as triple/quadruple chess. Larger board & almost same rules are piece of cake, all you have to do is edit an Omega chess ini with the board size and piece placements. I can do it for you if you are really really into it.

I could not find the direct download link to Nebiyu Chess:

[hgm]

I host a Windows installer package that bundles the WinBoard Alien Edition and Nebiyu, at http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-Nebiyu.exe . I am not sure if it is the latest Nebiyu version, though.

The problem with Omega Chess is that it does not have a convex board, but has these 4 outlier 'wizzard' squares next to a 10x10 board. Of course you could map that onto a 12x12 board, but WinBoard has no provisions to blank out the unused squares on the edge ranks and files, in that case. And the notation would be quite unconventional, because WB would think the lower-left corner of the 10x10 board would be b2 rather than a0. (Conventionally the wizzard square are denoted as w1...w4.)

Actually I don't like Omega Chess too much. Many of its design features seem to have been inspired by commercial reasons (e.g. making it difficult to play it on a standard board), rather than for making a good game.

[pichy]

Here is a winboard support for Omega Chess:
http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewt ... =2&t=50961

[Daniel Shawul]

Here is Nebiyu playing it. I haven't looked at the rules thoroughly so there will definately be mistakes in there.

Code: Select all

            a b c d e f g h i j k l
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
         12 a * * * * * * * * * * a * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 12
         11 . c r n b q k b n r c . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 11
         10 * p p p p p p p p p p * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 10
          9 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 9
          8 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 8
          7 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 7
          6 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 6
          5 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 5
          4 * . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4
          3 * P P P P P P P P P P * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 3
          2 . C R N B Q K B N R C . * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 2
          1 A * * * * * * * * * * A * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 1
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
            a b c d e f g h i j k l

                [Material: 9310 9310 ]
a**********a/1crnbqkbnrc1/*pppppppppp*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*PPPPPPPPPP
*/1CRNBQKBNRC1/A**********A w - - 0 1

moves
Illegal move: moves
setup a**********a/1crnbqkbnrc1/*pppppppppp*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*PPPP
PPPPPP*/1CRNBQKBNRC1/A**********A w - - 0 1
movelist
movelist 24 b3b4  b3b5  c3c4  c3c5  d3d4  d3d5  e3e4  e3e5  f3f4  f3f5  g3g4  g3
g5  h3h4  h3h5  i3i4  i3i5  j3j4  j3j5  k3k4  k3k5  d2e4  d2c4  i2j4  i2h4
go
[search_time = 5557ms, max_time = 29250ms , moves_left 10, max_nodes 0]
2 0 1 173  d2e4  i11h9  EBF=12.62
3 15 1 362  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  EBF=6.76
4 0 3 1388  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  EBF=5.82
5 15 3 1997  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  EBF=4.34
5 15 4 2036  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  EBF=4.36
6 0 4 2753  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  d11e9  EBF=3.54
6 0 10 8200  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  d11e9  EBF=4.30
7 15 12 10616  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  d11e9  h4g6  EBF=3.59
7 15 12 12087  d2e4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  i2h4  d11e9  h4g6  EBF=3.66
8 0 18 23060  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  h4g6  e9f7  EBF=3.36
8 0 32 69401  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  h4g6  e9f7  EBF=3.88
9 10 39 83886  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  h4g6  e9f7  i3i5  EBF=3.39
9 10 42 92739  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  e4f6  h9g7  h4g6  e9f7  i3i5  EBF=3.43
10 5 49 112366  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  f3f5  i10i8  h4g6  f10f8  e4f6  e9f7
EBF=3.08
10 5 57 134404  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  f3f5  i10i8  h4g6  f10f8  e4f6  e9f7
EBF=3.13
11 0 81 206464  d2e4  d11e9  i2h4  i11h9  f3f5  d10d8  e2h5  h9g7  h5g4  e9f7  h
4g6  EBF=2.93
11 5 276 770468  g3g5  i11h9  i2h4  g10g9  d2e4  h11f9  h2e5  d11e9  e4f6  e9f7
 e5f4  EBF=3.32

[Daniel Shawul]

If you decide to support games with protruding squares (islands), I use the symbol '*' to represent them. For Omegachess the FEN I use is

a**********a/1crnbqkbnrc1/*pppppppppp*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*10*/*PPPPPPPPPP*/1CRNBQKBNRC1/A**********A w - - 0 1

Maybe there is a better solution than this like sending playable squares only. Assuming rectangular board causes unnecessary information exchange . May be it is even better to be straight forward as possible and avoid FEN all in all. At each step, the gui could send the squares where pieces exist. The playbable squares are sent only once so at the start of the game. Such kind of format is used in past google ai challenge (and even before that), so that they won't have to rewrite the code for every game they invent for the competions.