Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

⇧Earliest ⇧Earlier ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

George Duke wrote on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 09:33 PM EDT:

It's not an important issue being a more or less settled matter. The exact
RNBCeQKChBNR on 8x10 is 400 years old, given that differing arrays are
automatic. No one came to the defense of Centaur and Champion after
comments the first week of this month. C(RB) and C(RN) are of great
historical importance, no question. People now call OrthoChess 64 boring
and past its time. It's both taste and rhetoric to offer constructive
criticism, and this thread took a lot of thought. More importantly,
prioritizing is a beginning to make some progress for a change. That was
the purpose of NextChess threads. I think Schoolbook was a NextChess
nominee as a formality. I absolutely think it is commendable to run 10,000
games of one Carrera array. Doing so does not even attempt to address two
critical issues. One, proliferation of CVs to the point even computer
runs are impossible for as many as 1% of them. Two, in this case, that most do not rate the
awkward tandem RN-BN very high any longer and their being passe. Plain as day. Thanks for the
example of what can be done, the two conclusions for the particular
Schoolbook array. Certainly 8x10 is still the best try for those two after 4 centuries.
However, BN alone is probably better for example in both Modern of Maura
and Janus Chess of Schoendorf.

Sam Trenholme wrote on Tue, Oct 20, 2009 10:05 PM EDT:

For people trying to follow this there was this posting, followed by this posting.

OK, I think we should agree to disagree about Capablanca/Carrera chess’ value as a variant, well except to point out it has, short of regional variants like Shogi and Chinese Chess, the most computer engine support of any variant; it’s one of the few variants where I can readily have, after a couple of weeks, some 30,000 games played with a given array to study its opening. One thing I wish Jeff Mallett added to Zillions was the ability to have the engine automatically play hundreds or thousands of games at a given engine strength/time control, so more variants could be better studied.

So, a question: What is your favorite variant right now? What do you like about the variant in question?

George Duke wrote on Fri, Dec 11, 2009 04:37 PM EST:

Sam, I spent couple days on this thread about Carrera Centaur and
Champion. There is no final conclusion but there are enough CVs with them
already one would think, if the one by Carrera 400 years ago wasn't enough. The two are historically in the top 10 piece-types. Their flaws are
described here mostly last year.  Sorry if other reference to the Knight-compounds
annoyed you. One I recall was pure sarcasm to the effect, Rest In Peace Champion, Rest In Peace Centaur, which I cannot find immediately.

3 comments displayed

⇧Earliest ⇧Earlier ⇧Reverse Order⇩ ~~Later~~

Permalink to the exact comments currently displayed.