Sorry. I guess I should really think things through before I'm so certain of your moves. If you really are okay sticking with it, then that's okay, but if not, you are of course welcome to make your own moves without my input. If you do keep it:
C-h3
No worries...as I said, it ended up being slightly better for me. I had overlooked something before.
H-e2
R-e1
R-d6
R-g2
I'm amazed at how defensive a king can still find himself in this game in spite of my clear advantage. It's really hard to pin him in anywhere. Your pieces occupy all the right spots!
I'm doing my best, but I'm very limited in what I can do, since just about any piece I move will undo my defenses enough to let you in. You're in control of the game right now, since all I can do at the moment is defend against whatever new threat each move of yours creates.
E-i3
R-g3 mate
And I am surprised how much fun I was having at the end. I know you didn't have many options, but moving your elephant was an error I'm afraid. However, you probably didn't realize that I had your horse pinned in place, and therefore the g3 point was unguarded.
Want to try a game of Korean chess?
Wow, I didn't see that coming. I knew my horse was pinned, but for some reason, that obvious move didn't occur to me.
I would love to play Korean chess, but I don't want to be interrupted by my return home right at the peak of the game. This game took us about two weeks, and I leave in less time than that....
It looks like it solves a few minor flaws of Chinese chess (the limitation of the elephant, the uselessness of the pawns, and the immobility of the king), but the cannon not being able to move except by jumping seems limiting While it may work well in Ito Shogi where there's always a piece to jump over, it will weaken the piece a lot in this game. Maybe that won't turn out to be a bad thing. Have you tried playing it already? How have you found it?
I have never played it before except with a computer player, which is not much fun. Yes, most things are cooler and better, but the cannon move is certainly weaker. Nevertheless, it may turn out to be a good balance to the increased power of the other pieces.
There are things to be said about the Chinese version. It would be fun to make a variant, a cross between the two. I don't even mind the river in principle, nor the limiting a piece to one side. It's just that the elephants are already so weak, it seems ridiculous to cut them further. It would interesting to have something that moves like our bishop limited to one side or something.
Anyway, my mind is pondering variants. We will have to see how the Korean game plays out some time.
So I know I asked this somewhere, though I can't find it quickly, but just how unavailable will you be when you go back home?
I should be available about as much as I was this past year. Certainly enough to continue playing, anyway. I'm not sure how busy I'll be immediately after I get back, but my life should be back to normal at the beginning of August.
Well, I'm glad to hear that. I guess you won't have access to the same computers, and would not be able to continue a game. The way you were talking, I thought you wouldn't be able to play anymore for a long time. I would be sad for sure.
I don't know how long it would take, but I have finally been able to translate the rules of Dejarik into English. Actually Bewy gets most of the credit, but the English was a little rough and needed some smoothing out, which I did. But he had the hard job and deserves the bulk of the credit. Anyway, it's supposed to be short. It's kind of a chess game (well, that's a stretch, but nevertheless...), and I thought it'd be nice to test it out with someone. Rounds are supposedly pretty quick, so we might be able to get through a couple before you go. Want me to send you the translation and we can give it a go? Perhaps we can improve the advanced rules, which the author recently admitted to me he was simply throwing out there without really testing, and can perhaps make some improvements.
Sure, we could try it out.
I'll be gone for about a week and a half, which is enough to really interrupt a game, but no, I won't be absent that long. Not as long as last summer, for sure.
I've looked over the rules, so I'm ready to play. Which rules would we start with? I think it makes sense to play Wookiee rules first, then Groi's rules, then the holographic rules.
I agree, let's start with the Wookiee rules.
I just realized we have no notation
With the way the board is oriented (though slightly rotated from the rules I sent you), I think we can easily name the cells like a clock, with 12 at the top, 6 at the bottom, etc. The outer ring can be A, the inner ring can be B, and the central cell can be called C. Make sense? Let's see how this goes.
Actually, I'm seeing a couple of errors that might make a difference. Let me look it over a bit tonight and I'll let you know.
I see no errors...
I'll let you make the first move, once you have everything figured out. The clock notation sounds good.
KS-11b
MS-3b
N-C
Mr-2b
N-9b
Mk-C
K-10B
Mk-8B
I guess you're going to win. I assume you'll move G-C, then G-12B, and there's nothing I can do to prevent it.
Why does this game remind me of Tic-Tac-Toe? ;)
So, should we play again, this time interacting with each other's pieces a bit more, or should we move on to the next set of rules?
I don't know. Yeah, that basic game is far too easy. I'm sure you could have played interference a bit more in the beginning, but the first player does have the advantage from the get go. Let's try the Groi rules and you can go first this time.