Games, analysis and discussion

I thought I'd discuss a possibly untried 'low tech' method for playing chess variants (even untried/obscure ones) by email/internet (i.e. with no physical board or pieces needed), in case anyone hasn't thought of it already. It came to me when I tried to make primitive chess variant diagrams for a test email message, thus first confirming to myself that single letters do not automatically align nicely the way I'd like using any old Font. Naturally using a server, app or computer playing program (or even a real board for the variant, offline, if ever available) would likely be preferable to using any such crude chess variant diagrams, but I for one am not much of a techie, and I am especially thinking of as yet untested/unpopular chess variants and/or variants not known to be supported by software (or online).

If your opponent (perhaps ideally a friend) and you know the rules for a chess variant, and ideally (for verification purposes) have agreed on a notation system for playing that variant's moves with him by email (or by internet, if a given website's capabilities allow), then playing with him with the aid of email diagrams is possible. That's by making use of a low tech method of mine (which works for variants with rectangular or square shaped boards, at least), if one can't otherwise readily use an outside source's chess variant diagramming procedure. One can create a fresh 'diagram' of one's own within each email sent (for one's opponent to see when he receives each) by using single letters, numbers and blank spaces. This might not be too inconvenient even with 10x10 chess variants. Here's an example of the method, using the starting position for my 'Sac Chess' 10x10 variant.

[below is a link to my CFC blog entry describing 'Sac Chess', for anyone who hasn't seen it:]

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...-(Part-1-of-2)

Step 1: For all ten ranks of a Sac Chess 'diagram' on your email, use upper case letters for White pieces, lower case letters for Black pieces, 0 for vacant light squares and 1 for vacant dark squares, seperating any of these types of characters by a blank character. Here's how your email looks to begin with (I've added the email's text "Your move, White." after the diagram):

c a s z m m z s a c
j r n b q k b n r j
p p p p p p p p p p
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
P P P P P P P P P P
J R N B Q K B N R J
C A S Z M M Z S A C

Your move, White.

Not pretty at all, yet, and also easily the longest step.

Step 2. 'Select' all the characters in the 'diagram' above.

Step 3. Click on 'Courier New', after finding it in the Font section of your email message - the letters and numbers should now all be magically aligned as follows:

c a s z m m z s a c
j r n b q k b n r j
p p p p p p p p p p
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
P P P P P P P P P P
J R N B Q K B N R J
C A S Z M M Z S A C

Your move, White.

Step 4. (Optional) The 'pieces' might be coloured if desired, though this involves possibly quite a bit of extra time. Doing so for the starting position in 'Sac Chess' is easy enough though:

c a s z m m z s a c
j r n b q k b n r j
p p p p p p p p p p
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
P P P P P P P P P P
J R N B Q K B N R J
C A S Z M M Z S A C

Your move, White.

Step 5. (Optional) The above 'paragraph' can be centred in your email message by using 'Select' on all of it, then clicking on 'Align Center', which should then produce:

c a s z m m z s a c
j r n b q k b n r j
p p p p p p p p p p
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0
0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1
P P P P P P P P P P
J R N B Q K B N R J
C A S Z M M Z S A C

Your move, White.

After White decides on his move, he can email back a slightly altered version of the diagram, having manually changed appropriate characters in it to show the position after his first move, and he can also mention his first move, in 'Sac Chess' notation (which would be very similar to chess notation, and could be used to keep a running score of the game). Then the ball is in Black's court, and so on after each player moves in turn.

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...games-of-skill

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...games-of-skill)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...riant-of-mine)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...Chess-variant)

http://www.chesscanada.info/forum/en...in-fairy-chess