wrote:

I do feel that with chess sets it can make a larger difference. Some
chess sets are unpleasant to use, and some of the more outre designs
cause confusion. (Is that a Bishop? Or what is it anyhow?)

In the case of a game I lost to my nephew, "it" was something to do with
the Trade federation/Sith forces from "Attack of the Clones".
Apparently it moved like a bishop, and I thought it was a knight,
resulting in me losing, errrrrr, something quite valuable.

If you can't win by playing better, confuse the opponent! ;-)

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On Jun 11, 1:58*am, Peter Clinch wrote:

But why do you need to worry about what the American Checker Federation
thinks, unless you're playing their game in one of their tournaments?

You're right, but again, this wasn't really the point.

His point was that even though the English form of checkers is a
popular game, and so sets are readily available in the United States,
it isn't popular _enough_ so that sets which conform to the official
recommended form are available. You can - in games specialty stores -
manage to find chess sets that qualify for UCSF tournament standards,
but that's partly because their standards for the boards, at least,
are less restrictive.

And so this was part of a complaint about the variety of game
equipment available: not only are 10 by 10 boards for Continental
Checkers not available, even a "proper" board for regular checkers is
not. (But I found a "Bucket of Games" chess set with red and yellow
pieces from Pressman in a dollar store lately, so now I have real
pieces for four-player chess!)

Now, I remember that a few years ago, a Canadian firm - AMAV might
have been its name - produced a "500 Game" set where several 8 1/2"
pieces of cardboard included boards for a *lot* of traditional games,
even The Game of Goose; it was very inexpensively made, but it was an
attempt to 'top' the other multi-game sets on the market. So if one's
standards of real equipment are generous enough, it was tried...

John Savard

On Jun 11, 9:51*am, Peter Clinch wrote:
Harald Korneliussen wrote:
But I think I really just want to get a board and some pieces, play
some games with my friends, and see if this is something worth going
further with first.

If it's just you and your friends then all you need is a piece of board,
a rule (preferably a square, so the squares are, errrr, square) and a
magic marker.

As I said, I've got to convince them to try first, and that should be
_much_ easier on the board I have ordered from the Royal Dutch
Draughts Federation...

There was a Hex tournament on a local boardgame convention nearby some
years ago. They played on pen and paper. Although it had a lot of
participants, they haven't held it since. Bits matter.

Harald Korneliussen wrote:

As I said, I've got to convince them to try first, and that should be
_much_ easier on the board I have ordered from the Royal Dutch
Draughts Federation...

There was a Hex tournament on a local boardgame convention nearby some
years ago. They played on pen and paper. Although it had a lot of
participants, they haven't held it since. Bits matter.

Yes, bits matter. But there is a /huge/ gulf between pen and paper and
something on board that someone has taken a bit of care over draughting,
plus the actual pieces on the board would be your standard checkers.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Yes, bits matter. But there is a /huge/ gulf between pen and paper and
something on board that someone has taken a bit of care over draughting,
plus the actual pieces on the board would be your standard checkers.

A relatively easy way to make an attractive board (or at least a quite
acceptable one), without needing a lot of crafting ability, is to buy
small ceramic tiles and glue them to a wooden backing (plywood sanded
on one side for instance).

On Tue, 10 Jun 2008 11:38:51 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote, in part:

My memory was right - green and buff for Checkers. Also, the pieces
need to be red and *white*, and the squares 2 inches in size, and the
pieces from 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches in diameter.

For Chess, the squares can be from 2 inches to 2 1/2 inches; as to the
size of the pieces, the guidelines are complicated, (3 3/8" to 4 1/2"
height for the King, and a base from 40% to 50% of that height) but
one manufacturer recommends the base of the King should be about 75%
of the size of the square for a good match.

I have pursued my researches further, and found out what the Federation
Mondiale du Jeu de Dames has as its tournament standards for
International Checkers - their standards are, of course, metric - and
the FIDE standards for chess, which call for somewhat smaller chess
pieces than the USCF ones, although there is considerable overlap.

The results of my researches are on the bottom of the page at

http://www.quadibloc.com/other/cnv03.htm

John Savard
http://www.quadibloc.com/index.html

On Jun 10, 3:50 am, Peter Clinch wrote:
Rich Hutnik wrote:
On Jun 9, 6:18 pm, " wrote:
At least in the United States, you can't find them anywhere. They
aren't even online here.
L'ssociation québécoise des joueurs de dames in Canada advertises
10x10 and 12x12 boards, so at least there is a North American Source.
See

http://www.fqjr.qc.ca/dames/materiel.html

Completely in French, though I suppose you can do a Google traduction.

Ok, Canada, in French :-) How about the United States in English?

So "anywhere" actually means "anywhere in my own back yard"?

If it's something you want and are looking for, is that really too big a
step?


"Anywhere" means "anywhere in the average Joe's background". People
need to think a bit differently here. Not just what they can do for
themselves, but how it is available for others who may be new. What I
was saying is that, because 10x10 boards are not readily available in
North America, and likely everywhere, you have a hard time getting any
game that uses a 10x10 board adopted.

I can make my own for personal use if I needed to. Don't expect
others to do the same though.

- Rich

On Jun 10, 12:14 pm, "
wrote:
I have learned from this thread:
there are people in the US who want to buy 10x10 checkers boards
they don't know how, or are unwilling, to find a supplier outside the
US
such boards can be manufactured in the US, for little effort

This suggests a business opportunity.

Unfortunately it may be a very small market. Even 8x8 checkerboards
that meet American Checker Federation specifications are uncommon
enoug, though not quite impossible to find.

In order to get a regulation ACF checker set, you have to order from
their store directly. There is a more than favorable chance that such
equipment will be available elsewhere pretty soon.

I have had conversations with them, and the barriers to get them
spread is fairly large. This is the basis upon which I have spoken in
this thread.

- Rich

On Jun 9, 1:27 pm, ChessVariant Inventor ChessVariant.Inventor.
wrote:
'Rich Hutnik[_2_ Wrote:

;271014']
I also believe you need a bridge between the chess world and the
variant world. I will post my thoughts here on this. if it merits
such.

- Rich

I think this *bridge* should be a -*recognizable GM*- who picks a few
variants of his /her liking and promotes them by playing other GMs.
If this were to happen, the chessvariant community would greatly
benefit now understanding what a high level chess player is looking for
in a chess variant.

For example if Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik or Kasparov were to play
Herculean Chess:http://chess.computerwebservices.net/herculean.php

It would be a major breakthrough. This should however not be a
particular Gm simply endorsing a chess variant just to make money - it
should be an honest evaluation.

There is no way, though that a larger board variant or one with new
pieces will EVER catch on with regular players simply because this
makes the game much harder to play. Any game with new pieces is
"harder" to play and there is zero motivation to do so.
Changing the rules is even more unpleasant for chess players. e.g use
of cards to choose openings/balloting etc

Seirawan is pushing his own chess at his point. It is a proprietary
game actually, that is his and Harper's. You can go to House of
Staunton to get your own pieces for the game. I say proprietary,
because they want to completely lock everything down. I think there
is a lot of promise, but it could deadend.

Hey, if people want a simplier chess variant, there is always Near
Chess, and other new formation chess games.

- Rich

Rich Hutnik wrote:
... because 10x10 boards are not readily available in North
America...

Last time I looked, Canada was in North America.


Dave.

--
David Richerby Lead Puzzle (TM): it's like an
www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~davidr/ intriguing conundrum that weighs
a ton!