Some have toyed with the idea of mixing Chess and Go.
These efforts have met limited success. Aside from both being venerable and respected, the two games have little in common. GESS and CheGo are interesting games in their own right, but aren't much like either of their parents. Go with Chess pieces is a clever generalization of Go using Chess pieces, but has very little Chess feel to it.
Can elements of Go could be incorporated into games with a Chess-like feel?
One good candidate is drops. Just as one drops a Go stone into place, one can drop pieces in Shogi and many variants inspired by it. What about a game that allowed one to drop ordinary Go stones in place of a normal move?
Let's say that stones are treated like any other piece - they can block allies or enemies and can be captured. Because they are immobile, they appear on the board only when dropped on an empty square.
What about attack? Immobile pieces cannot move, and so cannot capture, but Go stones could be given an attack, of sorts - if four of them surround an enemy piece's orthogonal liberties, the piece is captured (whether the piece is an orthogonal mover or not). This wouldn't be a powerful attack, as it would take four moves to pull off, but might be a useful tool for the harassment of anchored enemies.
The number of stones possessed by each player should probably be limited, unlike in Go. Otherwise players may drop them over and over to perform null moves. Each player should probably begin with a set number, perhaps one for each file on the board.
Could such an element be useful and entertaining, or would it likely be pointless and annoying?
Joshua, I am one of those less-than-successful people who've tried to combine chess and go. My approach is totally different from what I see here. I am interested in finding out more about your ideas. How large is the board, what chesspieces would be used, can go stones be picked up as a move, or are they permanently down when dropped?
Joe
Joe,
It's not so much an idea for a particular variant as an idea for a rule that could be applied to many. My initial idea was to apply this to a 9x9 board with 9 stones for each player - perhaps an extra for black to make up for white's first move advantage.
I'm thinking that the stones will act just as any other piece that is dropped, like in Shogi. A player can drop a stone in place of a move, but then it's stuck there until the opponent captures it. The only real use for them is to block enemies, but with the disadvantage of blocking one's own pieces even more.
We tried this once, during a Chessvar night, and it seemed to work okay. It didn't seem to affect the game too strongly one way or another. It was a variant with numerous powerful pieces, so the stones did add a nice defensive ability. Needs more testing to see if it's worth keeping, I think. I wonder if the attack element - ie, capture of an enemy by surrounding him with four stones - would add anything.
joshua
Hey, Joshua, thanks for the info. The part I'm jealous about is the part that goes: "We tried this once, during a Chessvar night"! Wow! Hey, are you out of college yet? Just asking, because that's the last time I could remember getting a group, or even 1 other person, to play the really *good* games. [I'm still jealous!]
I am curious about what game you were playing.
Enjoy,
Joe
Heh…no, I'm afraid college was a long time ago. I just know a lot of nerds. :)
The game in question was an unpublished work-in-progress. It's a 9x9 board with Shogi pawns and powerful pieces (Queens, Marshalls, Cardinals). It is brutal and tactical; it's kinda the anti-Kozune. I'm tentatively calling it "Lunacy", but it needs more testing before I can post it to chessvariants.org.
joshua