Talk:Alice chess

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In the sample game, after 1.e4 d5 can't White just mate immediately with 2.Bb5 instead of 2.Bc4? Krakatoa 01:06, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

No, because the bishop would move onto the second board, and thus not attack the king. As the article says, "captures [and by extension checks] are made on the board the piece begins on"; probably the article could be a bit clearer on this. I'm too tired to look at it just now, however. --Camembert 01:58, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

(Incidentally, it doesn't affect this comment, but I just changed the 2.Bc4 to 2.Be2, since otherwise Black can just play 2...dxc4 --Camembert 12:33, 26 August 2005 (UTC))

Maybe I'm dense, but if checks are made on the board on which the piece begins on, then on 2.Bb5 check (and mate?), the bishop would stay on the first board, right? Krakatoa 16:11, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

No. Every time a piece is moved, whether it captures or not, it goes onto the other board. So before 2.Bb5 the bishop is on board A (the one on the left in the diagrams) and after 2.Bb5 it is on board B; the fact that it would be giving check had it stayed on board A is completely irrelevant. Captures are made on the board the capturing piece begins on, so with the bishop on board B and the king on board A, there is no check.

The meaning of "captures are made on the board the piece begins on" is not meant to be "if you capture a piece, you do not transfer the piece which has captured to the other board" but rather "if a piece starts on board A, it captures other pieces on board A, not pieces on board B". Probably this could be clarified in the article.

You're not dense, by the way--Alice chess is one of the more, erm, esoteric variants. Took me about six months to get my head round it :) --Camembert 18:29, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

I've added some more verbiage to the article; I hope it clarifies more than it confuses. Better? --Camembert 19:13, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

I dunno. Your discussion of the game ending in 3.Bb5 mate is definitely clearer. This language at the beginning of the article is what confused me:

At the start of the game, the pieces are set up in their normal position on one board ("board A"), with the second board ("board B") empty. When a move is played, the piece moved passes "through the looking glass" onto the other board.

I didn't realize, until you enlightened me above, that the pieces continued switching back and forth between the two boards. I thought as the game went on, you just ended up with more and more pieces on board B. I have a suggested edit that I think would make this clear. (I would make it myself, but I don't know how to do diagrams like those you used.) I would give the sample game 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5, and show how after the first pair of moves two of the pieces are on the board B, but after the second pair of moves all the pieces are back on board A.

On further reflection, I think substituting "Every time" for "When" in the second sentence of the text italicized above would help. I will make that change and see how that looks. But you might consider the further edit I suggested. As you say, this is a pretty bizarre/hard to comprehend variant, so one ought to be crystal-clear so the reader will "get" it faster. Krakatoa 20:53, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Ah, I didn't realise the problem was not realising pieces could move back from board B to board A. Now I look at it, I see the article wasn't clear about this. I'll try to edit it further so there can be no mistake. As for the rest: I think there's a general need for more diagrams; the game is, indeed, quite tricky, so it's hardly possible to provide too many for the newcomer. I've added some more now; I hope it's not overkill. See what you think. --Camembert 22:25, 26 August 2005 (UTC)

Great job! Thanks for all your work on the article. I think it is very clear now. Adding all the diagrams really helps; I don't think it's overkill. Krakatoa 14:58, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] template:alice chess diagram

I have created a diagram for alice chess ( with a double board ) . I did not know how to add the coordinates so I simply left the board the way it is. If any one can do this please don't hesitate. --Sibahi_talk 10:55, 4 October 2006 (UTC)

{{alice chess diagram
|tright
|
|=
 8 |rd|nd|bd|qd|kd|bd|nd|rd|=
 7 |pd|pd|pd|pd|  |pd|pd|pd|=
 6 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 5 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 4 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 3 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 2 |pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|pl|=
 1 |rl|nl|bl|ql|kl|bl|  |rl|=
    a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h
          Board A

 8 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 7 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 6 |  |  |  |  |pd|  |  |  |=
 5 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 4 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 3 |  |  |  |  |  |nl|  |  |=
 2 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
 1 |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |=
    a  b  c  d  e  f  g  h
          Board B
|
|}}