Lichess also includes a piece set similar to this, although with the notable difference that the Knight is shaped like a greater-than symbol and the pawn is a small square.
I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
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Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#32This is not a new idea.
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#33Pawns are awkward though because movement doesn't align with attack
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#34I still have a set which was sold as "Visual Chess", and you can still find it on eBay for example. The pieces were mostly like traditional design (but kind of "modernized" in 1960s style) but when viewed from the top (i.e. as you play), there was an indication of the allowed move. You can see some examples in the image link below. Even the pawns had a nice design which clearly indicated that movement of one square f…
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#35a theme for chess.com would be nice !!
Lovely communicative design
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#36This would be awesome for teaching beginners. I'd probably go with circle for the king, and maybe an L or a sideways H for the knight, even though they break the original design rule. Otherwise K/Q/N just look too similar.
Agreed. Love the concept, but the knights definitely need clarity.
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#37I like it, but the knights still aren't quite right. And I'd probably give all of them square bases, so that the bishop and rooks weren't so easily mistakable with just a 45° turn.
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#38What I enjoy about this design is it exploits the correlation between piece value with the number of ways it can move, resulting in a visual intuition that more visually complex pieces are worth more on average. The knight is perhaps the frustrating exceptions to this.
At least at the level I play at, knights are invaluable because of their ability to jump over walls and threaten multiple pieces at the same time - they're the piece most likely to create a successful fork (threatening two pieces of value at the same time, likely forcing your opponent to pick which thing they're more willing to lose)
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#39I thought this would be about redesigning their movement to make a new kind of game. But it's only the shape of the pieces. That said, I'd use a square for the rooks so they don't get confused with the bishops as they get moved and maybe an L shape for the knights. It would definitely make it easy for beginners to learn how each piece moves.
> It would definitely make it easy for beginners to learn how each piece moves. Which is more or less the easiest part of the game to learn, and one which pretty much anybody will have down after one or maybe two games. It's a clever little idea to share on Twitter but in practice I think it would make the board slower to read for advanced players, because so many pieces look similar.
Exactly, this will reduce readability of a board. It's like highlighting the black key notes on sheet music. You think you're making it easier, but end up just adding too much redundant info and it clutters the page. Or like adding a ton of crufty comments to code ("// this is a loop that ... "). Or like adding a "fill these. with water" post-it notes on an icecube tray. Clever. But worse.
Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions
#40Off topic, but does anyone know a browser extension that lets you block certain domains from the HN list? I've blocked twitter/x from my DNS, and don't want links to it cluttering the feed.
I'm not aware of one, but if you can insert custom css rules it should be simple with something like
tbody tr.athing:has(.title .titleline a[href*="twitter.com"]),
tbody tr.athing:has(.title .titleline a[href*="twitter.com"]) + tr,
tbody tr.athing:has(.title .titleline a[href\*="twitter.com"]) + tr + tr
{
display: none;
}
This will leave "holes" in the numbering of the list of items as the numbers are not calculated based on the structure of the document but are rather hardcoded. You could definitely fix this with some more funky css rules if needed.