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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

#151

Post by dudul »

infogulch wrote: post #63

For me the most surprising observation from this thread is this tweet [1] showing that the knight's moves are exactly the squares that the queen can't get to within a 2 square manhattan distance. I.e. the knight is an anti-queen. [1]: https://twitter.com/skidbladnirr_/status/1750285122769957129

I'm not a master or anything, but I've always found it interesting that the queen is usually thought of as the most powerful piece while I think it's the knight.

Yeah the queen can move everywhere, but she's "predictable". The way a knight moves makes it more difficult to defend against IMO.

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#152

Post by eru »

lovecg wrote: post #76
infogulch wrote: post #63

For me the most surprising observation from this thread is this tweet [1] showing that the knight's moves are exactly the squares that the queen can't get to within a 2 square manhattan distance. I.e. the knight is an anti-queen. [1]: https://twitter.com/skidbladnirr_/status/1750285122769957129

This is why in some rare endgames you might want to promote to a knight instead of a queen to avoid a stalemate!

Chess would be a more elegant game without the stalemate rule.

(And apparently it would be a more _interesting_ game without castling. At least according to the game that the AIs at Deep Mind played when they trained them on this variant on a whim. Castling was supposed to speed up development of chess, but it favours the defense a lot.

So what the game's appeal wins from castling in cutting out some busy work moves, it loses in attacking spirit.)

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#153

Post by giis »

angry_moose wrote: post #45
PopAlongKid wrote: post #21

I 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…

I had an updated version of this set (probably from the 90s?). Mine had a better board and I think the tops of the pieces were different, but the text/diagrams were identical: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/c1ri78/t... Not all of the moves were the clearest, but it was still handy while trying to learn.

Great! This will be excellent for beginners. I'm considering teaching chess to my kids. Can I still find it online? My searches on Amazon and Google haven't yielded the results I need.

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#155

Post by Izkata »

Tepix wrote: post #140
jacknews wrote: post #139

I prefer this: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/4746 The pieces resemble the movements in most cases, but also pack together into a rectangle.

> The pieces resemble the movements in most cases I don't see it. Do they really?

The ones with square tops only move horizontally/vertically and the bigger ones move further, the ones with an L-shaped top move in an L shape, the ones with a diagonal top move diagonally. I don't see the King and Queen movements though.

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#157

Post by keiferski »

It’s interesting how people react to these designs. For me, I actually find them more confusing than the actual piece shapes, probably because I have the symbols of knight, rook, etc. burned into my mind from playing chess for thousands of hours as a kid. But it could also be because the geometric shapes are too abstract and lack character, which makes them harder to distinguish from each other.

It brings to mind the idea that everything is ultimately a representation, even the things designed to be as straightforward as possible.

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#158

Post by Terretta »

squigglydonut wrote: post #111

They already look like this. Stop tweeting and go start a business!

Already as in yes, the moves are baked in to the standard design -- you just look down at them from the top.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/75/8a/79758a3355c2bed372aa...

Yes, queen already had 8 point hat wide because whole board, king eight point cross, small for one step.

Bishop has a diagonal cut in its cap.

Knight as a horse, the long nose and ears are the knight move.

Castle with a plus cut in the ramparts.

Pawn is a dot for its usual move, with the ring collar for the optional second step.

Re: I realized chess pieces can be redesigned to be geometric attack directions

#159

Post by [deleted] »

angry_moose wrote: post #45
PopAlongKid wrote: post #21

I 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…

I had an updated version of this set (probably from the 90s?). Mine had a better board and I think the tops of the pieces were different, but the text/diagrams were identical: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/c1ri78/t... Not all of the moves were the clearest, but it was still handy while trying to learn.

[deleted]
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