This one is nice :) (but not that hard to solve)
Capital letters to move. (International Chess)
........
...B.pK.
........
q.......
.n..k...
........
P...P..P
.N......
Capital letters move up (yay this makes sense on a screen). Try not to think too much. This isn't a hard puzzle.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Substring Quiz
Find words with the following substrings: (eg aeiou ---> Aerious, Absteinous, Abstemious, Abstenious, Abstentious, Abstentiously, Aceriflorum, Aceriflorus, Acheilous, Acheirous, Acleistous, Adecticous, Adventious, Affectious, Aleikoum, Alpestrious, Anemious, Annelidous, Arsenious, Arteriosum, Arteriosus, Arterious, Avenious, Bacterious, Caesious, Camelious, Carnelious, Facetious, Fracedinous, Gareisoun, Gravedinous, Haeriously, Majestious, Materious, Parecious, Phragelliorynchus, Placentious or Tragedious or sacrilegious )
1) e-i-e-i-o
2) i-i-i-u
Meh...
1) e-i-e-i-o
2) i-i-i-u
Meh...
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Post Vocab-Mugging Session 3
This post is dedicated to Chops.
The bough of this tree is so huge that I can sit on it.
I am whetting my knife on this stone, so that I can make it so sharp that it can pierce through stone.
The dearth of misers has led to a bountiful increase in donations.
Having spent insufferable hours trapped in the traffic jam, being able to speed down the expressway is only a wistful longing.
His florid prose is complemented by the brevity of his writing.
The opacity of quantum cryptography makes it an esoteric subject that only makes sense to a small group of people.
How can you play such a banal variation in one of the most explosive and unexplored openings?
Watching others bungee jump gives me a vicarious thrill.
This law, implemented in 2011, is put into effect in 2010. Now that's retroactive.
Please stop making equivocal statements and state your point clearly.
Those boisterous boys are so obstreperous! Even the threat of grounding them cannot stop them.
Diffident people are usually very ingenuous, and this may be a stereotype.
People who are sanctimonious usually become very cantankerous when their moral capability has been impugned.
I shall contrive to clear this quagmire of problems and make a morally-edifying film to clear the world of vulgarities (*hint hint* BARR).
How can a highly esteemed scholar make some vapid statements?
Despite living through the horrors of the Holocaust, he spoke about the Germans without a hint of rancour.
He repudiated all offers to write a book about his philosophy because he felt that BARR's book on BARR"s philosophy repudiated his philosophy.
He is a doughty fellow, and managed to single-handedly stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world.
Years of indoctrination has ossified their mindsets, make them unwilling to change their minds.
The surreptitious salvo of bullets killed everyone in the courtroom.
She is a demure teacher and accepts no nonsense from her students.
Barr is angry because he received laudatory comments vitiated with stinging sarcasm.
Barr shot him an incredulous look, unable to believe that someone does not know what a kernel is (I wonder who is that someone XD).
His sermons are full of puns and conceits (whatever this means).
The warm rays of the sun was soon supplanted by frigid snow.
Aftering ousting Gennady Korotevich and becoming IOI champ, Penguin is inundated with requests for autographs.
We are concordant that we should pepper our daily speeches with more sophisticated vocabulary, like concordant (Ok lah, maybe not that cheem for some people).
The vignette of this treatise between China and US shows that this document puts down the rudimentary framework of the New World Order.
When sheep are allowed to frolic in gargantuan fields, they are virtually intractable.
A thin veneer of politeness hid BARR's growing anger.
The shopping list needs to be winnowed to a single page, so that carrying the items back will not be too encumbersome a task.
Misers are parsimony.
I feel august in August, because August is such an august month.
This obnoxious BARR likes to embellish his sentences with vulgarities.
This TV channel is so partisan; they only support the Republicans.
The decorous behaviour of a BARR is to pull a smug face everywhere he goes.
This avant-garde play is so modern and shocking! In other words, its so BARR!
Legends says that anyone cursed by this malediction will commit a lot of malapropism if he or she walks onto a prairie.
BARRs have the propensity to talk about byzantine topics such as mergeable heaps and AVL trees when they get bored.
Although this MacDonald's burger has been left on the shelf for eons, it still appears unsullied.
His venal ways are finally revealed, and his contract has been annulled.
Voracious people are usually supercilious because they believe that they can hold more in their stomach.
Although he is down with cancer, he is still remarkably spry.
This controversial book elicited a gamut of responses from the readers.
Fusion trees do not make BARRs fazed; on the other hand, BARRs make confusing fusion trees.
Flouting school rules fills him with mirth.
Your radical political views are repugnant to me.
The venerable BARR receives adulation from everyone (although, unlike adulation, he deserves it).
He is such a pedantic person that he makes changes to every single minutiae grammar mistake.
Although this charlatan claims to know the answer to the universe, he only knows how to shout "42!!!".
This vociferous debater likes to make known his opinions in an irate manner.
These proverbs are used so often that they have now become inane platitudes.
This porous surface allows water to flow through.
This erudite man is irascible, so you need to hold your temper if you want to learn anything from him.
He is such a capricious person that you do not need to write a polemical piece of work to convince him that your views are correct.
Drug traffickers have used this country as a conduit for shipments to the US.
People with too much hubris usually use a lot of vituperation on people who dare contradict them.
This whimsical play, although funny, transgress our notions of morality.
Qiang people are know in common parlance as "ImBARR people".
Although this job requires you to be peripepatic, it is a remunerative job.
Her vivacious personality makes her very likeable.
This problem seems to have many solutions. I vacillated between DP and comp-geom, and spent so much time deciding between the two that I have no time left to complete my code.
This garrulous person can rhapsodise about anything for 42 years without stopping.
There are many recent reports of milk adulterated with melamine.
It is useless to continually hark back to the past.
He revelled in his new found fame.
As he is a stoic person, he can only show his emotions though his anthology of poems and short stories.
The Yellow River meanders across China, making a totaly of 97 turns (if I did not remember wrongly).
Cows like to meander over the grasslands and slowly nibble the grass.
This verbatim account of our interview is only possible due to the invention of the tape recorder.
Peasants live in squalors.
This bigot has a mellifluous voice, which he uses to manipulate others to believe in his point of view.
The schism of this huge Caucus has immense implications on the world.
Even though I am extremely busy now, I can vouchsafe a reply to your question about whether Israel will vouchsafe the Palestinians' return to their homeland.
Mutations have caused his legs to atrophy.
His didactic stories are very prosaic and make me want to sleep.
Spamming your sentences with grandiloquent words will result in circumlocutory replies that beat around the bush and are not direct and to the point.
Einstein believes in the mutability of space and time.
I spoke to my interlocutor in a coarse manner.
He is a philistine and cannot appreciate art or music, as he only knows how to mug.
Your should cut your straggly hair.
The AVL tree became emblematic of imBARRness.
The Harry Potter Series is a progeny of a train ride.
These bastions act as an bulwark against frontal attacks.
Fashion is ephemeral and evanescent, and changes every summer.
This despotic ruler is killed by the rebels.
He is always an amenable child, and listens to his parent's admonishments without a single objection.
Stop being so fickle; instead of changing your mind every second, set your heart down to doing something!
Even though BARR is, well, a BARR, people lionise him.
Bush was vilified in the press for starting the Iraq War.
He is a pious man, but he makes pious speeches, so do not harbour any pious hopes that he is sincere.
Uncle BARR gave an avuncular pat on BARR's shoulder.
This person is a pugnacious person who loves to fight with others.
The bough of this tree is so huge that I can sit on it.
I am whetting my knife on this stone, so that I can make it so sharp that it can pierce through stone.
The dearth of misers has led to a bountiful increase in donations.
Having spent insufferable hours trapped in the traffic jam, being able to speed down the expressway is only a wistful longing.
His florid prose is complemented by the brevity of his writing.
The opacity of quantum cryptography makes it an esoteric subject that only makes sense to a small group of people.
How can you play such a banal variation in one of the most explosive and unexplored openings?
Watching others bungee jump gives me a vicarious thrill.
This law, implemented in 2011, is put into effect in 2010. Now that's retroactive.
Please stop making equivocal statements and state your point clearly.
Those boisterous boys are so obstreperous! Even the threat of grounding them cannot stop them.
Diffident people are usually very ingenuous, and this may be a stereotype.
People who are sanctimonious usually become very cantankerous when their moral capability has been impugned.
I shall contrive to clear this quagmire of problems and make a morally-edifying film to clear the world of vulgarities (*hint hint* BARR).
How can a highly esteemed scholar make some vapid statements?
Despite living through the horrors of the Holocaust, he spoke about the Germans without a hint of rancour.
He repudiated all offers to write a book about his philosophy because he felt that BARR's book on BARR"s philosophy repudiated his philosophy.
He is a doughty fellow, and managed to single-handedly stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the world.
Years of indoctrination has ossified their mindsets, make them unwilling to change their minds.
The surreptitious salvo of bullets killed everyone in the courtroom.
She is a demure teacher and accepts no nonsense from her students.
Barr is angry because he received laudatory comments vitiated with stinging sarcasm.
Barr shot him an incredulous look, unable to believe that someone does not know what a kernel is (I wonder who is that someone XD).
His sermons are full of puns and conceits (whatever this means).
The warm rays of the sun was soon supplanted by frigid snow.
Aftering ousting Gennady Korotevich and becoming IOI champ, Penguin is inundated with requests for autographs.
We are concordant that we should pepper our daily speeches with more sophisticated vocabulary, like concordant (Ok lah, maybe not that cheem for some people).
The vignette of this treatise between China and US shows that this document puts down the rudimentary framework of the New World Order.
When sheep are allowed to frolic in gargantuan fields, they are virtually intractable.
A thin veneer of politeness hid BARR's growing anger.
The shopping list needs to be winnowed to a single page, so that carrying the items back will not be too encumbersome a task.
Misers are parsimony.
I feel august in August, because August is such an august month.
This obnoxious BARR likes to embellish his sentences with vulgarities.
This TV channel is so partisan; they only support the Republicans.
The decorous behaviour of a BARR is to pull a smug face everywhere he goes.
This avant-garde play is so modern and shocking! In other words, its so BARR!
Legends says that anyone cursed by this malediction will commit a lot of malapropism if he or she walks onto a prairie.
BARRs have the propensity to talk about byzantine topics such as mergeable heaps and AVL trees when they get bored.
Although this MacDonald's burger has been left on the shelf for eons, it still appears unsullied.
His venal ways are finally revealed, and his contract has been annulled.
Voracious people are usually supercilious because they believe that they can hold more in their stomach.
Although he is down with cancer, he is still remarkably spry.
This controversial book elicited a gamut of responses from the readers.
Fusion trees do not make BARRs fazed; on the other hand, BARRs make confusing fusion trees.
Flouting school rules fills him with mirth.
Your radical political views are repugnant to me.
The venerable BARR receives adulation from everyone (although, unlike adulation, he deserves it).
He is such a pedantic person that he makes changes to every single minutiae grammar mistake.
Although this charlatan claims to know the answer to the universe, he only knows how to shout "42!!!".
This vociferous debater likes to make known his opinions in an irate manner.
These proverbs are used so often that they have now become inane platitudes.
This porous surface allows water to flow through.
This erudite man is irascible, so you need to hold your temper if you want to learn anything from him.
He is such a capricious person that you do not need to write a polemical piece of work to convince him that your views are correct.
Drug traffickers have used this country as a conduit for shipments to the US.
People with too much hubris usually use a lot of vituperation on people who dare contradict them.
This whimsical play, although funny, transgress our notions of morality.
Qiang people are know in common parlance as "ImBARR people".
Although this job requires you to be peripepatic, it is a remunerative job.
Her vivacious personality makes her very likeable.
This problem seems to have many solutions. I vacillated between DP and comp-geom, and spent so much time deciding between the two that I have no time left to complete my code.
This garrulous person can rhapsodise about anything for 42 years without stopping.
There are many recent reports of milk adulterated with melamine.
It is useless to continually hark back to the past.
He revelled in his new found fame.
As he is a stoic person, he can only show his emotions though his anthology of poems and short stories.
The Yellow River meanders across China, making a totaly of 97 turns (if I did not remember wrongly).
Cows like to meander over the grasslands and slowly nibble the grass.
This verbatim account of our interview is only possible due to the invention of the tape recorder.
Peasants live in squalors.
This bigot has a mellifluous voice, which he uses to manipulate others to believe in his point of view.
The schism of this huge Caucus has immense implications on the world.
Even though I am extremely busy now, I can vouchsafe a reply to your question about whether Israel will vouchsafe the Palestinians' return to their homeland.
Mutations have caused his legs to atrophy.
His didactic stories are very prosaic and make me want to sleep.
Spamming your sentences with grandiloquent words will result in circumlocutory replies that beat around the bush and are not direct and to the point.
Einstein believes in the mutability of space and time.
I spoke to my interlocutor in a coarse manner.
He is a philistine and cannot appreciate art or music, as he only knows how to mug.
Your should cut your straggly hair.
The AVL tree became emblematic of imBARRness.
The Harry Potter Series is a progeny of a train ride.
These bastions act as an bulwark against frontal attacks.
Fashion is ephemeral and evanescent, and changes every summer.
This despotic ruler is killed by the rebels.
He is always an amenable child, and listens to his parent's admonishments without a single objection.
Stop being so fickle; instead of changing your mind every second, set your heart down to doing something!
Even though BARR is, well, a BARR, people lionise him.
Bush was vilified in the press for starting the Iraq War.
He is a pious man, but he makes pious speeches, so do not harbour any pious hopes that he is sincere.
Uncle BARR gave an avuncular pat on BARR's shoulder.
This person is a pugnacious person who loves to fight with others.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
A treatise on RJTC.
Well, what to do when goaded by such a post? Your friendly chelonian RM-Sanctus here to expound on this variant of Chinese Chess.
So, allow me to demarcate the borders of this discussion. Firstly, the variant is the no-capture, bing-swap as in the previous post. In the second, invulnerability traps will apply at any instant (in the astronomically unlikely event a ma jumps into a wall of friendly pieces blocking the last check your opponent has and removing your last checking piece, it is a draw.)
Well. The value of pieces, I gather, is a subjective notion that cruxes on one's playstyle. For the most part, I agree with ph42's assessment of the values. However, let's dive a level deeper into this weighing.
When captures are out of the question, the concept of piece valuation takes on a different meaning. No longer is it a judgement of material on the board, or the likelihood of an endgame. Instead, it is a dynamic evaluation of the relative strengths of available pieces. Some pieces are inherently better at defending (xiang, shi, to some extent pao) while others are good at attacking (ju, very very much ma). Considering in light of this the units available:
Side bing: generally slows down your own attack, and does little for defence. Tempi can be traded by pushing one and forcing your opponent to mirror that to blockade. In stuck positions, can be the source of a slow flank attack. Not a great piece.
3rd/7th file bing: Closer to the king, the sides of the central river stalemates, and very dangerous if allowed to cross the river. Typically both sides push theirs in a race to the kings, or blockades with xiangs for a slower game.
Gokigen central bing: A default. Surprisingly fast if pushed crazily forward, yet easily stonewalled by standard defences (usually castles around the palace.)
GHB (Across river bing): Very scary. Harder to stop than before, and once it gets near a king, blood will follow soon. They can kick the general around with impunity, and are very likely to squash the king against his own pieces. Great Holy Bing.
Shi: The backbone of defence. Occasionally the appendices, performing little function but to throttle the general as he is contact checked to death. Still, these are essential in guarding 2 of 3 directions the king can be attacked from.
Xiang: Best used to stop 3rd/7th file bings, or to block irritating bottom-line attacks. They may only have 7 possible locations, but 5 are pretty important locations.
Ma: Main source of headaches. These things are horrible to move, making enforcement of the invulnerability rule brain-sapping to test for. The main bane of "invulnerable" fortresses, and a brilliant piece to probe for weaknesses with. If trapped on the wrong side of a barricade, though, they're quite useless (in defence particularly.)
Pao: A bing would sometimes be better. They move like jus, start in aggressive locations, and don't actually get to do much of the killing. Generally, they should stick to what they're good at: Posturing, locking up the opponent's flanks, the river, the palace, [everywhere], abusing their fast movement. Some pins, too.
Ju: The slow-to-develop, main killing piece. They speed through open lanes past blockades, but zigzag highways are their bane. Good for threateningly holding up river positions and half-open lanes.
Jiang/Shuai: ...
Do you seriously expect fei jiang (flying general) to be of ANY use here?
So those are the pieces. A typical game would flow something like this.
Opening phase: Key strategies are decided. Block the 3rd/7th bings? Try to stuff a pao into your opponent's palace fast? Swap pieces across the river or set up a nigh-impermeable roadblock? Important to consider are speed of bings, the open lanes that should be controlled by paos and jus a.s.a.p., and the opportunity to lock up pieces before they move, trapping them in a corner and thus creating a "material imbalance" of numbers.
Middlegame: If it's still pretty even after the opening, there are 2 possibilities. Firstly, both sides have pieces across the river, or perhaps 1 or 2 bing pairs have been swapped. A blitzing game ensues, where both sides race to deliver fatal charges and counterattacks faster than the other. Or, it's a delicate situation with the river choked with not a delta but a mess, in which case a slower game of attrition, temporary "shifting" blockades and side bing attacks follows.
Endgame: If one side has distinct material advantage near the opponent's palace, capitulation soon follows.
Positional evaluation is easy, but can be more subtle. The main rule of thumb is: the closer the centre of gravity of the board is to your king, the worse off you are.
I wonder who wants a game of this, on playOK or something?
So, allow me to demarcate the borders of this discussion. Firstly, the variant is the no-capture, bing-swap as in the previous post. In the second, invulnerability traps will apply at any instant (in the astronomically unlikely event a ma jumps into a wall of friendly pieces blocking the last check your opponent has and removing your last checking piece, it is a draw.)
Well. The value of pieces, I gather, is a subjective notion that cruxes on one's playstyle. For the most part, I agree with ph42's assessment of the values. However, let's dive a level deeper into this weighing.
When captures are out of the question, the concept of piece valuation takes on a different meaning. No longer is it a judgement of material on the board, or the likelihood of an endgame. Instead, it is a dynamic evaluation of the relative strengths of available pieces. Some pieces are inherently better at defending (xiang, shi, to some extent pao) while others are good at attacking (ju, very very much ma). Considering in light of this the units available:
Side bing: generally slows down your own attack, and does little for defence. Tempi can be traded by pushing one and forcing your opponent to mirror that to blockade. In stuck positions, can be the source of a slow flank attack. Not a great piece.
3rd/7th file bing: Closer to the king, the sides of the central river stalemates, and very dangerous if allowed to cross the river. Typically both sides push theirs in a race to the kings, or blockades with xiangs for a slower game.
Gokigen central bing: A default. Surprisingly fast if pushed crazily forward, yet easily stonewalled by standard defences (usually castles around the palace.)
GHB (Across river bing): Very scary. Harder to stop than before, and once it gets near a king, blood will follow soon. They can kick the general around with impunity, and are very likely to squash the king against his own pieces. Great Holy Bing.
Shi: The backbone of defence. Occasionally the appendices, performing little function but to throttle the general as he is contact checked to death. Still, these are essential in guarding 2 of 3 directions the king can be attacked from.
Xiang: Best used to stop 3rd/7th file bings, or to block irritating bottom-line attacks. They may only have 7 possible locations, but 5 are pretty important locations.
Ma: Main source of headaches. These things are horrible to move, making enforcement of the invulnerability rule brain-sapping to test for. The main bane of "invulnerable" fortresses, and a brilliant piece to probe for weaknesses with. If trapped on the wrong side of a barricade, though, they're quite useless (in defence particularly.)
Pao: A bing would sometimes be better. They move like jus, start in aggressive locations, and don't actually get to do much of the killing. Generally, they should stick to what they're good at: Posturing, locking up the opponent's flanks, the river, the palace, [everywhere], abusing their fast movement. Some pins, too.
Ju: The slow-to-develop, main killing piece. They speed through open lanes past blockades, but zigzag highways are their bane. Good for threateningly holding up river positions and half-open lanes.
Jiang/Shuai: ...
Do you seriously expect fei jiang (flying general) to be of ANY use here?
So those are the pieces. A typical game would flow something like this.
Opening phase: Key strategies are decided. Block the 3rd/7th bings? Try to stuff a pao into your opponent's palace fast? Swap pieces across the river or set up a nigh-impermeable roadblock? Important to consider are speed of bings, the open lanes that should be controlled by paos and jus a.s.a.p., and the opportunity to lock up pieces before they move, trapping them in a corner and thus creating a "material imbalance" of numbers.
Middlegame: If it's still pretty even after the opening, there are 2 possibilities. Firstly, both sides have pieces across the river, or perhaps 1 or 2 bing pairs have been swapped. A blitzing game ensues, where both sides race to deliver fatal charges and counterattacks faster than the other. Or, it's a delicate situation with the river choked with not a delta but a mess, in which case a slower game of attrition, temporary "shifting" blockades and side bing attacks follows.
Endgame: If one side has distinct material advantage near the opponent's palace, capitulation soon follows.
Positional evaluation is easy, but can be more subtle. The main rule of thumb is: the closer the centre of gravity of the board is to your king, the worse off you are.
I wonder who wants a game of this, on playOK or something?
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Boring holidays...
The holidays are officially making me feel bored, and as such I shall talk about stuff today. Ever since Tux has started posting despicable vocabulary to instill sheer terror into the hearts of all those not protected by a lexicon, ethereal or corporeal, I have thought that this blog was getting diluted. And hence I guess... RJT Chess!
Yes, it's that no capture chess again.
Today I shall be talking about RJT chess in general, as nobody (really) has bothered to play this modern variant of chess, where no blood is spilled (apart from splitting headaches).
So firstly, the value of pieces.
Bah! Zerothly, I shall be talking about the variant where pawn swaps are allowed (Carnage of the bings!) and as far as I can remember, no other weird new rules.
Back to firstly. I must roughly give an idea of what the value of pieces could possibly mean in a chess that has totally nothing to do with trading pieces and praying that somehow it was a good trade for you. Also, the value of pieces does not accurately reflect how likely they are to wreck havoc in your opponent's base and win you the game. For such a turtlish (check RM-Sanctus' dictionary and possibly mind for details) variant of chess, if you want to win, you must get many many pieces, or actually, all your pieces as close to your opponent's king as possible. And he can still block... But with enough luck and perseverance, you will eventually force the game to an end (in somebody's favour, and after an innocent couple hundred moves).
I know this sounds like an essay written by a stressed student trying to write a story but failing to think of ideas, giving rise to lengthy preambles, but hey, the context is suspiciously similar.
Fret not! I have content *hurries to make up nonsense on the spot*.
So what do I exactly mean by value? Value is the amount of headache a piece can cause your opponent.
Yet again, I deviate to put across a more complete picture.
...
... ...
... ... ...
Imagine.
Imagine...
You are playing RJT Chess with your friend, and it is in the middle of the afternoon, and you are sitting on a stuffy table without a fan. Or air-conditioning.
You take out a flimsy chessboard, and start playing.
Time seeps by, and flies like an arrow, at the rate of 0.0167 minutes/s.
Without your knowledge, it is already dinnertime. And the match still isn't over.
Moral of story? RJT Chess is really a game of attrition at high levels, and whoever gets a migraine first loses.
As a result, here's a rank of the value of pieces, from the pieces that stone and rot in a corner of the board for the entire game, to the ones that jump around and cause chaos.
1) Advisor (shi) -- Pretty useless, doesn't even block the king probably most of the time.
2) Elephant/Minister (xiang) -- Can block 2 bings from crossing the river. And will probably rot there until the end of time as well.
3) Cannon (pao) -- These insanely tricky things in the actual Chinese Chess tend to fester quickly in RJT Chess, as violence is no longer permitted.
4) Chariot (ju/che) -- These things are rather easily blocked, and hardly cause a headache.
5) Bing (!!) -- Once these creatures get near, the game draws to a conclusion. The king cannot run too much, or risk invulnerability (and hence breaking a rule), yet once checked by a bing, the game is almost over.
6) Horse (ma) -- Always the source of checks, on average 14.159 moves checks to be exact. These things are your Lodanap.
7) King (jiang) -- need I say more?
Yes, it's that no capture chess again.
Today I shall be talking about RJT chess in general, as nobody (really) has bothered to play this modern variant of chess, where no blood is spilled (apart from splitting headaches).
So firstly, the value of pieces.
Bah! Zerothly, I shall be talking about the variant where pawn swaps are allowed (Carnage of the bings!) and as far as I can remember, no other weird new rules.
Back to firstly. I must roughly give an idea of what the value of pieces could possibly mean in a chess that has totally nothing to do with trading pieces and praying that somehow it was a good trade for you. Also, the value of pieces does not accurately reflect how likely they are to wreck havoc in your opponent's base and win you the game. For such a turtlish (check RM-Sanctus' dictionary and possibly mind for details) variant of chess, if you want to win, you must get many many pieces, or actually, all your pieces as close to your opponent's king as possible. And he can still block... But with enough luck and perseverance, you will eventually force the game to an end (in somebody's favour, and after an innocent couple hundred moves).
I know this sounds like an essay written by a stressed student trying to write a story but failing to think of ideas, giving rise to lengthy preambles, but hey, the context is suspiciously similar.
Fret not! I have content *hurries to make up nonsense on the spot*.
So what do I exactly mean by value? Value is the amount of headache a piece can cause your opponent.
Yet again, I deviate to put across a more complete picture.
...
... ...
... ... ...
Imagine.
Imagine...
You are playing RJT Chess with your friend, and it is in the middle of the afternoon, and you are sitting on a stuffy table without a fan. Or air-conditioning.
You take out a flimsy chessboard, and start playing.
Time seeps by, and flies like an arrow, at the rate of 0.0167 minutes/s.
Without your knowledge, it is already dinnertime. And the match still isn't over.
Moral of story? RJT Chess is really a game of attrition at high levels, and whoever gets a migraine first loses.
As a result, here's a rank of the value of pieces, from the pieces that stone and rot in a corner of the board for the entire game, to the ones that jump around and cause chaos.
1) Advisor (shi) -- Pretty useless, doesn't even block the king probably most of the time.
2) Elephant/Minister (xiang) -- Can block 2 bings from crossing the river. And will probably rot there until the end of time as well.
3) Cannon (pao) -- These insanely tricky things in the actual Chinese Chess tend to fester quickly in RJT Chess, as violence is no longer permitted.
4) Chariot (ju/che) -- These things are rather easily blocked, and hardly cause a headache.
5) Bing (!!) -- Once these creatures get near, the game draws to a conclusion. The king cannot run too much, or risk invulnerability (and hence breaking a rule), yet once checked by a bing, the game is almost over.
6) Horse (ma) -- Always the source of checks, on average 14.159 moves checks to be exact. These things are your Lodanap.
7) King (jiang) -- need I say more?
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Post Vocab-Mugging Session 2
Your corpulence is a result of 100 chocolate bars a day.
You cannot be so insular; get yourself exposed to different opinions and perspectives.
Killing witnesses is an expedient way of getting rid of evidence.
Depreciation is an econs term (Yay I learnt something econs! =D).
The countryside has verdant fields and grasslands.
I shall manipulate these pliable minds and use them to conquer the world.
Liu Xiang just had a facile victory; he had no strong competitors anyway.
These medications only had a palliative effect as it only solves the minutiae problems.
Stop being more querulous; this nascent security system is still susceptible to viral attacks (from BARR).
Even though he is a neophyte in physics, he is already crammed full of jargons (like fine structure constant!!! =D).
He is pursuing a monastic life in order to repent for his act of larceny.
The general is giving a harangue to the soldiers so that their cerebral cords get stimulated and battle-ready.
Quantum mechanics is inscrutable.
The ageing buildings and collapsing structures are redolent of the place's long history.
Even though he is a convivial person, that does not mean that he is not culpable for the wrongdoing he has done.
His apparently solicitous remarks are too histrionic, showing that he is trying to be sarcastic.
He is such a sycophant, always trying to toady to the CEOs of monolithic corporations.
I shall get a good harvest in these arable fields.
A compendious study of the various parameters led him to posit that P = NP.
Children have the tendency to become maudlin when they lose their Pikachu soft-toy.
I have a predilection for Pokemon.
You cannot be so insular; get yourself exposed to different opinions and perspectives.
Killing witnesses is an expedient way of getting rid of evidence.
Depreciation is an econs term (Yay I learnt something econs! =D).
The countryside has verdant fields and grasslands.
I shall manipulate these pliable minds and use them to conquer the world.
Liu Xiang just had a facile victory; he had no strong competitors anyway.
These medications only had a palliative effect as it only solves the minutiae problems.
Stop being more querulous; this nascent security system is still susceptible to viral attacks (from BARR).
Even though he is a neophyte in physics, he is already crammed full of jargons (like fine structure constant!!! =D).
He is pursuing a monastic life in order to repent for his act of larceny.
The general is giving a harangue to the soldiers so that their cerebral cords get stimulated and battle-ready.
Quantum mechanics is inscrutable.
The ageing buildings and collapsing structures are redolent of the place's long history.
Even though he is a convivial person, that does not mean that he is not culpable for the wrongdoing he has done.
His apparently solicitous remarks are too histrionic, showing that he is trying to be sarcastic.
He is such a sycophant, always trying to toady to the CEOs of monolithic corporations.
I shall get a good harvest in these arable fields.
A compendious study of the various parameters led him to posit that P = NP.
Children have the tendency to become maudlin when they lose their Pikachu soft-toy.
I have a predilection for Pokemon.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Post Vocab-Mugging Session 1 (edited)
I am not a failure; I am a fiasco!
Your ineffectual arguments do not buttress your position. (no e in argument)
Stop being so vacuous. Think more.
Stop jumping about! Why are you so boisterous?
This has gone from bad to worse. I must ameliorate the situation.
OMG, you are so rich. You lead such an opulent lifestyle.
The perennial headaches are giving me ... well ... headaches.
We must keep this classified project clandestine.
Don't be so boorish. Mr Cheong does not like rude people.
Everyone saw that you cheated, and yet you brazenly deny it.
If you are a globetrotter, you visit the world in 80 days.
Your vitriolic remarks against the disabled just shows how callow you are.
CCX is the zenith (actually its epitomy, but nvm) of humility. (No, actually it's epitome)
Chops has an eclectic taste of music. He does not just listen to rock or pop; he listens to everything (including growls and roars).
Your ineffectual arguments do not buttress your position. (no e in argument)
Stop being so vacuous. Think more.
Stop jumping about! Why are you so boisterous?
This has gone from bad to worse. I must ameliorate the situation.
OMG, you are so rich. You lead such an opulent lifestyle.
The perennial headaches are giving me ... well ... headaches.
We must keep this classified project clandestine.
Don't be so boorish. Mr Cheong does not like rude people.
Everyone saw that you cheated, and yet you brazenly deny it.
If you are a globetrotter, you visit the world in 80 days.
Your vitriolic remarks against the disabled just shows how callow you are.
CCX is the zenith (actually its epitomy, but nvm) of humility. (No, actually it's epitome)
Chops has an eclectic taste of music. He does not just listen to rock or pop; he listens to everything (including growls and roars).
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