This is an impressive, well thought-out collection of chess-related games all of which are played upon boards which, with the pieces set to their opening positions, maintain perfect bilateral, geometrical symmetry via vertical and horizontal axes. A number of essays are included that, among detailed info on the games and pieces, provide an extensive motivation of the author to create this particular collection as well as some interesting comments on the quality of (chess) game inventions in general. They have all been selected for their quality and fine-tuned over the years ...
– Ed van Zon
Zillions Of GamesA lot of thought and playtesting is evident.
– Keith Carter
Inventor's Note- February, 2008
I have always believed that out of an infinite number of possible, playable chess variants that could be invented, a single, best, perfect game existed in the imaginary-yet-real, theoretical realm of perfection, waiting to be discovered. Of course, it would never permit itself to be discovered via semi-random searching.
At some point within the last 8 years, I ascertained that this "holy grail" game should be definable with certainty, by indirect means, thru the categorical exclusion of all other imperfect design features, by correctly applying a sufficiently high number of important quality criteria.
I was hopeful that a large set of correctly-defined, important quality criteria relevant to chess variants would eventually emerge which would allow no more than one game to be invented, in sharp contradiction to my established reputation as one of the most prolific chess variant inventors in the world- quickly designing large numbers of games anew in full compliance with every given, quality criterion I could discover anew.
In the midst of these creative and exciting yet frustrating times, my efforts, experience, inspirations and imagination toward inventing new games seemed impossible to defeat. I even wondered once or twice if I would work myself to death or burn-out. Fortunately, the unexpected final series of important, paradigmatic, theoretical breakthroughs occurred.
The so-called Symmetrical Chess Collection has consisted of 20-50 ever-changing games in response to an ever-increasingly long list of quality criteria since appr. one year after I began until appr. one year before I finished. Now, only one featured game (with 3 variants) remains … Hex Chess (square-spaced). It deserves more than a casual examination since it is possibly the only perfect chess variant in existence.
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www.zillions-of-games.com/store.html
This game is fully-functional and offered here for a free download. Nonetheless, buying and installing the Zillions Of Games 2.0 program (download cost-$25) which runs under all modern versions of MS Windows is a prerequisite to playing chess variants such as these. This remarkably adaptable AI program is a universal gaming engine designed to play nearly any 2-D or 3-D board game. Over 1500 unique, free games with over 5000 variants [number increasing constantly] are presently available for it. So, you are likely to enjoy yourself.
Download "collect.exe"(1036 KB), a safe self-extracting compressed file, which contains this game as a rules files (*.zrf), all required graphics (*.bmp), several visual game piece guides (*.bmp), a few screenshots (*.bmp), several descriptive texts (*.pdf) and a few essays on related topics (*.pdf).
latest revision
April 29, 2008
Note- The descriptive texts require Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Free Download
Assorted Essays
Game Viewing Cabinet
Currently containing 3 variants of 1 game:
Chess Variant Index
www.zillions-of-games.com/games/index-chess.html
Don Ross
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory
If you dare, see Derek & Puck play chess!
Derek & Puck play chess!
www.symmetryperfect.com/Puck.html
My interests also include number theory (mathematics).
Feel free to visit.
Perfect Symmetry Number Theory
www.symmetryperfect.com
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