Monthly Archives: March 2014

Skimming through A. V. Murali’s book Chess Variants & Games, I’m finding lots of intriguing board geometries, some of them deft and some outrageous. Tiling the plane with alternating squares and octagons? Murali’s got you covered. But he seems not … Continue reading →

A book called Chess Variants & Games, by A. V. Murali, looked interesting, so I bought it. I haven’t read much of it yet. It strikes me as quite scattered — one of those books written by a bright guy … Continue reading →

There are lots of ways to mess with the rules of chess. You can play it on a board of hexagons, for instance. But you can do quite a lot to freshen up the game without needing any special equipment. … Continue reading →

Discovered a new board game called Arimaa. It’s been around for 12 years. Lots of people are playing it — mostly online, I’m sure, but the inventor is selling a reasonably priced set, which I bought. Being a maniac, I … Continue reading →

It’s a bit of a surprise to me how many websites cater to chess players — yet how few of them show any interest in, or even awareness of, chess variants. Other than Chinese and Japanese chess, of course. One … Continue reading →

I’ve never actually managed to play a game of Ultima all the way through. I have a couple of computer programs that will play it, but I usually bail after only a few moves, because Ultima it pretty confusing. It … Continue reading →

Sometimes I’m excited by musical ideas. I play around until I find a chord progression or a bass line that stimulates me, and a week later I’ve expanded it into a new piece. Other times my musical ideas bore me. … Continue reading →