5 ms·

I grew up in India and learnt chess from my grand father, who taught me two versions of chess: the standard western version and the Indian version. The Indian v

• have_faith 7y ago
  > pawn cannot move two steps in the first move Does this add much variation to the game or does it slightly delay getting into the same positions we already know? Not castling is interesting though but would change the game quite dramatically, perhaps even making it slightly more predictable? I'm unsure. Interesting concepts.
  • thanatropism 7y ago
    Pieces are ranked by power because of their reach. Chess is not continuous-time (I have this theory that the tactical essence of football-soccer is continuous-time chess) which makes it very awkward. There's also a lot of literature on chess openings, which means a lot would need to be re-discovered). I find chess very frustrating because I can analyze positions but almost always get thwarted because of misreading tempo. But honestly maybe I don't have a high enough IQ to play chess.
    • glitchc 7y ago
      I highly doubt that your chess acumen is tied to IQ. AlphaZero can probably beat every chess player, past or present, yet you would trounce it in a whole range of intelligence tests. Perhaps just try counting the moves, and look for counters at each step? Most pro chess players think in patterns anyways, subset of moves that obtain a predefined position on the board. Then the game is more about rock, paper, scissors, where you try to guess the opponent’s pattern and employ a counter-pattern.
      • new2628 7y ago
        IQ is largely pseudoscience. It is tied to chess in the same sense it is tied to most other things, as a baseline filter: IQ below 80 means one can hardly do anything at a high level, beyond that it has almost no meaning.
        • JamesBarney 7y ago
          This is not what any of the science says. IQ is the most studied psychometric in the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelligence_quotient
          • new2628 7y ago
            https://medium.com/incerto/iq-is-largely-a-pseudoscientific-swindle-f131c101ba39 https://medium.com/incerto/iq-is-largely-a-pseudoscientific-... Or a more gentle summary: https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Taleb:_IQ_is_a_pseudoscientific_swindle https://supermemo.guru/wiki/Taleb:_IQ_is_a_pseudoscientific_...
            • JamesBarney 7y ago
              Also here's an actual study on chess and IQ. https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2019-vaci.pdf https://www.gwern.net/docs/iq/2019-vaci.pdf > most “achievements” linked to IQ are measured in circular stuff s.a. bureaucratic or academic success, things for test takers and salary earners in structured jobs that resemble the tests This is the point of the test. That people who do well on this test, do well at their job. >Psychologists do not realize that the effect of IQ (if any, ignoring circularity) is smaller than the difference between IQ tests for the same individual. This is actually evidence that IQ tests are measuring something that is even more predictive. Say I use an MRI and I'm able to predict schizophrenia far better than chance. The argument that the MRI I used was faulty and sometimes returned back false results is not evidence that my test is bogus, but evidence that it's even more powerful because it worked well despite the machine being wonky. > if you want to detect how someone fares at a task, say loan sharking, tennis playing, or random matrix theory, make him/her do that task; we don’t need theoretical exams for a real world function by probability-challenged psychologists This is referencing industrial psychology research. What he's referring to is a work-sample test, and IQ tests are equally predictive. With IQ tests outperforming when the jobs requirements are less defined, and work sample tests outperforming when the job is more defined.(think startup wear many hats lot of on the job learning vs enterprise DBA) He also makes an argument that iq is less predictive of success at higher levels which isn't the case and is based on some bad research. (They measured childhood IQs instead of adult IQs) Most of the article is a collection of strawmen, ad hominems, and just plain weird whatboutism. (just because the high IQ janitors score better than low IQ professors doesn't really tell us whether or not IQ is pseudo scientific)
    • kaoD 7y ago
      > I have this theory that the tactical essence of football-soccer is continuous-time chess Heh, I've been called crazy by chess players for saying that out loud. Glad I'm not the only one. I also think basketball/handball tactics are a lot like checkers.
  • adiM 7y ago
    I have always assumed that the 'no two step in first move' is the reason of structure of all the _Indian defenses_: first move is a knight move followed by Bishop fianchetto. Most pawn moves are a single step pawn move. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Defence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Defence
• jacobush 7y ago
  As (western) children we played without the two steps, we didn't know about the rule. I think it was too much to remember, that pieces could have special behavior at the start of a game.
• wasi0013 7y ago
  Amazing! I also learned chess with the same rule when I was a kid. I didn't know it was known as Indian chess! Except, in some variations, castling was allowed. Also, another variation allowed two different pawns to move a single square on "Move 1" for both Black and White. (I'm from Bangladesh)