So I made a chessboard this morning. I even figured out a way to play it in Minecraft. Here are some pics of the setup.
This is the playing board. It is 16x16 with a nice wooden boarder. A chess board is 8x8, but I thought it would be too cramped once the pieces were added, so I extended each square to a 2x2 block in Minecraft. Obsidian and wool gives the checkerboard look. One happy consequence of this is that half the board is indestructable against surprise creeper attacks.
This is a little board indicating which player's turn it is. Flipping the switch changes which light is on. Very simple redstone work to get this done.
So we have the board, now what about the playing pieces? Here they are.
In case your chess knowledge is rusty, I'll explain the pieces. I tried to pick materials that best fit the pieces.
Pawns are represented by dirt, as dirt is numerous and expendible, as are pawns.
Rooks are represented by cobblestone. In Chess, a Rook piece is usually a castle or tower, so cobblestone fits perfectly
Knights are represented by an iron block. Knights are well known for their suits of armour.
Bishops are represented by a block of wood. I have no justification for this other than that none of the remaining materials really fit. A piece of cloth would probably be best (priest robes), but cloth is already used on the board and that would make it hard to see. Untill I can think of a more suitable material, a Bishop is just going to be a block of wood. Please resist the temptation to set fire to your opponent's Bishops
Queens are represented by a gold block. Royalty is pretty synonomous with gold.
Finally, the King is represented by a diamond block. The King is the most valuble piece in Chess, and diamond is the most valuble material in Minecraft. Making the King out of a diamond block has a rather interesting consequence if both players provide their own playing pieces, as you'll find out later.
Now, since both sides will have identicial looking pieces, there has to be a way to tell sides apart. I have used torches on top of the pieces to achieve this, so instead of White vs Black, it is Torch vs Redstone. Torch moves first. A nice advantage to this is that it allows the game to be played during the night, which is great as chess is not a short game.
In order to better see the board during the game, a glass platform was constructed.
Climbing to the top allows for a bird's eye view of the board. A more transparent glass texture would help visibility.
Now, how do we move the pieces? I've come up with a little method to use when making a move. Please ignore the fact that I screwed up in this example and that a Knight cannot jump this far. I know how to play chess, I swear >.>
So lets say the Torch Knight wants to jump ahead and kill the enemy Redstone Pawn.
First, the player drops his colour torch in the square of the piece he intends to move. In real life chess, there is a rule that if you touch or pick up a piece, you must then move that piece and cannot choose another. Placing a torch gives a visual indication of this.
Then, the player places a torch in the square he intends to move his piece. This is where the other player has a chance to dispute the move ("Meddyan, a knight doesn't move like that you moron!").
Once the move is accepted, any opposing piece is destoryed, and the player's piece is shifted to the destination square.
Finally, the torches are removed. In real life chess again, there is a rule that once you let go of a piece after moving it, the move cannot be undone. This will be the case in Minecraft chess too. If the move places the opponent's King in check, then a torch will then be placed in the King's square to let him know (in real life chess this is when you'd say "check"). If the King is checkmated, then this is when the player mines the opponent's diamond block, grabs his own and runs like the wind.
Finally, the awesome thing about making half the board out of wool is that it makes for some great losing temper tantrums
So there you have it, Minecraft chess. Feel free to make comments, suggestions, or call me a moron for forgetting how a Knight moves.
You misplaced your queens and kings, though. Queens always sit on their own colored square, in the same file (strip of the board). So the white queen is on a white square, and the black queen is on a black square.
You should totally be able to keep the resources from the enemy pieces (gold, diamond, iron) when you kill them, to make it like gambling (sort of). So you have high stakes chess matches :-0 Very nice!
Or that, the opponent keep the pieces that his "minions" destroys.
i like this idea. if every player brings their own blocks, there is an insertion(voc right?) and the more the players will try to win, as you will get 9 diamonds for winning! however there is still the chance of cheating by hacking your insertion(no real value) or just mining the other king -.-
now make the blokcs move per chat-command :-D something like F2-F4 to move a prawn from f2 to f4 :-D
The keep what you kill idea is good, though the only valuble material really is the King. Though, if I were to make the pieces two blocks high, I could assign the bottom block to a material based upon the piece's worth. So the queen could have a diamond bottom, the king would be a double diamond score, the back row pieces would net you a gold block and each pawn gives you an iron block. It'd make gameplay a little more tedious though, as there are twice as many blocks to move around, and placing a torch on the top of a two high stack requires annoying jumping.
The chat commands gave me an idea, I should create a series of signs around the border labelling the grid, so A-H signs along one side and 1-8 along the other. Just for completeness' sake
btw, I thnk the word you were thinking of was 'incentive'
Quote from halley »
Cute concept. I also liked the fire.
You misplaced your queens and kings, though. Queens always sit on their own colored square, in the same file (strip of the board). So the white queen is on a white square, and the black queen is on a black square.
D'oh, another mistake. I could've sworn you placed Kings and Queens opposite. You can tell I haven't played in a while >.>
When it comes to large scale playing like this you should simply take out the "touching" rules since it is more of a time sink then anything else. If anyone has a chess board on a server I'll gladly play them anytime ;o
ether way, now I'm going to make my own ^^
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference!” ~ Einstein
"“Piracy is not theft, If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.” ~Notch
A rule where if you touch or pick up a piece you have to use it? First time ive heard that and i play alot of chess (i dont claim to be a master at it lol i just play alot). typically the rule ive heard from numerous chess players that ARE good is if you move a piece AND take your hand OFF it, turn done, otherwise you can backtrack and change your mind.
You should make each block 3x3 so that the pieces can be placed in the center of the tile.
I did consider doing that, however I decided on 2x2 squares since I wanted to keep the board a reasonable size, if it were 3x3 it might get a little harder to see the whole board at once and you might not notice a key enemy piece. A larger board also means you'd have to climb up higher on the platform to get a bird's eye view, stretching game time even longer.
A rule where if you touch or pick up a piece you have to use it? First time ive heard that and i play alot of chess (i dont claim to be a master at it lol i just play alot). typically the rule ive heard from numerous chess players that ARE good is if you move a piece AND take your hand OFF it, turn done, otherwise you can backtrack and change your mind.
I just looked it up on wikipedia since I thought it may be a variant rule I picked up somewhere, but it seems it's a rule that's been in use for literally centuries and is used in serious tournaments.
Meddyan, you build some cool things in this game. You should probably start selling your creativity to some of the "bored, IDK wat to do" folks around here. :biggrin.gif:
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from will_holmes »
Quote from anon »
Every time I come to these forums, I think more and more that I'm the only person who plays Minecraft normally.
Every time I come to these forums, I think more and more that there is no such thing as playing Minecraft normally.
Cool idea. Wood be great for SMP, especially if you keep what you kill.
Could you provide a download for the world though?
Sure, here it is. It's the same world as my inefficient house, just follow the torches and they should take you to the chess board and the speedboat course.
Quote from Tarman »
Meddyan, you build some cool things in this game. You should probably start selling your creativity to some of the "bored, IDK wat to do" folks around here. :biggrin.gif:
Cool idea. Wood be great for SMP, especially if you keep what you kill.
Could you provide a download for the world though?
Sure, here it is. It's the same world as my inefficient house, just follow the torches and they should take you to the chess board and the speedboat course.
Nice, this is the next thing I am adding to my base. I wanted to make one but couldn't figure out the 8x8 being to small problem, I mean make it bigger seems easy but the pieces wouldn't be centered in a 16x16. Though you actually used that to your advantage. My other problem was how to differentiate the pieces, which your solution for the first problem also solved.
I was going to originally make the bottom of the pieces their color. But then it would take black FOREVER to move.
This is the playing board. It is 16x16 with a nice wooden boarder. A chess board is 8x8, but I thought it would be too cramped once the pieces were added, so I extended each square to a 2x2 block in Minecraft. Obsidian and wool gives the checkerboard look. One happy consequence of this is that half the board is indestructable against surprise creeper attacks.
This is a little board indicating which player's turn it is. Flipping the switch changes which light is on. Very simple redstone work to get this done.
So we have the board, now what about the playing pieces? Here they are.
In case your chess knowledge is rusty, I'll explain the pieces. I tried to pick materials that best fit the pieces.
Pawns are represented by dirt, as dirt is numerous and expendible, as are pawns.
Rooks are represented by cobblestone. In Chess, a Rook piece is usually a castle or tower, so cobblestone fits perfectly
Knights are represented by an iron block. Knights are well known for their suits of armour.
Bishops are represented by a block of wood. I have no justification for this other than that none of the remaining materials really fit. A piece of cloth would probably be best (priest robes), but cloth is already used on the board and that would make it hard to see. Untill I can think of a more suitable material, a Bishop is just going to be a block of wood. Please resist the temptation to set fire to your opponent's Bishops
Queens are represented by a gold block. Royalty is pretty synonomous with gold.
Finally, the King is represented by a diamond block. The King is the most valuble piece in Chess, and diamond is the most valuble material in Minecraft. Making the King out of a diamond block has a rather interesting consequence if both players provide their own playing pieces, as you'll find out later.
Now, since both sides will have identicial looking pieces, there has to be a way to tell sides apart. I have used torches on top of the pieces to achieve this, so instead of White vs Black, it is Torch vs Redstone. Torch moves first. A nice advantage to this is that it allows the game to be played during the night, which is great as chess is not a short game.
In order to better see the board during the game, a glass platform was constructed.
Climbing to the top allows for a bird's eye view of the board. A more transparent glass texture would help visibility.
Now, how do we move the pieces? I've come up with a little method to use when making a move. Please ignore the fact that I screwed up in this example and that a Knight cannot jump this far. I know how to play chess, I swear >.>
So lets say the Torch Knight wants to jump ahead and kill the enemy Redstone Pawn.
First, the player drops his colour torch in the square of the piece he intends to move. In real life chess, there is a rule that if you touch or pick up a piece, you must then move that piece and cannot choose another. Placing a torch gives a visual indication of this.
Then, the player places a torch in the square he intends to move his piece. This is where the other player has a chance to dispute the move ("Meddyan, a knight doesn't move like that you moron!").
Once the move is accepted, any opposing piece is destoryed, and the player's piece is shifted to the destination square.
Finally, the torches are removed. In real life chess again, there is a rule that once you let go of a piece after moving it, the move cannot be undone. This will be the case in Minecraft chess too. If the move places the opponent's King in check, then a torch will then be placed in the King's square to let him know (in real life chess this is when you'd say "check"). If the King is checkmated, then this is when the player mines the opponent's diamond block, grabs his own and runs like the wind.
Finally, the awesome thing about making half the board out of wool is that it makes for some great losing temper tantrums
So there you have it, Minecraft chess. Feel free to make comments, suggestions, or call me a moron for forgetting how a Knight moves.
What do you mean it doesn't work? - Flint Generator
Once upon a time in Minecraft... - The Three Little Pigs
Ready! Set! Go! - Speedboat Racecourse
Look out below! - Death From Above
But yeah, you have put together a way to play chess in minecraft, which is good =)
The only downside, obviously, would be that it's tedious to play.
It could be considered to be some form of end-goal:
-Gather enough materials to be allowed to play chess. Bring your own chessboard!
Timelapsed Let's Play
Gotta love those moments!
You misplaced your queens and kings, though. Queens always sit on their own colored square, in the same file (strip of the board). So the white queen is on a white square, and the black queen is on a black square.
The keep what you kill idea is good, though the only valuble material really is the King. Though, if I were to make the pieces two blocks high, I could assign the bottom block to a material based upon the piece's worth. So the queen could have a diamond bottom, the king would be a double diamond score, the back row pieces would net you a gold block and each pawn gives you an iron block. It'd make gameplay a little more tedious though, as there are twice as many blocks to move around, and placing a torch on the top of a two high stack requires annoying jumping.
The chat commands gave me an idea, I should create a series of signs around the border labelling the grid, so A-H signs along one side and 1-8 along the other. Just for completeness' sake
btw, I thnk the word you were thinking of was 'incentive'
D'oh, another mistake. I could've sworn you placed Kings and Queens opposite. You can tell I haven't played in a while >.>
What do you mean it doesn't work? - Flint Generator
Once upon a time in Minecraft... - The Three Little Pigs
Ready! Set! Go! - Speedboat Racecourse
Look out below! - Death From Above
I think though, that this would make chess take longer than its already long time, which kinda sucks. Maybe an additional 5-10%.
You had very clever ideas, and I like it. Excellent work.
although the stakes seem a bit high for me :
HOK peasant
ether way, now I'm going to make my own ^^
"“Piracy is not theft, If you steal a car, the original is lost. If you copy a game, there are simply more of them in the world.” ~Notch
Interesting idea tho.
<<Enter Spiffy Signature Quotes Here>>
I did consider doing that, however I decided on 2x2 squares since I wanted to keep the board a reasonable size, if it were 3x3 it might get a little harder to see the whole board at once and you might not notice a key enemy piece. A larger board also means you'd have to climb up higher on the platform to get a bird's eye view, stretching game time even longer.
I just looked it up on wikipedia since I thought it may be a variant rule I picked up somewhere, but it seems it's a rule that's been in use for literally centuries and is used in serious tournaments.
What do you mean it doesn't work? - Flint Generator
Once upon a time in Minecraft... - The Three Little Pigs
Ready! Set! Go! - Speedboat Racecourse
Look out below! - Death From Above
Sad that the poor pawns are dirt blocks. :wink.gif:
"You're a monster!!"
Could you provide a download for the world though?
CornerStone Castle
Minecraft Free Build Map
Paininabox's Thread O' Links
Well let's make it more tedious!
I actually like this idea, pretty good format.
Sure, here it is. It's the same world as my inefficient house, just follow the torches and they should take you to the chess board and the speedboat course.
Heh, maybe I shall =p
What do you mean it doesn't work? - Flint Generator
Once upon a time in Minecraft... - The Three Little Pigs
Ready! Set! Go! - Speedboat Racecourse
Look out below! - Death From Above
Thanks!
CornerStone Castle
Minecraft Free Build Map
Paininabox's Thread O' Links
I was going to originally make the bottom of the pieces their color. But then it would take black FOREVER to move.