Chess Talk - Wesnoth analogies

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Crimson_Conure
2019 Amateur Fast Champion
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Chess Talk - Wesnoth analogies

Post by Crimson_Conure »

Hey, I'm a chess player, and I made this thread just for fun and for people who play/study chess. At the time I made this thread, my FIDE rating was currently exactly 1870.

I'm just going to compare mainline chess openings to wesnoth factions.

Against e4:

Loyalists - e5 (1. e4 e5)
Spoiler:
e5 is like the most conventional defense against e4, well besides the Sicilian najdorf. The Loyalists are like the most 'normal' and flexible faction in wesnoth. 1. e4 e5 games kind of lead to jack-of-all-trades territory where both sides have a lot of positional and tactical chances. Also the Berlin Wall (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6) is very admirable for black at the top level, though maybe white can hold his/her basic advantage after pawn to d3, without having to study 25 moves of book in the Berlin endgame (1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8).

Rebels - Paulsen Sicilian (Kan or Taimanov) (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4. 4...a6 is kan and 4...Nc6 is taimanov)
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
The Sicilian Kan as well as the Taimanov has a lot of resources and is moderately easy to play. Both openings also tend to try to maintain a lot of territory on his/her own side but not expand very far, just like how elves like to use trees to maintain a lot of inner territory and not expand very far.

Northerners - French (1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5)
Spoiler:
I thought the Northerners represented the French because the French seeks counterplay in a very crude and pretty efficient way but with obvious downsides, such as the fact the e6 pawn blocks the light squared bishop on c8. In the French, black wants to expand c5 and either close the queenside or shred the queenside if white doesn't play accurately. I always thought the northerners were crude, aggressive, and efficient, but with obvious downsides such as the fact that Northerners have no magic. Northerners also lack archers and ranged units.

Undead - Sicilian Najdorf (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6) :twisted:
Spoiler:
I mean, the Najdorf doesn't 100% represent the undead, but it still does a fair amount. I just couldn't find a spot anywhere else for the undead. The Najdorf is complex, both positional and tactical, and has extremely high chances of achieving counter-play and even an initiative. The undeads are aggressive and cheap like the Northerners, only in a more extreme axis. The Sicilian Najdorf is also considered the strongest Sicilian at the top level, and I main undeads in Wesnoth, so there is also some bias in this decision. The strongest opening has to represent my main! :)

Knalgans - Caro-kann (1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5)
Spoiler:
The caro-kann is very solid and slow, and sometimes hard to beat. The Knalgan (not hodor) is slow, good at holding a defensive position, and very solid.

Drakes - Sicilian Sveshnikov (1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e5)
Spoiler:
The Sicilian Sveshnikov is very aggressive, messy, and has many temporary structures. I thought the drakes represented the Sveshnikov, because the Drakes are regarded as the most aggressive faction in wesnoth. Also, the drakes have weak defenses and are bad at holding defensive positions, so their battle formation always changes.

Note that against e4 openings I based off my analogies after e5, e6, c5, and c6. Since those are only 4, but there are 6 factions in wesnoth, I added 2 Sicilians, because the Paulsen Sicilian, Najdorf Sicilian, and Sveshnikov Sicilian are completely completely different.

I didn't include d5 (the Scandinavian) or d6 (the Pirc) because I wanted to highlight more Sicilian systems, plus both of those moves are suboptimal at the top level. I don't really know what the Scandinavian or the Pirc would represent either. The Scandinavian could represent Northerners or maybe undead. The Pirc could represent rebels.
Last edited by Crimson_Conure on November 25th, 2016, 6:34 am, edited 9 times in total.
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Thrawn
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Re: Chess Talk - Wesnoth analogies

Post by Thrawn »

Took care of your repeat posting

*changes hat* I'm not too avid a chess player, but I really like your interpretation of chess openings! When I was developing characters for a project (unfinished like most of my projects, one of the ways I determined their personality was also wesnoth factions they'd play XD)
...please remember that "IT'S" ALWAYS MEANS "IT IS" and "ITS" IS WHAT YOU USE TO INDICATE POSSESSION BY "IT".--scott

this goes for they're/their/there as well
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Crimson_Conure
2019 Amateur Fast Champion
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Re: Chess Talk - Wesnoth analogies

Post by Crimson_Conure »

Thrawn wrote:Took care of your repeat posting

*changes hat* I'm not too avid a chess player, but I really like your interpretation of chess openings! When I was developing characters for a project (unfinished like most of my projects, one of the ways I determined their personality was also wesnoth factions they'd play XD)
I repeat posted? Oh, thank you so much for taking care of that, I didn't mean to repeat-post of course.

*tips fedora* That's pretty dank! Lol, I also did the same to like a book I tried to write or something; I made like characters and tried to compare their personalities to wesnoth factions. It was like when I was 7. I've known about this game for a while because of my brother, it's just that I only got back to this game a few months ago.
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