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This idea of establishing some kind of order has more appeal to me now than
it used to have. After 11 years of this hobby and involvement with this
site, I find myself more interested in returning to some of the same games
over and over instead of exploring novelty as much as I used to. When it
was all new to me, I wanted to sample, as well as create, a wide variety of
games. With more experience behind me of playing and creating a variety of
CVs, I am more interested in isolating some of the better ones and in
encouraging play of them.

This Next Chess idea is a good one. While the chances of replacing Chess
might be low, it does seem worthwhile to find other games that could stand
their ground with Chess if the playing field were more even. Imagine that
Chess and other CVs were newly invented, so that Chess didn't have the
hegemony it currently enjoys over CVs, allowing Chess and other CVs to
compete for the public's attention without Chess having any prior external
advantages over other CVs. With this in mind, we may consider which CVs
would have the best chances of gaining widespread popularity of the sort
Chess currently enjoys.

What I propose is a tournament featuring some of these CVs. To pick the
games for the tournament, I propose that the CV inventors active on this
site each pick one of his games that would stand the best chances of
gaining (under ideal circumstances) the kind of popularity Chess has. This
shouldn't be about picking his personal favorite, especially if it is one
that would mainly appeal to hardcore CV enthusiasts. Among my own games,
Eurasian Chess is the one I think best fits this criteria, though Kamikaze
Mortal Shogi is probably my personal favorite. People may also suggest
games they didn't invent, and we may try to form a consensus over what
games to pick, or just have a vote. Among games I didn't invent, I think
either Victorian Chess or Schoolbook Chess would be a good choice. I would
limit it to one or the other to avoid including games too similar to each
other.