Comments by DavidHowe

Here's the rule from our FIDE laws page
(http://www.chessvariants.com/fidelaws.html):

10.10
The game is drawn, upon a claim by the player having the move, when the
same position, for the third time: 
(a) is about to appear, if he first writes the move on his scoresheet and
declares to the arbiter his intention of making this move; or 
(b) has just appeared, the same player having the move each time. 
The position is considered the same if pieces of the same kind and colour
occupy the same squares, and if all the possible moves of all the pieces
are the same, including the rights to castle [at some future time] or to
capture a pawn 'en passant'.

If this game already exists, I can't find it. Sounds like it would work
well as each player would have to balance guarding the enemy king vs.
attacking the enemy pieces. I propose we call it Royal Hostage chess.

Here's another, similar idea:

Royal Hero chess

Standard setup.
The first player to do any of the following, wins:

1. Checkmate the opposing King, or
2. Make a move that takes his King out of check
3. Bare his opponent's King

Kings may move into check.
Kings cannot be captured, but may capture.

I have implemented a very crude membership system for chessvariants.com. You
can now become a member of this site. I have also changed the commenting
system to be able to utilize member information. Stay tuned as we continue
to develop this capability and add member functions to various areas of the
site. Feedback is welcome and keep in mind -- this is a work in
progress...

You all make very good points. But I should point out that Gothic Chess
also uses Chancellor. Perhaps we should indicate that the preferred name
is Marshal(l), but Chancellor is also commonly used.

Another point: should we have reserved names for certain pieces? Should we
try to enforce the use of the names 'Marshal(l)' and 'Chancellor'
exclusively for the Knight-Rook?

Proposal: Establish a Chess Variants Standards and Guidelines Committee

Purpose: To publish guidelines and standards relating to the development
and playing of chess variations. Guidelines would be used by the chess
variant community to help reduce confusion and inconsitency. Enforcement
of such guidelines would be voluntary.

Membership: Obvious choices would be: Hans Bodlaender, David Pritchard,
Ralph Betza (just to keep things interesting), John William Brown, Fergus
Duniho, Glenn Overby, Michael Howe, Peter Aronson. Membership would be
non-paying.

Hosting: The Chess Variant Pages would host the committee and act as a
public forum for committee deliberations and for posting of any committee
publications.

Positions: 

President: Responsible for choosing which issues get decided when
Secretary: Responsible for writing and posting committee publications
Treasurer: Unnecessary?