Comments by JorgKnappen

Oh, the complications of having a piece being able to capture the King but not given check.

Another one is: White is able to capture the Black King, but Black can defend by giving check! Black is obliged by the rules to get out of check first, and cannot end the game by capturing the King. Back can even give checkmate and win while its King is en prise.

There are more or less established names for all the pieces with single steps in a mirror symmetric pattern. Some of them may just be alternate English translations from Japanese, some genuinely different. Most names come from Shogi and Shogi variants, a few are Western names. I give the name I consider most standard and best understood first:

fW (your Soldier): (Shogi) Pawn, Foot Soldier

fsW (your Sergeant): Korean (Janggi) Pawn, Chinese Pawn (after crossing the river), Drunken Soldier (Jelliss)

fF (your Officer): Stone General or Sekisho, Goose (Fox and Geese, Jelliss)

fWfF (your Colonel): Iron General, compare also Graz Pawn (Chess problems)

fbWfF (your Brigadier): Copper General (Dai Dai Shogi), Flying Goose (Taikyoku Shogi) Climbing Monkey (Wa Shogi, Takyoku Shogi)

fWF (your Admiral): Silver General

fsWfF (your Tactician): Evil Wolf or Akuro, Panthan (Jetan)

WfF (your General): Gold General, Tokin

fsWF (your Marshal): Drunk Elephant or Suizo. Note that Marshal is one of the common Western names for the Rook-Knight compound piece.

Not in your list:

FfbW: Ferocious Leopard or Mohyo, Jelliss translates the same Japanese word as
Horrible Panther.

Some sources for the piece names:

Christine Bagley-Jones: Fairy Pieces Part 1, https://www.chessvariants.com/ideas/fairy-pieces-part-1

J.P.Jelliss "All the Kings men": https://www.mayhematics.com/v/gm.htm#G This has names for all "generals", i.e., one step movers with left-right symmetrical moving patterns

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fairy_chess_pieces

Your Butler (FsW) has the names Blind Monkey (Dai Dai Shogi) and Diabolo (Jelliss).

As an aside: What is the use of move-only pieces in your game to come? They are more of a nuisance than an asset for the party who holds them: They block the movement of own pieces and they cannot protect pieces near them. They may block some enemy pieces sometimes, but the enemy can capture them when they aren't properly protected.

Searching for "sparrow site:chessvariants.com" I found several games (mostly Shogi variants or games by Charles Gilman), but all the sparrows I found move differently than mQcK. Gilman's Sparrow is the combination piece of Rook and Arrow aka Vao or Crossbow—the diagonal counterpart of the Chinese Cannon. In notation, it is RmBcpB.

I don't think that the rules are already clear and easy-to-understand.

First of all, it should state the initial array and the pieces of the game (I somehow infer it is the standard chess pieces in the standard initial area).

With all kind of swaps: What are the moves of a pawn being swapped to the first rank? Has it double or even triple moves available, or does it just a single step to the second rank? When it has stepped to the second rank, has it
a double move or not (a strict reading of the FIDE rules having "original square" in their wording would allow only a single step, since it is subsequent. Quite hard to track by looking only on the board)?

With inner swaps, it should state if a swap between two identical pieces (e.g. two knights) is allowed, creating the possibility to voluntary cede a tempo. This option would change some endgames (e.g., making two knights and king against king a win instead of a draw).

I think the bishops rule is theoretically flawed, since it is possible to have two bishops of the same field colour by pawn promotion (it is just really unusual to promote to a bishop because promotion to some stronger piece is almost always preferable).

Two proposed fixes to the table of currently nominated variants.

1. In the row Knight-Relay Chess, link that anchor to https://www.chessvariants.com/diffmove.dir/nrelay.html

2. In the row Separate Realms Chess, there is a column missing for secondments

For Chess with different armies, the team with the Amazon and the enhanced Phoenix (or enhanced Fibnif) is too strong. I was able to beat the FIDEs in the diagram on the first try in only 18 moves.

This one is tough to play, I think Black has an advantage here. In theory, the additional power of the Rook on a1 is compensated by the weaker pawns. In practice, the Asian pawns are a plain disaster: No pawn structures emerge, and White is haunted by weak squares everywhere. The Dragon King is hard to develop and often eliminated before it enters the game as the pawn formation does not protect the square b3. And the Asian pawns don't promote, not even to a Silver General! They become Dummies at the eighth rank.

At least, this one was entertaining to play. I suggest adding a promotion option for the Asian pawns, maybe forced promotion to Silver General. This will enhance their strategical value, at the moment Black can concentrate on taking the Western pawns out of the game and win the endgame through pawn promotion.

Now we have the tags, I think new CwDA variants should just be tagged as "Betza Chess" to be found. Updating this page anytime someone comes up with a new army for CwDA is too much of an effort for the editors.

This would affect the sidebar with the "See also:" Currently, the last three armies aren't from Ralph Betza himself and could be removed (including the Switchers, my own creation). I think all the armies authored by Ralph Betza should be kept there, some are on pages that aren't "items" and cannot be tagged.

The diagram seems to have no idea of the value of some pieces. It happily exchanges a Janus (Archbishop, Cardinal) for a Knight, or an enhanced Knight (FN) for a plain Knight or a Bishop. On the other side, it cowers away from profitable exchanges.