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May I recommend Embassy Chess? It too is played on the 10 × 8 board with the same pieces as Bird's or Capablanca Chess though named as in Grand Chess. The Marshall moves as a Rook or Knight and the Cardinal moves as a Bishop or Knight. The set up is like Grand Chess if played on the 10 × 8 board with the Rooks in line with the other pieces. The game is played just like regular Chess except castling has the King move three squares towards the Rook instead of two. A promoted Pawn has the additional choice of the Marshall or Cardinal. Seeing how so many people get worked up about all the Pawns being protected from the start of the game, they should find this version acceptable. I like it because the King and Queen are placed together and it gives it a regular Chess look. As far as I know, there's no quick and easy Fool's mates in this version either. Nor if it has a Scholar's mate equivalent either. With the Marshall and Cardinal side by side they can both be moved like Knights and developed. The game gets its name from Modern Bird's Chess (MBC) and seems like a good choice if one thinks of an embassy with dignitaries visiting the ambassador. Kevin Hill proposed it in 2004, but it mainly went unplayed as the other three versions are more or less the same game. Embassy Chess is not patented and is available to the public without restriction. I am wondering about Capablanca's Chess and the names for the Marshall and Cardinal. What did he call the pieces? Did their names change as he worked on his version of Bird's Chess? Were they are named Guard and Equerry? Does anyone have the order in which the names developed? I am not able to get the books mentioned in the links above. If I ever come across them, I'll read about the variants in them. I don't agree about the wasted space comment of Grand Chess. With the pieces moved away from the back row, it plays very much like a 10 × 8 board. The Rooks have free reign on the back rows and are in the game from the beginning. The King has some running room and it seems to make him a little harder to get early in the game. Whether or not this makes the game better than the 10 × 8 games is a whole different deal. It certainly makes it the best 10 × 10 variant played with these pieces. The Pawn promotion makes it a different game when it comes into play though. If a lot of pieces get traded off the board sure gets an open look to it. At least the Pawns only have to go to eighth row instead of the tenth row. All these games played with these pieces seem not too likely to go to the end game as often as regular Chess. The extra power of the two additional pieces and two Pawns with the King being the same piece as usual makes him lots more vulnerable to attacks, gambits, and sacrifices.