Al Myers wrote on Sun, Aug 19, 2007 09:06 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Christian Freeling's game is potentially excellent, but I feel it would
benefit from two tweaks:
1) The initial array for the white major pieces should be Cardinal-D2,
Queen-E2, King-F2, and Marshall-G2. (Of course the black pieces should be
rearranged accordingly.) This setup does have the potential disadvantage
of having the KBP on both sides initially unguarded, but the capture of
either pawn would take several tempi and might lead to some interesting
gambit play.
2) The king should be allowed a once-a-game safety leap of three
squares either to the right or left. this would be in essence castling
without the rook and would be subject to the same rules as castling, i.e.
no prior king move and no moving over squares attacked by the enemy.
In any event the foremost requirement of viability for any chess variant
is that the winning percentage for white be no higher than that
experienced in ordinary chess.
Christian Freeling's game is potentially excellent, but I feel it would benefit from two tweaks:
1) The initial array for the white major pieces should be Cardinal-D2, Queen-E2, King-F2, and Marshall-G2. (Of course the black pieces should be rearranged accordingly.) This setup does have the potential disadvantage of having the KBP on both sides initially unguarded, but the capture of either pawn would take several tempi and might lead to some interesting gambit play.
2) The king should be allowed a once-a-game safety leap of three squares either to the right or left. this would be in essence castling without the rook and would be subject to the same rules as castling, i.e. no prior king move and no moving over squares attacked by the enemy.
In any event the foremost requirement of viability for any chess variant is that the winning percentage for white be no higher than that experienced in ordinary chess.