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"The reason why the Capablanca big-board variants haven't caught on is because the board alters the relation between pieces. There are now ten pawn, a fact which affects the pawn value. The center of the board isn't sharply defined anymore. The knight is worth a pawn less than a bishop. The rook is now worth equally much as a bishop + knight. There is now plenty of space on the board, so one is unlikely to achieve spatial advantage. All this means that important strategical themes are lost, especially the important relation between knight and bishop, and it's hardly possible to sacrifice a rook for a knight anymore."

I understood that this was Capablanca's staled aim. He felt that advanced knowledge of strategy was making Chess stale, and that a game for which that knowledge base had yet to be built up would make for more interesting play for players and audience alike.