Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Hi Nick,

I'd thought about the 3-step first move for a pawn, but decided to leave it at 2-steps as I was trying not to move too far from FIDE.

Cheers
Graeme

Hey Graeme!

Ok, thats fine.  I just suggested it because I have a feeling that once a player opens up the pathways for their pieces get out, I think the pawns will remain relatively untouched.  We can definitely see how it works out in our game, though.  How does your Zillions implimentation play it?

Best,
Nick

Hi Nick,

Zillions develops Knights and Archbishops first, eventually moving Pawns to attack encroaching enemy pieces. Hopefully my Zillions file will be posted here soon.

Cheers
Graeme

It is easy to make Zillions move central pawns initially, something
which I do in all my programs. All that is needed is to reward early 
pawn movements. See my Zillions implementations:
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/chessvar.htm
The problem is that if Zillions hops about too much with powerful
super-knights, then he loses tempo and might be strategically lost.
However, this depends on how the variant is designed, of course. I
also discourage early queen excursions, and the like.
/Mats

Nearlydouble Chess doubles the number of all pieces except the King, and likewise doubles the size of the board and rounds down to an 11x11 board. As both pieces and squares are rounded down and Pawns are included in the doubling I find no need for extra piece types - although I do enhance the Knights for the larger board. I didn't go for a triple-step Pawn move either - but I did go for a much-enhanced double one. Castling with the outer Rook is the same as in this game, but there is also Castling with inner Rooks, as all Rooks start on the same rank as the King. Piece density is 51.24%.

Échecs De L'Escalier has twice the symmetric pieces of the Carrera/Bird/Capablanca family, with a Queen+Knight compound substituted for the second King aside, but no increase in those variants' Pawns, and the increase in army size by a half relative to those armies is accompanied by enlarging the board only to 10x10 - not much over half as much again as the FIDE board. Pawns I judged close enough to each other to need only the standard double-step initial Pawn move. To cope with Rooks on two ranks, Castling is of the Ecumenical variety, allowing King and Rook alike to move within a 2x2 area beforehand. Piece density is 60%.

Yes, Charles, castling is only allowed with Rooks on the same rank. And the comparison with your variants is certainly interesting - particularly so with my newly added 10x10 subvariant.