Comments by JeffRients

'Michael Howe chided me for wanting to change the rules of an existing
chess varianr without the inventor's approval. Excuse me, but isn't that
like leaving the science of aviation entirely in the hands of the Wright
Brothers?'

The folks following the Wright brothers generally built their own planes,
rather than taking the model the brothers made and modifying it. They
apllied the principles of the Wright brothers to new constructions. Rather
than offer to change an existing variant, why not propose a similar variant
under a new name? Changing an existing game without altering the name leads
to confusion because the older form of the game becomes obscured. These
days if I want to find some players for a Dungeons & Dragons game I have
to specify which of more than a dozen versions I mean. When a game author
does not have to worry about Brand Identity, why not just use a new name
for your variant? Taking your method to its logical conclusion, your
version of Grand Chess might as well be called simply Chess.

Link broken, but the pop-up ads seem to be working fine!  Information on
this variant may be found at http://www.kaissa-thegame.com/

There's probably no need to be concerned yet.  I submitted Knight Chase on
April 21st and that just got posted last week, after Enochian Chess went
up, which was a later submission.

'Isn't it accepted that in a good variant it is desirable to keep as
close as possible to ortho rules?!'

Accepted by who?  I'm not aware of any chess variant governing authority.

A brief perusal of this site will reveal dozens or even hundreds of
variants more unorthodox than Circular Chess.  

'Yet the Circular Society rules disallow en passant and castling.  
(Why are these differences necessary?'

I think the answer provided by the Society seems perfectly adequate.  I
would not expect a neophyte chess player to write a master level game. 
Nor do I see any reason to scorn simple variants.

'Sorry to jump on this, but is that really a good basis for forming
a variant's rules, basing them on the predjudices of a beginner
player?!'

I think the successes of this variant (its own Society and championships)
go far in establishing that Circular Chess was soundly constructed.  Keep
in mind that the audience for Circular Chess seems to consist largely of
pub patrons, not chess fanatics.  If anything, chess variantists who want
to see there games actually played by a mainstream audience might do well
in emulating Mr. Reynolds' design approach.

At the beginning of the game the corner squares are at double capacity, a
king and another piece.  The original Golden Dawn method squeezes two
pieces onto a normal sized square.  The point of my odd-shaped board is
that actual play is helped by using enlarged corner cells.  This allows
players to avoid crowding on the corner squares.

The oddly shaped board shown in the diagrams is one of my own making.  I
know of no one else that has used or proposed such a board for Enochian
chess.  One can play Enochian chess on an orthodox 8x8 board.  The only
difficulty is the rather cramped conditions that the king and his guest on
the throne square must endure at the start of the game.  My board merely
gives the king the elbow room that a personage of his rank is due.

Although I'm not very interested in playing on a geodesic board, I like
the way the pentagons break up the playing field into sections.

Also, the Templar and Obelisk are interesting pieces.  Are they original
to this variant?

The more I think about it, the more I am liking these variants,
particularly the Mitre.  It seems like a nifty little piece.  The Hump is
a little less obvious direction to go in, and I worry about its
usefullness on an average-sized or small board.

The mixed pawn line seems inelegant to me.  As a matter of personal
preference I would like the pawn line to be all one type of piece.

Peter,

I would love to be able to fufill your request, but it is outside my
present abilities.  Making the basic presets for the contest stretched my
skills considerably.  I'm a banker by trade and not much of a programmer.

Yes, please accept a late entry.

(Last night while engaged in a lengthy car drive I came up with an idea
for a 45 piece variant that is a combination of Hnefatafl and Chaturanga.)

This variant looks fun to play, especially with the suggested box for
tractored pieces to fall into.

I don't think I like the fact that two pawns are trapped behind holes,
the poor little guys!  Have you considered using Berolina Pawns?

Nifty little variant.

Incidentally, the inspiration for this game is a line from
www.oldmanmurray.com, a rather vulgar website devoted to reviewing video
games in a rude and crude fashion.  The call for 'action man's chess'
comes on page two of the review for the video game Rune.