Single Comment

Commoner is just middle age Courier Chess Man 700 years old. Any piece may be made royal for a change, not just Knights. If Bruce Zimov invented this in 1972 before anyone else, even if new at that time it is not a very original Mutator. Knightmate is about on the level of Betza's Avalanche Chess or Schmittberger's Extinction Chess both of the same general 1970s time period. All three are interesting enough to try once or twice though not very creative. CVPage has newer CVs making Queen royal within certain restrictions that take more creativity to dampen her power. In Fergus Duniho's Caissa Britannia, Queen is royal but cannot cross check [done earlier the same year 2003 by another designer...the other prior art will be inserted]. In Charles Gilman's Magna Carta, for example, one side has no King, and an allowable win condition would checkmate one of that side's Carrera compounds including loss of either one of the two as a mate; and Gilman has other CVs with types besides King royal. Peter Aronson makes Falcon royal in Horus, as does Joe Joyce in Falcon King Chess. Battle Chieftain gets its royal piece from among the Rooks. Jeremy Good makes King's Pawn royal in Royal Pawn Chess. Aronson also has royal Amazon in CV of that name. Granted, all the CVs mentioned from Caissa Brittania on follow Knightmate chronologically. Yet either Knightmate does not start a Cluster (the way for instance 1962 Ultima does), but rather Knightmate continues the existing Cluster of alternate win conditions, under way in likes of Losing Chess, Odds chesses, and Annihilation.