💡📝Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Jan 11, 2021 05:05 PM UTC:
On a seperate issue, I'm wondering if the game's design could have been improved, that is by switching the positions of the waffles for the knights in the setup.
I don't like that idea too much because it leaves two pawns unprotected per side in the setup, which goes against Fergus' guide to what makes for good CVs (a part I tend to agree with - although there are some noteworthy exceptions which are really big ones, namely shogi and Chinese Chess both leave multiple pawns unprotected in their setups).
In Waffle Chess as it already is, the cost of the above guiding policy is that the waffles and knights interfere with each other's development to the third rank, at the start of the game at any rate, though with the Fast Castling rules, a N usefully protects a Rook's Pawn if said N is not developed early on, and a K castles to that side of the board.
Castling is, as Fergus notes, a 'kludgy' rule, which solves a given CV's problem(s). Fast Castling might be seen as especially kludgy, but it can solve certain problems with the setups of any number of CV ideas.
On a seperate issue, I'm wondering if the game's design could have been improved, that is by switching the positions of the waffles for the knights in the setup.
I don't like that idea too much because it leaves two pawns unprotected per side in the setup, which goes against Fergus' guide to what makes for good CVs (a part I tend to agree with - although there are some noteworthy exceptions which are really big ones, namely shogi and Chinese Chess both leave multiple pawns unprotected in their setups).
In Waffle Chess as it already is, the cost of the above guiding policy is that the waffles and knights interfere with each other's development to the third rank, at the start of the game at any rate, though with the Fast Castling rules, a N usefully protects a Rook's Pawn if said N is not developed early on, and a K castles to that side of the board.
Castling is, as Fergus notes, a 'kludgy' rule, which solves a given CV's problem(s). Fast Castling might be seen as especially kludgy, but it can solve certain problems with the setups of any number of CV ideas.
https://www.chessvariants.com/opinions.dir/fergus/design.html