Single Comment

Congratulations to CVP upon completing ten yrs. Carrying on Sam Trenholme's tradition, CVP's first post was Jetan probably 15.1.95, this week. CVP's first 5 yrs. tilted towards serious alterations of standard western Chess: Fischer Random, review of ancestral mainstays Chaturanga and Shatranj etc. However, countervailing trend, oblivious to the idea of perfectibility, was already apparent. For close-to-FIDE forms, 8x10 became the favourite board size. Piece mixes were often unchanged from 400-yr-old Carrera's, yet never was there discussion of Marshall's(Chancellor's) being inherently flawed piece, detracting from both R&N. Another missed opportunity was when Deep Blue beat Kasparov in 1997, but to this day orthodox world is also house divided about implications of computer dominance. The second 5 yrs. saw Ralph Betza defying the usual bell-shaped design trajectory in vanishing right upon completion of his 2-3 most prolific yrs. Since 2000 CVP games more often add bizarre rules hardly intended to be played, and blend Shogi-derived and Xiangqi-based pieces with western types, and thankfully(!?) no end in sight. So far nothing by Sam Loyd and very little T.R.Dawson or Martin Gardner, probably because David Pritchard in ECV overlooks them too. Almost all CVP-recognized games predate 1995, as do thousands of other curiosities not within its scope. Excluding those, the best form devised within CVP's domain during the ten yrs. 1995-2004? I vote Switching Chess and Rococo, appropriately one from each of the two schools, standard heterodox and free-form.