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Opulent Chess. A derivative of Grand Chess with additional jumping pieces (Lion and Wizard). (10x10, Cells: 100) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]A very good (Excellent?) variant of Grand Chess, rich in possibilities, excellent initial set-up and with a smooth game play. I have to test it a few times more, my first experience against Zillions was a very extense game of 140 moves. (Zillions plays it relatively well, but with some ingenuity in position of pieces. Nevertheless, it was a hard-to-win test game)
I have tested this game a few times, and I can say it is as good as Grand-Chess, although with a different taste. Yes, the game tendence is to moderately long games, with average of 100-120 moves to finish a good Opulent Chess game, but it does not demerit the game, the game play is very interesting, deep, rich and, yes, it is very strategic. I like it.
The NW piece is called a Grand Horse in Roberto Lavieri's ACHERNAR, a Brigadier in Glenn Overby's veSQuj, and a Mule in Lùotuoqí (Camel Chess). The royal pieces in Jason D. Wittman's Mad Chess move like NF (White) and NW (Black).
[EDIT 2023] Mentioned way back in 2001 by Jeff "Cavebear" Stroud (ABC Chess). Charles Daniel uses this piece in Herculean Chess (2008) and Hadean Chess (2010).
From playing this on ChessV, I have a few thoughts on strategies. Firstly, 2 orthogonally adjacent Knights are excellent fortresses, and when combined with 1-2 Lions they can easily hide compound pieces to be brought out later for late game scenarios, where said compound will work well (especially Queens and Cardinals). Another is that despite speed of getting around the board Wizards are weak, probably the weakest non-pawn piece, since they only have 3 (Ralph Betza ) half-knights, they are quite bad at creating mini-fortresses, and unlike Lions and Knights they are colourbound. Opening, perhaps after e/f pawn advances, with Wizard to their c/h square is a good idea since it frees a Rook, develops your Wizard, blocks opposing Wizards and protects the opposite central pawn. Also, apparently developing minor pieces first is a good idea. As often said, sliders are considerably more powerful on larger boards, but Knights seem as strong as / stronger than Bishops in this game. on another note, funny notation for Wizard is LF, not CF. Funny Notation Camels are L (weirdly, since there isn't a capital C)
Some pretty strong and interesting pieces in this variant, which helps on its large board.
edit: Here's 2 large CVs that also use wizards:
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