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Ajax Chess deals with the 'lack of variety' issue of Ultra Chess.
While all pieces in Ajax Chess (except for pawns) can play 1-square in any direction, minor pieces can not capture on their adopted 1-square moves (i.e. Rooks can't capture on their diagonal move, Bishops can't capture on their orthogonal moves and Knights are not allowed to capture on their one-square moves).
When I was experimenting with the movement of my Ajax-Pieces I found the same lack of variety that David Paulowich refered to in Ultra Chess, and decided to correct that feature by not allowing the minor pieces to capture with their adopted moves.
While all pieces in Ajax Chess (except for pawns) can play 1-square in any direction, minor pieces can not capture on their adopted 1-square moves (i.e. Rooks can't capture on their diagonal move, Bishops can't capture on their orthogonal moves and Knights are not allowed to capture on their one-square moves).
When I was experimenting with the movement of my Ajax-Pieces I found the same lack of variety that David Paulowich refered to in Ultra Chess, and decided to correct that feature by not allowing the minor pieces to capture with their adopted moves.
Not to be confused with Ultrachess (9x8, Cells: 72). This chess variant gives the Rook, Knight and Bishop the ability to move to all adjacent squares. With two Queens and one Consort (Commoner), the moves of the pieces lack variety.
To be frank, I think this variant is good in terms of gameplay (although the fact that all the pieces can do the 'king move' may make the gameplay a bit too uniform when the position is closed and many pieces are adjacent to each other), but I don't like the idea of having the 'Consort' piece on the board. If you really wanted to import the 'Asian idea' of warfare into the game, you should have renamed the 'Consort' piece as the 'Guard' or 'Advisor' as in Xiangqi. Having a 'Consort' on a battlefield to act as a bodyguard is very strange according to the eastern perspective. Maybe it is just me, but the idea of having the King's female partner to protect him at close range on a battlefield just does not seem right. Ok, maybe this is an eastern view (or even just my personal view), but having a female partner to act as a bodyguard just seems too dishonourable for my taste. If I were the king, I would probably be ashamed into resignation on the first move of the game. At least in International Chess the Queen's primary purpose is not to protect the King but to attack the opponent and checkmate the other King. Sorry if the comment seems somewhat irrelevant.
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