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Rich. I'm a fan of chess variants since I was a kid. The net just put me in contact with others... After all, I was that kid... '-The pawn mives this way... _Said who?! WHY NOT THIS WAY?! So, it wuoldn't be such a domb piece!' And began to try myself with pieces. Thats why I like variants. Hugs!
Claudio. So, you are into variants, because you want the rules to make more sense to you?
Of the 4 reasons given, I'd have to pick #3. I design because I enjoy making games. But the real reason is that I have to. The ideas force themselves out of my head, down my arm and through my fingers onto a piece of paper. I don't have all that much choice in the matter. Chess is a remarkably plastic medium in which to design. With a little imagination, you can do a lot with a handful of chess pieces. It's interesting that it's chess that spawns all these variants. Games like Monopoly have variants, but only a few, and the common variants, like money on Free Parking or selling hotels and houses back to the bank, are found wherever Monopoly is played. Ditto for most other games. If there are variants, they are few, and rather obvious. Chess has spawned thousands of variants, and dozens that have been played by a *very* large number of people. The only comparable board game phenomena has been the recent wargame boom [and bust]. And the obvious reason for all those wargames is all those wars, and their many, many battles. Chess encourages those with the [appropriate] imagination to create new games. This flexibility and the large numbers of variants for both gives yet another indication of the deep connection between chess and wargames. Their structure is special, if it encourages this.
Rich. I began this way, really, because I needed to see some pieces, like ferz and wazir, or a long range pawn... But, because of a storm, I was stranded in the library of my university, so, I took a enciclopedia book to read about the entry chess. I discovered a whole new world, and I loved it! I saw that I was not alone, others before me had the same idea, and reading about theirs pieces, I became a fan of the ballet of the pieces in the board. So, I started to design in my mind, and then, I've foud you guys!
6. Fictional variants. Variants, played in books, films, etc (like Star trek chess, Jetan and many others). Some are invented by authors of these books and films, some by thier fans (if chess variant was mentoided, but complete rules was not described).
Winther at the thread below called 'Future Chess', in espousing again Gustavian board, is signing on to Hutnik's number one here, which is to improve f.i.d.e chess. That was Capablanca's intention and then Fischer's. The second-ranking reason historically for CVs is not exactly covered yet, namely, contribution to recreational math. The latter is authored by Loyd and other problemists, Dudeney, Dawson and other variantists who did want to bother much with full CVs of their own, Gardner, Conway, Smullyan. Some like Gardner specialize in being editor for others' chess ideas.
Sometimes i think that i like reading and inventing new chess variants even more than playing them: i like unusual ideas of pieces and rules, but then i'm playing variants (even my favourite variants) i often gets bored... So, i'm inventing chess variants just because it's interesting, often (at least for me) more interesting than playing.
#3 and #4 describe why I create variants. Mastering Chess doesn't interest me as much as becoming good at Chess variants in general does, because it puts too much emphasis on memorization, whereas I want to focus more on analysis and thinking ahead. I enjoy the challenge of figuring out the strategy to a new game before my opponent does. I'm also very creative and like to play around with different ideas of what can be done with Chess.
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