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Ten years ago this month went up 91.5 Trillion. Similar development could apply to any great CV: Great Shatranj, Mastodon, Eurasian, Schoolbook, Unicorn Great. That is, taking an original CV and multiplying the possible subvariants to billions and trillions by innocent changes rules and pieces.

Just using the first page of this article, let's get some of the 91 trillion from word association -- a new twist not tried before.

(1) Barack Obama Falcon Chess translates to 21313152131. The method is to lop the letters back to 1 to 5 sequence each time they reach five, so for example k equals 1(one) cyclically. The stoppage at five is because most of the first twelve rule numbers list five alternatives. One learns it makes better CV to have several 'A' that is '1', if possible, since that is the default, meaning no rule change the given category. In sum, Barack Obama Chess is common Falcon Chess on 9 deep 10 wide with fixed Castling, Rook as Betza's Short Rook up to 4, and Bishop as Bede (Bishop plus Dabbabah), and the rest of the pieces unchanged. However, RN10 as '3' makes this Progressive with White one move, then Black two, White three and so on.

(2) How about Aanca? That is 11431, and Aanca Falcon Chess is 8x10 Chess with Knight having added Wazir and Rook as Half-Duck. (No Aanca at all, think of it as 11431 only.)

(3) Arimaa Falcon Chess among these 91.5 trillion possibilities is 134311, and that is the regular game on 8x10 with Rook Half-Duck again and fixed Castling and Queen promotion (the standard when A/1 is designated is promotion to only rnbf).

(4) Syzygy? 412121, and that adds to standard Chess two things, Charging Rook having backwards as King and Bishop plus Wazir in place of the Bishops. All other rules the same.

Charles, you're absolutely right about chess outlasting us, but the *concept* of a 'next chess' is fascinating, precisely because it cannot/will not occur. Is there a game sufficiently close to FIDE that chessplayers will play it? FRC/960, bughouse, blitz, shogi, Xiang Qi, all these get played by serious chessplayers. Is there a game that we could add to those? More than one game? Note that what you've got for 'different' games are: chess; chess; chess; Japanese chess; Chinese chess. There is one noticeable trend here. The first 3 games are the same game. The next 2 pose hope that 'the next chess' won't be something like this: Set up all pieces except queens. The black player gets his choice of queen, chancellor[minister], or archbishop. White then picks one of the remaining two. I believe this would give black a slight edge in games won. It's practically chess, only 1 piece different, and allows a bit of handicapping, too. [Heh, my guess is Betza did this already.] But what else is there that is chess, but different? That's the question I'm playing with, Charles. The 'next chess' bit is just an extreme way of asking the question. 

A related question: what is the 'half-life' of a chess game? In other words, how long before half of the various forms of chess played in the world get a significant rules change, new piece, different board... ?

Joe, 
In Pick the Piece Big Chess, I started out with this premise. And taking it one step forward - Chess players will probably like a 'natural' start position, not one with the pieces in the middle of the board. 
Thus you have two empty slots in the wings after you fill in the holes with pawns. 

Further design considerations: Bigger board weakens the knights and the pawns. Stepping knights seem an interesting solution. 
Dropping extra pawns (stronger pawns) help with the pawns as well.  


Net result - similar to chess but still different.  

The lesson from 80 square chess variants applies - change one parameter and the game is radically different. 
The only possible 'next' chess is something like Fischer Random or perhaps just an alternate setup - something like Displacement Chess, and even these are doubtful - we are talking the next 100+ years or so. 

Trying to 'convert' chess players to this new variant reminds me of Communism -- it will only work under a dictatorship in the end ...LOL. 

I mean, come on, we will all be long dead before Chess 'dies' - lets not get too obsessed with the 'next' chess since there is a good chance that this next chess never happens!

For track 2, since it is for fun, and not for serious chess replacement games, I'd like to add another board size/shape, the 16x12, 16 squares wide, and 12 deep. At 176 squares, this is 3 standard boards in area. I've found that reducing the starting piece density [from FIDE's 50%] helps manageability and playability. A 33% density to start gives 32 pieces & pawns/side, noticeably easier to deal with than 50%'s 48 pieces/side. At this size, I also advocate multi-move turns to speed things up. This combination of larger board and several moves/turn allows a whole range of new games - just where they'd fit in the 91.5 trillion, I don't know. ;-) But it's a convenient size to try out new effects. And now, I bid you good night [and probably should have before I wrote this]. Enjoy.

For track 1, I lean toward the 10x10. Hadn't considered the 9x10 size; it could give some interesting games. Again, here I'd be inclined to put the pawns on the 3rd rank, and make them only 1-steppers. But then the pawns could not meet in the middle on turn 1. This alone may disqualify any such game from serious consideration. So we're left with 8x10 and 10x10, both of which can easily and naturally give 4 squares between pawn rows, maintaining a key aspect of western pawn formations, as well as the little wrinkles of the double first step and en passant. This should keep the orthodox players happy. 

For a serious first pass at 'the next chess', I strongly suggest grabbing an old idea, and dropping the standard 8x8 setup in the middle of a 10x10 board. By the way, understand I don't believe there is such a thing as the next chess, but the concept of a game sufficiently like chess to grab the attention, and playing time, of FIDE players is a truly excellent design challenge. Back to the 8x8 setup on the 10x10 board. Here we have the basic design of chess and Christian Freeling's Grand Chess. Now the important question becomes: what minimalist changes can we do to this setup to create a game that appeals to a wide range of chessplayers? 

Break the question into steps. Do we add 2 pawns to cover the front? What pieces might we slide back to the last row? Then maybe we might look at new pieces, as it doesn't feel right to increase the number of any particular piece, unlike with pawns, where adding 2 is not only natural but obvious. What sorts of piece[s]? Since there are no more simple infinite sliders, it's going to be either a complex infinite slider, or shortrange pieces. Here, my personal preference says shortrange.

We have made our serious whack at proliferation, and one legitimate CV, in combination, per atom within the inner Solar System has been no small task. Moreover, we are doing it with respect by not taxing people in over-length or every separate write-up per humble idea. They are all right here. This is purely organizational reference for upcoming Mutators, ours so far having been:  11> Immobilizer 12> Promoter 13> Triangular Transference 14> Warp Points 15> Cylindrical 16> Switching 17> Black Hole 18> Jack 19> Altair ranks 20> Selective Drop 21> Arrays 22> Capture & Drop 23> WandI 24> WandII 25> Selective Inverse Capture 26> Selective Immobilization 27> Philosopher's 28> Coordination 29> Hegemony 30> Reduction 31> Acid-Base 32> Strong Acid-Base; RN201> Fixed Pawns 202> Passed Pawns; RN301> Sizing; 203> Flying Dutchman 204> Relinquishment 205> Kick the Can 206> Pawn Islands 207> Hobbler 208> Blue Queen 209> Green Light 210> Hard-Boiled Eggs 211> Localization 212> Wolf & Shepherd 213> The Sea Is Rough 214> Hot Potato 215> British Bulldog 216> Sinkhole 217> Dual Capture 218> Mutual Annihilation 219> Northern Exposure[TM] 220> Northern Exposure(Pawns)  /// Intended Mutators are more Northern Exposures and ''Nuclear Particle Physics'' as ongoing theme.

Hey, let's also go with an 8x8 board, a 8x9 and an 8x10 board.  Shoot, you could also go all the way up to 8x14 or 8x16, giving the starting positions a larger back row space (as is seen in Skirmish Chess and Near Chess).  You could also push the pieces forward or back more.

The next challenge, get this up to be infinite.  You could also go with drops and gating that even add more pieces to it, and change when they come in, and create a reserve.  One could also go with the idea of mutators that enter the game at different times.

Did we even begin to discuss the board that it could be played on?  We could even vary the boards here.  So, he idea is mutators, shuffle, drops and gating, different pieces, etc... to end up with a different game.  

So, what else can be added to make it infinite?  I believe to have this, is that ONE element that is infinite get added to the mix.  This should be a practical element that can be implemented.

May I suggest people also take this discussion to the Chess of Tomorrow project Wiki discussion to discuss going infinite?  http://chessvariants.wikidot.com/forum/t-51667/chess-of-tomorrow-project-who-is-interested

This would fit under the Calvinball/Hericlitian Chess idea that it is possible for humanity, given endless time, to never play chess with the same rules twice.

RN219 Northern Exposure [after 'Northern Exposure *TM*, see Disclaimer] (a) no effect (b) Joel Fleischman is misfit M.D., transplant from Flushing and Columbia, so Bishops move is normal, except last step requires one final step orthogonal 45 degrees right or left, as in half of Rennaissance Chess Cavalier pattern. (c) Maggie O'Connor the flyer is Falcon, altered to jump one only at option along pattern, not capturing the one jumped. (d) Ed Chigliak is Pawn (see also 'n') and Native Pawns mimic at option the nearest same-side piece's method, provided no friendly Pawn as close or closer. (e) Knight Chris Stevens at options retracts last move and moves from either square-location as bona fide present move. (f) Maurice Minnifield astranaut-King may jettison any check by 'invoking authority', meaning any friendly Pawn, protected by Pawn, may upon any check, interpose to any square thwarting said Check, in lieu of other move. (g)  Holling Vincoeur Rook, being French, operates from a pedestal. Rook cannot reach adjacent squares, but starts at Dabbabah square and moves onward. Additionally no castling, but anytime once-per-game switch(exchange of places) of King and Rook, provided King unchecked, regardless other disposition of pieces or prior movements. (h) Shelly Tambo Queen Northern Lights goes as Queen only up to 4 squares, jumping one permitted, as Falcon in 'c', with no permitted capturing the (first) unit overtaken. (i) b,c,d,e,f,g,h (j) 'i' with 'f' any protected piece also (k) 'j' with 'h' 5 squares (l) 'j' with 'c' up to two (m) 'k','l' (n) 'i' except 'e' has right-side Pawns(Marilyn Whirlwind) empowered with all-orthogonal-direction capture (no diagonal at all) only (o) j,n (p) k,n.   Cumulative 2.64856  x 10^49 CVs crosswise allowing up to 32 Mutators activated.
[The above one-paragraph chess quasi-parody, and self-parody, in yet serious untheatrical exposition, respecting copyright of USA television series 1990-1995, intends no commercial use or other publication whatsoever.]