Rated Comments

Jumping Chess originates the edge squares that Rococo uses two years later. Bishop captures like International Draughts diagonally and Rook like Turkish/Israeli draughts orthogonally. Except no plural captures, and in JC the line pieces slide any distance beforehand. But no displacement capture at all here. Jumping concepts are bandied about in 'ECV' a few times, but credit this improvement for the rim accessible only capturing.

JC may create too many defensive positions for most aesthetics.

JC year-2000 date of invention harkens to V. R. Parton's booklet 'My Games for 2000 a.d. and After' published 1972. There the CV "2000 AD" sources pieces for 30 years later great Rococo. Firsthand, Rococo is basically a derivative Ultima (1962).

( Contrariwise, Robert Abbott himself weighed in early Rococo comment that no need for border squares, just get rid of them. ) See next how Rococo draws on both Abbott and Parton. 20th century the chief variantists were Boyer, Parton, Betza and Dawson, but Dawson didn't bother with designing actual CVs.

The Rococo pieces straight out of Abbott's Ultima are Withdrawer, Immobilizer, Long Leaper, Chameleon. And the Rococo pieces straight out of 2000 A. D. are Ximaera and Swapper. Ximaera gets re-named Advancer. Finally, Rococo takes its own inventor's border squares from JC and adds that great novelty Cannon Pawn.

Perimeter-squared JC has little play, but Rococo, when adding its subvariants Push-Pull and Mirror, has the same number 10 rank approximately of near-form Ultima at Game Courier. And several ahead of them are a standard Chess form around hundred(s) years. Or combine play numbers of Ultima and Rococo and they are number 3. So arguably derived-form Rococo is a topmost world-class CV. Thanks to contribution of porous out-migration squares from selfsame JC.

My rating is specific to the Davidson Variation of Chaturanga.

If Davidson was correct (about Kings being able to move into check and to be captured), this would make an interesting alternative evolution story from Chaturanga to Shatranj, which makes a nicer transition story from Chaturanga to Shatranj to Chess.

Chaturanga - Davidson Variation (Rule Enforcing) Presets:

• Original ashtapada Indian board.
• Alternate uncheckered plain Persian board (without ashtapada markings).

@Dr Muller: You had mentioned that you had analyzed the D document of historic chu shogi problems in MSM, had reserved the results of your analysis, and had concluded that 18 were proven flawed.  I wonder if you had reached a conclusion about the 18 like one that Mr Hodges proposed about the D document generally, that necessary pieces possibly had been omitted or erroneous pieces introduced into the diagram to act as a security device against plagiarism.  I read your suggested corrections to problems in the other 3 collections; I do not ask you to divulge more than you want about D, only to ask if your research suggested that the flawed problems might be fixed by the removal, change, or addition of pieces to the diagram.  Kind regards!

Another cool idea i like this comments in this post

there is another very interesting in

[spam link removed]

and in addition he offers a very good chess guide...

(The first couple of remarks below reference Fergus's old comment here.)

The errors are indeed quite troubling.  Perhaps you can reach out to John Beasley; he has a list of errata/omissions included as "Toward ECV3" on his site.

As for brevity, I've found many of the game descriptions lacking; I suspect that was mostly to keep the overall length short.  (I'll also note, though I don't think this applies to any of your games, that some games seem to be included light-heartedly, and incomplete descriptions of these do not bother me.)

Evidently, Beasley cut out some examples of play from the first edition, assuming the reader would already own the first edition (not true of me, nor I suspect of most readers who have access only to the freely shared version now on Beasley's website), which would be nicer to have.

But overall, I find the CECV to be an excellent resource.  Pritchard (and occasionally Beasley) go into detail on games he (they) find particularly interesting, and list references for most of the games (though many of those have since become difficult to obtain).  Many games appear in both CVP and CECV, while many reside only in one or the other; but I doubt many "serious" variants lie in neither.

J. C. Hallman in 2004 'The Chess Artist' interviews Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at his multi-million Chess City, Kalmykia.  Then the f.i.d.e. President says to the effect:  whatever happens, or even thought of, in the mundane "real world," Chess has already been there, having visited every eventuality.   So this Orwell '1984'  by Overby.

As in '1984', three  players Eurasia, East Asia. and Oceania.  Everyone reviewing loved it except Charles Gilman.  Maybe he is right one or two of the 7 piece-types could be tweaked.  But this is perfectly symmetrical solution to three-player CV.  

Three teams ebb and flow constrained from unfair alliance by cylindrical downwards and up, and by Shifting Alliances rule, and by Perpetual Powers rule.  Variant pieces go back to year 1283 in Gryphon.  King may move into check because the dice may free him.  The '3x1's give where the Berolina pawns promote, and the seventh piece is promotee royal Maharajah.  

This is very similar to a game that I have conceptualized, but never published. My own game starts with the usual 8x8 square board and the pieces arranged as usual, with all the usual rules of play, except that in lieu of moving a piece, either player may move an unoccupied square. A square may only be removed from the edge of the board (an edge cell being one with less than four orthogonally adjacent cells) and placed orthogonally adjacent to another cell.

I have a (general) rule of not publishing things here until I have programmed them for Zillions. I'm a mediocre programmer at the best of times, and when it comes to creating cells that may be moved by either player, I'm stuck. I've worked out how to make cells that only one player can move, but making them neutral and moveable for both sides is something I've had no success with. 

I've thought of a similar game based on moveable hexagons.

Anyway, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one to have thought of a game with a "dynamic" board.

How to compute piece values here?  It's pointless to bother.  Regulator move one forward or backward is determined by play on the small board of 35 squares.  Too bad no one has experimented with the Regulator band on 8x8 with 7-square streak to the side for neat 71 square Chess Variant, a first for the size.

84-square Fourriere's Jacks and Witches lessens Bishop value to Knight by the 16-square hole in the center -- more detrimental to the Bishop now worth 2.5.   Any different board size must affect piece values somewhat.  A Fischer Random Chess array NBKRRQBN should benefit Rook to relative downgrading of Knight, maybe 5.3-2.7.  But adherents to FRC have not gotten that far yet.  So the starting line-up alone affects piece-values.  Also do the Rules in and of themselves, such as obvious thing like Bishop one-time Wazir step conversion in some CVs. 

Take the simple Regulator embodiment here.  Level 6 of regulator makes Knight into Marshall, and Level 3 makes Bishop into Cardinal.  If the board were 8x8, it's not definite which in a given game benefits more, Bishop or Knight,  because there are going to be enough move- and capture-triggers to jockey the calibration up towards level 7 tactically pretty easily, and keep it there.  Over the long haul however, Bishop value is going to show relative increase, on any rectangle 35 to 100.  That is because of its compound to BN being in effect 5/7 of the time and the other to NR only 2/7 the time.

Next, there is room for subvariants, that either side can alter the calibration, let's say forward by agreed-on even number of steps across 7 and back to 1 and onward, in lieu of a move. That can include in the Regulator Band not just moving the Regulator but either of the two trigger levels the same way, as not overcomplicated move addition.

Fifteen years til the first comment and rating now.

Sava made New-Chess by 1973, in time for the second edition of Gollon's book.  There are Marshall RN (but not Cardinal BN), Amazon RBN and Gnu N-Camel.  Then Betza and Cohen came up with Tutti-Frutti in 1978 with the 'Capablanca two' and Amazon again, this time on 8x8.  So it appears Betza and Cohen got some inspiration from then recent New-Chess and thought it important to put their similar piece mix on little 8x8. New CVs were fewer and further between those decades. In fact, Betza always designed 1970s through 2003 on 8x8 with two exceptions.  His 'Outrigger' article adds files to get 8x10, and Chess on Really Big Board has four 8x8 boards for 256 squares.*

No allowing in New-Chess for Pawn three-step, but it has perfect implementation of modern free castling with the King moving over 2 or more but not past Rook.  Gollon's book has a few dozen CVs exhibited, nothing like the couple thousand of Pritchard 'ECV'  twenty years later.

Aronson calls Complete Permutation Chess more flamboyant 'Tutti-Uti-Frutti Chess' in that one's text, and if I had noticed the above sequence more carefully I would have approved TUF over bland CPC. Complete Permutation adheres to idea of using each possible bi-compound once -- originating in Betza & Cohen.

*Betza's Chessopoly and Race Chess are 64-square 4 x 16.

The Panther is a very interesting piece. It has similar characteristics like the knight. After two moves it covers a similar distance like the knight. The leaps ar (1,1), (0,2), (1,3), (0,4) and (3,3). The only difference is that the night can't go (0,6) so the operating range of the Panthter should be slightly better.

Chris

Still two things: "The King may not move back over the river; however, he still delivers check backwards." When the black king is on f4, the white king can't move to f5 giving the king on f4 check (it would move into check itself). I think you mean that when there is a black king on f4, the white king can't move to f5 or e5.

On e1 and d8 must be generals in the starting position, musn't they?

Parton made Neutral King in 1953, where player has own orthodox pieces but the King is co-owned and

yet has to be checkmated.  Simple and elegant.  Most of Gilman's CVs are hurt by overcomplications in

piece-moves, odd board sizes, too many special rules, or attempt hybridizing Eastern chesses with forced

templates.  Once in a while he strikes paydirt such as AltOrthHex idea of splitting up the hexagonal Rook

into two, though nobody has really done anything with that either.  

Neutral Subject realizes that Parton's Mutator has wider applicability. Here player only has King and Queen to begin.  Neutral pieces get moved and then assigned to one side or the other.  The criterion to assign is applied at end of each turn according to hypothetical attack of each 'Neutral' on any piece already assigned.  Who wouldn't want more pieces rather than fewer? Many other CVs could be made in this genre of the pieces on board not belonging to either army initially.  

Charles' novel CV invention, expanding on Parton, gets somewhat awkward explanation in his essay. Like Aronson and Howe with Rococo, great idea is not followed up with clear summary fully disambiguating.

Still in all, there could be other ways to set up the bazaar of recruitment to build the forces in subvariants and new CVs this type of possible breakthrough Mutator.

This is a straightforward CV by Gilman.  To suit the constricted board, he decides to use Shogi promotees for Bishop and Rook, adding Wazir and Ferz respectively.  Pawns are Centennial-acclaimed Quadra-pawns.  Some restriction on Knight at inside corners.  That's it.  Should be playable enough short games.  

But the piece in right corner needs correction to King.

Hi Silvia! Thank you for introducing us to this exotic blend, which is one of the best I've seen. I've seen a few east-west hybrids before, and even tried inventing a couple of them myself, which I never published here because I didn't like them very much — they seemed to be neither fish nor fowl. But yours blends them in a way that doesn't seem forced or stretched, and I really like that!

I'm delighted to see a variant based on triangular cells, rather than squares or hexagons. Not that there's anything wrong with squares and hexagons, but that triangles are under-explored and under-exploited. Christian Freeling and Graeme Neatham invented several trigonal chess games, and I contributed a couple of my own (Rotorblades Chess and Rotorblades Fusion Chess). And of course there's Klinzha. But for the most part, inventors seem to give triangular boards a miss. 

I see that Chessagon tries to be as faithful as possible to traditional chess. That's one "pole" of the chess variant universe; the other "pole" is games like Arimaa, which barely qualify as chess variants. My own taste is for something in the middle —I like games that extrapolate the moves of the traditional pieces to the new geometry, but also introduce pieces that take advantage of the new geometry in a way that the familiar pieces cannot. The only piece of this nature to do so in Chessagon is the Duke, and I think there is room for more unusual pieces that would create interesting possibilities for play. 

Thanks everyone! It was very interesting. The games which was most interesting to me are Chinese Chess (wonderful endgame), Eurasian Chess, Courier Chess and Wildebeest Chess. Special thanks to my opponents in it.

I like this concept. Pieces can suddenly "come out" as something else. I suppose this could be called a variant of chess with incomplete information — as the "true identity" of each player's pieces is known to the respective players, but not to their opponents. At the same time, cloaking forces the player to decide in advance which piece will morph into what, preventing arbitrariness. 

This game has everything I love in a boardgame:  simple rules, interesting play, a fun theme, and unusual mechanics.   The stone throwing reminds me a bit of Amazons, but using the stones as roads is completely new to me.  There's a choice at every turn whether to try to build your own road, or destroy your opponent's road.  

There's also a bit of a hint of hnefatafl with the two goals of surrounding and immoblizing the other piece, and reaching the far side of the board.

I followed the link in the article and read about the history of the Moais, how the inhabitants descended into warfare as the island was deforested, and how they destroyed the Moais of other inhabitants as part of that warfare, which adds a darker tone to the theme.  

What a fascinating and unusual game.  I really love this one.  I wish it were more widely known.  
Would the designers mind if I listed it on boardgamegeek, with a link back to this page?  

This puzzle was quite fun to solve. I think I took way too much time to solve this. Can you send me the graphics you use for all of the Ultima pieces (including the ones not on this board)?

You have to love such a big board variant that doubles-down (and then some) on the FIDE armies' piece types.

There are reams more nightriders mostly unutilized than the ordinary hack one developed by Dawson a century ago. So far they remain in problems and thought experiments.  Classic essay here proposes Straight Wide Crooked, Diagonal Narrow Crooked, Diagonal Wide Crooked, and Straight Narrow Crooked.  Best of all, the essential nightrider Quintessence.  Each one makes better more interesting play than Betzan-tagged 'NN'.  Play of that ordinary Dawson nightrider is inferior because it just duplicates successive Knight moves same direction.  It is no more interesting than "limited" pieces like an up-to-three-step Bishop or Chess Different Armies Short Rook.

Quintessence itself gets play in odd-shaped 84-square Quintessential Chess, adding also  Leeloo compound R + Quintessence.  

Quinquereme takes it up to 12x12 with the same Quintessence.  Each of the various nightriders in combinations, one and two of each together with some of the other 6 or 8 piece-types in the set, on different board sizes can create thousands, well millions easily, of individualized CVs.  Worth exploring in the abstract are the standard boards 9x9, 9x10, 10x10, 10x12, 12x12, 10x16.  All the large sizes should have a variant nightrider species for improved implementations. Even rudimentary Dawson NN of such wide appearance is superior to also-overused Carreran BN and RN, four hundred years beat to death.

Nice variant, though I fear on average a well played game may be lengthy. Creating a hexagonal shatranj variant was going to be on my fairy chess bucket list, as I thought I might be filling a void one day, but once I saw this game I realized that there was no such void to fill.

Interesting concept. I'm wondering if, in at least some variants with nightriders replacing rooks in their setup, allowing a king to castle with a nightrider in some fashion might prove feasible. I assume such a rule is not being used with any of the variants offered by this preset.

This looks like an interesting variant that deserves to be played more on Game Courier. I'm not sure I completely like that in the setup each player has two horsemen on the rook's files that take a move longer to promote minimum than the other horsemen, nor am I sure I completely like the king-to-the-last-rank wins extra victory condition added to the variant, but perhaps it's all a matter of taste.

I've recently had the pleasure of playing a full correspondence game of Sovereign Chess, so I'm now ready to review.  The overall concept is excellent, and I know through conversations that the creator put much thought into all the principles of good game design.

Despite my five star rating I do need to mention a few criticisms, though they are minor - and a person could probably adjust the rules in their own house games anyway:

- I'm not sure if the colored square setup is ideal for creating a lot of different opening sequences, though I could be proven wrong in time.  Although I made a mistake in my game, I do feel that my original idea of occupying red as White was pretty strong and difficult to fight against (for whomever goes 2nd).  The pie rule was implemented to control this, but not sure how well that would pan out in practice.

- The board is 16 x 16, so it can definitely get a bid tedius to use pawns or knights in a genuinely effective way - except for defense.

- The rules about coup d'etat and pawn promotion regime change don't do much for me- and the less rules the better in my opinion.

Having said all that, Sovereign Chess has a lot of well-crafted rules.  The creator made sure that only one piece can control a color at a time, to make things easier to grasp and also prevent stagnant/stalemated positions.  Sliding pieces cannot go too far and gives knights a chance to thrive - or at least control the center.  The varient seems to have a lot of candidate moves at any given stage.  One could abandon their color, could try capturing the controlling piece, or simply attack the controlled pieces as needed.  Defection is a good "regime change" rule, where one decides to abadon his/her controlled pieces in favor of a better army color.  It's a lot of fun to determine the actual VALUE of certain pieces and colors, especially when trading.  An interesting tactic I found was actually abandoning a color to "neutralize it" and create an uncapturable wall around the king as needed.

Overall, I have to say that I'd play it online a lot if available.

Even if you might never play this particular variant, you have to love such a gargantuan effort and game. Will we ever see a rules-enforcing preset version of it on Game Courier? ;)

Even if you might never play this particular variant, you have to love such a gargantuan effort and game. Will we ever see a rules-enforcing preset version of it on Game Courier? ;)

A seminal variant that perhaps deserves to be part of a seperate category (e.g. 'Ultima-style Variants') on a CVP menu somewhere.

I like attempts to extend notable chess variants onto hexagonal boards.

Another cool concept for a variant from Fergus.

A lovely use of the otherwise powerful jumping pieces included, by having them on a rather long board.

I like the Civil War basic version variant of this series. Though classed more as a wargame, I can see the outlines of a chess-like strategy at play during a game.

The voidrider is a really cool concept for a piece!

Nice powerful pieces added, on a large board. What's not to love?

You just have to love those Unicorns!

Fergus has continued on the sort of theme I think is good stuff!

An interesting game that reminds me a bit of Amazons, perhaps even more complex.

Kind of an interesting variant, with the additional piece type and odd board shape.

If you're into quirky variants, you'll love this one. Just get a load of the ship piece type, for instance.

I like that there are two Sissa pieces per side, reducing the chance there'll be zero of them left not long after the game starts, before an interesting struggle involving one or more of them can really begin.

This is a great extension of the Smess idea!

An interesting regional variant with some rules about checking the king that make winning a bit more challenging at times.

A lovely use of cannons and modern elephants, on a 10x10 board. I'd note that since defending each side's edge pawns can be an issue at times (as can be the development of either elephant), that alone seems to slightly inhibit the players from emulating many standard chess openings beyond a certain depth, but this is apparently very common for chess variants.

I'd tentatively estimate the piece values (on this game's 10x10 board) as follows: P=1; E=2.75; C=2.75(but 3.5 before endgame); N=3; B=3.5; R=5.5; Q=10; K's fighting value=2.5.

Here's 2 large CVs that also use cannons in the corners:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/soho-chess

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/wide-soho-chess

Interesting variant that stars the secutor piece type, and the Gustavian board (i.e. extra corner squares). Seems to deserve to be played more often on Game Courier. I'd estimate the Secutor to be worth about a Chinese Cannon - so about half a chess rook, or 5.5/2=2.75.

Interesting large board variant, with a number of classic fairy piece types.

A cool variant that may take some time to be at ease with, but it looks worth it.

A massive variant with lots of strong pieces. Maybe not as easy to play as any number of large board variants, but it leaves an impression when you first see it.

A really cool looking variant. I'm rather surprised it's been so little played on Game Courier thus far.

I generally like variants that have themes of some sort. This one also is a 12x12 variant, with a lot of pieces, that still seems quite playable.

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:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/soho-chess

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/wide-soho-chess

A fine 10x10 Shatranj style variant to add to the others on CVP.

Interesting extra pieces and pawn movement rules here.

Interesting use of the BN piece type combo in a variant.

A cool variant with the sort of themes Fergus has used in several of his variants.

I wish I still had the old 3D set I had long ago that would have allowed me to play this variant over-the-board. Before my old set broke when packing it, I had no rules for playing it!

This cool variant plays well once one gets used to it.

A variant that well serves the inventor's aim of a western chess style version of Chu Shogi.

It's surprising how much action can be squeezed in on such a small board variant.

Some cool Shatranj style pieces here, on the classic 8x8 board.

This 2 piece type variant seems rather simple, deceptively so, and yet there is so much room for strategy and tactics.

Another cool concept by Fergus, this time in the field of shogi variants.

I like that the pieces, including the Januses, can hope to usually develop smoothly in this variant, nice for a 10x8 board.

There's a reason this regional game has lasted for so long. Perhaps it's even a Classic by CVP standards.

This variant is almost guaranteed to produce a hard struggle. Those bodyguard pieces are tough to work around!

This game is really sweet for a quite large (12x12) variant, and as advertised it has a small learning curve. Lots of fun!

A historic and very playable variant. What's not to love?

This variant is clearly one of the more original chess variants, and which has been around for quite a while.

This game plays especially well with its 3-mover variant rules.

Another nice Shatranj variant from Joe, this time on 10x8.

I'd tentatively estimate the piece values as P=1; N=3.38(=3.5 approx.); E=Y=2.695(=2.75 approx.); Guard(approx.=K's fighting value)=3.2; HP=MI=7.075(=7 approx.); R=5.5.

Shatranj meets a 10x10 board in style!

Here's a 10x10 Shatranj-style variant with 4 Kings per side:

4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj

A fine variation on the idea of Grand Chess.

An interesting concept for a variant! On a Canadian chess message board a long time ago, someone asked if there could possibly be a variant with quite a number of impassable squares here and there in the middle of the board, and I assumed the idea infeasible, not imagining that a player might be able to move said obstacles around!

An interesting concept to extend Alice Chess' idea. I'm inclined to think (but lack the mathematical skill to prove) that the connection between the three boards is a 4D one in disguise - bishops, if they were present, can travel paths one board at a time back onto their original starting board, arriving there on square(s) (e.g. their exact start point) that they wouldn't be able to reach if the variant was truly 3D (like Raumschach is).

In interesting variant that has a board geometry somewhat like that of Circular Chess.

A great historic variant. Games may last a large number of moves, but the slow pace may prove heavenly for some players.

A big board game where the inventor doubles-down on the 6 chess piece types, but the fast pawns rule adds an interesting twist to speed things up a bit.

Though this variant may never be as popular as its close cousin (and better known variant) Crazyhouse, it is equally excellent on its own merits.

You've just got to love a variant that's really big, even if you don't want to play it much. Now that there's a rules-enforcing preset courtesy of Nick, the chance of playing game(s) of it went up for me.

You've just got to love a variant that's really big, even if you don't want to play it much. Now that there's a rules-enforcing preset courtesy of Nick, the chance of playing game(s) of it went up for me.

A poorish game by modern standards, especially due to the alfil pieces, but modern chess is indebted to this historic early version of it.

Here's a 10x10 Shatranj-style variant with 4 Kings per side:

4 Kings Quasi-Shatranj

A poorish game by modern standards, especially due to the alfil pieces, but modern chess is indebted to this historic early version of it.

This looks like a really interesting game. The movement rules certainly speed up play on a large board.

Several interesting piece types in this game. Can well-played games of it be reasonably short on average? Time will tell, but I suspect most such games won't go past 100 full moves, good for such a large board.

A fresh idea for a variant that at first made me wonder if the game was truly playable. The answer is a resounding yes!

A cool idea for a variant. It takes some time to discover various strategies that can be employed by the players with the stated rules.

[edit: My tentative estimates for the piece values are as follows: Capturing pieces: P=2; B=3; N=3.5; R=4 and Q=6 (same values as I gave for in Crazyhouse); Non-capturing pieces: P=1.25; B=1.5; N=1.75; R=2 and Q=3 (computed using x0.5 penalty for non-capturing movements - note a pawn is thus slightly less affected in its value decrease).]

This game kind of reminds me of the even more non-violent principle that inspired Fergus Duniho's Clockwork Orange Chess.

The apothecary games may have a somewhat steep learning curve, but it seems it's well worth the trouble, based on my limited experience.

The apothecary games may have a somewhat steep learning curve, but it seems it's well worth the trouble, based on my limited experience.

This seems like a great game, where the action might normally develop slower than in Cavalier Chess, but it's worth it.

Here's another variant that includes Nightriders on a large board:

https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/wide-nightrider-chess

Interesting game. In my limited experience with it the knightriders seem rather dangerous pieces. I'm not sure I like the detailed promotion rules, but maybe it's a matter of taste.

Here's an experimental 10x8 CV that uses unusual type of 'pawns' also:

https://www.chessvariants.com/play/compound-chess

Another cool idea by Fergus.

Cool concept!

This game reminds me of an old chessboard puzzle involving the placing of a number of queens, to solve a certain task, but of course Amazons is something even more complex, in that it is a full-fledged game. It also seems almost simple at first sight, deceptively so.

Higher dimensional chess variants are often noble experiments that never seem destined to gain much popularity. On its own merits this 3D one looks noble enough, in attempting to tame the chance of the players facing a large number of candidate moves at each stage of a game, in regard to their calculations. Is a 4D version of Shatranj in the works, or out there somwhere? That might be nifty to see, too. [edit: I'd forgot about the 4D Shatranj-like variant Chess on Two Boards by the same inventor, though it's stated on that game's page that it is a 'broken' game.]

This is a cool game to play, though I myself had some slight difficulty with possible ambiguity to the wording of certain rules, as put forward on this page. One case I solved by looking at an earlier comment about this page that George made, in reply to someone's question about a rule. Other than that, the different colouring scheme of various ranks, and the purpose to that, is one nifty aspect of this game.

This hexagonal variant looks intriguing, and I'm a bit surprised that so far it has received no tests on Game Courier (presumably it did by now on ZoG). The pattern of the board (vertical hex alignment, rather than horizontal) and the peculiar way the pawns move might prove a refreshing change from McCooey's or Glinski's variants. My biggest concern is that a well played game might take a relatively large of moves on average.

edit: when in doubt, see this page's Grand Hexachess link for a different wording of rules that are clearly meant to be the same.

Just a small update on the post by Jaymes. Taking the picture shown in the article for the starting position, the left hand side is the Queens side and the right hand side is the Kings side. The Kings and Queens should be on the movable levels next to the Rooks (or Castles). The back rank on the top and bottom levels should have the Knights at each side with the two Bishops on the centre ranks. At least, this is the setup shown in the pamphlet I got with my official Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Set almost 30 years ago.

I nominate Eurasian Chess as a Recognized Variant of the Acclaimed category.

I begin my review with a quote from the game's CVP webpage:

"[The inventor] conceived of the game as a synthesis of European and Asian forms of Chess, predominantly FIDE Chess and Chinese Chess. But [the inventor] also incorporated elements from Grand Chess, another popular variant from Europe..."

I find this synthesis of other games and their elements to have produced a refreshing result. The cannon and vao pieces, along with the rules governing the kings and pawn promotions, can affect a game's tactics and strategy in interesting ways.