Comments by donald henry

i think the rules are pretty clear, layman and easily work without any modification and am surprised that so many people, who seem familiar with so many gaming dynamics (that i am ignorant of for the most part) are so thrown and have so many questions and misunderstandings about this profoundly simple and highly entertaining game.
 
read the appendix as written and enjoy a classic themed variant on jasoomian chess.
burroughs also explained the "historical" significance of orange and black pieces and  the moves of the odwar and princess are in no way complicated beyond their english written value. i think people are splitting hairs in the extreme.

read the appendix of chessmen of mars as a strict text and the game plays great-pieces move how many he says and no less-you DO need all twenty pieces to start the game-thoats cant jump-combination movement is not so complicated, three spaces orthogonally north, south, east, west, or any combination of directions on a checkered board these should be easily found.
please just try it stricly FROM the appendix and you will see the problem is people playing it like chess and not like jetan the two are as differing as earth and mars in actuality. play it by the book and write if you come upon a problem that cant be drawn back to gameplay/philosophical difficulties-you'll be pleasantly rewarded!:)

i rated low because of the inaccuracy of the article, the addition of a liberal interpretaion in the paper could confuse someone or inspire them to lazily never learn the game-read the chessmen of mars appendix-take it as 100% literal and then play-no jumping thoat-no thoats moving diagonally before orthogonally-odwars jump like fliers- warriors dont move diagonally-ignore game data from the book's innards when teaching the rules-burrough's intended the appendix to be the only authority on gameplay adding or subtracting nothing-kaor from bantoom homies!