Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Why having more knights give them more power? I can think at a single such effect given by the fact they can defend each other, which gives peculiar structures. In your game in a very tiny way bishops on the same colour have such an effect.

The king's rule seems arbitrary to me. Why not end the game when any king is taken, or when one is taken and the other is checkmated? What does your way bring to the table?

I believe that the main pushback against new chess variants are the exotic pieces with exotic and confusing moves

Not that you're necessarily wrong about that in general, but in my case that's actually an attraction! ;)

Yes, Bob! But we are ultra nerds!

Interesting variant with innovative promotion rules.

The rules are inclomplete with respect to double check and pincers on both Kings, it should be specified what happens than. Technically, the fake King is in check but not necessarily checkmated in such a situation.

The rare case of double checkmate should also have a special mention in the rules: Is this the end of the game with a win for the checkmating party, or will the game continue with the fake King demoted to a pawn and the checkmating piece being removed?

Interesting variant with innovative promotion rules.

They might be innovative, but it seems to me they are also pretty useless. I cannot conceive any situation where you would decide to take the Pawns. At best it would delay your win, because you would have to promote the new Pawns all over again.

If you promote in an approximately equal situation, promotion to a piece would give you an immediate advantage, which you can use to force checkmate, or gobble up enemy Pawns. If you are behind in pieces Pawns are just a liability, to be annihilated by the opponent's superior piece power. Promoting to a piece to restore the balance would at least allow you to hold on to the Pawns you already have.

If you watched some historical battles you should know that sometimes the centre needs to be reinforced with fresh troupes. That was the idea behind the new promotion rules. It's better to leave to the players more options and let them decide whether a rule is useless or not.

The likelihood of a double checkmate is so slim that we shouldn't worry about it. But if it still happens we have the above rule that removes from the board the piece checkmating the Fake King. That would solve the problem. But we can still add a new rule forbidding double checkmate.

Well, I am a player, and I decided it is useless. And a variant with useless rules counts as 'poorly designed'. Also, a variant that fails to unambiguously define (in the article, not in the comments!) the rules for situations that only have a slim chance to occur counts as 'poorly described'.

Vague analogies to historical battles are not convincing. Show us a plausible position where choosing Pawns would be preferable over choosing a piece.

I am finally happy about this game and I think it is ready for publishing. I have changed the 12x12 chessboard into an 11x11 chessboard. Now, I hope, it makes more sense. Please let me know if there is anything else to consider.

Sorry guys, but I had to change the name for this chess variant. I hope the new name makes more sense.

The biggest problem with new chess variants is that, by adding new powerful pieces would significantly decrease the pawns' and knights' power.

The above is a rather dubious claim; in fact the value of a Knight increases by the presence of powerful pieces, as that means there are lots of forking opportunities that can result in decisive gain of material. To the point where (on 8x8) seven Knights easily beat three Queens.

After changing the name of this game I have realised that the index information won't change. Does anybody know how to fix it?

You're not the first to have this trouble. The only solution right now is to create a new submission under the new name and delete the old one (in that order, if you can).

(BTW I really like the new name. I find it oddly intriguing.)

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, since I never published anything on this site they won't allow me this luxury.

This game is ready for publishing. There is nothing else that needs to be added.