Single Comment

Double Chess. Two sets of pieces on 16 by 12 board. (16x12, Cells: 192) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Andy Thomas wrote on Sun, Jan 15, 2006 08:31 PM UTC:

if a pawn moves 4 on the first move, it yet has to move 6 more spaces to
promote. it gets worse for the pawn in this regard if it only moves 1, 2,
or 3 squares on that first move...

what i'm saying is that, on a board this size you need more mobility from
your pawns... or maybe move the promotion line up a couple or few ranks
from the back line...

when i'm designing a variant i look at how quickly and powerfully the
pawns can promote, and depending on the variant adjust it in terms of FIDE
chess... do i want a game which plays faster or slower wrt to
promotions?... 

in any event this variant seems to make the pawn less important,

and yes the knights on this board are much weaker than they are on an 8x8
board... on a larger board like this the leapers need to have more
range... but that's just my taste...

speaking of the rooks and bishops, i would imagine that the rook becomes
even more powerful than the bishop, because the bishop's maximum move is
11 (12-1) squares diagonally while the rook can theoretically move 15 (16
-1) squares horizontally... it seems to me that boards which aren't
entirely square like this favor rooks even more than bishops....

i think this game would play better on 16x8, but then the bishops become
even weaker in comparison with rooks...

but with 12 ranks, man that is a long ways to go for a promotion! gives it
an old-fashioned feel in that regard...