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George Duke wrote on Tue, Dec 15, 2009 06:12 PM UTC:
Score: {Mastodon = Centennial} > Eurasian > Templar > Modern. The one tie so far will be sorted later. J.W. Brown's articulate introduction begins, ''The Centennial Chess board has 100 squares -- one for each year of our now departing century. Such 10x10 games, often called decimal chess, have been the holy grail of game designers for years. Many scholars felt that the move to a 10x10 board would be the next logical step in the chess' continuing evolution.'' We agree, except 9x9 and 8x10 are also still plausible and much in the running. Centennial's innovations are the Quadra-Pawn and the Murray Lion for 10x10. The Spearman, weaker than Quadra-Pawn, makes Centennial verge on being novelty CV instead of full-fledged Next Chess. Simple. We get rid of the Spearmen and add two more Quadra-Pawns. By conventional accepted standards of mutual regard, Centennial Chess with 4 Quadra-Pawns rather than 2, and no Spearmen is still Brown's invention slightly modified -- with of course all the ramifications for play and wider appeal. Now Camel, Quadra-Pawn, and Murray Lion are arguably fundamental. Quadra-Pawn and Lion are of comparable value. The genius of Centennial is that behind those strong non-conventional Pawns, Lion does not at all seem lost in the shuffle -- the effect which 10x10 often superinduces on preferred moderate piece-types. Without the revision eliminating Spearman, Mastodon has clear edge, should we hear from Brown or agent... {Mastodon = Centennial} > Eurasian > Templar > Modern.