H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Oct 1, 2013 11:24 AM UTC:
Mighty-Lion Chess
As a step-up towards Chu Shogi I have added a modest Chess variant of my own design to XBoard. Basically this just adds a Lion to FIDE Chess. The obvious thing for these type of variants, to replace the Queen by another 'master piece', seemed a bad idea, as it leaves no suitable trading partners for the Lions. To prevent the Lion from being all-powerful, it is in fact very important that there are enough other pieces to harass it. So the best thing seemed to replace a Knight by a Lion. And to not interfere with traditional King-fortress building, it seemed best to pick the Queen-side Knight for this.
The Chu-Shogi restrictions on Lion trading also apply in this game. (It is forbidden to capture a Lion from a distance with a Lion when it can be pseudo-legally recaptured, and after a Lion is captured by a non-Lion, the other Lion is immune to capture on the next half-move. Any non-Pawn can act as a 'bridge', connecting the Lions by its capture.) These rules are actually very convenient, as they prevents the players from quickly trading the Lions, to convert to an ordinary game of FIDE. Pawns promote as in FIDE, i.e. they cannot promote to Lion.
I am still in doubt if it wouldn't be better to switch to a setup that keeps both Knights, and just adds the Lion as a 17th piece:
Mighty-Lion Chess
As a step-up towards Chu Shogi I have added a modest Chess variant of my own design to XBoard. Basically this just adds a Lion to FIDE Chess. The obvious thing for these type of variants, to replace the Queen by another 'master piece', seemed a bad idea, as it leaves no suitable trading partners for the Lions. To prevent the Lion from being all-powerful, it is in fact very important that there are enough other pieces to harass it. So the best thing seemed to replace a Knight by a Lion. And to not interfere with traditional King-fortress building, it seemed best to pick the Queen-side Knight for this.
The Chu-Shogi restrictions on Lion trading also apply in this game. (It is forbidden to capture a Lion from a distance with a Lion when it can be pseudo-legally recaptured, and after a Lion is captured by a non-Lion, the other Lion is immune to capture on the next half-move. Any non-Pawn can act as a 'bridge', connecting the Lions by its capture.) These rules are actually very convenient, as they prevents the players from quickly trading the Lions, to convert to an ordinary game of FIDE. Pawns promote as in FIDE, i.e. they cannot promote to Lion.
I am still in doubt if it wouldn't be better to switch to a setup that keeps both Knights, and just adds the Lion as a 17th piece:
What do you think?