I introduced the possibility of two rook castling for Latte Chess because
from playing against engines I found that the kings were getting stranded
in the centre files, and it was hard to manoeuvre the pieces into a position
to enable castling, without making their position worse (chess AI seems to have
little problems with this - however I feel that for us humans it could be
somewhat unpalatable). On the other hand I quite like the challenge of having to balance the desirability of castling with other pressing issues on the
board. I came up with two ideas that seem to be feasible for Latte Chess; these
being Luft Castling or Two Rooks Castling (or both together), being
available in addition to normal castling. Both seem to have pros and
cons. My problem with the Two Rooks Castling, in the context of Latte
Chess, is that it could make castling too easy. Luft Castling (in addition
to normal castling) seems more promising, as there is still some challenge
in arranging castling, especially as a piece must be moved to make space
for the Luft Manoeuvre. At the moment I feel that Luft Castling + normal castling seem the most promising solution, although at present I can't
find a way to test it!
I feel that experimenting with different kinds of castling for other
variants is definitely worth trying, and should be tailored for the
specific flavour and requirements of the variant. Tactical issues also
need to be considered. For example Two Rooks Castling introduces the
possibility of powerful double attacks on open centre (or near centre)
files.
Also, I have tried to find variant software to let me play against chess AI, but have been unable to find any that support this kind of feature. I would
be interested if anyone knows of any easy to use software for someone with
very limited programming abilities, so I can test these ideas? Thanks guys!
