🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Tue, Sep 13, 2016 04:57 PM UTC:
Okay, good. Here are some additional thoughts I had while out walking. Chess has been finely honed by natural selection to be free of arbitrariness. Every rule and piece in Chess serves a purpose, and none are arbitrary. Since Chess is what won the survival of the fittest among Chess variants, I expect that any variant capable of succeeding Chess would also have to be free of arbitrariness. But most Chess variants differ from Chess through some arbitrary change to it, and they easily get lost in a sea of variants that each differ from Chess in their own arbitrary ways.
Another important feature of Chess is that it remains simple enough to learn by children and by people who are not especially inclined toward intellectual activities. This has been critical to the success of Chess, because this has allowed knowledge of Chess to be transmitted from one generation to the next on a large scale. No variant has a chance of succeeding Chess unless it can be spread in the same way. Whatever it is, it has to be a game that parents who are not especially intellectual will be inclined to teach to their kids. This puts a limit on the size and complexity of games that could potentially succeed Chess.
Notably, these two conditions put contrasting restraints on the size of a potential successor. Since nothing in Chess is arbitrary, making the game smaller would normally involve leaving something out that had been in Chess for an important reason. So, any smaller variant is likely to be arbitrary. The best way to make a non-arbitrary variant would be to increase the size and add some new pieces that fit in with the rest of the pieces. Among my own games, for example, Gross Chess does this well, but its greater size, additional pieces, and somewhat more complicated rules probably put it beyond what many parents would be interested in teaching to their kids.
So, in general, there is a narrow window for games that could possibly succeed Chess. They should be very close to Chess in size and material but differ in some non-arbitrary way that adds interest.
Okay, good. Here are some additional thoughts I had while out walking. Chess has been finely honed by natural selection to be free of arbitrariness. Every rule and piece in Chess serves a purpose, and none are arbitrary. Since Chess is what won the survival of the fittest among Chess variants, I expect that any variant capable of succeeding Chess would also have to be free of arbitrariness. But most Chess variants differ from Chess through some arbitrary change to it, and they easily get lost in a sea of variants that each differ from Chess in their own arbitrary ways.
Another important feature of Chess is that it remains simple enough to learn by children and by people who are not especially inclined toward intellectual activities. This has been critical to the success of Chess, because this has allowed knowledge of Chess to be transmitted from one generation to the next on a large scale. No variant has a chance of succeeding Chess unless it can be spread in the same way. Whatever it is, it has to be a game that parents who are not especially intellectual will be inclined to teach to their kids. This puts a limit on the size and complexity of games that could potentially succeed Chess.
Notably, these two conditions put contrasting restraints on the size of a potential successor. Since nothing in Chess is arbitrary, making the game smaller would normally involve leaving something out that had been in Chess for an important reason. So, any smaller variant is likely to be arbitrary. The best way to make a non-arbitrary variant would be to increase the size and add some new pieces that fit in with the rest of the pieces. Among my own games, for example, Gross Chess does this well, but its greater size, additional pieces, and somewhat more complicated rules probably put it beyond what many parents would be interested in teaching to their kids.
So, in general, there is a narrow window for games that could possibly succeed Chess. They should be very close to Chess in size and material but differ in some non-arbitrary way that adds interest.