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Might I alsso suggest a contest with more than one theme? Say have 3 themes e.g. one Piece based (no FIDE pieces say), another special Criteria/Rule based (restricted King, say), and the third Conceptual (sci-fi/fantasy)

Each contestant could then enter any or all themes with the same or different games and have a vote in each theme entered. The theme winners would then be voted on by all contestants other than the theme winners to decide the overall winner.

I also opt for a voting method of judging, that way no-one need be excluded from entering. I would suggest each entrant should pick 3 games ordered 1st,2nd,3rd - 1st gets 3 points, 2nd 2, 3rd 1.

Additional theme suggestions:
- incomplete knowledge
- no FIDE pieces (including King)
- winning condition other than mate

I also support Abdul-Rahman Sibahi's suggestion of having a confined King (or other Royal piece)

Ha .. Finally a contest ..

An example you might like for a game that uses one type of piece is Chad, by Christian Freeling.

This brings up the suggestion of having a confined King as a theme. The most obvious example is Xiangqi. Other examples I can think of are Seenschach, Sphinx Chess, and Congo (which is animal themed.)

Like Graeme Neatham suggested, a Multi-board contest would be nice. (Examples being Alice Chess, Bughouse, Tandem-84.)

However, I would also suggest that using triangles for cells would make a nice change. Not necessarily equilateral triangles or a flat board.

Also, using pentagons is also a nice change. Using the Cairo tiling for example.

You can specify a certain board for the game. Like the Crazy38's board or the board in The Central Squares, or an Icosahedron (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icosahedron).

Congo, by Demian Freeling, is Animal themed. This is also a pretty theme for a contest.

Other suggestion: games that use a Royal piece that does NOT move like a King. (Either a specific piece, like a Queen, or the player is given the choice.) Examples are many for Queens and Knights. Horus by Peter Aronson uses royal Falcons. Some games use a stationary King. (There's a game in the Number 10 contest, which used a piece that can only move when in check, called the President.)

Speaking of Christian Freeling's games, a theme that immediately comes to mind is games without pawns. Another theme is that Pieces can't capture each other (unless in specific situations, like in Chad.) In Caissa, instead of capture, you swap places with the other piece. Usually the only piece that can capture is the Royal piece.

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As for my vote, I vote for boards that use a fixed board, specifically the Icosahedron (admittedly, I have an idea for a game.)

I prefer the voting method to judge the contest.

I'd like to suggest a multiple-board theme, either a set number (2,3,4 etc.) or perhaps just any number more than 1.

I support conceptual and propose additional subcategories:

a) historical

b) sci-fi

c) geographical

1. An X-squares contest: The number of squares would be variable, changing during the game. An example would be Tile Chess.
2. A 45-piece contest
3. A 3-player variant contest