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After years of tinkering, and several months of fairly intensive work, I
have completed a working version of Optima.  It's a very complex chess
variant using orthodox, semi-orthodox, ultima-like, and highly unorthodox
and original pieces.  It's a 10x10 variant and each player has one rank of
pawns, one rank of guards, and one rank of pieces which can be the same
for both players or different for each player.  It uses a variety of
capturing methods, including replacement, proximity, airplane, rifle, and
snowplow, and also includes pieces that immobilize or convert enemy units.
 There are also pieces with special abilities to resist a particular form
of capture, immobilization, or conversion.  There are 53 pieces so far
defined, one of which is the king, one of which is the wizard and can only
be obtained by pawn promotion, and 51 others, of which either 9 will be
used for an equal armies game, or 18 for an unequal armies game.  More
pieces are being considered for a future release.  There are also
alternative pawn and guard rules.  Ralph Betza once said on these pages
that there are a billion chess variants.  Well, Optima is either one chess
variant, or, if my math is correct, 42 quadrillion chess variants (not
counting different startng arrays and alternative kings).  I've done a
great deal of Zillions vs. Zillions playtesting and have not yet been able
to find a broken scenario, although of course some armies will be much
stronger than others.  The 'choose-up' rule takes care of that nicely.  If
anyone is interested, email me at [email protected] and I will email you the
zip file containing the ZRFs, the graphics, and the readme file.  I'll
send the game to the editors, but it may be a while before a page goes up.