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Aberg variation of Capablanca's Chess. Different setup and castling rules. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Hans Aberg wrote on Wed, Apr 23, 2008 06:03 PM UTC:

H.G.Muller:
| I think the following array would be more logical:
|    C H A M K A H C
|  where M=Amazon and H=Nightrider.

Yes. I was thinking about putting a Q+N piece besides the K, too. The nightrider may be too powerful though, and may be hard to learn for humans.

| ...but my guess is that it would make the
| game too tactical, without quiet positions, almost reversi-like...

One function that the minor pieces have in orthodox chess, is being suitable
for sacrifice. So having only powerful pieces could loose out on the tactical side too.

| Only the poor King has no enhancement. You could replace it by a Centaur,
| but this might make checkmating it too difficult.

The king, as piece for becoming mated, is just fine. I thought about the K+N piece a bit too.

One variation I am thinking about is 'Spartan kings': two kings, just as the Spartans, where 
When two kings remains, one can be taken; game ends when the last remaining king has become mated.

But one must think carefully about the design objectives: orthodox chess has a particularly good blend of strategy and tactics. With the Capa variation I gave, the idea is to preserve as much as possible of that, while lessening the amount of draws by adding some material.