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Here is my take on stale openings and the issues of draws with chess.
1. Chess has multiple issues.  Draws are one.  Another is stale opening
lines, that have pushed out innovation further in the game, making it less
appealing.
2. I believe we should stop with this proposing that every single proposed
rule change be a new version of chess.  Can we have a category called
'sub-variant' or something else, for things like Braves' Chess?  Such
things that Braves Chess attempts to do is important.  It needs to be
something experimented with as a sub-variant, mutator, or whatever else we
want to call it.  It is an end-game fix mutation.  Maybe call it a patch.
3. I like a bit what is done here, but my take on the end game drawishness
would be several things (well, besides ending drawishness, at least having
a draw still count as something that gets a player some points):
a. Get rid of draws have a score of 1/2 - 1/2.  Have it worth zero points
or have it so that it is a 1/2 point score for black.  Have a win worth 2 points (this is 2 points for a win, if the following are done below, otherwise a win is 1 point).  Given the below rules, here will be very few games where a situation would arise that a chess match is not advanced.  
b. Get rid of checkmate and replace it with capturing the king.  This
means no more stalemate. If you do want to play with stalemate and
checkmate, then a stalemate is worth 1 point for the player who
stalemated their opponent.
c. Count 3 move check repetition as a 1 point (minor) victory for the
player who checks their opponent's king 3 times.
d. In event of of a 3 move repetition on a rare chance that it is mutual
checking back and forth, that would end up counting as a victory for the
first player to get the 3 checks in at the same time, and it is worth 1/2 point.  
e. In the event of a 3 move repetition where neither side checks the other
king, the player who goes second to cause a third move repetition would end
up losing, awarding their opponent 1/2 points.   
f. Count barring the king as a 1 point victory.

In other words, add multiple levels of victory condition with different
points.

As for the stale opening book, use pocket pieces that could vary game to
game, and they would get on the board by means of drops and gating. Drops
could be used before the game in a set up zone, or later in the game into
a set-up zone (drops and gating to get them on).  Later in the game, both
gating and drops could be used.  For preset pieces on the board, you would
use a shuffle.  The default shuffle is the 960 version found in Fisher
Random Chess.  

I believe if you do this, then both the beginning and end game issues with
chess will be resolved.  Please comment here.