Enter Your Reply

I think Mr. Winther puts more effort in to designing the games than just the pieces. Different games use different boards and different ways of adding the pieces to the standard 'FIDE' arrangement; I remember him saying that he gives the opening arrangements some thought for a given set of new pieces he creates.

In addition to pieces, he has also brought the Gustav board back, something I never heard of until seeing it mentioned on his page. I think the Gustav board is a good way of introducing new pieces to FIDE chess without having the new board affecting the game too much, and without somewhat clunky ideas as gating (Gating makes sense when you want the game to be just as much like FIDE chess with new pieces as possible; but the Gustav board is more intuitive and makes for simpler rules).

One can argue 'Why design games that no one plays', just as one can argue 'why analyze games no one plays', and in both cases the answer is the same: Because it can be an enjoyable way to pass the time. If the act of creating a game brings pleasure to someone, it doesn't matter if that game is never played by anyone.