Comments by Charles Daniel

Agreed that this is not a variant. Thought the throne square marked with X has some strategic points though. 

There is no draw problem in chess. (Agreed draws among Grandmasters and openings being played out is a problem for EXTREMELY high level chess) 
Chess is not a spectator sport. Play the game yourself - unless you are a 2500+ rated player you will not get more than 5-10% draws. 

Of course 2 knights and king vs king is a draw - it should have been a hard fought draw though. Complaining about draws indicates inadequate understanding of chess and/or excessive obsession with grandmaster games (while not playing any at all).

Stalemate is ironically a very logical outcome which is why it was introduced. The king must be captured by the opposite side - if there is no move available, it *can* kill itself.

Just a comment on Sam's 31 short-range pieces comment: 

I noticed he mentioned the lion as worth 2 queens. Perhaps, on a very crowded small space, but I don't see how this can be on a large open board. 

In my game Asylum Chess, the piece Insane Ninja Knight has the moves of a lion (and double capture too).I say  its worth slightly less than a queen in this game on an open board. 

 I don't see any clear description of the lion except in Cho Shogi game (and they are some differences). 

(In fact, I initially thought that the ninja knight was never seen before in any form!) 

I have yet to see the Lion used in any other game. 
 Perhaps, it is assumed that a jumping piece should not be too powerful or the gameplay would not be balanced?

Have you thought about this preset: 

frnbqkbnrfpppppppppp60PPPPPPPPPPFRNBQKBNRF

Notice that all the pawns are protected. The 10X10 also is a lot more roomier for the extra pair of pieces.

The scoring changes were tried before - I think Clint 'something' ...
suggested 3pt for black win, 2pt for white win, 1pt for black draw and 0
for white draw. 

There is nothing wrong with the game of chess (orthodox) - its just
analyzed to death.
If only the top players (GMs) can look through every chess variant and
pick the one that they feel keeps the beauty, strategy etc of the original
game. 

A 10x10 with a few new pieces seems best in my opinion .. 

That would be a chess tournament worth watching.

Bland chess? 
And we wonder why chess players avoid chess variants!

Douglas, 

Since you did the work for that file and are registered here, why don't you add the link here instead?  Let me know if this is possible...

Yes I did think of this compound - it was to be called the Insane Ninja! 
I used the insane ninja knight because it is present in my game 
Asylum Chess. 
I guess it could be fine to have the promotion to Insane Ninja instead of insane ninja knight if agreed by the 2 players
I might use the insane ninja in an upcoming variant.

In Airplane Chess, the airplane moves both diagonally and orthogonally. There seems to be no specification or limit to its long reach power - it can jump over pieces in-between to capture the last piece in the line. 
I got the idea from checkers not from airplane chess.
The whole reasoning between my choice for the 'immediate landing' bomber used in Birds and Ninjas rather than the extended landing bomber was that pawns are too vulnerable and easily attacked. It is not clear but I suspected that this *might* increase the number of draws. 
Airplane Chess will most certainly lead to higher number of draws since pawns are  *much* more vulnerable than either version of the flying bomber. The nature of airplane being so difficult to defend against would make game much wilder and very different from Flying Bombers as well. 

The other mode of the flying bomber is essentially the Dabbabah (from which the cannon might have derived) as noted.

While many variants try to balance the number of leapers with sliders, this game takes a different approach. Every piece is a jumper or a 1 square stepping piece. The Queen is replaced by the General, the rooks with dababbas and bishops with Elephants. Then, the game is expanded to a 10x8 similar to a Capablanca variant. The knight compound added to both dababbas and elephant.

Some interesting points: the dababbas and Minister can mate with aid of king. (A bit tricky with the dababba) (Of course the General can too) . The dababba starts out as a weak piece but gets stronger as the game progresses.

Quite interesting! 
I have to disagree - it is not much like std chess (play-wise at least)-
the game is substantially altered because of those pieces. 
Am I right in understanding the mace this way: I move my mace next to
enemy pieces. Then on same turn I can take them off the board? 
Also, is it compulsory to remove all pieces attacked by mace? 

And if mace removes piece/pawn that exposes king to check then does that
not mean that the opponent can then capture your king? 

I was wondering too what do you think of adding one mace and one
Horse-apult to  my customizable game : pick piece big chess. I think it
will be a bit slower than yours but it might be quite interesting. 

If you dont mind - I can add that into the presets for my game.

Gary, I just reworded the description for the preset. But my suggestion was the other way around - a war-mace and alfil-Horse-apults. Though I see no reason for it to be the other way around either.. 

And thanks for your comment, I hope that players realize they have a lot of flexibility in choosing the game they wish to play.