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The article reminds me of my college days... well done.  It also reminds me
of Taikyoku Shogi, which has many short range pieces... lots of piece
movement possibilities.  Joe and Christine are correct in pointing out
that evolution has been towards long range pieces... at least in Fide
Chess.  Xianqi still has the relatively short range elephants and palace
guards.  Shogi has the short range set of generals (gold, silver, emarald
(which we now call the King).

The following link to Wikipedia's Taikyoku Shogi page is likely a good
tie-in to '' The Short Range Project.''  Lots of pieces are discussed
there. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taikyoku_shogi#Step_movers

Here is an example of movement for one piece, uncommon today:

The Mountain stag

Step: The mountain stag can move one square orthogonally forward. 
Limited range: It can move one or two squares orthogonally sideways. 
Limited range: It can move one to three squares diagonally forward. 
Limited range: It can move one to four squares orthogonally backward. 

This and many other interesting movements can be found at the linked site.