📝M Winther wrote on Mon, Apr 9, 2007 02:37 PM UTC:
I am sceptical of this variant because the bishops will tend
to get exchanged too easily (by moving one's bishop from the initial square, offering exchange, while simultaneously guarding one's bishop with a hawk. As the bishop (especially when
fianchettoed) is the positional piece par excellence, I think this
game will be lacking in many positional qualities, especially since
the Elephant (N+R) and Hawk (N+B) are such tactical pieces. Something that will
help to remedy the problem is to restrict the entry squares of the
Hawks. My suggestion is that the Hawk should not be able
to enter on the bishop files, and, perhaps, the Elephant should not be able to
enter on the knight files. In other words, the external pieces should only
be able to enter when king, rook, or queen moves. (Trenholme implemented the same pieces on the Gustavian board. Perhaps it's better.) /Mats
/Mats