George Duke wrote on Sun, Dec 20, 2009 08:34 PM UTC:
Score: Mastodon > Unicorn Great > Big Board > Centennial > Eurasian > Black
Ghost > Templar > Modern > Courier de la Dama > Switching > Seirawan.
Mobilization phase related to Big Board's set-up phase harks back to mediaeval Courier Chess
as well as mediaeval assizes on regular 8x8 in Shatranj, having pre-modern
Queen like Ferz and Alfil limited to 1/4 the squares.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/short_assize
Mobilization and
assizes can range from token like a single switch of two pieces for a
different initial array to radical like Big Board. (Think of Big Board scaled back to half or fourth or twelfth its 24 pieces: even only 2 pre-mobilized of 24 would still be Big Board for its unique piece-mix.) The one Bodlaender notes
for Courier has 3 Pawns and Queen pre-placed to fixed locations beyond the first two ranks.
http://www.chessvariants.org/historic.dir/courier.html
Obvious difference from assize-mobilization -- Ethiopian Chess being another example -- is the players choose locations in set-up phase like Big Board's. How the
one-diagonal Queen gets from g1 to g3 in 8x12 Courier may not be explained
even in Murray. Courier de la Dama mimics the Variant Chess CV by Byway
called Modern Courier, linked by Cruz, in adding Queen to Courier Chess. The two CVs of Cruz and Byway are almost the same, as Cruz may have discovered late in his process; and of course the ''Modern'' among our finalists above and below is the different Modern 9x9 by Maura. Neither Cruz nor Byway seem to carry
over the mediaeval mobilization, which is one of the two interesting
features of the German Middle Age 8x12 Chess, the other being the full-line Bishop himself.
In olden days 8x8 and 8x12 chiefly coexisted for some centuries. For Next
Chess purpose, as one more to look at, Courier de la Dama goes alongside the Puerto Rican Modern as constructive combination of all earlier elements with no afterlife. Mastodon > Unicorn > Big Board > Centennial > Eurasian > Black Ghost > Templar > Modern > Courier de la Dama > Switching > Seirawan.
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=24303
