Hey, George, thanks for the compliment. I'm not quite sure how Grand
Shatranj snuck into 2nd, and I won't be surprised if it falls considerably
against those designers who were here before me and haven't been evaluated
yet.
A few comments on the rules. The rook option was the first change I made,
at the suggestion of David Paulowich. Other options I have not yet added to
the rules page came from several people. I believe both Jeremy Good and
Graeme Neatham suggested the double step for a pawn's initial move [and
probably a few others whom I don't now recall]. HG Muller has put the game
in his software, with the pasha [DWAF] in place of the general [WF] as the
default selection. And while castling was never really considered, I
recently got a good suggestion from LL Smith about the king's leap. He
suggests allowing the king a 2-square leap [maybe with possible capture] as
its first move, which seems to me to be very much in the spirit of the
game.