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On Designing Good Chess Variants. Design goals and design principles for creating Chess variants.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

M Winther wrote on Mon, Jan 31, 2011 05:06 PM UTC:

Anyway, it was not designed using human+computer analysis. 1300 games can establish that it is materially balanced, but Fairy Max won't be able to find the line that refutes the variant positionally or strategically. Imagine if Fairy Max would play standard chess without opening book. Would it find the lines that come close to refuting black? Will it play the strongest lines positionally and strategically, e.g., the long lines in Ruy Lopez, where Black's position is really challenged? The answer is *no*, not even after 100.000 games. So, those 1300 games lack theoretical value. The  analysis must be done by a human expert with the aid of a computer. 

It would be equally bad if either party could easily neutralize the other party's attempt to gain an initiative. Then it's strategically dead. If the variant holds up to scrutiny, i.e., if it's neither strategically dead, nor favours either partly clearly, then I will be truly surprised. 
/Mats