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Ideas for future of chess variants[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Kevin Pacey wrote on Tue, Jan 18, 2022 03:27 PM UTC:

From the intro to (10x10) Centennial Chess, by formerly active CVP editor John William Brown:

"Such 10x10 games, often called decimal chess, have been the holy grail of game designers for ages. Many scholars felt that the move to a 10x10 board would be the next logical step in the chess's continuing evolution."

I have gone between liking 8 ranks in a CV (good for FIDE pawns' rules) and liking 10x10, though once again I think Mr. Brown is right about 10x10 being at least the next (if not final) step for chess' evolution - allows for more pieces in the setup (perhaps good for the final version of chess, if any possible), without the board size being too big, in case most people don't like games that might go too long.

Having thus arbitrarily narrowed the search for what a Next Chess looks like, I thought Game Courier might reveal some really good candidates (already) for a (10x10) Next Chess. Of course, something else 10x10 might come along eventually, but people have not made this argument explicitly - instead there seems to be a slight lack of interest here, as if future generations/elite chess players will decide, not us, so why should we even try to explore the question/lay groundwork? At least I compiled a preliminary list of 10x10 hits on GC.

I cannot recall what a Dragon King is, though I do know a Dragon Horse (RF). Aside from that, 11x8 strikes me as a board size that, since there is an odd number of files, not many may like it, though there was some popularity for Wildebeest Chess. The Gryphon is part of Daniel's 10x10 CV I included as one of my picks for a Next Chess candidate, so fine with me.