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If a reader says 'give me more history', then there should be a prominent
paragraph with links to: history, shatranj, xiang qi, shogi.

Skip if you've heard this story. When I was 14 years old or so, I used to
go to the library every week to read some more of HJR Murray's thousand
page history of chess, week after week until I finished. And when I
finished, I knew that Chess was not just this one little game with one
specific set of rules that I strived to master (and since I'm a national
master and an FM, I guess you can say that I did so), no, Chess was not
just one game with one set of rules, but rather Chess was a big thing, with
billions and billious of games with a wide range of rules.

Therefore, according to my own experience, one of the best ways to promote
chess variants is to teach the history of chess.

Chess variant people often like to make new rules more than they like to
play the games; and often also they are less skillful at playing the games
than they are at making the rules. Rarely one finds the Chess Variant
inventor who is superhuman at chess but totally naive at variants (the two
prime examples are Fischer and Capablanca).

During my lifetime, the field of chess variants has advanced to an
incredible degree. To a large extent I have been able to lead because the
average of my chess skill and my variant skill is far higher than anybody
else -- and I am not ashamed to claim that my average of the two skills is
higher than the divine Parton or the superhuman Fischer -- and if you
spread the word about chess history can you imagine what will happen in the
future?

Imagine an era when chessmasters routinely know about Shatranj and Shogi
and Xiang Qi and the Colorbound Clobberers! In such a utopia, the very best
ideas that you or I have had will be seen as mere fumblings in the dark by
ignorant savages -- and the perception will be correct.

Have you met any Grandmasters? Have you played? Do you truly understand how
both their knowledge and their wisdom of Chess is far beyond what a mere
mortal can hope to achieve? I have; as a mere master, I have what's needed
to appreciate the greatness of grandmasters.

Imagine an era when Grandmasters of Chess are also routinely Grandmasters
of Chess Variants. ((Emanuel Lasker imagined it although he never proposed
any variants.)) ... and the one thing you can do to facilitate this vision
is to make it easier for people to learn about the history of Chess!