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Chess, like geometry, is capable of more than one expression. And I do not
speak of the easy out of 3D, 4D, 1D, fractal, 6, whatever boards. Make
chess as conservative as you want. Only capture by replacement. Always
pawns. Always 2D rectangular board with no holes or other unusual features.
No 'special powers' pieces, as immobilizers, ghosts, neutrals. Just the
old-fashioned, reasonable simple, easy, and obvious pieces have themes,
show directions, indicate blind spots and areas for growth or change. Your
Falcon is one fine example of a fuller, more complete design for chess,
fitting into a design 'hole' in FIDE. Carlos Cetina's sissa is another
such piece, giving another shape to a larger design even if not played on a
larger board than FIDE. He found the rook and bishop hidden in the knight,
and set them freer. Not free, but bound together into one piece, quarks of
the chessboard, they take paths reminiscent of Feynman diagrams, showing
disintegrations of opposing positions. Another vision, distant cousin to
the falcon, the sissa gives a different picture of chess, one of more
power, not less, like the falcon [which, as a shortrange piece, dilutes the
power of the infinite sliders], a picture closer to Seirawan's, or
Capablanca's, for example. But not every apparent Capa variant is exactly
as supposed. One of your games for 2014, Great Shatranj [which does, by the
way, have 10 games completed, and others playing, onsite], appears to be a
Capa variant, but is not. It rejects the concept of infinite sliders [as
much as possible - one must sometimes bow to the demand for rooks, it
seems, but it has eliminated bishops and queens utterly, while retaining
rooks as merely an unnecessary option], and reduces the moves to 1 or 2
squares at a time, while expanding the leaping ability to essentially all
the pieces. This is a theme in a totally different direction, giving a game
which is pure chess and totally different from all the other Capa variants.

George, you're saved by my wife's desire to go out now - more later...
;-) Enjoy!