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🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Sat, Apr 3, 2004 08:58 PM UTC:
In Bigamous Cavalier Chess, I did not use a 9x9 board, because the
Nightriders would be attacking the back rank, and the solutions for fixing
this caused problems of their own. If I stopped this by moving the
Cavaliers up one rank, both sets of Cavaliers could immediately move to
the 5th rank. In the initial position, a Cavalier could move forward only
to the 5th rank. Thus, the first Cavalier to move forward would be moving
to a space where it could be immediately captured by an enemy Cavalier.
This could result in a quick exchange of Cavaliers, which would undermine
the reason I chose Cavaliers over Knights in the first place. I chose
Cavaliers (aka Chinese Chess Knights) for their ability to block each
other, sort of like Pawns can block each other. To make this more feasible
in the opening, I needed at least four empty ranks between the Cavaliers.
If Cavaliers started on their player's 3rd ranks to prevent Nightriders
from reaching the back rank on a 9x9 board, they would have only three
empty ranks between them. Compromises that put some Cavaliers on the 2nd
rank and some of the 3rd did not work out well either. Using a 9x10 board
eliminated all the problems caused by a 9x9 board without introducing any
new problems.

I did not include an Amazon for the same reason I never included one in
Cavalier Chess. This piece to too powerful, resulting in a less
interesting game. I don't like to include any piece that is so powerful,
it can force checkmate on its own. It makes the other pieces superfluous.
I find a Chess variant more interesting when it involves the strategic
marshalling of a variety of forces, and I don't like games where the main
strategy is to get one super piece into a position where it can proceed to
force checkmate. That's why I hate Frank Maus's Cavalry Chess.

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