Comments by JorgKnappen

There is a typo in the German book title, it should read "seine" in place of "siene".

Also, I read the author's name as "Tressan" in accordance with Google OCR. There is a clear bridge between the two stems on the upper part of the last letter of his name. Google search finds the name on several pages where it seems to be removed from the pictures (Probably from bottom lines for the bookbinder, called Bogensignaturen in German language).

I have found the book on Google books here: https://books.google.de/books?id=n64UAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=de&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=Tressan&f=false

Trying konqueror as an alternative browser, it shows the snake. Strange ...

The Silly Sliders are one of the weirdest Chess experiences I have had. They are so strange: One attacks by retreating and unlocking the far range moves and one escapes from attack by approaching the figures. I'd suspect that the army is a bit weaker than the FIDEs because the ranging pieces can be stuffed. A blocking piece on the ski square doesn't even need protection. The rotated short range moves of the Onyx and the Duck have unusual interactions with the pawn formations.

All in all: A great design worth trying.

Despite the nice geometric move pattern this piece seems to be unemployed before Musketeer Chess. I can understand why: It creates triple forward forks into the rank behind the pawn line and is a very dangerous attacking piece. Creating a playable game with this piece is definitely a challenge (I haven't examined Musketeer Chess in this respect).

When you can read German in Fraktur printing, this digitised book shows the variant under the title "Vom vermehrten und vergrößerten Schachspiele, genannt das Spanische":

https://books.google.de/books?id=dv1dAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA44&lpg=PA44&dq=%22Bickelheringe%22&source=bl&ots=KlPjbEnTRs&sig=ACfU3U3_0lJIKKQ5eITSb4KYJPxccK0v7g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi7-taS1vTvAhXRgf0HHUEmCxAQ6AEwAXoECAMQAw#v=onepage&q=%22Bickelheringe%22&f=false

It gives interesting German translations of the piece names, the Bishop is a "Bickelhering" (a fool in commedy), the Ensign is a Fähnrich, and the Guard is a Trabant.

In fact, Charles Gilman has used the name Heroine before for some piece on a hex-prism board (3 dimensional with stacked planes of hexagons). I don't whether it was featured in a game and Gilman's games tend to be deployments of the pieces in many cases.

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While I think that the inventor of a Chess Variant has the final say in the naming of pieces, I must admit that the choice of Falcon is a very unfortunate one because the Falcon of George Duke's Falcon Chess is vexingly similar to that piece but different.

What about naming it Kestrel (in German Turmfalke instead? This keeps most of the semantic associations but uses a free word (not used for a chess piece yet as far as I know).

I found the old Gilman name from 2003 for the (2,4) leaper again, it was Carriage. Already in 2007 he had replaced it, but by an oversight there is still one Carriage left in "Carnival of Animals"

I have definitely heard about this kind of Chess variant, and I remember to have played it in Germany when I was young and not fully introduced to FIDE rules. It is a kind of popular chess variant always flying below the radar, a bit like "Queens Left Chess" with a point-symmetric setup of the pieces. Interestingly, it is the first question in the Rules of Chess: Pawns FAQ on this site.

The Harvestman goes only in the direction that is strictly incresing the distance from its starting field. I never intended it to take the sidewards turn that increases the breadth of the covered squares from 3 to 5. But I see that one can read the description in such a way that this kind of move were also allowed.

In fact, I have seen two names for the (2,4) leaper, the two names are lancer (used by G.P. Jelliss) and Hase "hare" used by German problemists. And there is probably at least one name by Charles Gilman for it, maybe two because his nomenclature has changed over time.

It is great to see a Zillions file for this game. The graphics are well done, specially the symbols for the Knaves and Debtors.

An interesting and very playable game. The figures are divergent pieces moving as the nominal piece and capturing as Querquisites.

Thanks, Chris, for your comments. I finally came back to this game and applied the fix you suggested to the initial area, naming it "Move zero" rule.

Another close (but not exact) match is the Eohippos (German Urpferdchen) from 10 directional chess (see http://www.chessvariants.com/contests/10/10_directional.html ). It moves and captures the same way, not in a pawnish style.

The Knight-Fers compound (NF) is also often seen under many different names, my favourite name is Dullahan (a male counterpart to a Banshee, featured under this name in the "Fearful Fairies" http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/fearful-fairies – other names include "prince" (problemist usage) or "Priest" (Scirocco, http://www.chessvariants.com/invention/scirocco )).

The Squire Knight is a definitely a Rook-class piece with 4 new capturing moves and 2 new non-capturing moves. Experience shows that additional capturing moves are worth more than additional non-capturing moves. The Squire Knight has 12 targets to aim at ... quite impressive.

I am pretty sure that Squire Knight makes an enjoyable and easy-to-learn chess variant.

While there are lots of evil creatures (to be associated with the Orcs) in Tolkiens legendarium, the number of good or ambivalent races is rather limited. There are Goblins, Hobgoblins, Uruk-Hai, Trolls, Balrogs, Dragons and Worms, Wargs, and the Nazgul with their (unnamed) flying animals.

For the airforce of the "good ones", there are the Eagles (taking part in the Battle of Five Armies). Than, there are the Ents, and maybe an Ent is a good picture for a rookish piece. Of course you can look up other mythologies for suitable names.

An excellent for the great rewrite.