Single Comment

I am sceptical of this variant because the bishops will tend to get exchanged too easily (by moving one's bishop from the initial square, offering exchange, while simultaneously guarding one's bishop with a hawk. As the bishop (especially when fianchettoed) is the positional piece par excellence, I think this game will be lacking in many positional qualities, especially since the Elephant (N+R) and Hawk (N+B) are such tactical pieces. Something that will help to remedy the problem is to restrict the entry squares of the Hawks. My suggestion is that the Hawk should not be able to enter on the bishop files, and, perhaps, the Elephant should not be able to enter on the knight files. In other words, the external pieces should only be able to enter when king, rook, or queen moves. (Trenholme implemented the same pieces on the Gustavian board. Perhaps it's better.)
/Mats