Rich Hutnik wrote on Wed, Jun 11, 2008 09:14 PM UTC:
M Winther, how many Seirawan Chess games have you seen actually played? I find with IAGO Chess, which is like Seirawan Chess, the Bishops don't disappear too fast. Not sure why you argue that the do disappear too fast with Seirawan. A bishop fianchetto is just one of the types of opens you can do. I don't see why bishops are diminished that much personally.
In IAGO Chess, the game, you can also drop a Cap piece besides gating it in. It is also not part of castling, and there is less of a rush to get the Cap pieces in. Maybe that makes for a difference. If you don't gate in a piece in Seirawan Chess, you may not be able to get it into the game.