"This makes an easy mnemonics for the names, but is a bit catastrophic for the move notation and other places where a piece has to be identified by a single-letter ID. "
Isn't "catastrophic" a bit negative comment here? Lets's be constructive among us. There are only 26 letters in our alphabet, we have to deal with this kind of issue always. If you use Ski-Rook, Ski-Queen, Ski-Bishop, the 3 of them start with S which is not better anyway.
"And I wonder how much the mnemonic is worth; these are only helpful if you already know the names, but are not sure which name belongs to which piece. "
I don't understand what you mean. Imagine I discover Skica. I know it has the 3 new pieces. OK, this one is the Bat, this I can see because the icon of the Bat will not look like anything else. Bat -> it is a kind of lame Bishop, not a lame Rook or Queen. I don't see what is not clear here.
"But most people would not even be aware that pieces of this type exist at all."
Most people know nothing about the fauna of CV anyway. If they come here, I guess they are ready to know that we play with fairy pieces. I probably miss the point.
"This makes an easy mnemonics for the names, but is a bit catastrophic for the move notation and other places where a piece has to be identified by a single-letter ID. "
Isn't "catastrophic" a bit negative comment here? Lets's be constructive among us. There are only 26 letters in our alphabet, we have to deal with this kind of issue always. If you use Ski-Rook, Ski-Queen, Ski-Bishop, the 3 of them start with S which is not better anyway.
"And I wonder how much the mnemonic is worth; these are only helpful if you already know the names, but are not sure which name belongs to which piece. "
I don't understand what you mean. Imagine I discover Skica. I know it has the 3 new pieces. OK, this one is the Bat, this I can see because the icon of the Bat will not look like anything else. Bat -> it is a kind of lame Bishop, not a lame Rook or Queen. I don't see what is not clear here.
"But most people would not even be aware that pieces of this type exist at all."
Most people know nothing about the fauna of CV anyway. If they come here, I guess they are ready to know that we play with fairy pieces. I probably miss the point.