In my particular opinion, Shogi is superior to Mortal Chessgi, and this is
superior to Chessgi. The power of pieces in Chessgi is not the best for
the game, White has a clear advantage and, very probably, this game is a
White victory. Once a team has some material advantage, its weight is much
more than in Chess, it is not the case in Shogi, because the power of
pieces is relativelly small, fact that seems to be in favour of beauty and
complexity of the game, and by these reasons Shogi is an extraordinary
game, product of many years of evolution. No, Chessgi game play is not so
beautiful, and it can be guessed soon who is going to be the winner in
many cases, so deepness is not as clear as supposed. Yes, Mortal Chessgi
may work better with some weaker pieces, like Ferz or Wazirs, and the
Queen can be substituted by a weaker piece. It is very possible that
richness and beauty of the game may increase, but I don´t know until some
tests were performed, and I´ll try to do that when my time gives me a
chance. I firmly believe that Marsellais Chess works better with weaker
pieces, and I´m going to prepare a game with this characteristics to see,
it is very possible that surprises are going to be great. Marsellais and
variants are not easy to implement in such a way the Computer is a good
player. Zillions plays it poorly, regardless the tricks used in the ZRF.
The future?. I don´t know, but I believe that FIDE-Chess interest in going
to fall down in the future, and a related new game can come. Grand Chess,
or a variant, has good chances, perhaps adding some complexities and
refined rules to add new sthetics to the game play, because it is deep
enough, much more than FIDE-Chess. Don´t be iluse, these are, on the long
term, the characteristic that are going to be selected by the players:
Beauty in tactics and strategy, and deepness. I coincide with Antoine,
Ultima and related games are a quantic jump and it is not supposed it is
the natural evolution of a game, but interest in Ultima-like games can
grow to the point these games are played widely, and it should be a good
moment for a displacement, if interest in Chess fall down. Nova-Chess and
Mercenary are both in similar lines, but one favours personal selection,
the other randomness, I´m not sure what thing is desiderable, but, by the
way, the name 'Mercenary Chess' is one of the worst possible, in
Marketing language, so a change in the name is priority one for those who
think this class of games can success in the future. And don´t discard
Arimaa-like games. The fundamental idea is well thought, and it can offer
very interesting possibilities, it is not expected that computers can play
it at unbeatible levels, unless quantum computers appear, and it is not
expected soon, some people balieve it is only theory, but physically there
are important obstacles that can´t be saved unless in some ideal and
extremely rare environments. By now, I´m enjoying the things we are doing
in this Pages. It is the present, as it is Chess, Shogi and Xiang-Qi. All
of us are speaking in Meta-Chess language, and our work is counting to the
future. Be sure.