Oh! It's now a long time since I last visited these pages. But it's
always gratifying to learn that some people still play my game and have
fun with it. I appreciate very much your comments.

-Mr Söderqvist's remark about the K.O. Rule is highly interesting!! It
could inspire another variant for this game. I only detect one wrong
thing:
if, as you say, it is white's turn, and this player moves a pawn or
another piece into the center, then the following turn it is the black
who
suborns for the first time. Later, it will be the white player who would
have to avoid suborning. Thus, in this scenario (as you pointed, quite
frequent) it would probably result in the center remaining empty,
'guarded' by both players, who dare not enter it (until the situation
changes).

In most chess-like games it is important to place one's pieces in the
center squares, but in this case it is even more. The center square
(called '4') is terribly powerful. But that has never been a problem in
any of the games I have played!! because it's also a risky position, and
it probably remains empty throughout the whole game. It's always so
threatened that neither player dares enter it. (Actually, one could say
that the real objective of the game is to create such favourable
conditions that allow you to be the first to safely enter the centre
cell).

Anyway, as I said above, the proposal is very interesting. I shall try
the
game with the K.O. Rule variation, I find it's an appropiate
contribution
:)

-And as for the Horses being too powerful... well, in the games I have
played the Horses never got to be a decisive piece. And they only control
28 cells... if they are placed in the centre cell (to read what I think
about the centre being so important, have a look at the previous
paragraph, hehe).

-Now I want to propose another variation to your keen intellects. I think
you could have some fun with it. And it's quite simple:

'Each player starts the game with 5 coins in his/her hand. Any time a
Diplomat suborns an enemy piece, that player pays a coin (the coin is
removed from the game). If one player runs out of funds the corresponding
Diplomat(s) will no longer be able to suborn any piece. Players may
suborn
as many consecutive times as they wish, as long they have enough money to
do so.'

I can think of some subvariants:
-Change the number of coins per player
-Any time you suborn, you pay a coin to the other player (instead of
removing it from the game)
-Some pieces are more expensive (Pawn = 1 coin, Horse = Bishop = 2,
Diplomat = Rook = 3)
-You can earn coins somehow (for example capturing enemy pieces... or
losing one's pieces!!)


And that is all for the moment!! Thank you for trying my game, I really
hope you have fun with it.