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M Winther wrote on Wed, Jun 6, 2007 06:24 AM UTC:
Well, 'civilisation' is the chiefly British variant of 'civilization', so it's ok. Generally, I do appreciate the ideas behind minimal and medial chess variants. Also, variants with large boards using simple short-range pieces are practicable because moves can be made fast. In such war-games no particular  move changes the situation much. It is rather the movement of groups of pieces that matters, that is, these games are rather territorial. But it's debatable if this should be labelled chess.

However, complicated large-board variants like this is a special phenomenon. None of them is practicable, especially not those that are three-dimensional. It seems like they aren't designed to be practiced. So I think the motif behind these creations must be either artistic or spiritual. Possibly they are mandala (mandorla) expressions. In the east, like in Tibet, monks and ascetics create complicated mandala paintings as expressions of spiritual wholeness. This could be a modern form of alchemy, where different ingredients (piece types) are put together in a cauldron (the board), which corresponds to the retort of the alchemist. I wrote something about this concept in the following link, under the 'Game Alchemy' heading.
http://hem.passagen.se/melki9/twinmove.htm
/Mats

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