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Gentlemen, thank you for all the fascinating history. I've also
corresponded privately with Ron Hale-Evans, and seen some of his as yet
unpublished more general work on mutators. 

My own interest arose from a number of sources, starting with
dimensionality as a mutator candidate, and most immediately the playing of
a game of Fergus Duniho's Fusion Chess, and considering a game [Fluid
Chess] with fewer restrictions. 

Now I'm interested in the practical challenge of designing a set of
mutators that could be applied to a range of chess variants without
producing bizarre interactions. Practicality, at this point, is not so
much of an issue. [Just how you would handle 'grow', for example, in any
setting, is interesting.] Finding a good-sized, diverse group of mutators
that play well together is. 

Compatibility is important here. Mutators like Range and Jump can be
considered aspects of a more general Alter Move mutator, but that size is
too large/too general for practical use, as it allows any move alteration.
Its components can be useful [range and jump have no obvious interaction
problems], but care is needed, because some can amplify others and create
a 'runaway' condition that will destroy the game. 

In the spirit of trying to add a little something to each endeavor, I'll
suggest another movement mutator, Leadership. It requires that, for a
piece to move, that piece must start its move within a specified number of
squares of a designated leader piece. Now, what happens if this is done
hierarchically? You can designate the king and both knights as leaders,
say, and the distance as 4 squares, so that any piece within 4 squares of
any one of the three could move. But you can designate the king as the
main leader, and the knights as subordinates, and require the knights to
be within 4 squares of the king [or the other knight, optionally] to be
able to move and/or allow others to move. Call this Leader Chess. There: a
[new?] game, or just a mutator? ;-) Enjoy