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Rich,

The question of Next Chess is not about what we would want. It is about
what the public at large could appreciate if it were not already so
enamored with Chess, and, perhaps could, sometime in the far off future,
come to appreciate as much as Chess. With this in mind, we have to think
foremost of what the public at large likes about Chess and which other
games have the same kind of appeal. This is a different issue than picking
our own favorites or creating a single variant that would have the
strongest appeal to the variant community. For example, I did not select
Eurasian Chess because it is my favorite among my variants. I chose it for
being a game that has much the same appeal as Chess without simply being
some kind of twist on Chess, as many variants are. People who are really
into variants might appreciate a game that is more open-ended than Chess,
such as one that lets you use pick different pieces to use. But Chess has
survived a long time without being open-ended like this, and if another
variant were to replace Chess in time, I don't think it would have to be
any more open-ended than Chess is.