George Duke wrote on Tue, Sep 23, 2008 11:20 PM UTC:
Thomas Raynor Dawson invented Nightrider, Grasshopper and Vao. Ralph Betza does not
even come close to matching Dawson in style and interested readership.
Dawson edited British Chess Magazine, a conventional chess journal since
1881, in its problem pages from 1931-1951. There he had Orthodox problems
and in other magazines and books heterodox. No real fracturing between
standard 8x8 Chess and fairy chess came about until after Dawson. Think of
Capablanca's reviving Carrera's 8x10 during years of FIDE's
founding in 1920's. FIDE still technically has category of Chess they
call heterodox, I think, but by now because of facade of split interests, they minimize it, on the defensive when topic comes up of variant pieces or boards. Besides conventional Mates-in-Three in BCM, Dawson wrote Helpmates, Selfmates, Series-Helpmates for problemists. That was style of chess variants
1900-1960 with no great divide betwen Orthodox and Heterodox. GM Milan Vukevich had title from problem composing or solving. I am not sure offhand which variant pieces may be accepted under FIDE for contests. Vukevich's Hawaii speech in 1998 mentions fairy pieces in his topic of Chess for tomorrow. Blame for the fragmentation today is almost entirely the Variantists, because of output becoming artwork independent of context in gameplay or problems. General downgrading of quality is apparent comparing today's material to times of Dawson, Boyer, and Parton mid-20th Century. Yet sheer volume means there may be just as many excellent new CVs as before. However, Next Chess candidate would take further winnowing this thread explores. Next Chess may even be one-of-a-kind discovery rather than invention per se. On the other side, poor quality at first read of chess variants becomes excuse for dedicated Mad Queen followers to maintain grown divide, as well as their status quo. That is why CVPage would have responsibility not yet assumed, to explain what is of above run-of-the-mill value or even up to Dawson's standards. Over-all, split increases since emergence of Internet and since Fischer Random announcement 1996. That greatest chess variant creator of all, T.R. Dawson, was author of FIDE-oriented BCM problem column for 20 years seems incredible.