George Duke wrote on Tue, Mar 24, 2009 04:45 PM UTC:
Cowards, abuse and their enablers, asymmetric warfare, environmental degradation. Asymmetry beckons
infinity, philosophically and scientifically. The contradictions: not only is 8x8 over-used -- abused as it were -- so are 6x6, 8x10, 10x10, 12x12, 10x16, 16x16 and all such boards exhibiting more than mirror symmetry. We are practically using asymmetrical and unsymmetrical synonymously. If flipping the board (rotational symmetry order 2), opposites see the same board (not necessarily starting arrays), your bourgeois CV-art is stuck in limbo of symmetricality. The Long March: Betza broke the new ground, because Betza's Chess Unequal Armies is the pieces-equivalent of asymmetric board! Betza says there will be CUA takeover in 21st century, Betza's standard from all 150 CVs. (One wonders, what is Gilman's chosen best among his equal 150 CVs?). Once each asymmetric board is chosen, corrections are in order to right imbalances. Examples are Ramayana and Ultra Slanted Escalator, both having mirror symmetry across one midline, but players facing different board patterns. More extreme is dispensing with even any reflection symmetry (Catastrophic 8x8 by Missoum). In either event, Rules not usually altered to help balance asymmetric board must be considered: en passant, castling, Betza unequal armies, Berolina pawns, all offbeat rules restoring semblance of balance. For every case symmetric, there are scads and scads and scads of unsymmetrical and skewed boards and/or piece-ownerships, retaining recognizability to the core. Moreover, asymmetry is pathway to the real world, in some cliched ''every act of the common day makes or breaks character.'' CMXV presumes to be introduced by Hermes Trismegistus: ''That which is above is as that which is below, and that which is below is as that which is above, to perform the miracles of the One Thing.'' Asymmetry is the order of the day. CUA (unsymmetrical pieces) is around for 30 years now, and unsymmetrical boards are equally inevitable. Anyway, White, or Black, first-move means asymmetry in process, and only a lopsided board could conceivably really restore that.