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Good to see someone taking up my Ascii Art diagrams for hex Chess!

I did not played it yet, but idea is very interesting! I was thining of hexagonal game with similar pieces, good that i have read this page before posting it!

It's certainly much more logical than Wellisch chess and it's good place for pawns from Glinsky chess. It's alternative variant of 'standart' hexagonal pieces. The only advantage of McCooey chess is that bishops are colorbound and knights are colorswitching.

The only thing that i can't understand: Korean elephant (zebra) analogue is sennight. If i'm right, sennights are knights from Glinsky-McCooey chess. Zebra analogue should have only half of sennight's moves, while other half is camel analogue. And full sennight is, of course, bison analogue. On this diagram i marked zebra analogue's moves with 'z' and camel analogue's moves with 'c':

________________ ___/ . \___ ________________
____________ ___/ . \___/ . \___ ____________
________ ___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___ ________
____ ___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___ ____
 ___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___
/ . \___/ . \___/ c \___/ c \___/ . \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ z \___/ . \___/ z \___/ . \___/
/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/
/ . \___/ z \___/ . \___/ . \___/ z \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ . \___/ x \___/ . \___/ . \___/
/ . \___/ c \___/ . \___/ . \___/ c \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/
/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ c \___/ . \___/ c \___/ . \___/
/ . \___/ . \___/ z \___/ z \___/ . \___/ . \
\___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/
____\___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/____
________\___/ . \___/ . \___/ . \___/________
____________\___/ . \___/ . \___/____________
________________\___/ . \___/________________
____________________\___/____________________

Am i right or not?

I'm aware you've done large board work, I've been looking at some large
variants lately and your name is one of the few that comes up at sizes
bigger than 10x10. It's amazing how the numbers of available games drops
off as the size increases. There are roughly 2000 published variants in
the 64 - 100 square range, and I found 2 in the 600+ category. Good luck
with your Ringworld hex design. To do justice to the concept, you'd have
to use a very large board, long, narrow, and cylindrical, I'd assume, but
I'm sure there are other ways and other themes, Ringworld is big enough
for many. 
I checked out 'Hafts'. Charles, that game is tricky checkers, I swear!
:-)
We definitely don't agree on the lower limit for chess; that's what
makes horseraces. You seem to place the line just above checkers
[draughts]; I would place it much higher, right around the 6x6 game. I
suspect my line might be too high, but 'how far down' can you go before
the chessness is gone? For example, is a king element necessary, and, if
so, how much of one? If not, why not, as chess has always had kings? Go is
not chess. Neither is draughts [checkers], but it's closer, we both agree
on that. Is the move from using half the board to the whole board
important? Is simulating 1 chess piece enough? 
What do you think about this?

Well, I went pretty near the Chess-Draughts border with Hafts, using the difference in direction between capturing and noncapturing moves as an analogy to the Pawn in Chess. Yes, one of my approaches is a minimalist one, and this could be seen an an example, reducing the number of directions per linepiece in contrast to Glinsky's increasing of them. On the other hand it is also motivated by avoiding the problem of using the hex diagonal, which is not always blocked by a full orthogonal, as analogue to the square one that is.

I have also done a fair amount on the grand scale. Nested Chess and Sultan's Elephant Chess are examples of large-board variants with transformed FIDE armies hidden in them. You mention 3d Minishogi, but that combines minimising range with maximising dimensions (for most players' comprehension at least), and is part of a series of 3d Shogi variants of mine.

Now that you mention a science fiction context I do recall reading of a name something like that. You've given me an idea. There are already some sci-fi-themed variants on the site. Perhaps I should try and devise a Ringworld Chess on a suitably shaped large hex board, with some of the Fore- and Hind- pieces listed in comments.

Charles, you lead me to ask just what, exactly, chess is. Specifically, in
this case, what the lower limits of chess are. I don't think there are
any hard and fast breakpoints where, if you've got [or not] one thing, it
is [or isn't] chess, regardless of what else is there. But I haven't
thought about this before, and would be interested in hearing your
thoughts on it, as, with games like this and 3D minishogi, you are clearly
designing some things near that edge. 
Sorry about the too-obscure reference. Pierson's Puppeteers are an alien
race introduced by author Larry Niven in the novel 'Ringworld', I
believe. Google the internet. They are famous cowards , and their leader,
the most revered creature of their species, leads from the rear, all the
way back, the farther the better. This exalted leader is called 'the
Hindmost'.

Hi, Charles. You're right about the miscount. And when I read over my
original comment preparatory to writing this, I did not like the tone, and
for this, I apologize. This is supposed to be a discussion, not a harsh
criticism. You get one free snipe at me.
I thought about this game for a while before I decided it didn't have
enough pieces for a chess game, in my opinion. I think it needs more
maneuver and piece interaction. I'm sure others will differ, very
possibly most. But here's my reasoning:
There are only 2 pieces of consequence in the game, the full rook and the
half rook, and they both have exactly the same mode of action, unlimited
orthogonal slide. [And the names Forerook and Hindrook are inextricably
entangled with Pierson's Puppeteers in my mind.]
The viceroys are ineffective. It takes a half-dozen moves to get one
across the board and into attack position. You see them coming; and all
you have to do to defend is step 1 hex, and they can never threaten you.
They need a better move. How about they keep their current move, but allow
them a color-changing move to any adjacent hex in addition. This would give
them a good close-in defensive ability. Maybe restrict the 1-hex move to
only the 2 rearmost hexes relative to the piece, keeping it weak, but
giving it a chance to support or attack any piece.
The pawns are very nice. I believe that is truly the only way to have
pawns, as pawns, on a hex board. But both flanks of the pawn line hang
totally unsupported in air. Even in the Eastern versions of the game where
the pawn line has holes, the entire front is covered - sketchily, to be
sure, but the line runs from side to side. I think this is a weakness, too
readily exploited by the rooks. 
The king is a 1-step that isn't likely to attack on such an open board
with rooks. 
Let's look at coverage. A half rook covers 10 to 15 hexes of 91. The FIDE
rook always covers 14 of 64 squares, a noticeably higher percentage. The
half rook acts much more like the FIDE bishop, which covers 7 to 13
squares of 64. The FIDE queen covers 21 to 27 of 64, the full rook, 20 to
30 of 91.
You're effectively using a queen and 4 bishops, without any meaningful
knight support [and low pawn support] to cover 91 hexes. 
I seem to have written a book here. I think you have a very nice game
idea, but only half a chess game. As a board game, this may play well, and
then I'll have even less to say, but I think it needs more. You've got
your basic longrange pieces, nice pawns but too few, and the king. Come up
with a few short and medium range pieces that work well, and you've got an
excellent game. Just let them have some area coverage for offense/defense
as you already have point and line pieces. Maybe do something that is more
forward than back moving to balance power.
Again, this is all my opinion. Andy ? likes this game just as is, so
believe him rather than me. If anyone who's hammered you the way he has
says this is a good game, it certainly must have something going for it.

You have miscounted the cells. There are only 91, the same number as in the three historic hex variants, not 109. In view of this, do you still think that there are too few pieces for them? What about in the 3-player variant?

Regarding notation, the secojnd array is 3-player and there are not three cases of letters to distinguish them. Single letters would be confusing if I use this method for a wider range of hex variants - rather than my previous practice of having a ffen diagram for the 2-player array and leaving readers to work out the 3-player one for themselves! I would be interested to hear which you think preferable.

Those apart you make some good points. I never said that Viceroys were a good Knight analogy, but they are a historic one. It has just struck me that on the Glinsky/McCooey orientation one way to make unbind the piece would be by adding an extra move directly forward, either a single or a double step. Which would be better, do you think? Such a piece could be reduced in number, and the Rooks increased, to two. The names Forerook and Hindrook were thought up fairly quickly, and if you can improve on them while retaining the ease of extrapolation I'll happily listen to your ideas.

Started off reading this thinking 'what's Wellisch?' and, 'hey, this is
pretty good', but neither thought lasted. I found this an interesting idea
poorly executed. The rules could be much easier to understand. They seem to
me to be dense, esoteric, and hard to follow. The intro is a bit much; who,
or how many, can understand merely from what you wrote just what you're
talking about? Please, explain all the terms you use, in common English.
Another example is the setup diagram, which is cluttered with letters and
numbers. One letter, much easier to see and understand, could be used for
each piece, with the sides differentiated by the standard capital and
small letters, with no loss of info. I hate to say your names are worse
than mine, but... Also, knights are not usually considered colorbound
pieces, yet these 'knights' [Viceroys] are confined to 1/3 of the board,
and are closer to alfils in spirit and move than the knight. Finally, I
think the game needs either more pieces or fewer hexes; the pieces you
have are few in number and generally weak. The 3 knights cannot work
together, leaving 5 pieces, 4 of them of moderate strength, to cover 109
hexes arranged in 11 parallel columns. The 5 pieces? A 'hex' rook and 4
half-rooks. You probably need more piece types, as well. I'd suggest
adding 6 more pieces, preferably a combo of medium and [powerful, unlike
the 'knights'] shortrange pieces, and 4 more pawns, building up and
extending the left and right flanks to the 'sides' of the board. 
Interesting idea, nice use of the grain on a hex board, no meat.