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Using grid would probably help you avoid this problem too. With grid, you should be able to make one column or row diagonal, though I have not yet tried using grid with hexagonal boards. My CSS code for hexagonal boards uses absolute positioning, as grid was not yet part of CSS when I wrote the code. Anyway, absolute positioning is another alternative to using tables.

I am not familiar with this technique, but a problem could be that it is not just about positioning the images, but also about translating mouse clicks to cell coordinates. (Which must also work for empty cells, for entering non-captures.) In the table version I have attached event handlers to the cells for this.

The I.D. represents the board through a HTML table,

Game Courier used to use HTML tables for hexagonal boards, but I gave up on this in favor of using either CSS with a board image or drawing the board image. This reminds me that I was working on getting CSS to work with a generated board image so that you could view each position of the game without reloading the page, but I haven't completed that. I think I had two different approaches and wasn't sure which one to go with. I either wanted to change how I generated the board so that the image would be perfectly symmetrical, or I wanted to modify the code to work with the asymmetrical boards I was already generating. I lost sight of what I was doing when I got caught up with other projects.

in theory it should be possible to create a table with a masonry-like tiling, shifting each subsequent rank by half a cell.

I imagine this would be easier to do with CSS grid, because, as far as I know, table columns remain vertical.

I have tried this, though, and it works to some extent. But for reasons that I do not grasp yet it also changes the height of the ranks in a way that I could not control.

Using grid would probably help you avoid this problem too. With grid, you should be able to make one column or row diagonal, though I have not yet tried using grid with hexagonal boards. My CSS code for hexagonal boards uses absolute positioning, as grid was not yet part of CSS when I wrote the code. Anyway, absolute positioning is another alternative to using tables.

Is it possible to make an Interactive Diagram use a hexagonal board?

The current standard scripts do not support that. The I.D. represents the board through a HTML table, and in theory it should be possible to create a table with a masonry-like tiling, shifting each subsequent rank by half a cell. This could be done by giving the first cell on each rank colspan 1, 2, 3, 4, ..., and all other cells colspan="2".

I have tried this, though, and it works to some extent. But for reasons that I do not grasp yet it also changes the height of the ranks in a way that I could not control.

Once the pieces are displayed on the hexagonal grid defined by the table, suppressing cell borders and coloring would allow display of a custom hexagonal board image as background.

Is it possible to make an Interactive Diagram use a hexagonal board?

Since it's the featured variant for this month, here's Glinski's HC:

But with shuffle.

For my own comparison of this fine variant to the equally fine McCooey's Hexagonal Chess, see my review for the latter variant.

Decades ago I saw values given for the pieces in Glinski's (that would seem to apply to McCooey's too): P=1; B=3; N=4; R=5; Q=9. I'd add that I estimate the fighting value of K=4 approximately (though naturally it cannot be traded).

(Maybe you added it after finding an answer on wikipedia, but that pawn rule currently appears here as rule 3.)

I found the answer on Wikipedia. It says "If a pawn captures from its starting cell in such a way that it then occupies a starting cell of another pawn, it can still make a double move."

I am working on a new Game Courier preset for this game that should handle win/loss conditions, and it occurred to me that double moves can be handled in one of two ways.

1. A double move is allowed only on a Pawn's first move.
2. A double move is allowed from any space the same player could start his Pawns on.

Has there been any ruling on which is correct? It makes a difference if a Pawn moves to another space that another of his Pawns started on by capturing a piece.

Live hexagonal chess competition will be in Hungary on
8-11 July 2010. More details at 
http://5mp.eu/fajlok/hexasakk/2010_tamasi_k_angol_www.5mp.eu_.htm
All are welcome!
Peter

The next live hexagonal chess competition will take place in Hungary on
12-15 March 2010. More details at 
http://5mp.eu/fajlok/hexasakk/versenykiiras_angol_www.5mp.eu_.htm
All are welcome!
Peter

I have been playing Hexagonal chess with this layout:

http://mail.maclaunch.com/richmond/hexchess.html

for years. I believe it is better than Glinski's because there is greater
space between opposing pawns.

Hexagonal chess is no more drawish than normal chess, and it is no more
difficult to deliver mate than in normal chess.  It is true that the king
has greater mobility, but so does most of the other pieces.  The reason
why some beginners believe that it's difficult to deliver mate is
probably that spotting mating patterns can be a bit tricky for beginners;
partly because the game is unfamiliar, and partly because there is a
bigger number of potential flight squares to inspect in order to mentally
verify that it is indeed a mate.

I am the author of Scatha, which is probably the strongest hexagonal
chess
program available today.  Unfortunately, it only runs on Mac OS X.  If
someone is interested in giving the game a try against a strong opponent,
I would be happy to play a few informal e-mail games with Scatha.  I
would
be very impressed if someone manages a draw.