Sam Trenholme wrote on Sun, Feb 26, 2006 07:25 PM UTC:
I find it ironic that, seven years after this variant was proposed, people finally make a big fuss over its name. This is not the only Grand Chess variant, and won't be the last Grand Chess variant. Unlike 'Grand Chess 2', which implies the variant was invented by the same person who invented the original game, 'Grander Chess' is more clearly seen to be something invented (or fine-tuned) by someone else.
The whole 'protect all of the pawns' business comes from two things:
When playing rook odds in FIDE chess, the rook pawn is often times advanced one square before the start of the game in order to not have an undefended pawn.
There were some serious problems with a well-known opening setup which stemmed from having undefended pawns in the opening array.
Unlike Shantraj, in 'mad queen' chess the pieces have more mobility; one can far more quickly attack the opponent's undefended pawn. This often results in the opening becoming one where white attacks the undefended pawn and black has to handle the business of defending that pawn instead of engaging in normal development. Of course, there are setups where the undefneded pawn is probably not a serious liability. For example, the undefended pawn in Aberg's variant can be defended with a normal Nd3 developing move (but this also makes it easier to pin this knight and threaten a pawn on f4).
The whole 'protect all of the pawns' business comes from two things:
- When playing rook odds in FIDE chess, the rook pawn is often times advanced one square before the start of the game in order to not have an undefended pawn.
- There were some serious problems with a well-known opening setup which stemmed from having undefended pawns in the opening array.
Unlike Shantraj, in 'mad queen' chess the pieces have more mobility; one can far more quickly attack the opponent's undefended pawn. This often results in the opening becoming one where white attacks the undefended pawn and black has to handle the business of defending that pawn instead of engaging in normal development. Of course, there are setups where the undefneded pawn is probably not a serious liability. For example, the undefended pawn in Aberg's variant can be defended with a normal Nd3 developing move (but this also makes it easier to pin this knight and threaten a pawn on f4).- Sam