Single Comment

George, I will not dispute any of your opinions about Chieftain Chess, but I must correct an assumption of yours as to the provenance of the pieces used in this game. If you would read the 6 oldest comments on this page:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?itemid=MSlemurianshatra
you will see the linear hero and shaman pieces actually used in the preset came from the bent hero and shaman pieces in Lemurian Shatranj, and they came from the zigzag pieces of Atlantean Barroom Shatranj. Those zigzag pieces are the bent version of the linear double-jumping pieces in Grand Shatranj, and those pieces are logical extensions of the modern elephant and warmachine I used in Great Shatranj. Great Shatranj is an outgrowth of Modern Shatranj, which grew from a conversation I had with Roberto Lavieri in Game Courier Tournament #2 during our game of historic Shatranj. As supporting evidence of the general thrust and timelines of my work on shatranj-style pieces and variants, I offer the ShortRange Project. I will also note that those same 6 bottom-most comments show the actual provenance of the 'sliding general', named the 'Hawklet' and used by Adrian King in a 16x16 [go Adrian!] called 'Jupiter'. The Padwar, chained or free, is the piece used by David Paulowich in Opulent Lemurian Shatranj, is a double-ferz piece, and is credited to Jetan by Mr. Paulowich. Mike Nelson compared Lemurian Shatranj to Jetan for feel, but said in a private communication they were not Jetan pieces. So I must thank you for the compliment, George; you are the second person to compare me to ERB. I am now doubly honored. But to the best of my knowledge, the dabbabah-wazir combinations I have used in Grand, Barroom, and Lemurian Shatranj are unique, and their step-by-step development can be clearly seen. Also, there are some speculative ideas/pieces in the wiki, for future projects. I am always happy to say that this person here or those people there came up with some piece or idea first, but here: first, I can establish a clear chain of pieces that includes and goes past the hero and shaman in my work, and second, the pieces are [probably] unique. At least, I don't think anyone has shown otherwise. When that changes, if it does, I'm sure the change will be noted here.
;-)
Enjoy,
Joe