H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Mar 4, 2018 09:44 AM UTC:
An advantage of 10x10 boards is that they are easy to obtain in all qualities from cheap and ugly to beautiful and only moderately priced, because of International Draughts. I have two of thos myself, not because I play Draughts, but because they usually are on the flip side of an 8x8 Chess board.
On the new Chess Variant forum there is a contest for designing 10x10 variants; I think the submission date just closed today. I submitted a variant 'Decimaka', with 26 pieces per player, to stay close to a 25% board fill. Pawns shifted up to 3rd rank, to have the usual 4-rank 'battle theatre', and no need for new Pawn moves. The back rank only contains 6 pieces, amongst which King and Rooks, and two pieces that can (amongst others) jump 3 diagonally forward, so that castling can be quick.
The inspiration for the variant, which makes it (quite) different from 'ordinary', was Maka Dai Dai Shogi. This means that most pieces promote, and Pawns promote only weakly, but promotion is on capture, rather than on reaching a zone.
An advantage of 10x10 boards is that they are easy to obtain in all qualities from cheap and ugly to beautiful and only moderately priced, because of International Draughts. I have two of thos myself, not because I play Draughts, but because they usually are on the flip side of an 8x8 Chess board.
On the new Chess Variant forum there is a contest for designing 10x10 variants; I think the submission date just closed today. I submitted a variant 'Decimaka', with 26 pieces per player, to stay close to a 25% board fill. Pawns shifted up to 3rd rank, to have the usual 4-rank 'battle theatre', and no need for new Pawn moves. The back rank only contains 6 pieces, amongst which King and Rooks, and two pieces that can (amongst others) jump 3 diagonally forward, so that castling can be quick.
The inspiration for the variant, which makes it (quite) different from 'ordinary', was Maka Dai Dai Shogi. This means that most pieces promote, and Pawns promote only weakly, but promotion is on capture, rather than on reaching a zone.