Great Shatranj (2006)

"As chess evolved from shatranj in the West, pieces gained power by becoming long-range sliders, producing an abstract game where most pieces can cross an open board in a single turn. Eastern variants stay closer to the beginnings of the game, which featured a number of short-range sliders and leapers, but the power pieces still seem to be long-range. What if long-range pieces did not come to be so dominant? Suppose the short-range pieces of chess' infancy became more powerful by gaining additional short-range moves? Great Shatranj examines some potentials of these pieces, offering 5 different pieces that slide 1 square or jump 2 squares. Each player has up to 8 leapers on the board, giving the game a noticeably different flavor. The game is played on an 8x10 board and is played with standard chess rules, except as modified by the specific piece movement rules. Great Shatranj is a short-range Capablanca actually Carrera Chess variant. Kings, knights and pawns are the usual pieces, but bishops, rooks and all the pieces that use them as components have been replaced by analogs that step 1 square or leap 2 squares, only, in the bishop or rook directions. This is the second game in a series of shatranj variants offering an alternate history for chess. It may be played with a standard 8x10 Capablanca Chess set. http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSgreatshatranjm "