Have you guys visited schemingmind.com? There is a very large variety of chess variants available there, although i didnt see this variant on the list-maybe it has another name or something

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5

Did you know there already exists a server where you can play this on-line? I am working together with Yasser to set up an 'official' one, but currently I am running the test version on my own IP address. It uses WinBoard as a client (because that already supported Seirawan Chess, which you could play locally against the Fairy-Max engine included with it, which also supports it). I even installed Fairy-Max as a bot on that server, so you can play against a computer there if there is nobody else. (And there usually is nobody else, as this is just a test facility...)

It seems Yasser and his co-workers are going to test it next Sunday (no time set yet, but some of the co-workers are on California time, and Yasser is on GMT+1, so the window of opportunity is not very large). If you are interested to be there too for some live testing, you can find an instruction guide at http://hgm.nubati.net/VICS .

This is useless to me, because I have a MAC.

WinBoard is the Windows version of XBoard, which is available for the Mac. E.g. from WinBoard forum: http://www.open-aurec.com/wbforum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50428

Of course the install procedure will be different (and unknown to me, as I never had a Mac). But nce installed, XBoard should be functionally equivalent to WinBoard.

Thanks, I will give it a try and report back later.  

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3

There's also a new website, and a very good one, at the following address: http://seirawanchess.appspot.com/

Thanks.  It is this type of thoughtfulness that makes reading forums worthwhile. 

This great for playing a 'hotseat' match, thanks! Bookmarked. (two people at one computer screen)

Why would anyone want to do that on a web page, rather than just locally? Compared to a real GUI, with decades of developments behind it, this looks rather primitive.

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6 10 0-0

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6 10 0-0 Ne7 (Eg8)

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6 10 0-0 Ne7(Eg8) 11 Hg3

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6 10 0-0 Ne7(Eg8) 11 Hg3 Ba6

1 f4 b6 2 Nf3(Hg1) Bb7(Hc8) 3 d3 d5 4 c3 e6 5 Qc2(Ed1) Bd6 6 e4 dxe4 7dxe4 Nd7 8 Hf2 c5 9 Bd3 g6 10 0-0 Ne7(Eg8) 11 Hg3 Ba6 12 He2

Does anyone know how to get the elephant and hawk on the board when you are playing in winboard?

Click on the Ellephant or Hawk in the holdings, so that it gets selected. (It should get a yellow border, unless /overrideLineGap is set to 0.) Then play the move you want to play to gate it in. When you move by drag and drop, you should see the gated piece appear from under the piece you drag away. (Which is a good check to see if there was no mistake, as at this point you can still abort the move by putting the piece back on its original square).

thanks.

I tried to drag piece over the piece I was going to move. The board showed an arrow so I thought I was doing it right.