Request: Revamp XXL Chess.

I would like to acknowledge that I have no hate to the author nor I think chess.com shall not host a variant of this concept.

I have 3 reasons for this. 

1. The board size is simply too excessive. I knwo what people think: It'S xXl ChEsS!!!! It ShOuLd Be As BiG As It CaN!!!! But in a time period where a variant has to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT for it to be accepted, the 14 by 14 board makes a lot of pieces in XXL Chess redundant. I would suggest a 12 by 12 board for the revamp. This makes moves feel like 4 developing moves and 1 attacking move and so on. I have played games before and it is literally a tradefest, and makes calculating rows and diagonals a chore to do Because of the modern standards, I think this should be revamped.

2. Because of this, some pieces are simply redundant. Take the knight as an example. In 4pc, a variant with the same board size as XXL Chess, the bishop is 5 points, whilst the knight being 3. But here, it's 2 player. Thus, the knight is close to useless. DO not even get me started on the camel. Insanely weak piece, I think it is as useless as the alfil in chaturanga. This makes most combat centered to long ranged pieces, and the guidelines of variant creation states that no piece should be redundant to the game, and I do not see a reason why that guideline is disobeyed. 

3. It is simply not fun. Combining the factors of 1 and 2, you will not imagine a variant being fun. According to variants.world, NCV's should be balanced, fair, interesting, unique and of very good quality. This variant only follows 2 out of the 5 disciples in my eyes. (balanced and fair) My past play experiences has also proven it to be unfun. This may be more subjective. But I am a thousand times more willing to play something like Ends Meet then XXL Chess. 

After all these complaints, it will be weird to not post a revamp I roughly think suits the concept and makes it better.

This does not solve ALL the issues, but I strongly think a revamp of some sort should be done.

okay

i cannot give an opinion on whether I disagree with your points in high level games because I suck, but I would like to point out that variants should be learning in the way you go, and if only high level plays are fun, then what's the point with 98% of the variants population?

Maybe I just overhate bad variants because I am a creator, but low level games, which are over 90% of games in a variant is still boring.

Just to add on, I believe 50% of ALL VW Sibmissions will look stunning with 2 almost perfect players.

I mean, yeah, but some variants like Ashtandrez and Blackletter Chess are still fun at low level.

VC is an exception

yes

Also, for low level games low quality and boring are 2 different things. Low level VC games are well bad quality, but the 2 players are still having fun. That does not apply for XXL Chess.

I've only played XXL Chess 1 time. It was against my friend (WildFox). We agreed on a draw on move 3.

thanks for supporting my hot takes.

its a good idea

keep xxl as it is plz because its board size is not too ecsessive

XXL Chess is very old in terms of custom chess variants on chess.com (it was made by @Arseny_Vasily in around 2019-2020 iirc). So yea, you could say that it’s a legacy variant (or that it was “grandfathered in”, if you so please).

If the question then becomes “would you accept this today if it wasn’t already listed?”, then I would say that maybe yes, maybe no. Big variants are always hard to make and not having something like this just leaves a hole.

That being said, we’re not going to just replace or remove one of our most popular and easy to learn variants just because it doesn’t look modern. It’s a great introduction to a ton of fairy pieces, has significance in variants history, has variety of strategy (contrary to popular belief, 14x14 variants are not always autodeclined just because they’re big, we do actually look at gameplay), etc.

amen

If you don't like it, just don't play it, like me.

I do ask that you look in a mirror first. (joke)

Why'd you change your pfp to Prathu_19? (just out of curiosity)

I'm guessing you lost a bet.

XXL Chess is unique,there is not any variant that has all 14x14 squares present,instead of the transparent brick removing the squares.

XXL chess is very sharp, as the promotion race starts immediately. there is one weak square on the kingside, but it is fairly easy to defend. the camels protect several key squares in the opening, and you may be missing that weak pieces are important trading tools, forcing the opponent to "trade down". camels also stop promotion effectively. I personally feel that the gameplay is interesting.

me3