Thank you, @vickalan.
This was entertaining for me too (but it seemed too quick for me 
). I hope to play with you again, @Martin0 in the distant future. I guess I should learn to coordinate my new pieces better.
Bulldog Chess with Witch (FortunaMajor - Martin0)
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Thanks @vickalan,
I'll be happy to play you sometime in the future @FortunaMajor. One thing I want to say is that I may have gained a lot more tempos than you might think in the opening. If we take the position after 14 moves I want a bit of a recount if you moved any pieces more than once.
Black: No pieces have moved more than once, except the guard, but the guard is a slow piece that needs several moves to get active (most other pieces have in common that they only need to move once to attack the center).
White:
Dark squared bishop: Bg4, Bxi6 - 2 times
Light squared bishop: Be3, Bc5, Bxb6 - 3 times
h1-knight: Ng3, Ne4, Nxd6 - 3 times
e-pawn: e4, e5, exd6 - 3 times
I don't want to call each time you moved a piece more than once to be considered bad, but consider this.
If your dark squared bishop would manage to play Bd1xi6 in one go you would save time compared to the game.
If your light squared bishop would manage to play Bg1xb6 in one go you would save time compared to the game.
When it comes to your e-pawn and h1-knight, let's take a step back and look at a common move order in the Sicilian:
You have probably seen at least that many moves in the Sicilian before. It is a reasonable opening playable for both sides. The exchange of moves I want to focus on are:
White: Nf3, d4, Nxd4 - 3 moves
Black: c5, cxd4, Nc6 - 3 moves
If we translate those moves to a bulldog game it would be
White: Ng3, e4, Nxe4
Black: d5, dxe4, Nd6
Again that exchange of moves is something reasonable for both players. What happened this game was that the same pieces moved and if we only consider the result of those moves the position becomes the same. The main difference is the amount of moves it took to do so:
White: Ng3, e4, e5, exd6, Ne4 - 5 moves
Black: d5, Nxd6 - 2 moves
So I did not gain 1, not 2, but 3 tempos (!) this way. If you want to justify your 9.e5 move I think you had to play either play 10.exf6 Qxf6 and hope that my e-pawn and g5 pawn are weak enough to justify the time it took to move the pawn several times or just stay on d5 and keep the tension. I also think a developing move, like 9.i3 or 9.Qf2 was more reasonable than moving your e-pawn again.
Loosing a tempo here or there might not be a big deal, but a lot of small things tend to add up in the end. I think these tempos are what gave me a pleasant position.
Good discussion about opening strategy. In classical chess many players often use opening rules such as these (partially based on Fine's rules for the opening, and Lasker's rules for the opening):
-Get a firm foothold in the center - a pawn on one of the center squares. And don't give it up without good reason.
-Move your king to safety by castling. (harder to do early with board 10 wide?)
-Complete your development before moving a piece twice or starting an attack. By move 12, you should have connected your Rooks, or be about to do so. (our board is 10 wide so harder to do this)
-Move your minor pieces out early, generally move knights before bishops.
-Don't move out your major pieces (queen and rooks) where they will get chased around by the little guys and possibly trapped.
-Don't grab pawns or attack if you haven't completed development; especially, don't charge around with your Queen trying to hoover up pawns.
-If one side gets ahead in development:
If you are ahead, start something going and open up lines for your better pieces.
If you are behind, don't start anything and keep things closed until you have caught up.
This is especially true if you have not castled!
Obviously, these rules are for normal chess. I'm not sure which rules need to be modified for the variants we play. I guess that's one of the things that makes it fun.
The witch making pieces transparent makes it easier to open up the position. I believe this makes it more important to not get behind in development (harder to keep things closed) and even more important to get castled (easier to open up lines in front of the enemy king in the center).
A bit of a spoiler, my main criticism of JohnHS - vickalan game will be that black never got castled.
I normally only send trophies for games that I moderate, or games in tournaments, but this was a good game with great entertainment value! Trophies for Martin0 and FortunaMajor!