What does symmetry have to do with the general rules?
Chess48
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It doesn't have to do with the general rules directly, thundersnake. But I believe that a balanced distribution of the pieces between left and right makes the game more harmonious. I'm not talking about feng shui here: I just think that all pieces should be equally distant from the center of the board, thus distributing evenly their offensive potential. And yes, I admit that there's an aesthetical concern involved here, too. 
But chess isn't about harmony, as I say that it's about the surprises and shockingness of the game.
Well, at this point we are approaching a very subjective matter. I believe that the starting position asks for some harmony, even because this game is nothing but an annalogy of a real world combat, and armies have their order, their logic. Troopers, cannons, tanks, everything has it's place, they don't advance randomly. It's not by chance that classical chess was first invented with a symmetric opening position. But again, this is only my opinion.
Now, after the first 10 or 15 moves, harmony disappears and chaos reigns, and that's how it should be.
This is more and more like chess.
So here's the story.
I have lost love with traditional chess because the openings memorizing issue. Since then, I have been playing Chess960, but there's something that bothers me about it: the lack of symmetry.
It seems to me that a symmetric opening is as carved into the soul of chess as is the way pieces move . So I was wondering if it would be possible to have a chess variant where the initial position of the pieces is random, but resulting in a symmetric initial setup.
The answer: Chess48.
Rules:
1. Piece in column A must correspond to the piece in H; the same applies to B and G; C and F; D and E (King and Queen are considered equivalent for symmetry matters);
2. Black mirrors white;
3. There's no castling (so there's no need for the King to be between the two Rooks, like in Chess960).
The number of combinations is 4x3x2x1=24,
BUT
since King and Queen are not actually the same piece, for every possible setup you could have one of them with the King on the left half, and one with the Queen on the left half, resulting in 48 possible opening positions. I believe that 48 is a number already big enough to prevent opening memorizing, with the advantage of beeing symmetric.
Thoughts?