Has anyone tried Courier Chess?

Courier Chess was an evolution of shatranj that was co existent with modern chess around about the 1450 to 1550 time period, but gradually was eclipsed in favour of modern chess.These days it's mostly known through a painting by a Renniasance master 

Professionally made sets are very rare and extremely expensive so I decided to make myself a smaller scale version using modelling clay! It's a bit rough looking  but I think it captures the look to some degreeI use the Zillions Of Games program to play it as well as other chess variants. Overall I think it's an improvement on shatranj as the couriers (whcih move like modern bishops ironically) make it more dynamic, and there are a few more pieces and a larger board. However I still don't think it has the same  depth as modern chess. The Queen is very weak compared to todays gaem and there is little incentive to promote a pawn. Still a lot of fun though IMO! Games can last a long time and have an epic struggle feel to them.

I tried Courier Chess with Fairy-Max, and I was a bit disappointed in it for the reasons you mention. It is a lot better than Shartanj (which is absolutely awful), but it is still a pretty slow game. I was playing with the rule that Pawns promote to the worthless 'Ferz' Queen always, (the actual promotion rules seem to be unknown), and that doesn't really help to decide the game.

If you like historic Chess, I can recommend Grande Acedrex, described in the Alfonso codex published 1283 AD. It predates Courier Chess by nearly 300 years, but it was far ahead of its time. It also has Bishops (called Crocodiles there) and Rooks, and did away with the Ferz Queen and the worthless Elephants. Although it did not have the modern Queen, it has a piece nearly as strong, the Griffon, (basically a double-barrel Rook), and another piece stronger than Rook, the Rhino/Unicorn (a double-barrel Bishop), and a piece nearly as strong as Rook, the Lion. The weakest piece (a (3,2) leaper called Giraffe) is only slightly weaker than a Knight on the large (12x12) board. Promotion is to the piece that started on the promotion square, so there are plenty of decisive promotions.

I have configured Fairy-Max to play Grande Acedrex now, and it does seem a quite exciting game.

I think Shatranj is a case of "it was good for it's time, but...." I think if modern chess didn't exist and someone came up with the idea of shatranj it would be a big hit worldwide and shatranj clubs would spring up all over the place. But after playing modern chess it seems quite clumsy and slow.

Courier chess I view as an improvement, but I suppose part of the reason I like it is that it has a sort of historical charm to it. I can imagine many a rennaisance mechant whiling away an evening in a candlelit room playing courier chess. It seems to more fully employ  a true medieval court too, with couriers, sages and fools! Currently I'm quite enjoying how to play it best. I think that central control is still an important point but it's clear that it still can't be played the way modern chess is. Well, if I ever manage to master it, I'll let everyone know....

Another good thing is that I think it's actually possible to become reasonable at it within one lifetime, unlike tamerlane chess or the 36x 36 board shogi variant! Lunacy....

Hey Bangersnmash70 -- very nice mock-up of my courier chess design. Seriously, I am flattered that you took such care with it. True, I can't produce the sets fast enough ... I've got a waiting list!
Anyway, more info on that and ALL the historic variants in our new book, A World of Chess: Its Development and Variations through Centuries and Civilizations. I hope you'll check it out!
Rick Knowlton

Oh ... here's the video... http://aworldofchess.com/video.html --

It is already more than a year since the last post but I would still like to share my "fast setup" based on two chess sets plus some Musketeer pieces. It is by far not as cool as the ones based on the van Leyden painting but for trying it out it does the trick. The board is just some print outs glued together - nothing special either. I use the Cannon for the Courier because of the "C" as well as having two of them for a Western Xiangqi setup.

I recently started exploring and playing the Courier chess. It has a lot of similiarities with Shatranj and Makruk. The principles of the pawn structures are almost the same but the game is little bit more dynamic because of the couriers, which move like the modern bishops. 
Are there players who are interested to play this variant against me and help me to explore it in real games?

Has anyone tried Reformed Courier-Spiel, developed by Clément Begnis and still on an 8x12 board? He writes here about two earlier attempts to modernise Courier Chess, and then in this 2011 article explains his own suggestions: http://clement.begnis.free.fr/

You can play this against the Jocly computer (even though the main Jocly site doesn't appear to work anymore) although I don't think it's terribly strong: https://gothicchess.info/jocly/examples/browser/control.html?game=reformed-courier-chess - you can play Courier Chess there too, click on 'Other Jocly games' at bottom right. Apparently you can play on Zillions too.

I have played Courier Chess against Zillions of Games, and I have played two live, over the board, games of it at the Pennsic War.  (Google it if interested.)

You are beautiful

Reformed Courier Chess by Begnis is very interesting and can now be played (with either AI or human opponents) on Pychess-alternates: https://pychess-alternates.onrender.com/variants/reformedcourier

Emanuele, Italy

https://sites.google.com/site/emanuelesaiu/chess