From: Michael Vanier <mvanier <at> BBB <dot> CALTECH <dot> EDU>
Date: 17 feb 1999
Subject: Re: shuffle chess(or shogi)

[Larry Kaufman:]
> Of course
> it is theoretically possible that some configuration might give the first
> player an enormous advantage, but I don't believe that at all.  The space
> between the armies is too great for that to be plausible.

This is an important point, of course.  I think this illustrates one
advantage of a game which delays early interaction between the forces: if
there were immediate interaction between the two sides, then some opening
setups might be biased towards the first player.

> Also, any
> proposal without the randomizing factor (such as just modifying the starting
> position or starting with pieces in hand, etc.) has no merit, because the
> new position would be just as susceptible to analysis as the normal starting
> position, and memorized theory would immediately become important.

I agree with the first point (that just modifying the starting position to
a different standard starting position is not sufficient).  The idea of
starting with pieces in hand (the pre-chess idea) is interesting.  One
possibility is for each player to set up his back ranks secretly.  This has
two disadvantages: people will tend to gravitate to favorite opening
setups, and there will be a large luck factor involved (my setup may prove
to be extremely vulnerable to your setup and vice-versa).  It's preferable
to have the players place the pieces in alternating order like in
pre-chess, but again this can lead to standard patterns (although I think
it may take a very long time to work them out).  Thus, I prefer the
randomized version too.

Mike