Rom-142857
MemberI make and play chess variants because I'm bored of not improving at standard chess.
I always test my variants based on three criteria : balance for weak players, balance for strong players and imbalance between strong and weak players.
I see games in a mathematical way : I don't care if my variants are ugly,
because I focus on possibilities of winning or drawing. Tactical means to me mistakes end quickly the game and strategical means mistakes end the game ... not quickly.
This testing is not enough and my variants are often SLIGHTLY bad because they are either :
-Too complex/sharp;
-Too simple/drawish;
-Not tactical or not strategical (with a meaning surely different than mine because my tests don't allow that)
-Winning for White or for Black with some level of play I can't ever achieve;
-Not unique;
-Not played in an intuitive way (I don't care!)
-And other reasons I have not discovered yet
I only make 2-player variants because I'm not patient finding 2 or 3 opponents.
As a chess variant player, I rely mostly on my intuition. I only calculate when I think there is a tactic. Otherwise, I just develop my pieces and try to make threats. On the sharp variants, I avoid tactics and trade pieces but on strategical variants, I tend to make the game complicated enough so that I enjoy playing