Threaded Turns

You start with a bunch of weak pieces on the board. Make them count. Drop a limited number of stronger pieces during the game. Build your position and win the match piece by piece, or field your strongest pieces to attempt an early attack. The royal piece is very weak, so you have to watch out at any time for sudden attacks.

You start these game with the following piece in hand, that you can drop with Seirawan rules:

Rook 1x

Bishop 1x

Knight 1x

Non-royal king 1x

Wazir 2x

This variant is somehow analogous to chess, xiangqi, shogi, etc. Nonetheless, my aim was to make it feel like its own game—more precisely, like its own archaic game. From western chess it takes the pawn and the 8x8 board. From xiangqi it takes the horse and a weak royal piece. From shogi it takes a single rook and bishop. Also, the non-royal king might act similar to a shogi general.

Tentative strategy tips:

* wazir < dabbaba < pawn < alfil < ferz < xiangqi horse < king < knight < bishop < rook.

* for an aggressive opening advance the b-c pawns to drop the rook on a semi-open file.

* sacrifice pieces weaker than a xiangqi horses to break a pawn chain.

* advancing the enemy soldier is a positional advantage.

* a simple answer to early attacks: deploy a king.

* if your opponent is cramped, don't open his position.

* play the long game, then sacrifice your pieces to deliver checkmate.