I don’t really feel like the Champion and Wizard are “missing pieces” the same way the Cardinal and Marshal are. There are a practically infinite number of pieces that could possibly exist, so I’d expect most possible pieces are not included in the game (Betza’s Chess with Different Armies is a nice exploration of this). Omega chess doesn’t even feel particularly complete- where are the pieces that can move exactly 1 square orthogonally or diagonally? If a champion is to rook as the wizard is to bishop, what is the knight to? I feel the correct completion of that is the knightrider, but there is no knightrider in the game. And we still have this weird gap where we have rook + bishop = queen, but rook + knight and bishop + knight are missing.
While I expect that most possible pieces will be missing from any variant, I happen to agree with Capablanca and Freeling that the lack of marshal and cardinal in orthodox feels weird. In orthodox, the queen is a strange wildcard that is unlike any other piece, whereas in grand chess the queen, cardinal, and marshal make a nice set, naturally extending the knights, bishops, and rooks.
Beyond any considerations of completeness, I also just feel more excited about the Cardinal and Marshal than most other variant pieces. They feel like fireworks to me, and I’d prefer a game with them over a game with a few new weaker pieces
I don’t really feel like the Champion and Wizard are “missing pieces” the same way the Cardinal and Marshal are. There are a practically infinite number of pieces that could possibly exist, so I’d expect most possible pieces are not included in the game (Betza’s Chess with Different Armies is a nice exploration of this). Omega chess doesn’t even feel particularly complete- where are the pieces that can move exactly 1 square orthogonally or diagonally? If a champion is to rook as the wizard is to bishop, what is the knight to? I feel the correct completion of that is the knightrider, but there is no knightrider in the game. And we still have this weird gap where we have rook + bishop = queen, but rook + knight and bishop + knight are missing.
While I expect that most possible pieces will be missing from any variant, I happen to agree with Capablanca and Freeling that the lack of marshal and cardinal in orthodox feels weird. In orthodox, the queen is a strange wildcard that is unlike any other piece, whereas in grand chess the queen, cardinal, and marshal make a nice set, naturally extending the knights, bishops, and rooks.
Beyond any considerations of completeness, I also just feel more excited about the Cardinal and Marshal than most other variant pieces. They feel like fireworks to me, and I’d prefer a game with them over a game with a few new weaker pieces