I am trying to find a nice and elegant solution to my "unfortunate" , not symetrical Cheversi ... one thing is certain ... the problem is in the last attacking move for Black where White are left without any weapon to counterattack ... we were trying to offset this difficulty by "punishing" Black and forcing them to lose their most powerful piece, Queen, at the very beginning of the game ... it didn't work, Black still had long-range pieces to make the killing move ... there seams to be only one solution to this dillema ... just to create a rule that forbid Black to use any long-range figure in the last move ... in another words, the only piece that can be used in a last move by Black is King ...
it looks fair, Black has the freedom of the last move but it cannot be left without any guard from White, and the only guard is a weakness of the last used piece ...
We have to also remove the first mandatory move for Black side, still keeping White opening as KIng ... so, the whole answer into Cheversi problem is found at the end of the game, not in the very beginning ...
I was thinking about some othe restriction, like forcing both sides to play Kings as last moves, or even forced bothe sides to follow some kind of chain of moves in the last phase of the game, but it would be to limiting for the freedom of the game ...
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Summary: remove the first mandatory move for Black side, keep mandatory move for White (KIng) and force Black to use only King as a last pieces in the whole game ...
So, what do we have now ? White cannot attack at the very beginning, Black cannot attak at the very end of the game ... seams, that the whole battle will take place in the middle of the game ... both sides may wait for the 7th (for Black) and 8th (for White) move to use their Queens, or may chose to use them somewhat earlier ... game can be defensive from the very beginning or agressive, depending on how Black will move and, of course, how White will follow ...
These new rules will ensure that there is some kind of symetry and distribution of power ... there is no ideal game for both sides, look at chess, reversi, five in a row, renju ... there is always some problem ... I hope my new rules King FIrst/King Last will make this game more enjoyable.
Regards,
Andy.