Chess "inspired" game with Variable game board

I really like this idea and think it has a lot of potential. One game that immediately came to mind is called Khet: The Laser Game. Here's the BGG link: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16991/khet-the-laser-game

Taking and moving pieces in this game is very different from chess, but many of the basic concepts are similar (pieces move in different ways, a single "king" to protect, etc.). The game comes with three different suggested starting layouts, but also notes that players can design their own layouts. The big difference between this game and your idea is that the board is static (although the position of pieces can have a much greater impact on the total board than in chess), but some of the basic mechanics may be interesting for you if you're not familiar with it. I'll be interested to see how your idea evolves.

Alright I’ll take a stab at this:

How to generate random terrain on a grid:

Use a standard chess board (or don’t, any grid will do) with notation.
Create a series of pieces that look like Tetris or Blockus pieces. These are impassible (but mobile!) terrain.
Create a deck of cards with pictures of the blocks and notation listed in the corners. At the start of the game draw X cards and set up the board accordingly. So if the first card you draw says to put a 1X4 line of impassible terrain running from B3-B7, put the blocks there.

Now onto the trickier question: How/why would you want to do this?
How: Using chess as base you would add a certain number of these pieces to the middle of the board I would create the cards so that they didn’t drop pieces on either the first or last 3 rows. On the standard chess board this would only leave the middle two rows so I would make the board longer. Give each piece of terrain a chess rank (knight, rook, bishop, etc) this would be listed on the card as well as the piece. These pieces would be neutral. Either player could move them, according to their listed rank, on their turn instead of moving one of their own pieces. Captures cannot be performed with terrain pieces, no matter who is moving them.
Why: Well this would make chess as it stand’s different (though not necessarily better). My guess is that this would make chess run really LONG. A larger board, stuff to get in the way, all of this would serve to just slow the game down.

Really I think that what is needed to make this design flower is some thought around goals and means. The goal in Chess is to trap the opponent’s king. The question of “What if Chess had mobile terrain that both players could control” is answered (in my humble and clearly only partially constructed opinion) as “the game would sorta fall apart.” That isn’t because mobile terrain that both players can control is a bad idea, it just doesn’t work in Chess. So let’s think about goals. Since you want to make a an abstract territory control game in which there are neutral pieces that both players can control and that function as terrain (that is they don’t capture and they can’t be captured or moved across) I would start with trying to figure out what the players are trying to achieve. Do they want to arrange the “terrain” in some specific pattern (Tetris or Blockus) Do they want to capture the opponent’s king? (Chess) Do they want to make a connection of pieces between two opposing sides of the board (Hex or Punct)? Get all their pieces to the other side (Chinese Checkers)? How do they achieve their goals? Is it “on your turn you may move one piece?” Why not action point allowance (you have 5 action points, moving different pieces, including terrain, costs different amount of points)? Refusal Chess (your opponent has the option to veto your move, but must accept your second choice) offers interesting possibilities.
What’s the goal?
How do the players pursue it?

PS: I’ve made it my mission to try to add a meaningful response to every thread I can. This is very counter intuitive to me, as in meat-space I try to only make pertinent comments and keep my opinions to myself. I’m doing this to try and give back to the design community. I am, by no means, educated in my opinions and I’m totally shooting from the hip. If I’m getting on your nerves send me a PM and I will stop posting in your threads.