>>12board game engines that allow for easy creation and distribution of board games exist, and they have the advantage of not being strictly based on chess so you don't need to bend chess rules beyond recognition to implement something not chess-like. I don't see how a chess-based one would be superior.
also, while I see the merits of a board-game engine as it can more or less translate into anything turn-based, I don't see the point of SL clone. I guess this is meant for everything 3D but the fact that it would be geared towards MMOs will probably hurt anything that's supposed to be offline. wouldn't a general 3D game engine like Unity be better?