Is it possible to protect against replay protection by the following simple steps:
1. Send your coins on one side of the forked chain into any address that you own.
2. Wait until the transaction is confirmed.
3. If during that time you get replayed, go back to step one. You still have access to all of your coins since you own the private key.
4. If you are not replayed, send the coins on the other chain to a different address.
5. Wait until confirmed... done, your coins are split.
Is that correct?
I believe you are correct. But presumably if the transaction wasn't replayed on the second chain, it will be replayed momentarily or is already in node mempools.
The thing is, there is great incentive to run scripts that automatically replay all network transactions, to give the appearance of significant network activity. The 2X side doesn't want to give the appearance of a dead network, and there is no fee disincentive to discourage replaying transactions. It's a free attack. So I wouldn't expect your plan to be viable most of the time. You might end up wasting a bunch of time and fees.