ChessV 2.0 - open source GUI and engine for chess variants

[Nordlandia]

A plain Commoner is worth somewhat less than a Knight, so also somewhat less than a lone Bishop. Bishop pair vs B + M is a significant advantage, though.

The WF (or Commoner)

The WF (which can be called the "Commoner") combines the powers of Ferz and Wazir. For example, from e4 this piece can go to d5, f5, f3, d3, e5, f4, e3, or d4.
If you were paying attention, you surely noticed that this piece moves exactly like the King! The only difference is that the WF is an ordinary piece, not subject to check. Because it is not "Royal", it can be called the "Commoner".

This is a very short-range and very flexible piece that is much weaker than a Knight in the opening, very strong in the middlegame if it can occupy the center, and almost always wins against a Knight or Bishop in the endgame.

Yes, that's right. An endgame such as K + WF + Pawns versus K + B + Pawns is almost always a win for the WF. Not only that, but the Pawnless endgame of K plus WF versus King is a forced win.

The weakness of this piece is that it takes a long time to get from one section of the board to another; for example, in the opening, it takes 2 or 4 moves to get a WF properly developed. Its strength is that it concentrates a lot of striking power in a small area.

<---|-|-|-|-|-|---->

So this is a decisive advantage for white, right?

For example: white can use the commoner guarded by the king to force the black king backward and threatening mate.



Source: http://www.chessvariants.com/d.betza/ch ... es/wf.html

[hgm]

It could be an advantage, because it is well known that Bishops aren not so good when the board is crowded with Pawns. I wouldn't say it is winning, though; it seems easy to draw by locking all the Pawns.

[Nordlandia]

It could be an advantage, because it is well known that Bishops aren not so good when the board is crowded with Pawns. I wouldn't say it is winning, though; it seems easy to draw by locking all the Pawns.

Let say if we add Nc1 and Bf8 | Imbalance KKN vs KBB

Do the bishop pair alone compensate enough, for the missing king?.

A pair of bishops shouldn't be underestimated.

[hgm]

I think it should. But you can easily test this by having an egine play this position, say, 1000 times, and observe the score.

[Nordlandia]

Which engine support such setup positions?

[hgm]

Sjaak II, Fairy-Max, Nebiyu. These are all configurable variant engines, so you would have to add a definition for a variant that features a Commoner first, as I don't recall any 8x8 standard variant that has a Commoner in it. After you select that defined variant in WinBoard, you should then be able to set up the position and set it playing.

E.g. for Fairy-Max I hijacked an old definition I had used for another test, and added the Commoner to it, like this:

Code: Select all

// variant - [new piece at corners]
Game: fun01 # PNBRQ.....M......HKpnbrq.....m......hk # fairy
8x8
8 4 5 7 3 5 4 8
8 4 5 7 3 5 4 8
p:74 -16,24 -16,6 -15,5 -17,5
p:74  16,24 16,6 15,5 17,5
k:-1  1,34 -1,34 1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7
n:259 14,7 31,7 33,7 18,7 -14,7 -31,7 -33,7 -18,7
b:296 15,3 17,3 -15,3 -17,3
R:444 1,3 16,3 -1,3 -16,3
Q:851 1,3 16,3 15,3 17,3 -1,3 -16,3 -15,3 -17,3
H:900 2,7 3,7 32,7 48,7 -2,7 -3,7 -32,7 -48,7 34,7 51,7 30,7 45,7 -34,7 -51,7 -30,7 -45,7
m:280 1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7
#
# H& ADGH
# M& K

[Greg Strong]

I think different represetation of the Kings is misleading, because the King might not stay of the indicated type when you move it.

I agree - I think it would be more confusing. You could move the guard piece thinking it is not royal, but it might be royal after the move. I think to play this game, you really need to understand how royalty is determined.

I have severe doubts whether introducing a new variant of this variant merely to avoid the asymmetry would be a good thing.

Why? Because you think the asymmetry is not a big problem, or because you don't think the game is interesting enough to warrant fixing?

[Nordlandia]

Is winboard 4.9 available for windows yet?

Please share download link

[hgm]

Well, there is a beta package at http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-AA.zip .

It still has some known defects, however. In particular interactive analysis in combination with the -fSAN option is somewhat disastrous.

I am too busy at the moment with the Tenjiku Shogi engine to dive into that.

[Nordlandia]

So do i need to add this code into configuration file of fairy max?

Place it at bottom right.

I can see that TwoKings is available when selecting variant, although fairy max can't play it.

I can't figure out how to edit position in winboard. I'm not able to select the pieces i want =(

Code: Select all

// variant - [new piece at corners] 
Game: fun01 # PNBRQ.....M......HKpnbrq.....m......hk # fairy 
8x8 
8 4 5 7 3 5 4 8 
8 4 5 7 3 5 4 8 
p:74 -16,24 -16,6 -15,5 -17,5 
p:74  16,24 16,6 15,5 17,5 
k:-1  1,34 -1,34 1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7 
n:259 14,7 31,7 33,7 18,7 -14,7 -31,7 -33,7 -18,7 
b:296 15,3 17,3 -15,3 -17,3 
R:444 1,3 16,3 -1,3 -16,3 
Q:851 1,3 16,3 15,3 17,3 -1,3 -16,3 -15,3 -17,3 
H:900 2,7 3,7 32,7 48,7 -2,7 -3,7 -32,7 -48,7 34,7 51,7 30,7 45,7 -34,7 -51,7 -30,7 -45,7 
m:280 1,7 16,7 15,7 17,7 -1,7 -16,7 -15,7 -17,7 
# 
# H& ADGH 
# M& K