Enter Your Reply The Comment You're Replying To H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Nov 2, 2010 10:47 PM UTC:I never tested R+A or B+D. It seems concentration of targets is good for piece value, though. On Knight vs Commoner this effect is overshadowed by the slowness of the Commoner. But I would expect R+K (R+F really) to be better than R+A, as the speed there is set by the Rook component. But only slightly better. For B+D I am pretty sure it must be worse than B+K (B+W). Not only because of the smaller target concentration, but also because B+D is color bound. Now color bounding is not a big deal if you have the pair. But it will mean there is a large pair bonus, probably larger than the 50 centiPawn pair bonus for orthodox Bishops. So I expect a pair of B+D to be marginally weaker than a pair of B+K. But in the former case, 70-100 cP will come from the pair bonus. And in Spartan Chess you have only one, meaning that it will be some 50-65cP weaker then a single B+W. I once tested B+K and R+K by crowning the Rooks of one side, and the Bishops of the other, in an therwise standard FIDE array. IIRC the Crowned Rooks had a slight edge there, but less than half a pawn in total. Standard orthodox values (from Larry Kaufman) are B = 325, B-pair = 700 and R = 500. The B+K pair tested 50 cP stronger than two Rooks, so 1050, a 350 cP increase by crowning. Two B+K gained a bit more, so ~1380, so 690 a piece. On that scale R+N = 900 and B+N = 875. Edit Form You may not post a new comment, because ItemID Spartan Chess does not match any item.