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Dimachaer ChessA game information page . Introducing the Dimachaer, a bifurcation piece that always lands on the diagonal second leg (zrf available).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Oct 9, 2009 01:03 PM UTC:
In my mind this makes these pieces less regular. A Cannon on c1 would not be blocked by Pawn on c2, despite the fact that it does not really move on the first (non-capture) leg of its move.

The most elementary Bifurcator, which does not seem to occur in your list, would be a Slider with a Y-shaped path triggered by a collision. That is, it would be able to make both captures and non-captures to squares on either leg. That means it might not get to the second leg of the path at all.

Anyway, even with your restriction the piece is easy to program. I have started a test now on 8x8, where I replace the Knights of on side by Dimachaers.I gave them a value slightly below that of the Knight, to stimulate trading it for light pieces. A piece like this should decrease enrmously in value in the late end-game, so trading it during the middle game should be a priority. (Similar to Grasshoppers.) This is much less true for the Cannon, which at least keeps its non-captures on an empty board.

After 30 games the Dimachaers-vs-Knights result is still pretty much even.