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Kamikaze III. If the lone queen checks, she wins.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Duke wrote on Fri, Jul 2, 2010 12:28 AM UTC:
Actually of course White always should succeed, even against Maharaja (Knight + Queen) piece-type too, several times justified in Chess Variant Page, recently at
 http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=24978. Variantists I was designing with once settled on that larger board is enough for the Maharaja. That may not be correct, and offhand now it is unclear which square size reverses the spoiler. 12, 11, or just 10? The cook can mean either is sure to win or actually there is unavoidable draw by good-sense play, according to board size. '8x8' is thus cooked whether Queen or Amazon by win of f.i.d.e force. That one single size of many possibilities has about the only decided outcome to date. On theoretical large enough, Maharaja-Amazon at least Draws, even against nine Queens from 8 promotees. Even though they have to move and keep moving, cannot RNBQKBNR always stay connected no matter the size? In time, that is, since neither Rook initially is ''connected'' in full sense of ''protected.'' And then Maharaja cannot pick off so much as a single Pawn. However, not so. That connected protection does not necessarily close every line of attack on King when the board outsizes the array, and not every square is reached by the 16 pieces/pawns. A piece interposing a check for example may unguard so much as a Pawn.  So instead by 12x12 does Maharaja take Pawn, or Rook, if just by starting checks on King from behind the lines, that have to be advancing if any Pawns move at all, giving freer rein? Then imagine Maharaja, who is hard royalty to trap, can capture up to the whole force before checkmating. Which is it for which sizes? Is there intermediate size where Maharaja wins, or else there is real competitive Chess with no apparent advantage? The latter is supposed to be realm of playable CVs. And on board far enlarged, does Maharajah not just Draw but Win for sure? There are experiments too with other Armies against Maharaja, one example 10-wide with Carrera pieces RN and BN. Surprisingly on 12x12, 14x14 etc. it takes study to settle what one solitary RBN-Maharaja does against Queen, Centaur, Champion and the entire f.i.d.e.-counterpart other 17 pieces and pawns. [All above is assuming the classic Maharaja and Sepoys version of the objectives.]