Single Comment

Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Joe Joyce wrote on Sat, Aug 14, 2010 10:39 AM UTC:

Let me use Ralph Betza's own words on knight vs commoner to bolster my observations on values of the two pieces: 'Well, no; in 1991, when the above was written, I thought that a non-royal King was worth less than a Knight, but in 1994 I discovered that the King is worth more IF you know the right strategy to take advantage of its strengths!!! A very important lesson!'

I've designed a number of games using both commoner and knight. [I also, on those very rare occasions when I play FIDE, tend to not castle; instead using the king as a support piece in attacks, on the theory that I'm not very good and need all the power I can get.] Interestingly, against human opponents, I am rather difficult to beat, but Zillions has disposed of me easily, by playing a helter-skelter style. I've actually never beaten Zillions, but I have won against people who beat Zillions. Style is important to how people play. Style doesn't affect the ideal value or the actual practical value, but it does affect the perceived value. And thus, circularly, affects peoples' styles. This, at least, was what Ralph was talking about.

Clearly, the values of the pieces are related to the task they have. If you change the task sufficiently, the values logically should change along with it. Let me give 2 examples. The first is chess as a race. Keep all rules the same except for the winning condition. The king becomes demoted to an ordinary piece. You win the game by being the first to place any of your pieces or pawns on the opponent's back rank. Do the pieces now maintain their values?

The second example is Chieftain Chess. This large variant has 32 pieces/side on a 12x16 board. There are 4 knights and 12 guards per side. There are also 4 short range [3 square] bishop-like and rook-like pieces per side. Finally, there are 4 'kings' each, which move 1 or 2 squares: 1 square any, then the next any, except back to the original. Move as many pieces as you have kings per turn. Win by capturing all the opponent's kings. In this game, I believe commoners are more valuable than knights, specifically because they can interdict enemy kings.