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Which one of those chess teams is better?[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Rodrigo Zanotelli wrote on Sat, Feb 14, 2015 03:25 PM UTC:
Which one of those 2 chess teams is the better one?

Team 1= Like usual but dont have the queen, but pawns can still promote to
a queen

Team 2= Have another king, that is on the place of the queen, pawns can
stll promote to queen. New king can also castle (obviously respecting his
new position), castling is a rook and king move. Team 2 lose if any of his
kings are mated, he cant leave or put any of his kings in check

Steven Streetman wrote on Sat, Feb 14, 2015 05:56 PM UTC:
Just to be sure before I comment.... What variant of chess are you talking
about. Spartan Chess?

Ben Reiniger wrote on Sun, Feb 15, 2015 03:49 PM UTC:
Steven, it does not sound to me much like Spartan Chess.  Team 1 is missing
the queen; Team 2 has the usual army except for the doubled king; Team 2
loses if either of their kings is lost.

This seems like a good thing to set up and run many games on a computer.  I
would guess that the double royals is more of a detriment than a benefit.

H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Feb 15, 2015 04:40 PM UTC:
I am already doing that. Had to change Fairy-Max a little for it, because
since I had it support Spartan Chess I switched it to applying extinction
rules (with or without duple check) to the royals, rather than absolute
royalty. But now I am running again with rules where loss of the first King
is fatal. Will report when I have enough games.

After 100 games the two Kings were leading by 52-48. This is not a significant difference, so it seems the extra King is just as much as a liability as an asset. (An extra Pawn would cause something like 68-32.) It makes little sense to try to measure this more precise without improving the strategy. The King pair has an obvious winning advantage in a Pawn ending, when no piece can threaten them anymore. (Although KK vs K is a draw, so the extra K is equivalent to an extra minor.) But in the middle game you get mated more easily, and even against just two Rooks the Kings are mated very easily (by a skewer or fork). So it seems obvious that the 2-King side must strive for trading, i.e. all pieces of the 1-King side should be considered worth somewhat more than the corresponding pieces of the 1-King side, because of the extra danger they represent to the King pair. As in the late end-game there will always be 2 vs 1 King, it becomes relatively important to know that KK vs K is draw, to avoid bungling wins by needless trading of the last Pawn. (The same holds for KB vs K and KN vs K in normal Chess, but these are quite rare, so that bungling those does not impact your score too much, while the Kings always survice to the end.)

Rodrigo Zanotelli wrote on Wed, Feb 18, 2015 02:55 PM UTC:
This is not exactly a variant. Just 2 chess teams, they work with the usual
chess rules, but with changes I said on my text.

Anyway, I didnt even said what team is black or white, to not influence the
values of the team.


King is said to have infinite value, so those 2 teams came into my mind,
one doenst have the queen (but can still promote to queen) and the other
have an new king in the place of the queen.
So one lost -9 points and one "gained infinite points".

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