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George Duke wrote on Sat, Dec 12, 2009 04:54 PM UTC:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=FatallyFlawedM/C
The Fatally Flawed Carrera compounds thread should have been renewed before
because of more than 25 comments. It's easier to directly link here anew
one or two early comments starting the original thread. They are in the top
10 variant pieces with Gryphon, Alfil, Dababba, Camel all of great
historical importance, from when piece-type additions were more obvious. Centaur
BN and Champion belong there for others to complete, the major 10, or major
20, CV piece-types back to year 1300. Of course excluded as conventional
pieces from any novelty list are RNBKQP and probably Cannon -- however
someone decides eventually to refine such classic leaders.
Think of them as Knight compounds, the Carrera pieces from year 1617. We
tend to think of the slider first but it's the Knight that gets jiggled with,
the Knight whose in both oddities. I think they are the most widely used
variant piece-types ever. Queen is fully accepted, and they are not.
Because there's the question, does the standard Knight need compounding?
With what? Non-royal King, the mediaeval Man from German Courier Chess is
one Knight compound. So are Knight plus Camel, and Knight plus Zebra.

John Smith wrote on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 07:32 AM UTC:
I think no, George. Augmented Knights ruin regular Knights and augmented
Knights coalesce into deadlock with sliders with their common moves, unless
augment is oblique which most of are awkward. Knight still underranks
Bishop, though we are taught otherwise, as RGB is modern color but RYB is
art. However, there is not yet viable solution to Knight augment problem
when this gap widens.

George Duke wrote on Sun, Dec 13, 2009 08:24 PM UTC:
John Smith says ''not solution to Knight augment problem when gap
widens'' favouring ''augment oblique.'' Charles Gilman's solution is
duals, and I think he would say compounds of duals are the better
piece-types. Camel is Knight's dual and the compound Gnu, an old
problemist piece, triangulates, like all duals.
In fact, there are many Gnus in 'ECV'. Zebra's dual is Zemel(1,5 leaper)
and the compound of the duals is called Zebu, another triangulator, good
for planning moves, and you just start thinking of those squares together. However, these augmented piece-types are for boards 10x10 at a minimum and mainly 11x11, 10x12, 12x12. Since ''when gap widens'' weakens, they need to be compounds oblique -- in Chessboard math we exclude Bishop-diagonal being radial from ''oblique.''
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=2322
This started the original thread mid-2008:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/displaycomment.php?commentid=17586

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