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In Airplane Chess, the airplane moves both diagonally and orthogonally. There seems to be no specification or limit to its long reach power - it can jump over pieces in-between to capture the last piece in the line. I got the idea from checkers not from airplane chess. The whole reasoning between my choice for the 'immediate landing' bomber used in Birds and Ninjas rather than the extended landing bomber was that pawns are too vulnerable and easily attacked. It is not clear but I suspected that this *might* increase the number of draws. Airplane Chess will most certainly lead to higher number of draws since pawns are *much* more vulnerable than either version of the flying bomber. The nature of airplane being so difficult to defend against would make game much wilder and very different from Flying Bombers as well. The other mode of the flying bomber is essentially the Dabbabah (from which the cannon might have derived) as noted.
Thanks - I did not see that..The word immediately was wrong in that context and has been removed.
Standard Move - first line :
* The flying bomber eliminates an enemy piece by flying over it, and landing on any empty square immediately after it on the same orthogonal line. It cannot fly over or capture a second piece.
So that aspect of 'immediately after it' is what threw me (being different from how we played). But,as I read it now, the 'Optional' variation is the same as the new 'Standard' one. Also, Diagram 3 is for the original bommber. I think the word 'immediately' needs removed from the Standard move.
Optional Variation:
'Immediate Landing' Flying Bomber A more limited version of the bomber can be used, instead. In this case, instead of landing on any square after the enemy piece, the bomber must land immediately on the first empty square after the enemy piece. The special Helicopter landing move remains unchanged.
Once again, I think this is a great variant. Best regards, g
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The article mentions the Flying Bomber cannot force checkmate on a bare King. I am not sure this is correct. It is true that a pure Locust (mR[cR-mW]) cannot do it, because it cannot check the corner. But it can check on the edge, (parallel to it), and the D component in the helicopeter move can check the corner. This makes all the difference:
A Bomber confines the bare King just like a Rook would, except that it leaves an escape hole at the board edge. But if the bare King would try to make use of that it would voluntarily have to move towards the edge (the attacking King chasing it to stay close), and would immediately get trapped on that edge rank or file. Like
when it was so foolish to attempt crossing the e-file (sealed by a Bomber at e1) at e8. From here you could get 1... Kd8 2. Fh7 Ke8 3. Fa7 {to get the Bomber on the safe side} Kf8 (3... Ke8? 4. Fa8#) 4. Ke6 Kg8 5. Kf6.
After 5... Kh7 we get 6. Fa8 {covers g8} Kh8 (6... Kh6 7. Fh8#) 7. Fb8 Kh7 8. Ff8 {covers h8 with the D move} Kh6 9. Fh8#. So the escape hole h7 offers no solace, but the alternative (that doesn't get you mated immediately) isn't any better: 5... Kh8 6. Kg6 Kg8 7. Fa8+ Kh8 {with a Rook this would have been checkmate, but now the corner offers shelter} 8. Ff8# {but not for long!}.