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Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Jan 27, 2017 08:37 PM UTC:

Greg Strong wrote:  "I find it hard to believe that the knight enhancement is worth less than half a pawn..."

My own primative way of estimating the value of Aurelian's enhanced knight (i.e. a 'knightwa') would be to add the value of a knight (on an 8x8 board) to the value of a wazir, plus a pawn, to get my estimate for such a compound piece. On an 8x8 board I'd say a knight is worth 3.5 and a wazir is worth about half a king's fighting value (thought to be 4 pawns, by chess theoreticians) minus half a pawn, i.e. I think a wazir worth about (4-1)/2 or 1.5 (since a king's fighting value [or equivalently, a man's value] itself is worth a wazir + a ferz + 1 pawn, in my way of estimating, noting a wazir and a ferz are worth about the same numerically in pawns in spite of the ferz' handicap of being colour-bound, IMHO, since we're dealing with such small values). Thus Aurelian's enhanced knight (i.e. 'knightwa') I'd put tentatively at 3.5 + 1.5 +1 , or 6 pawns. Quite a difference in value assigned to the enhanced knight. Perhaps the true value of the enhanced knight is somewhere in between?

P.S.: My own estimate for a N and Man compound piece (known by at least some as a Centaur, i.e. which has both wazir AND ferz movement capability, besides a N's) on an 8x8 board would be N+Man+P = 3.5 + 4 + 1 = 8.5, which may or may not be fully in line with Dr. Muller's previously expressed (on CVP, I seem to recall) opinion to the effect that a Centaur is quite a strong piece.

P.P.S.: Fwiw, Ralph Betza once gave the value of a N and wazir compound piece (i.e. Aurelian's enhanced knight) as worth about a rook (which I think is 5.5 pawns, on an 8x8 board): http://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/ideal-and-practical-values.html


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