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Peasant Revolt. Modest variant with unequal setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
George Svokos wrote on Wed, Nov 4, 2009 01:18 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
I think the possible advantage of black may actually not be relevant, even if they do have one (though I am not convinced its skewed heavily in black's favor.) In Hoyle's book of games, it states that 'The Peasant's Revolt is another exercise in end play...It can probably be demonstrated that the knights win, but with less than expert management they are hard put to a draw.' Its certainly true if black loses two knights and their pawn they will be 'hard put to a draw.' And if Frey indeed intended this to be an 'exercise' in end play the it should be probably viewed as a chess problem or puzzle rather than a game per se. Few problems/puzzles are equal in strength. The starting array is unusual for an 'end play exercise,' however this means we should probably have a different mind-set (end game, not opening game) in terms of tactics when playing Peasant's Revolt. Frey probably (although they remain unknown to me currently) had his reasons for designing the Peasant's Revolt end play as he did, and changing it changes his rationale for designing the problem the way he intended (with concomitant different results.)