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Peasant Revolt. Modest variant with unequal setup. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Mar 25, 2010 06:40 AM UTC:
The reason why the array
is less friendly to Black than it looks is twofold. Firstly, a Queen can be captured in one move whereas two Knights cannot. Secondly, Knights can be moved otu of camp straight away, whereas a Queen usually requires two moves: first a move either by a Pawn or to a camp square with a clear path, then a Queen move out of camp. The exception is that c7-c6 allows two Queen moves out of camp. This means that Knights can be developed more quickly, with Pawns only needing to be moved at all in order to prevent Checkmate once the Queens do break through. I suspect that Black might do better without the v7 and f7 Pawns, despite this making a still smaller army! Incidentally, how are Pawns promoted? If it's White to Knight and Black to Queen because that's what they start with, Black should be able to compensate for the slow development time and concentration of power, especially as their Pawns have necessarily been developed. If it's White to Queen and Black to Knight because that's what starts on their promotion ranks, Black is stuffed.