Kevin Pacey wrote on Sat, Feb 4, 2017 09:35 PM UTC:
Just a guess, but the value of having even just a single guard in the endgame could be lower than I imagined on even a relatively small 8x8 board. This is because there could be less chances of creating a mismatch somewhere, if both sides have a king plus guard, and material is pretty equal in other ways too. That's since a potential attacking king can be opposed by a king (or sometimes even a guard?) in one area (or side) of the board, while elsewhere a potential attacking guard can be opposed by a guard (or sometimes even a king?) as well. Then it would seem harder to sufficiently distract a defensive side's king or guard in either area (or side) of the board for an offensive king/guard to break through somewhere, via a mismatch. The guards might thus be considered to have at least some good defensive value, but I suppose if attempting to measure the value of a lone guard vs. a lone minor piece (with a supporting cast of equal armies for both sides), a high number of draws tends to devalue it, if it scores just a few more wins than would be par (for instance).
Just a guess, but the value of having even just a single guard in the endgame could be lower than I imagined on even a relatively small 8x8 board. This is because there could be less chances of creating a mismatch somewhere, if both sides have a king plus guard, and material is pretty equal in other ways too. That's since a potential attacking king can be opposed by a king (or sometimes even a guard?) in one area (or side) of the board, while elsewhere a potential attacking guard can be opposed by a guard (or sometimes even a king?) as well. Then it would seem harder to sufficiently distract a defensive side's king or guard in either area (or side) of the board for an offensive king/guard to break through somewhere, via a mismatch. The guards might thus be considered to have at least some good defensive value, but I suppose if attempting to measure the value of a lone guard vs. a lone minor piece (with a supporting cast of equal armies for both sides), a high number of draws tends to devalue it, if it scores just a few more wins than would be par (for instance).