Single Comment

Ferfil is FA (Modern Elephant)? In that case, they can. They are almost as good as a Bishop. Takes at most 27 moves.

The basic rule is that one of the pieces must be able to go from an edge square 2 steps from a corner to the corner in 3 moves. (Actually one uncapture, one move and one capture, when this makes a difference.) It can then switch its attack from (say) c1 to a1 after the other piece drove the bare King (trapped by the other King on b3) to a1. A Ferz cannot do that, but FA can, by two backward F moves plus one A move. That means it can even checkmate in combination with Knight.

(There are other mating patterns, on b1, in combination with 'forking pieces' that can cover a1 and c1 at the same time. But a Knight can usually not use these, as it would need to be on b3 for it, where you would also need the King to prevent escape to c2.)

mated    mate
King captures 7934984
mates     656         ( 0.28 sec)
in-1      352    2520 ( 0.39 sec)
in-2      528     976 ( 0.45 sec)
in-3     1600    4384 ( 0.58 sec)
in-4     6576   12192 ( 0.64 sec)
in-5     7840   30576 ( 0.76 sec)
in-6    15984   37376 ( 0.83 sec)
in-7    19128   64968 ( 0.95 sec)
in-8    31496   73128 ( 1.03 sec)
in-9    42840  116696 ( 1.19 sec)
in-10   53984  142440 ( 1.26 sec)
in-11   77392  178320 ( 1.44 sec)
in-12  123528  240720 ( 1.54 sec)
in-13  170656  338032 ( 1.78 sec)
in-14  256112  439520 ( 1.92 sec)
in-15  363952  588672 ( 2.26 sec)
in-16  519688  774192 ( 2.48 sec)
in-17  761312  997504 ( 3.03 sec)
in-18 1052304 1278280 ( 3.35 sec)
in-19 1431664 1578656 ( 4.17 sec)
in-20 1913048 1913712 ( 4.68 sec)
in-21 2356912 2190704 ( 5.73 sec)
in-22 2469552 2039736 ( 6.24 sec)
in-23 1932120 1370288 ( 6.99 sec)
in-24  968064  559120 ( 7.22 sec)
in-25  235472  101640 ( 7.47 sec)
in-26   28040   10824 ( 7.53 sec)
in-27     704     240 ( 7.66 sec)
in-28       0       0 ( 7.71 sec)
won:   23020400 ( 60.6%)
lost:  14841504 ( 39.1%)
avg:       20.1 moves