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Companion Chess[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Oct 12, 2014 09:33 PM UTC:
I intend to put a new Chess variant on Fairy-Max to highlight its new
feature that it now can perform checkmates that need to take place in a
specific corner (like Bishop + Knight). Before it always got stuck on those
in the wrong corner.

So I wanted a variant with many different 3-vs-1 checkmates. (In
ortho-Chess there are only two, B+B and B+N.) To this end, none of the
pieces will have mating potential on its own. And several pieces will be
color bound. To increase the variety, pieces on King and Queen side will in
general be different. (Only the corner piece will be the same, to allow
castling in both directions with the same piece.)

I am thinking of the following pieces:

RD7mW (the Queen replacement, Mats Winther's Adjutant, but with a
color-changing non-capture)

WN (Rook replacement, a color alternating 12-mover)

N, WA, AG, FA (all 8-movers, the latter two color bound)

K + P will be the normal FIDE pieces.

The 6 (non-royal, non-Pawn) piece types make 15 different pairs (plus 6
homogeneous pairs obtainable only through promotion, of which probably only
2x RD7mW would ever occur in practice). Of these 15 heterogeneous pairs,
only N + AG has no mating potential. For FA + AG they should be on unlike
colors, but they start that way. There will be 8 different pairs where one
of the pieces is color bound, so that the corners are not equivalent. The
mate with N + FA will resemble that of B + N a lot, and be possible only in
the color of the FA.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Oct 13, 2014 06:52 PM UTC:
I am in doubt now whether the Ancaa wouldn't be a better Queen replacement
than BDD. The later is color bound, so I added an color-changing
non-capture to it to make sure it still would have mating potential with
either of the other two color-bound pieces. But an Ancaa is a color
alternator, and would not need such a trick. Which makes it look a much
cleaner piece.

The only argument against it would be that it looks too much like the piece
I had in mind as Rook replacement, the WN. Although the latter jumps to the
N squares, while the Ancaa can be blocked on F squares.

So I was also looking for an alternative for the WN. One possibility for a
strong piece without mating potential is the Gnu (NC). But it is a
16-mover, which would make it significantly stronger than a Rook, while the
forward 3-leaps are also not recommended. So I might make it a sort of
sliding Gnu, which can reach the C squares only via the N squares (but
still jumps directly to the N squares). This is not too much stronger than
a Rook, and it takes the sting out of the forward C moves.

H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2014 08:52 PM UTC:
When I tried to submit this Chess variant, I discovered that the name
'Companion Chess' was already taken. Shame on me for not researching it
properly in advance!

So I decided to rename it to 'Team-Mate Chess', because the only way to
checkmate a bare King is by a team of several pieces.

I also solved the Adjutant-vs-Aanca dilemma in a way I am very pleased
with: I use them both! Team-Mate Chess has King + 7 different pieces in the
initial setup, but it offers an 8th piece as a promotion choice. So
initially the Aanca is present as Queen replacement, and sometimes it will
survive into the end-game and team up with another piece to checkmate the
opponent. But in other games most material will be traded, and mate will
have to be executed by promoted Pawns. By making the Aanca not eligible as
promotion choice, but the Adjutant in stead, such games will usually end in
a mate that involves the Adjutant, as the Adjutant, after the Aanca, is the
strongest piece in this game.

But in this case I can take the original, color-bound version of the
Adjutant, without discriminating against either Elephant or Mammoth to team
up with it. Sometimes you will promote to Adjutant on a light square,
sometimes on a dark. So all three color-bound pieces get a chance to team
up! And when the promotion square of your last Pawn is of the same color as
the only other piece you have, which, oh disaster, is also color bound, you
are forced to under-promote to a non-color-bound piece to save your mating
potential. Probably the Rook-replacements Cobra or Unicorn, as these come
next in line, strength-wise. Fairy-Max for this reason always promotes to
Cobra in Team-Mate Chess (as it does not know the concept of
under-promotion, and would not be smart enough to make the right choice
anyway). This forced under-promotion will drive up the number of different
checkmates with weaker pieces one will see in practice, rather than
automatically ending in Adjutant + something.

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