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Respect the power of three Wazirs - they can checkmate a lone King in 47 moves. Also, I think the position in the diagram can be reached, leaving the Black Alfil limited to two squares: (e2) and (g4). Surely White can eventually force a trade of one Wazir for the Alfil. Question: would replacing the Alfil with an Alibaba (A+D) save the draw for Black?
Positions like this suggest that promotion to colorbound pieces is a poor design choice.
One could also argue that promoting to the weak, color-bound Ferz enriches Shatranj with an interesting strategic theme: one has to plan Pawn manoeuvres such that you won't promote all your Pawns on the same shade. And definitely do not leave the opponent a defender on the other shade when you are playing for a win. This is already true in orthodox Chess, where unlike Bishops can draw even against a majority of 2 Pawns, despite the fact that these would promote to Queen.
It is true that Shatranj is quite drawish, but I think this is more a consequence of the Ferz being such a weak piece than of its color-binding. I doubt that promoting to Wazir would be much of an improvement.
This diagram shows a boring draw from Shatranj. If the White King moves towards (f3), then the Alfil can simply go back to its home square (c8). Positions like this suggest that promotion to colorbound pieces is a poor design choice. Try substituting three Champions (Silver Generals) and one Dragon (Ferz+Alfil). Now White can play
1. Champion a7-b6 check, King b7-a6
2. King d6-c5, Dragon g4-e6
3. Champion b8-a7, Dragon e6-c8
4. Champion a7-a8, ignoring the Bare King/stalemate victory and intending checkmate after moving to (b7). An FIDE Bishop (replacing the Dragon in the initial position) might be able to trade itself for a Champion and make White settle for a "mere" Bare King or stalemate victory. Some thoughts on piece values:
Rook=15, Bishop=9.5, Knight=9, Silver General=8.5, Ferz=5, Alfil=4, Pawn=3
I found the Fairy Tale Draughts link: http://www.zillions-of-games.com/cgi-bin/zilligames/submissions.cgi?do=show;id=406
I like the idea here, but would go further in the piece creation I might suggest the Wizrad having a cannon move (more the sense of magically popping up to capture. And the knight, I'd go with a Paladin (Knight/king move) I might also suggest an alternate pawn move be implemented, just to broaden the fantasy 'feel'
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True. But not very relevant. Three Ferzes do it faster when not all on the same color. (Addmitted, this rules out 1/4 of the cases.) But in Shatranj stalemate is a win, and even two Ferzes or Wazirs can force that on a bare King. And the worst case for the Ferzes is two moves faster than for the Wazirs, even when they are on the same color.