Enter Your Reply The Comment You're Replying To Joe Joyce wrote on Mon, Aug 20, 2007 01:24 PM UTC:George, you've got some things going here that, naturally enough, I don't fully agree with. Let me start by taking issue with the following quote: 'Disparagingly, 'pseudo-compound' fits also because of improbability that movements combining powers at opposite extremes, namely leaper and one-path slider, could be very effective within one piece. Hence their unpopularity.' Contingency, historic accident, is a poor base on which to build an argument of inevitability, and buttressing it with an unsupportable slight does not help convince the skeptical reader. That a piece is worthless, or at least worth little, if it is not in current use by millions of people, is at least historically demonstrable as false. New pieces do arise and are not always popular at first. Think of the genius who first invented the knight move; and then wonder just what his/her friends thought and said the first time that crooked jump move was used on them. How popular was that piece in the beginning? The piece I wish to consider is the combination dabbabah-wazir [DW]. Let me hasten to add that I don't expect this piece to take the place of the knight in 100 years, or anything close. But I do wish to examine some of the potential for this apparently unprepossessing piece, very specifically because it combines a leaping and a non-leaping component. The DW has as its basic moves a 1-square slide or a 2-square jump. If allowed to use both halves of its move, it leaps and steps 1 to 3 squares, an inclusive compound piece [DHowe 'A Taxonomy']. If the piece instead repeats its basic move once or twice, it becomes a limited rider and may move up to 4 or 6 squares. The 3 step DW rider is an interesting medium-range piece that I have not seen examined in any games. I don't have a real combination leaper and multi-square slider there, but the piece may leap once and step/slide 1 square twice in its move, or even slide 3 squares as its move. Will this piece do as a counterexample, George? Edit Form You may not post a new comment, because ItemID FatallyFlawedM/C does not match any item.