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H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Nov 28 08:14 PM UTC:

Since the AH ('Newt') and DG, which I wanted to use in mini-Onslaught, are rarely used pieces, I had a look at their checkmating abilities. Of course they are both minors, so they must be paired with another minor to be able to force checkmate on a bare King.

The AH is semi-potent, allowing it to force mate together with a forking piece like the Camel, but in the general theory we have seen that a Knight, although forking, is always an exception to this. The Bishop is potent, and can force mate together with almost anything on boards of arbitrary size, so we will not further consider that. The Modern Elephant (FA) performs as well as a Bishop up to 10x10 (the largest size the Applet can handle). Because the AH is not forking, a pair of AH cannot force checkmate at all.

DG is more interesting: the D move makes it a potent piece. So in principle it can perform a checkmating manoeuvre together with any piece. But it is a color-bound piece, so this applies only to corners of its own shade, and if the partner is color bound it must of course be on the opposit shade. This limitation spoils the checkmate of DG + N, even on 8x8. The large leaps make the DG a clumsy piece, and together they cannot drive the bare King to the required corner. On 9x9 all corners are the same shade, and if the DG is on that shade, DG + N can force checkmate.

DG + AH can force checkmate on 8x8, but not on 10x10. Apparently the Newt cooperates better with the DG than a Knight does. If we equip the DG with an additional non-capturing DD ride, it can force the checkmate with AH even on 10x10. (This is relevant for mini-Onslaught, as on its own half the DG would have this move.) So it is a bit of a boundary case.

A pair of DG can force mate on 10x10. Provided they are on opposit shade, of course. Then all corners are deadly, and driving the bare king into a deadly corner is relatively easy.


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