jeremy good wrote on Fri, Jul 13, 2007 05:58 PM UTC:
Ralph Betza considers that particular two move ferz that is allowed the null move, therefore rifle shoot, to be close in value to a FAD. Your own two move pieces, without the rifle shoot, are weaker. Lemurian Shatranj works on an 8 x 8 board and has more powerful pieces than the ones you include in Lemurian Temple Shatranj. Quoting from Betza:
Ralph Betza considers that particular two move ferz that is allowed the null move, therefore rifle shoot, to be close in value to a FAD. Your own two move pieces, without the rifle shoot, are weaker. Lemurian Shatranj works on an 8 x 8 board and has more powerful pieces than the ones you include in Lemurian Temple Shatranj. Quoting from Betza:
I said 'a 2move Ferz or a 2move Wazir would be worth only a bit more than a Knight'. Does this make sense? An AF seems to be worth nearly as much as a Knight, an FD is perhaps only slightly weaker than an AF, and a FAD is worth, well, 'a Knight and a half' minus a correction for being colorbound.
A 2move Ferz combines the powers of F2, zF2, and 'shooting Ferz'. Actually, it's even a bit better than that because it can capture 2 pieces in one move. Unlike the FAD, the 2move F in the opening position cannot jump out from f1 to d3, ignoring the Pe2 which is in its way: the 2move F, in a normal setup, has no legal move until a Pawn makes way for it.
I think a FAD is worth about 4 Pawns, and I think that a 2move F should be close in value to a FAD. Is this 'only a bit more than a Knight'? Close enough, I guess.
The army that uses the FAD is, of course, the Colorbound Clobberers. A variant version of this army, using 2move F instead of FAD, sounds interesting.
p.s. I think it would be more fun to allow the doublemove pieces rifle shoots. - j.g.