Single Comment

Knightless symmetric chess. Missing description (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, May 20, 2010 12:31 PM UTC:

> but I am quite sure that a Ferz, even free of Fortress restrictions, 
> is far weaker than a Mao.

This is not so obvious. Embedded in a context of ortho-Chess pieces on 8x8, a Mao tested almost exactly as half a Knight (i.e. two Maos vs one Knight was a balanced game to the precision I could measure), while one Knight vs two Ferzes had only a very light advantage for the Knight (about a quarter Pawn). So with the standard value 325 (centi-Pawn) for the Knight, that would make Ferz = 150, and Mao = 162.

Note, however that because of the color-boundedness of the Ferz a pair-bonus is likely involved, so the proper statement would be: Ferz pair = 300 cP. I could not determine the value of the bonus with Fairy-Max (which is unaware of pair bonuses, and thus would naively trade away the pair advantage before it has the opportunity to manifest itself).

The Mao is a very awkward piece. Two moves can be blocked on a single square with impunity. A Ferz cannot be blocked.