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The Black Ghost. Black gets a teleporting Ghost piece that can not capture to balance White's first move advantage. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Mar 5, 2012 03:20 PM UTC:

Well, I wouldn't know about that, and I also doubt the statement that this game would be 'always won for black'. (That would make the Ghost significantly more valuable than a Pawn, as Pawn odds at worst reduced your score against an equal opponent to ~30%.)

I can comment on the puzzles coined on this page, however:

KNNKG seems a general draw. At first glance this is a bit surprising: KNNK under rules where black can pass his turn is generally won. The trick seems to be that the Ghost can hinder the Knights in going where they have to go to drive the black King to the corner. It throws itself into the path of the Knights like a kamikaze, knowing that it cannot be captured because KNN is always draw. It needs a certain agility to be able to hold off the mate; a non-capturing Dragon Horse (RF) is not strong enough to prevent a general win for the Knights, but a non-capturing Queen is enough to let the number of wtm wins drop to below 30%.

KRKG is in general a draw; when the black King is already driven back to the 7th or 8th rank, however, it seems winnable.