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First move advantage in Western Chess - why does it exist?[Subject Thread] [Add Response]
Joe Joyce wrote on Tue, Aug 14, 2012 05:51 AM UTC:
Hey, HG, thought I'd said that if I get a little help from a family member
or two, I'd try to run FairyMax for a while to generate some numbers, but
I didn't notice it when I scanned the thread. So I'll try to get some
numbers run. I agree Great Shatranj is a reasonable test case [thought I'd
said that, too :) ] and should show some effects - even if the leaping
ability counteracts the shorter range a bit. GtS often features re-grouping
turns, a few turns spent shuffling pieces around to get some attacking
weight together. Shouldn't that feature tend to blur out first turn ad?

Jeremy, 10 meters is a lot in the 100, but not so much in the 1000, and
little enough in the 10,000 that it's almost a fair start. As for turn
lengths, GtS goes around 50 moves, iirc, but that's very rough. Chieftain
runs around 35; 40 to the bitter end. The latest versions, the Warlord
games, seem run shorter, ~25ish turns for Clash of Arms. But at 4
pieces/turn, each player is making 100 - 150 moves [at least] in a game to
get a decision. As for number of pieces, all the Chief variants discussed
here have 32 +/-2 pieces, on boards that range from 10x12 through Chief's
12x16 to 12x20 for the free, hidden set-up Warlord: A Test of Wills. No
Chief variant discussed here has pieces that move more than 3 squares; none
of the variants has any piece moving more than 4. The average move in all
variants is under 2 squares.