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Ideal Values and Practical Values (part 3). More on the value of Chess pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Michael Nelson wrote on Tue, Jul 22, 2003 09:43 PM UTC:
More thoughts on augmented Knights:

Part of the advantage of the augmented Knights over the Rook may be a
Zillions artifact--Knights are strongest in the opening, Rooks in the
endgame. Zillions sometimes has trouble getting to an endgame, where human
masters would.  If my conjecture is correct, setting Zillions to deeper
plies would show the gap reducing or increasing much more slowly than
normal for repeating a Zillions calc at higher plies.

I suspect your results are not anomalous among the augmented Knights. The
NF has yet a third advantage--it cannot be driven from an outpost square
by an undefended pawn! All other augmented Knights can (as can the Rook,
but outposts are more important for short range pieces). This factor is
also almost certainly a part of why the Ferz is stonger than the Wazir.  

I would be curious to see what the numbers are for the various augmented
Knights vs Rook and each other if Berolina Pawn are used. I predict NW the
strongest but with a smaller gap, and Rook significantly better vs
augmented Knights (easier development as well as can't be attacked by an
undefended pawn).