I don't think that it is exactly the same concept. Different board size, different extra piece (leap), different pawns, different setup. Falcon is simply a cool name for such a piece and relates to the eastern mythology.
@H.G.Muller
Against an undeveloped position, the falcon can force a precise defense early on. For example, after 1.Fc4 black has probably only one reasonable answer: 1. ... e6. This might be ok, since there are many situations in chess where the defender has only one working defending move, but nevertheless a good (if not a winning) position. And I doubt that an early bird has real advantages except threatening fools mate.
A first move block for the falcon would be necessary for a shuffled setup comparable to Fischer-Random, since an early bird can be an instant win here, depending on the initial placements of the falcons. I built in this rule for a point symmetric setup. See https://chessxp.com/docs/rules.html.
From a developed position, an enemy falcon is pretty manageable, according to my experiences.
I took out the falcon-rook comparison from the spec and leave a proper estimation of its strength to further tests.
@Greg Strong
I didn't know that such an engine exists. That's pretty cool, I'll check it out.
@Fergus Duniho
Thanks, upload worked now!
Please, I don't want to name it Bison ...
@Bn Em
I don't think that it is exactly the same concept. Different board size, different extra piece (leap), different pawns, different setup. Falcon is simply a cool name for such a piece and relates to the eastern mythology.
@H.G.Muller
Against an undeveloped position, the falcon can force a precise defense early on. For example, after 1.Fc4 black has probably only one reasonable answer: 1. ... e6. This might be ok, since there are many situations in chess where the defender has only one working defending move, but nevertheless a good (if not a winning) position. And I doubt that an early bird has real advantages except threatening fools mate.
A first move block for the falcon would be necessary for a shuffled setup comparable to Fischer-Random, since an early bird can be an instant win here, depending on the initial placements of the falcons. I built in this rule for a point symmetric setup. See https://chessxp.com/docs/rules.html.
From a developed position, an enemy falcon is pretty manageable, according to my experiences.
I took out the falcon-rook comparison from the spec and leave a proper estimation of its strength to further tests.
@Greg Strong
I didn't know that such an engine exists. That's pretty cool, I'll check it out.