💡📝H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, May 16, 2023 06:15 AM UTC:
With the fFbWbD there still would be a problem that a pawn in KPK can be more easily caught by the bare King, in a promotion race. Even if on promotion the piece on the promotion square would protect the bonus piece behind it, the bare King could still step forward to attack the piece on the promotion square. (And I don't want that to be protected by the bonus piece.) Which then would have to flee, and give up the protection of the bonus piece.
When a pawn could promote to a pair of 'inverted silver' (FbW) we would not have this problem, as the constellation after promotion is then unapproachable for an enemy king. So the results of a KPK ending would be exactly as in orthodox chess. The silver is a bit strong, though. But it can be made less valuable by allowing it only to capture royals (mkFbmkW). That would not alter its properties against a bare King, but would make it pretty useless in more complex end-games. So that 'unsupported promotion' where only the bonus piece survives is not really an attractive proposition.
With the fFbWbD there still would be a problem that a pawn in KPK can be more easily caught by the bare King, in a promotion race. Even if on promotion the piece on the promotion square would protect the bonus piece behind it, the bare King could still step forward to attack the piece on the promotion square. (And I don't want that to be protected by the bonus piece.) Which then would have to flee, and give up the protection of the bonus piece.
When a pawn could promote to a pair of 'inverted silver' (FbW) we would not have this problem, as the constellation after promotion is then unapproachable for an enemy king. So the results of a KPK ending would be exactly as in orthodox chess. The silver is a bit strong, though. But it can be made less valuable by allowing it only to capture royals (mkFbmkW). That would not alter its properties against a bare King, but would make it pretty useless in more complex end-games. So that 'unsupported promotion' where only the bonus piece survives is not really an attractive proposition.