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Mamra Chess. Adds the Mamra, a piece that only Pawns may capture. (8x8, Cells: 66) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]Intriguing idea, George. I have faced you on the board at Brainking.com in Gothic Chess, seen your ideas in the forums on the Royal Game. I also now get to appreciate your good board vision in this incarnation as well. Thank you for this contribution. In order to use this Mamra on the standard 8x8 board, maybe a variant rule could be added in OTB play so that it is dropped like the 'Pocket Knight' variant stylementioned onsite--that is to say, at some point in the game, the Mamra can be 'parachuted' into play, and moves proceed normally. The extra two squares are not a deterrent, though; I know that the king (or some other piece) can utilize the extra long diagonal (i1-b8 or b1-i8). Bishop or queen may take advantage of these, although it may discourage queenside castling. I would like to see some gamescores from some games.
Tim Stiles wrote on Sat, Jan 1, 2005 10:47 AM UTC:Considering it's a near-invincible piece, wouldn't being able to parachute it be too powerful? I'd suggest only being able to parachute it on your first rank.
Or perhaps have it replace a Knight on the board, and play from there as Pocket Knight.
Charles Gilman wrote on Tue, Jan 4, 2005 08:55 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★Another way to incorporate it on a standard board would be as a substitue for one of the Rooks - the Queen's Rook for preference as that would balance long- and short-range pieces starting Kingside and Queenside. A further advantage would be that it could be represented by an upturned Rook.
Or, of course, we could have it replace the Queen. This actually sounds the most interesting to me.
Nice variant. What is the most interesting is this new piece. Its ability
of not being captured by pieces is new and very good. I haven't seen
anything like it before.
<p>I like the game but the most important thing is the addition of Mamra, an
addition that can now be used for creating other variants too.
I just discovered the chessvariants.com and i find the place amazing!:)
Well done to George and to the creators of this site.
One way of making the Mamra even more powerful would be to say that it can capture its own pieces. Besides the opponent's pawns, the Mamra's development is inhibited by its own pieces.
Mamra really is invincible like Barrier Pawn of Kristensen's is but for capture by the other Barrier Pawn.
I do not think it needs to be able to capture its own pieces. In fact that is its weakness, no capturing your own pieces! But, perhaps add a rule allowing your own pawns to capture your own mamra.
I looked at the ZRF codes, according to that, pawn can promote to mamra. However this page does not mention it. Perhaps it should be mentioned in this page.
Another idea is to allow mamra to capture mamra, but if done so, both mamra are destroyed and also all adjacent pieces of any color are also destroyed. If any kings is destroyed in this way, whoever's king is removed from the board is a loser.
Isn't it to strong? It's like playing for first 2 captured pawns. What if king also would be able to capture it? Or, maybe, make it colourbound?
Thanks for the chance to correct that Pawns may capture Mamra. No piece, only Pawn, may capture Mamra. So Pawn moves try to drive Mamra towards Rook files to get her out of the way whilst you try to get the centre. In counter strategy, if you never move a Pawn at all, Mamra can never penetrate. Checkmates are equally by piece as by Mamra, so it does work as is. Advanced play would probably lead to the written-up Pawn promotion to Mamra as third style of winning. That has not happened yet in Logs, but George Tsavdaris' Rule 5 here includes it. Contrast that Mamra cannot capture own pieces, but Barrier Pawn of Kristensen's is cannibal at large. Both step the same as Courier Chess Man.
This game has a lot of great potential. I think the inventor had almost hit gold with the addition of the Mamra. In my opinion, the Mamra is just a little too powerful. Never have I, in good practice, opened up a game with 1. h3 or 1. h4. The fact that both myself and my opponent had opened up with pawn movements on the h file in order to free our Mamras is testament to the Mamra's power.
Play is balanced between advancing your Mamra towards the enemy King, maintaining your pawn line, and sac'ing every major piece you have in order to open up the enemy pawn line.
I think even a small change such as the prohibiting the Mamra to capture pawns would dynamically change the game for a much better play. Otherwise, White seems to have a huge advantage with such a powerful piece on the move.
Play is balanced between advancing your Mamra towards the enemy King, maintaining your pawn line, and sac'ing every major piece you have in order to open up the enemy pawn line.
I think even a small change such as the prohibiting the Mamra to capture pawns would dynamically change the game for a much better play. Otherwise, White seems to have a huge advantage with such a powerful piece on the move.
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