Nightrider Armies

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Games of Pocket Mutation Chess and Lions and Unicorns Chess I've been playing have led me to think more about nightriders and their comparative mobility and importance in the early stages of the game. In Pocket Mutation Chess, it is almost always a good idea to convert your rooks to nightriders early in the game or you will tend to find yourself at a disadvantage soon.

Since a nightrider is said to be equal to a rook and a Paulowich Unicorn (Nightrider + Bishop) is said to be equal to a queen, I thought it would be an interesting theoretical experiment to replace rooks and rook compounds with nightriders and nightrider compounds.

But since nightriders generally develop more quickly than rooks, the nightrider armies seem to have the edge in most of these variants, if not all. So again, these unequal armies have mostly theoretical value. But possibly the 12 x 12 FIDE variant is more balanced because the rooks are more easily developed? Or the Chigorin FIDE vs. Nightrider Army because of the preponderance of bishops?

I tried implementing this for Grand Chess, but the opening setup seemed to lead to immediate absurd threats.

Games below are derived from Chigorin Chess, Schoolbook and Chess on a 12 x 12 Board.

First, a simple CDA, Cardinalrider vs. Queen:

I also like to describe the cardinalrider as a Paulowich Unicorn in honor of David Paulowich's Lions and Unicorns Chess and Great Unicorn Chess.

Logs for FIDE vs. Nightrider Army

Logs for Chigorin FIDE vs. Nightrider Army

Logs for Schoolbook vs. Nightrider Army

Logs for FIDE vs. Nightrider Army on a 12 x 12 Board

After designing the variants above, the unequal armies, I thought I'd be remiss if I didn't offer pure nightrider vs. nightrider armies. So here is one...

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By Jeremy Gabriel Good.
Web page created: 2007-03-30. Web page last updated: 2007-03-30