The Nutty Knights






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This page is written by the game's inventor, Ralph Betza.

A Nutty Knights Problem
The Nutty Knights are the fourth team recruited, along with the Fabulous Fides and the Colorbound Clobberers and the Remarkable Rookies.

This team has been recruited from the homeland of the FIDE Knight, a mountainous place where the inhabitants have had to learn to leap from one peak to another.

Not only are all the pieces on this team Knightish, but in many cases they can't go back to where they came from. That is, they are also like the FIDE Pawn in that their forward motion is not the same as their retreating motion.

All these pieces are easy to use, but have horrible names in my notation; many of these pieces have Knightish moves, and putting them together in one army might make it easy to get confused about how things move. The difference between forward and backward moves might be tough to get used to.

This is a good team, but perhaps you should begin with the other teams; if you like the game with those teams, try the Nutty Knights too!

The Nutty Knights

In the Corner

Playing the corner position for this team, we have the Furlrurlbakking. or frlRrlbK.

This piece moves and captures just like a FIDE Rook when it moves forwards or sideways, but when it retreats it moves like the King (one square diagonally or one square Rookwise).

On g1 and b1 (or g8 and b8)

Next in from the corner, we have the Fibnif, or Fibnif.

On the Bishop's Squares

The Forfnibakking, or fhNrlbK, has the four forward directions of the Knight plus the sideways and rearward moves of the King.

In the Center

In the center beside the King, the Nutties have the Forfnifurlrurking, or fhNfrlRK, which has all the moves of the King, the forward half of the moves of the Knight, plus all the sideways and forwards moves of the Rook.

Evaluation as a Team

This team appears to be of the proper strength. Its main problem is the similarity of some of the moves of the pieces, and the difference between forward and backwards motions. This can cause confusion, and lead to mistakes (when you include illegal moves in your calculations). This can be a big advantage for you, if you are more familiar with this army than your opponent is.

The pieces work together harmoniously. The fun part is when they get too far forward and the opponent counterattacks -- they can't come back to defend, at least not quickly!


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