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H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, Oct 3, 2014 09:41 AM UTC:

Bifurcation Chess with Fairy-Max

I was so pleased with the fact that the Betza notation extension that XBoard currently understand is able to handle bifurcation pieces, that I decided to implement a variant using those in Fairy-Max. The latter now supports two kinds of bifurcators, those that change direction and capabilities at the platform, and the 'colliding' type, which do so on the square just before it.

The latter type seemed more natural, so I decided to make the variant by replacing Bishops and Rooks by their bifurcating versions, being able to move to any square on both first and second leg, and being able to capture on the second leg only. I did not like that version so much, though. For one, it is inhumanely complicated how the bifurcators move around in the middle game. The fact that they cannot capture on their first leg makes that their direct moves also do not protect your own pieces, so you basically have to rely completely on the deflected moves to do anything useful.

But adding first-leg capture looked very unnatural, because when aiming at a foe, you will be able to capture it on a square that lies off the trajectory. This would be less of a problem for bifurcators that pass through the platform, but there the second leg looks counterintuitive, because I would expect it to be blocked by the platform, or that the platform would be captured checkers style when you pass it.

All these problems could be solved by allowing the bifurcators to bounce off friendly pieces only. (I had to make another enhancement in Fairy-Max for that, so its move definitions can now have a general flag that limits hopping to friendly platforms only.) So I finally opted for bifurcators that could both move and capture on the first leg (so fully upward compatible with the ordinary R and B), as well as on the second leg, but would have a second leg only when they collided with a friendly piece. So the friendly pieces, being inpenetrable to the sliders, see the onrushing moves glance off them in two directions, while enemy pieces will simply absorb the onslaught, to their own demise. This does look very intuitive. It also reduces the number of extra moves (and in particular captures) these pieces have in the forward direction, which they would have if they bounced off enemy pieces. And when the board gets near empty, they now converge to normal Rooks and Bishops, rather than to worthless mB and mR.

So the upgraded R and B mainly get a very large mobility from all your own pieces they can bounce off inside your camp, but do not immediately overwhelm your opponent by doubling their moves in the forward direction by bifurcation as a matter of routine. You really have to make some effort to move platforms in front of them first.

I did not upgrade the Queen to a bifurcator, as I figured a Queen is already strong enough for an 8x8 board.


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