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H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Sep 27, 2018 07:09 AM EDT:

The values you added seem at odds with the text above it.

Note that the individual piece values Fairy-Max uses do not really add up to give the observed total strength of the army. In particular it seems to overestimate the Clobberers, and under-estimate Rookies and Nutters (which get about the same total as FIDE, which I will use as a reference). The values reported for color-bound pieces include half the pair bonus, as Fairy-Max does not explicitly keep track of such bonuses, and I always do the value determination of such pieces in pairs. This might be unrealistic for the Clobberers, as it will be difficult for them to conserve both pairs. And the color-bound pieces are significantly stronger than Bishop, so their pair bonus is probably larger too.

Another possible explanation could be that the Clobberers pieces poorly cooperate, in the sense that they do not complement each other's weaknesses, but tend to have the same. E.g. the Cloberrers have only one major piece. And 4 of the 6 minor pieces are quite valuable (about a Rook). So there is a fair chance that despite a large advantage in terms of piece value, they can often not win for lack of mating potential. That so many pieces are color bound makes it worse. You can end up with Fad + Bede on the same shade, an advantage numerically as large as 2 Rooks, but still a dead draw. And Fad or Bede + Pawn vs minor can be drawn by sacrificing the minor for the Pawn, or perhaps simply by having the King stand in the path of the Pawn on the other shade (so you could only win if you can somehow catch the minor to force that King to leave by zugzwang). If it would be a Bishop of opposite shade, it would obviously be impossible to harras it. And Fibnif or Woody Rook can always move to the other shade and safely stay there.

The Rookies might have an advantage that all their pieces have mating potential. On an individual piece mating potential doesn't seem very valuable, but when all your pieces have it, even a disadvantage as small as a Pawn might always be lost, for lack of drawing tricks. This could be worth something.


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