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Chess with Mixed Pawns. Four normal and four Berolina pawns per player. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

George Duke wrote on Tue, Nov 16, 2010 05:05 PM EST:

14 years ago Betza put in 4 regular and 4 Berolina Pawns per side, not as Different Armies. 50 or 75 CVs are different armies, the >1% expected, and it is a category in the Main Index. That is counting 33-year-old Chess Different Armies itself by Betza and various others he approves as One CV only. There has been less study of them than most categories whether any could be as good as classical CDA. Fantasy Grand is the lone example placed already at Next Chess, which is to be completed by 2029. //// At Brainking there are 37 Chesses to choose in almost the same selection for a decade. Only one, Maharajah, is different armies. White Maharajah versus Black f.i.d.e. is poor-choice cv. The results there at the moment over more than a decade: White 1710 wins, Black 3114 wins, Draw 379 for 33%-60%-7%. That is far the worst imbalance of all the 37. On the average once a couple years they drop one CV or add another. There are about 200-250 users logged on any given time, but included are non-chess games. Counting the two regional chesses, shogi and xiangqi, there CVs used to be 60% of the play. Now it may be the reverse where the 37 chesses are 40% and the non-chess games 60% approximately; but after the Maharajah data, those are just first estimates based on intermittent information in such as Brainking's ''waiting games'' index (it could be more cv invitations go faster).

Daniil Frolov wrote on Wed, Nov 17, 2010 06:56 AM EST:

Is there variant with 4 pawn types (2 of each): third is exactly like Shogi pawn, plus non-capturing double step, fourth moves and captures diagonally forward (and also have initial double step)?
And about en-passant capture: any pawn can capture any pawn with this method, right?

H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, Nov 17, 2010 10:48 AM EST:

Miss-post

George Duke wrote on Thu, Nov 18, 2010 11:19 AM EST:

No. Never. In fact, the one or the two of the four would be new Pawn-type. That is why I passed on answering, not having the complete answer. Right, Frolov's is an incredibly good one mixed line-up. They are Ortho-Pawn, Berolina Pawn, Shogi adding passive two-step, Berolina Shogi passive-two-stepped. As to en passant there all ways, Ave Caissa.

Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Nov 20, 2010 02:22 AM EST:

'The shortest game ending in mate must be 2. Bd3-g6, and except for move order, the rest of the moves are forced.'
I do not understand this assertion. How can Bd3-g6 be move 2? The g2 Pawn has to be moved (move 1) before the Bishop can even reach d3 (move 2), so move 3 is the earliest that the Bishop can actually leave that square. I am also intrigued to know how putting it on g6, where it is still under double threat, helps. If the Pawn row were YPPYYPPY rather than YYPPPPYY, giving only a single threat to g6, it would be more understandable but even then Black might be able to do something before White gets their Queen in place.

George Duke wrote on Sat, Nov 20, 2010 11:30 AM EST:

Chess With Different Arrays, see after the last slashes. /// To Gilman's, in that sentence ''must be'' is Betza's witty qualifier. Betza means to summon to mind the usual 2...Q-h4 counterpart to two-move mate, or Fool's mate, as a Helpmate by cooperating worst play. Some CVs even have mate in opening move by Black, and others take three moves. When Betza put this up, he really was annoyed someone beat him to a CV-facsimile Sam Loyd 15-puzzle, his rationale for writing hastily thinking someone else might come up with 1/2 Ortho-Pawn plus 1/2 Berolina. The sentence Gilman finds is sort of deliberate nonsense. Betza probably searched for another avenue of quick checkmate with Berolinas instead and did not find one by symmetric arrays (you would have to re-position the King). The sentence is wrong. He bothers with it because in regular Ortho-chess line-up and in Betza's 1/2 and 1/2 line-up, either King's Bishop can mate in three, and only Black Queen two; and 'd3-g6' would figure as move 3 not 2 -- close enough. /// What about Betza's puzzle ''One More Thing''? Whose position is better?

George Duke wrote on Sat, Nov 20, 2010 02:41 PM EST:

Have problemists looked at earliest mate for each piece-type? Probably not all of them. In Ortho-Chess, Black Queen mates in two, White three, and King's Bishops three. What would be the earliest Helpmates for Queen's Bishops, for Knights, for Rooks? What is the earliest either White Rook can mate with black cooperating. Then each Pawn would have its own duration too to Helpmate. /// So, if there are 10 or 20 of these problems to pose and answer for Ortho-Chess, there would be another 20 for each and every CV. For example, what is the earliest Rococo Advancer mates? And Rococo Advancer Pawn alone checkmating by obverse bad play. Other pieces' covering escape routes would allow liberality and multiply the problems suggested by two; the pure play would require opponent's pieces occupying the squares adjacent the King.