💡📝Sam Trenholme wrote on Wed, Mar 15, 2006 09:32 PM UTC:
Since I'm being critical of other people's variants, it's only fair that I be a little critical of my own variant.
In my playtesting, the biggest problem I have found is that it is too easy to swap off the marshalls. What usually happens is that the kingside bishop moves off of the G file near the beginning of the game. This causes the H pawn to be undefended. Next, one plays Mh3/Mh6 threatening the h2/h7 pawn; the only reasonable defense to this is for the other player to move out their own marshall. If they move the marshall to the I file, this results in less marshall mobility, so the best move is to have the two marshalls face each other.
This is usually followed by the two marshalls being exchanged. This particular motif makes it so marshalls frequently do not make it to the endgame.
One possible solution to this problem is to have the opening setup be one where black's pieces are reflected (the marshall on b1, king on e1, archbishop on f1, and queen on i1) relative to the white pieces. Another idea is to swap the marshall and the kingside rook in the opening setup.
In my playtesting, the biggest problem I have found is that it is too easy to swap off the marshalls. What usually happens is that the kingside bishop moves off of the G file near the beginning of the game. This causes the H pawn to be undefended. Next, one plays Mh3/Mh6 threatening the h2/h7 pawn; the only reasonable defense to this is for the other player to move out their own marshall. If they move the marshall to the I file, this results in less marshall mobility, so the best move is to have the two marshalls face each other.
This is usually followed by the two marshalls being exchanged. This particular motif makes it so marshalls frequently do not make it to the endgame.
One possible solution to this problem is to have the opening setup be one where black's pieces are reflected (the marshall on b1, king on e1, archbishop on f1, and queen on i1) relative to the white pieces. Another idea is to swap the marshall and the kingside rook in the opening setup.
- Sam