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Worse than Worthless. A discussion of pieces with negative value, and the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity![All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

gnohmon wrote on Tue, Jan 7, 2003 03:51 AM UTC:

'positive values in Losing Chess?'

Clever thought. A bit of analysis seems to tell me that a negative relay Q
would be a good thing to have in Giveaway Chess.

Undoubtedly the best piece to have in Giveaway would be one with huge
mobility and no capture -- in other words, the Ghost!

If you take the game from the Black Ghost page and play giveaway, Black
must surely win by using the Ghost at just the right time to force a
series of captures. Is the -relay Q stronger than that? In fact, in
Giveaway it is weaker because the opponent will simply capture it at first
opportunity!

The interesting thing about the -relay N in the normal game is that you
can get a small positive value from it by trying to get your opponent to
capture it; but in Giveaway there is no such reluctance.

Thus the Ghost is stronger than even -relay Amazon in giveaway chess. In
my opinion, at least.