Click here for Next 25 items. Regarding H. G. Muller's 2008-11-02 Comment, I am restricting my investigations to the more limited subject of endgame values on the 8x8 board:
Define a Commoner to move like a Queen (one square only) and a Short Queen to move up to four squares like a Queen. I value the Commoner halfway between a Rook and a Knight and the Short Queen halfway between a Rook and a (true) Queen. Note that King and Commoner can trap and mate a lone King. I decided to value the Short Queen well below the (true) Queen after examining some King and Queen versus King and Rook engames in a chess database. When the King and Rook are widely separated, the winning move in this endgame involves moving the Queen 'x' squares, checking the King ('y' squares away) and attacking the Rook ('z' squares away). Usually at least one of x, y, z is greater than four, which suggests that the Short Queen would not win against the Rook in an endgame with only four pieces on the board.
Click here for Next 25 items. Regarding H. G. Muller's 2008-11-02 Comment, I am restricting my investigations to the more limited subject of endgame values on the 8x8 board:
Define a Commoner to move like a Queen (one square only) and a Short Queen to move up to four squares like a Queen. I value the Commoner halfway between a Rook and a Knight and the Short Queen halfway between a Rook and a (true) Queen. Note that King and Commoner can trap and mate a lone King. I decided to value the Short Queen well below the (true) Queen after examining some King and Queen versus King and Rook engames in a chess database. When the King and Rook are widely separated, the winning move in this endgame involves moving the Queen 'x' squares, checking the King ('y' squares away) and attacking the Rook ('z' squares away). Usually at least one of x, y, z is greater than four, which suggests that the Short Queen would not win against the Rook in an endgame with only four pieces on the board.