Kevin Pacey wrote on Fri, Nov 10, 2017 08:47 PM UTC:
Thanks H.G.
I had rejected switching the bishops and frogs in my setup, based on my thoughts about other experiments, because e.g. I thought it might somehow limit the opening variation possibilities more. For example, if White elects to open the long diagonal for his queenside bishop, say on move one, Black would seem to want to only ever develop his kingside knight on the third rank, towards the centre, if he wished to fianchetto (or develop the other way) his bishop of the same colour as White's. Still, this alternative setup may be the lesser evil, if there is one. However I'm not sure my original setup is clearly worse due to the h-file frog leap. It's possible causing kingside disruption in the case of capturing Black's i-file knight doesn't really benefit White, e.g. if Black can arrange to castle queenside in time. However it's not appealing to a beginner to be forced to think at move one as Black, however great the actual hassle may be. It may be the case that both setups are viable, like in the case of 10x8 Capablanca Chess' original and final setup versions.
It would be interesting to weigh/see how close in value a frog is to a bishop on a 10x8 board. A frog has longer reach than a knight, so in a way it is not surprising it competes well vs. that piece.
Thanks H.G.
I had rejected switching the bishops and frogs in my setup, based on my thoughts about other experiments, because e.g. I thought it might somehow limit the opening variation possibilities more. For example, if White elects to open the long diagonal for his queenside bishop, say on move one, Black would seem to want to only ever develop his kingside knight on the third rank, towards the centre, if he wished to fianchetto (or develop the other way) his bishop of the same colour as White's. Still, this alternative setup may be the lesser evil, if there is one. However I'm not sure my original setup is clearly worse due to the h-file frog leap. It's possible causing kingside disruption in the case of capturing Black's i-file knight doesn't really benefit White, e.g. if Black can arrange to castle queenside in time. However it's not appealing to a beginner to be forced to think at move one as Black, however great the actual hassle may be. It may be the case that both setups are viable, like in the case of 10x8 Capablanca Chess' original and final setup versions.
It would be interesting to weigh/see how close in value a frog is to a bishop on a 10x8 board. A frog has longer reach than a knight, so in a way it is not surprising it competes well vs. that piece.