It seems people are not that interested in this topic. I'm thinking that this is because there is not a lot of experience in games with jokers.
Anyway after a intensive series of games played against the ID these days, I have concluded that on a 10x10 board at least things are ok. What bad thing that can happed is to lose connected pawns, because then the joker is not easily trapped by just moving a pawn. So one has to protect connected pawns, especially near the king, even from sacrifices. That is actually a strategic choice on part of the attacker. I think this is actually a good thing.
So my own verdict is that on a 10x10 board the joker works.
It seems people are not that interested in this topic. I'm thinking that this is because there is not a lot of experience in games with jokers.
Anyway after a intensive series of games played against the ID these days, I have concluded that on a 10x10 board at least things are ok. What bad thing that can happed is to lose connected pawns, because then the joker is not easily trapped by just moving a pawn. So one has to protect connected pawns, especially near the king, even from sacrifices. That is actually a strategic choice on part of the attacker. I think this is actually a good thing.
So my own verdict is that on a 10x10 board the joker works.