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H. G. Muller wrote on Fri, May 5, 2023 08:20 PM UTC in reply to David Paulowich from 07:40 PM:This is actually a common manoeuvre in checkmates with pieces that cannot triangulate (e.g. Knight + Camel). Often you cannot afford to triangulate with your King, because that would give the bare King the room to triangulate as well, thereby cancelling the effect. In Alice Chess no piece can truly triangulate, because they must alternate between the boards.
But I suppose there is a way around that when checkmating a bare King, as in that case it doesn't really matter on what board the King is: the bare King can never approach it without either moving into check or through it, both of which is forbidden. So you can treat it like the King is always on both boards.
P = 1, N = 3, (WA) = 3.5, B = 5, (BW) = 7.5, R = 7.5, Q = 13.5 is just a guess at middle game piece values under Alice Chess rules. Recently I thought about adding some Chu Shogi pieces to this variant. Multiplying the numbers for N, B, R by 1.08 brings us very close to the Zillions estimates that Antoine Fourrière listed in this article. Zillions values a Queen in Alice Chess as slightly lower than the total of a Bishop and a Rook (just as it does for FIDE Chess). The relatively low value of a Knight is probably because it is "Alice colorbound" (light squares on one board and dark squares on the other board).
A simple Alice Chess endgame with all chessmen on the first board: WHITE: King (f1), Pawn (a6) BLACK: King (a8).
After 1. a6-A7 a8-B7 2. A7-a8 and promotes. The Black King was never on the right board to make a capture. Looks like a Pawn may be worth fifty percent more in the endgame. Variant Chess: Volume 6, Issue 42 is available on the web, with three games on pp 20-21 and the article "Paradoxical Endings in Alice Chess" on pp 28-29.
You write
And then an Alice move is legal (as usual) when it does not expose the King to pseudo-legal Alice capture.
. As far as I can tell, this isn't quite true. It must also not expose the King during the intermediate time between the piece making its move and transferring to the other board. This can be seen in this quote from Vernon Parton's work:
Fools Mate in Alician style.
(1)P - K4, P - Q4, (2)B - K2,PxP, (3)B - Q Kt5 and the black monarch is checkmated.
Here it will be seen that the move Q - Q2 (as well as B - Q2) fails to intervene as the
Q (or B) would be transferred to the other board, still leaving their King in check to the White
Bishop.Naturally, the move K - Q2 is forbidden, because the King would break the Alician
rule that he must make a legal orthodox move before being transferred. (This quick mate was
given by Mr. C. H. O. Alexander on radio.)
.
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WHITE TO MOVE AND MATE IN EIGHT MOVES
If the Bishop was on (f4), placing all the pieces on the same board, this would be a simple mate in two moves. But I needed help from ChessV to solve the given problem. Apparently the trick is to move the White King from (b3) to (C2), effectively "wasting a tempo". Bishops cannot do this in Alice Chess - while the Bishop could travel from (F4) to (f4) in three moves, that is not actually the same square. ChessV 2.2 game record is given below.
Alice Chess Player(White) = ChessV Player(Black) = Human FENStart = "16/16/16/16/2N10B2/1K14/16/1k14 w - - 0 1" StaticExchangeEvaluation = false Moves = { F4g5 b1A1 b3C2 A1a2 g5H6 a2A1 c4D6 A1a2 H6c1 a2A1 D6e4 A1a2 e4C3 a2A1 c1B2 } Result = 1-0 {White wins}