Enter Your Reply The Comment You're Replying To H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Jul 17, 2008 09:30 PM UTC:'The Cavalier is a sort of multipath Gryphon, which cannot stop on any adjacent square. Benjamin C. Good wrote (March 13, 2002) that this piece cannot, in general, force mate - because it does not attack adjacent squares.' Well, pieces that do not attack at least two orthogonally adjacent squares obviously can not checkmate. But the Cavalier obiously attacks lots of adjacent squares. I think the percieed problem was that the rays covered b the Cavalier are not 'air tight', but have a hole in them, allowing the bre King to escape its confines by approaching the Cavalier. A Cavalier, unlike a Rook, can not change to another position alog the ray it covers. The mate is very easy, though, (even on infinite boards) as a Cavalier can also do things a Rook cannot do. You don't even need a corner, just an edge (say 1st rank), and it works on an infinite board.It works like this: 1) Cut off the bare King from moving away from the edge, (a rank, say), and walk your own King to be further from the edge than he is. 2) Cut off the bare King moving laterally away from the file your own King is in, and step towards his file, staying further from the edge than he is. 3) When the Kings are nearly in the same file, position the Cavalier in the file of the bare King, so that he gets trapped in the 'corridor' between the Cavalier's attack lines. 4) Use your King to push the bare King towards the edge, walking on the same file, until he reaches 1st rank (on f1, say). 5) Lift the stalemate danger by moving your Cavalier to a file far away, so you can safely take opposition on 3rd rank. 6) We now have to get the bare King into opposition twice, once for driving him back to 1st rank with check along the rank, second time for checkmating. In both cases we shephard him into opposition by first taking opposition ourself, and when he steps sideways, cut off the file two files away from our King. He then either has to step back into opposition, or step back immediately. The main problem is keeping enough distance, as the Cavalier has thes 'holes' in its attack set nearby. So in general, when advancing towards the edge, for sideway checking, we move one file away from the bare King. On a small board this might not be possible, and we have to manouevre a bit. This takes some extra moves, but the principle remains the same. e.g.: w: Kd4, Cd8 b: Kd2 1. ... Kd1, 2. Cg7 (out of the way), Kc2 3. Ca8 (cut off b-file), Kd2 Now we would have liked to check from the side, but our Cavalier is on on the a-file, and the b-file is too close to cover c2. So we nudge him to the other side: 4. Cb6 (cut off c-file), Ke2 5. Cg7 (cut off f-file), Kd2 6. Ch3+ (got him!), Ke1 7. Ke3 (opposition), Kf1 Now we would have liked to cut off the g-file, but our Cavalier is already on the h-file, and too close to cover f2. And even if he was, we are in zugzwang. So again some delay displacing the position sideways to gain room, and then nudge him to the long side: 8. Kf3 (opposition), Ke1 (only move, g1 was attacked) 9. Cc5 (cut off d-file) , Kf1 10. Cb2#. Easy as pie... Edit Form You may not post a new comment, because ItemID 12x12_checkmate does not match any item.