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Chancellor Chess. On a 9 by 9 or 9 by 8 board with a piece with combined rook and knight moves. (9x9, Cells: 81) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Derek Nalls wrote on Thu, Jul 12, 2007 03:27 PM UTC:

C-R-N-B-Q-K-B-N-R-C  mirror I
C-R-N-B-K-Q-B-N-R-C  mirror II

The problem with opening setups where both chancellors are placed upon outer files is that, compared to those where both chancellors are placed upon inner files, king safety is deficient.

Powerful, composite pieces such as the chancellor can contribute markedly to king safety [which is vitally important!] and yield higher, measured values for king safety than typical in standard Chess (by comparison) but only IF they are close enough to the king to help protect its 3 adjacent pawns.

In your proposed opening setup (mirror I), the diagonally adjacent pawn to the NE of white's king (for reference) has only 1 backup.  With 18-22 pawn backups available (depending upon the particular opening setup) to be distributed for 10 pawns, an average of appr. 2.0 backups per pawn exists.  Consequently, I consider a figure of appr. 1/2 of average to be unacceptable- too low for any pawn diagonally adjacent to the king in this class of games.

For an opening setup, its rapid transition to a solid development phase and smooth play characteristics are of secondary importance to its stability.