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Aberg variation of Capablanca's Chess. Different setup and castling rules. (10x8, Cells: 80) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

💡📝Hans Aberg wrote on Fri, Apr 25, 2008 01:00 PM UTC:

H.G.Muller:
| Why do you think the bigger board and the stronge piece make the game
| more strategical?

I said: if one increases the average number of moves in each position, then a full search may fail, as there will be too many of them. Then a different strategy is needed for success. If it is doubled, then in a 7-ply search, if the positions are independent, a search for all would require 2^7 = 128 more positions to search for. If there are 10 times more average moves, then 10^7 more positions need to be searched.

Strategic positions is another matter: indeed, in orthodox chess, trying to settle for positions were advantage depends on long term development is a good choice against computers, the latter which tend to be good in what humans find 'chaotic' positions.

The design of a variant must be so that it admits what humans find strategic, and so it is possible to play towards them from the initial position. I am not sure exactly what factors should be there. Just putting in more material may indeed favor the computer. In orthodox chess, one can stall by building a pawn chain, and then use the minor pieces for sacrifices to create breakthrough. The chess variant must contains some such factors as well.