💡📝Charles Daniel wrote on Tue, Jul 7, 2009 04:54 PM UTC:
Thanks for you comments Joe and George. Regarding George Duke’s ninja pawn comments: It is true that the complexity of the rules and/or the drop mechanism may put off some players, but the upside is a much greater scope for pawn play. Weakened pawns and pawn chains are characteristics of large board chess. Faster standard pawns and Ninja Pawns address this drawback as well as providing richer and unique endgame scenarios. The threat of quick promotion (by moving 2 steps forward) and ninja pawn lateral capture add substantial power to advanced pawns or ninja pawns in enemy territory.
Interestingly, Nahbi Chess mentioned by Joe, allows standard pawn to move sideways on enemy half of board, but this may not be sufficient to overcome the inherent weakness of pawns on larger boards. On Nahbi vs Sorcerer Snake: the Nahbi allows one path to destination squares so can be blocked easier while the Sorcerer Snake can choose an alternative path and is a bit harder to block. On a crowded board, this difference can be substantial, on a more empty board not so much.
Thanks for you comments Joe and George. Regarding George Duke’s ninja pawn comments: It is true that the complexity of the rules and/or the drop mechanism may put off some players, but the upside is a much greater scope for pawn play. Weakened pawns and pawn chains are characteristics of large board chess. Faster standard pawns and Ninja Pawns address this drawback as well as providing richer and unique endgame scenarios. The threat of quick promotion (by moving 2 steps forward) and ninja pawn lateral capture add substantial power to advanced pawns or ninja pawns in enemy territory. Interestingly, Nahbi Chess mentioned by Joe, allows standard pawn to move sideways on enemy half of board, but this may not be sufficient to overcome the inherent weakness of pawns on larger boards. On Nahbi vs Sorcerer Snake: the Nahbi allows one path to destination squares so can be blocked easier while the Sorcerer Snake can choose an alternative path and is a bit harder to block. On a crowded board, this difference can be substantial, on a more empty board not so much.