Post by edtrice on Jun 11, 2018 16:35:14 GMT
Sorry to have been away from the board for so long. I've been working on three other programming projects. This is one of them.
I was commissioned to write a program for the Chess Variant known as Musketeer Chess. This game is played on an 8x8 board exactly like chess, except that each player can choose 2 additional pieces from a set of 10 different pieces, and introduce them into the game once a pre-designated piece on the chess board is deployed. At the start of the game, from the pool of 10 pieces, white selects a piece, then Black selects from the among those that remain. Black is "forced" to accept the piece white selects, and vice versa, so each player actually chooses one of the two pieces and has the other chosen for him. Next, white decides which piece on the board will allow piece #1 into play. Black can see where white places the piece, for example behind the Queen's Knight, and then Black can place his corresponding piece somewhere as well. White does the same for the second chosen piece, and Black places his corresponding piece last, and the game begins. There is a catch. If your piece that would allow "gated entry" of the new piece does not develop before it is captured, you lose the newly selected piece as well!
After about 5 weeks of programming and debugging, the program started kicking peoples' butts at this online site where I was testing it. In the position shown above, it is Black to move and win already after 4 moves. The new pieces chosen for this game were the Hawk and Dragon. When Black plays Hawk to b6, white will be powerless to stop defeat. The final position:
If the white pawn takes the Hawk, the Bishop takes the Knight and the associated Dragon, which is a piece that moves like a Queen or a Knight, so it's much stronger than a Queen. A Dragon can always mate in 4 moves against an enemy king on an empty board no matter where you place the pieces. If white doesn't take the Hawk, then the Hawk takes the Knight and Dragon. Game functionally over, and white resigned.
I was commissioned to write a program for the Chess Variant known as Musketeer Chess. This game is played on an 8x8 board exactly like chess, except that each player can choose 2 additional pieces from a set of 10 different pieces, and introduce them into the game once a pre-designated piece on the chess board is deployed. At the start of the game, from the pool of 10 pieces, white selects a piece, then Black selects from the among those that remain. Black is "forced" to accept the piece white selects, and vice versa, so each player actually chooses one of the two pieces and has the other chosen for him. Next, white decides which piece on the board will allow piece #1 into play. Black can see where white places the piece, for example behind the Queen's Knight, and then Black can place his corresponding piece somewhere as well. White does the same for the second chosen piece, and Black places his corresponding piece last, and the game begins. There is a catch. If your piece that would allow "gated entry" of the new piece does not develop before it is captured, you lose the newly selected piece as well!
After about 5 weeks of programming and debugging, the program started kicking peoples' butts at this online site where I was testing it. In the position shown above, it is Black to move and win already after 4 moves. The new pieces chosen for this game were the Hawk and Dragon. When Black plays Hawk to b6, white will be powerless to stop defeat. The final position:
If the white pawn takes the Hawk, the Bishop takes the Knight and the associated Dragon, which is a piece that moves like a Queen or a Knight, so it's much stronger than a Queen. A Dragon can always mate in 4 moves against an enemy king on an empty board no matter where you place the pieces. If white doesn't take the Hawk, then the Hawk takes the Knight and Dragon. Game functionally over, and white resigned.
