Author: Ed Trice
Date: 20:07:04 01/07/04
Go up one level in this thread
Hello Vincent , > >Why random ? >The Capablanca's chess seems very interresting too >http://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/capablanca.html > White to move wins in Capablanca Chess. There are too many weaknesses for Black to deal with. >Programers who want to bypass all that lawthings can use the latest setup from >capablanca : >" > The final version upon which Capablanca settled is the following. Edward Lasker >writes in his book The Adventure of Chess from 1950 that he has played many >games with Capablanca on the 10 by 10 board, and the 10 by 8 board, which was >the final design, with the setup given below. > >White: >King f1; Queen e1; Archbishop c1; Chancellor h1; Rook a1, j1; Knight b1, i1; >Bishop d1, g1; Pawn a2, b2, c2, d2, e2, f2, g2, h2, i2, j2. > >Black: >King f8; Queen e8; Archbishop c8; Chancellor h8; Rook a8, j8; Knight b8, i8; >Bishop d8, g8; Pawn a7, b7, c7, d7, e7, f7, g7, h7, i7, j7. >" > >http://www.chessvariants.com/large.dir/capabl04.gif Here are some things I found bad about Capablanca's setup. 1. The i-pawns were undefended. The starting position was therefore unstable, and kingside castling was usually suicidal since the castled king would reside in the file of the undefended pawn. 2. The bishops are "shifted" inward one file each, which changes the color on which they reside. They cannot reach the "long diagonal" like they can in regular chess, so many popular formations, such as the King's Indian or the Reti Opening had no counterparts in this variation. 3. On each side of the board, there are three diagonal pieces in a row, all aimed in the vicinity of the weak i-pawn. There is no symmetry, and there is too much attacking power focused on an unprotected sector of the board. 4. After Nh3 the knight covers the h-pawn, blocking the bishop in. The king's bishop could then only deploy in one direction, that being towards the opponent's Queenside after the f-pawn is pushed to free it. This cripples the range of the bishop over an important area of the board. This is bad. 5. Attempting to fix item #4 by playing the pawn to h3 instead of Nh3 does not solve the problem. White's King's Bishop would be free to head to the right after the h-pawn is pushed once, but where can the King's Knight land on its first move? Playing Nj3 then Nh2 after Bi3 costs a critical tempo, and Black's e-pawn can make one move to threaten the Bishop on i3, a potential loss of another tempo. Pushing the g-pawn then playing Ng2 looks more promising, but without pushing the e-pawn, Black has ...Ci6 to hit on the weakened i2 square. Of course ...Ci6 could be answered with Ch2, but this cuts off the Bishop's retreat path and invites either ...Ad6 or ...c6 and ...Bc7 to chase the Chancellor. This is bad. 6. Pushing the h-Pawn two squares in Capablanca Chess, seemingly freeing the King's Bishop, Knight, and Chancellor, allows a violent attack against h3 and i2 by the enemy Archbishop, Queen, and Bishop, by lining them up onthe c8-j1 diagonal. White can try to do the equivalent quick kingside castle in Capablanca Chess, but there is a positional detriment imposed. After 1. h4 d6 2. Nh3 e5 3. Bi3 (protecting the h-Pawn since the Black Bishop on d8 is now attacking it) 3...Nh6 4. Ch2 looks to allow 5. 0-0 without breaking a sweat. However, Black has Nj5, attacking the h-Pawn twice and the Bishop on i3, detracting from the merit of the position for White. After 4...Nj5 and 5...Nxi3, White's Pawn structure is ruined on the kingside since 6. jxi3 is needed to recapture the Knight that removed White's Bishop. White cannot play in this fashion without surrendering the iniative. This is very bad. You can see more of this here... http://www.GothicChess.org/long_answer.html
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