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H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Sep 15, 2016 06:59 PM UTC:

Game: apothecary2 # PNBRQW.A..C......GKpnbrqw.a..c......gk # elven
10x10=3
7 3 4 5 10 11 9 4 3 7
7 3 4 6 10 12 8 4 3 7

One thing that is wrong is that not all pieces you define occur in the 'pieceToChar' string in the first line of the definition. In this line each position corresponds to a piece image that WinBoard has, and the letter you write in that position defines for which piece that image will be used. The engine sends this to WinBoard whe you select the variant. Because there is no Z, E and L in this string, WinBoard thinks there are no pieces with these names in the variant. So it does not understand the FEN that contains these letters.

Another problem is that piece number 7 is used as the promotion piece, and in your case that would be the Zebra. Also the 3rd and 4th line of the definition are the white and black pieces on the back rank of Fairy-Max' internal start position. In your piece definitions pieces 12 and 13 are Kings, meaning that white would start without a King. (But setting up the position through WinBoard would cure that.)

You could change it to:

Game: apothecary2 # PNBRQ.EA....Z...C...LKpnbrq.ea....z...c...lk # elven
10x10=3
7 3 4 5 10 12 9 4 3 7
7 3 4 6 10 13 8 4 3 7
 

and move the Rook definition to the 7th place to make that promotion piece.

You should also scale down the piece values a bit. It is not only the ratio that counts. Fairy-Max uses the absolute total to decide when it is safe to start running with its Pawns. These high piece values drive up the total so much that Pawn moves will be discouraged enormously, in the opening.


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