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Chess with Different Armies. Betza's classic variant where white and black play with different sets of pieces. (Recognized!)[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Miek Nelson wrote on Mon, Sep 16, 2002 10:18 PM UTC:

I tried Ralph's suggestion and pitted the Separate Realms army against the
Remarkable Rookies--the games lasted about the same length as SR vs
Fabulous FIDEs, but had a different flavor--SR stayed competitive longer,
but once the slaughter started, it was over quicker. Makes perfect sense
as the Rookies are stronger the the FIDEs in absolute value but slower to
develop.

In another experiment, substituting the SR Rook (mDDcR) for the R4 seems
to strengthen the Rookies a fair amount (which would unbalance the Rookies
for CWDA). It can be devoloped to a square where it attacks the center in
two moves without moving a pawn; also it defends the first rank virtually
as well as a full FIDE Rook--the limitation on the squres it can occupy is
compensated by its ability to leap over obstacles.