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Sentinel Chess. Instead of queens, players have sentinels who can transform into 8 pawns. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, May 10, 2004 02:59 AM EDT:Good ★★★★

This could be seen as a 'delayed-action' version of games such as Courier and Sixteen Pawns, which have several short-range pieces where FIDE Chess has the Queen. How would an army from this game play against a FIDE, 16 Pawns, or (suitably rearranged) Courier one?

Michael J. wrote on Sun, Jun 27, 2004 11:39 AM EDT:Good ★★★★

Thanks for the comment. I would like to play some more games, but upon my initial tests against the FIDE setup the Sentinel caused no end of trouble against the queen, as the initial goals for the Sentinel-assisted army are different. In the games played, after this was realized, the bishops were held back as defensive pieces, while the knights and pawns ran to secure outposts. The king did not try to castle, but instead stayed near the Sentinel, and in some games they ran forward together kingside with the pawns closing ground in front of the enemy king. In a few games, the queenhunt was quite effective, because the opponent did not prepare for discovered attacks and initiatives, and was pushed to ineffective squares or captured. At that point the extra pawns possible by Sentinel deployment were very effective, and turned advantage over to the Sentinel team.

Ed Friedlander wrote on Thu, Jul 8, 2004 04:42 PM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★

This is a clever idea, very appealing in its simplicity, and I think I've got the applet working. I hope I did it right. I understand that deploying the corps captures opposing units and skips friendly units. I thought that deploying the corps should not capture the enemy king; otherwise, most situations with the Sentinel two squares away from the enemy king would give check, perhaps even if the Sentinel is pinned.

Michael J. wrote on Thu, Jul 8, 2004 10:12 PM EDT:Good ★★★★

I agree with the notion that the deployment of the Corps cannot capture
the
opposing king.  That has not been the way I have employed it, and that
would be out of relation to the purpose of the piece.


Thanks for the positive comments.

And I definitely appreciate the effort with the program.  You have done
some great things for my chess enjoyment, and I wanted to give back.

Anonymous wrote on Thu, Aug 19, 2004 12:57 PM EDT:

The applet still has one problem: it deploys the corps when that does not get it out of check. A sample game: <ol> <li>Pe2- e4 Pf7- f6 <li>Sd1- e2 Pa7- a6 <li>Se2- f3 Ph7- h6 <li>Sf3- g4 Pe7- e5 <li>Sg4- f5 Pb7- b6 <li>Sf5- g6 Bf8- d6 <li>Sg6@ g6 Ke8xPf7 <li>Pg7xRh8Q Pa6- a5 <li>Qh8- g7+ Kf7- e8 <li>Qg7xNg8+ Bd6- f8 <li>Ph7- h8Q+ Pc7- c5 <li>Qg8xBf8+ Sd8@ e8??</li> not getting out of check <li>Qf8xKe8+ </ol> Note: in the above sample, the @ symbol has been used to mean 'deploys the corps.'

Michael Farris wrote on Fri, Sep 24, 2004 02:13 PM EDT:

I will check with Ed to see if the PixelPusher program at
http://www.pathguy.com/chess/Sentinel.htm can be made to adjust for that
oversight.  Thanks for bringing it up -- did you like the variant
otherwise?  From where do you play?

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