Forcing checkmate with a Fairy Piece

This applet allows you to practice checkmating a bare (orthodox) King with a fairy piece, or defending against such a checkmate. You can play your move in the diagram (for whatever side you want to play), and the diagram will then always respond with the best move for the other player. Although the diagram indicates the pseudo-legal moves of the piece you grab, it does not enforce those. So if you want to cheat, you can. This can be helpful for setting up an interesting initial position.

'Best move' here means the move that will achieve the mate most quickly when the player is winning, or delays it as much as possible for a player that is losing, both against perfect play. To determine this the applet has generated an End-Game Table, which tabulates the Distance To Mate for every conceivable position of two Kings plus the piece in question. In drawn situations it just plays a random move.