Enter Your Reply The Comment You're Replying To M Winther wrote on Sat, Apr 18, 2009 07:22 AM EDT:Thanks for this. One factor which is very important in the Guanaco and the Alpaca is that they become quite strong in endgames with pawns. They can rather easily attack a pawn chain while they can move to an adjacent square of a different colour, and hop over pawns. To attack an enemy pawn chain could be impossible for a bishop of the wrong colour, and be somewhat difficult for a knight, while it has to maneuvre many moves. I found that Zillions has difficulties handling the Guanaco in the beginning while it demands planning. You must maeuvre it in order to use it, so it's not the ideal piece for computers. Therefore one cannot expect that the replacement test will work very well. The Guanaco is very strong in the endgame, and two Guanacos plus king seem able to checkmate an enemy king (needs to be verified). If this is true then two Alpacas would also be able, together with the king, to give mate. The Llama has fewer capture squares than the Alpaca. Only on the inner 6x6 square it has four capture squares. So I suppose it's worth somewhat less. On the other hand it can threaten at a two square distance. Notice also that the Guanaco *slides* on the squares on which it stands. In a sense, it is an orthogonal bishop. /Mats Edit Form You may not post a new comment, because ItemID MatsNewPieces does not match any item.