EDIT (Monday) The mating percentages I quoted were inflated by King captures, as H. G. Muller explained here an hour later. So I plan to be more careful when quoting statistics in the future. - David
Longest Checkmate Victory with K+N+(AD) vs K
in 35 moves on the 8x8 board (27.3%)
in 38 moves on the 12x8 board (18.6%)
in 38 moves on the 10x10 board (18.1%)
The Checkmating Applet on these Chess Variant Pages reveals that Knight and Courier (also known as an Alibaba = AD) are sometimes sufficient mating force. I am also intrigued by their ability to force stalemate victories in approximately 99% of random setups (see the information below). I have a couple of games here using stalemate victory, including Shatranj Kamil X on a 10x10 board. Byway has stated his belief that Modern Courier Chess permits a variety of minor piece checkmates, including the one using King, Knight and a pair of Couriers. The stalemating statistics suggest that this small army can easily trap a lone King in the nearest corner - the question remains, can they push the opposing King all the way to a corner which allows checkmate?
EDIT (Monday) The mating percentages I quoted were inflated by King captures, as H. G. Muller explained here an hour later. So I plan to be more careful when quoting statistics in the future. - David
Longest Checkmate Victory with K+N+(AD) vs K
in 35 moves on the 8x8 board (27.3%)
in 38 moves on the 12x8 board (18.6%)
in 38 moves on the 10x10 board (18.1%)
The Checkmating Applet on these Chess Variant Pages reveals that Knight and Courier (also known as an Alibaba = AD) are sometimes sufficient mating force. I am also intrigued by their ability to force stalemate victories in approximately 99% of random setups (see the information below). I have a couple of games here using stalemate victory, including Shatranj Kamil X on a 10x10 board. Byway has stated his belief that Modern Courier Chess permits a variety of minor piece checkmates, including the one using King, Knight and a pair of Couriers. The stalemating statistics suggest that this small army can easily trap a lone King in the nearest corner - the question remains, can they push the opposing King all the way to a corner which allows checkmate?
Longest Stalemate Victory with K+N+(AD) vs K
in 25 moves on the 8x8 board (98.9%)
in 35 moves on the 12x8 board (99.4%)
in 36 moves on the 10x10 board (99.5%)