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Knightmate. Win by mating the knight. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Sun, Aug 15, 2010 06:52 AM UTC:
Your point is not necessarily contradicting mine. I did not make the claim that any Chess player could easily beat Zillions in any variant. Exactly for the reason that you mention, namely people being unfamiliar with unorthodox pieces, and handling them very poorly, Zillions, with at least some vague understanding, can easily have the upper hand.

But that doesn't imply play is anywhere near good. It is more a matter of One Eye being king in the land of the blind.

On an absolute scale, Zillions is quite a weak player. This is convincingly demonstrated in variants for which dedicated engines exist. Depending on how much effort went in the construction of these engines, they are then 400-1000 Elo points stronger than Zillions. This would not be possible if Zillions was anywhere near perfect play. Other general variant engines, like ChessV or Fairy-Max, both beat Zillions, where Fairy-Max is in general some 100-150 Elo stronger than ChessV. But a quite basic dedicated engine is usually some 400 Elo above the minimalist almost knowledgeless Fairy-Max. Have you ever tried playing Zilions against JokerKM (or Fairy-Max) in Knightmate?