Greg Strong wrote on Sat, Sep 15, 2018 03:10 AM UTC:
I agree with this principle and believe it is indeed sometimes violated. Take all the Capablanca variants. They typically allow promotion to any piece (Queen, Chancellor, Archbishop, Rook, Bishop, Knight.) The last three are pointless, however. You might under-promote to avoid causing a stalemate, but if the Rook-move causes the stalemate you promote to an Archbishop. If the Bishop-move causes the stalemate, you prmote to a Chancellor. Otherwise you promote to a Queen. David Paulowich first pointed this out and that's why his games do not include pointless underpromotions (and hopefully mine don't either.)
I agree with this principle and believe it is indeed sometimes violated. Take all the Capablanca variants. They typically allow promotion to any piece (Queen, Chancellor, Archbishop, Rook, Bishop, Knight.) The last three are pointless, however. You might under-promote to avoid causing a stalemate, but if the Rook-move causes the stalemate you promote to an Archbishop. If the Bishop-move causes the stalemate, you prmote to a Chancellor. Otherwise you promote to a Queen. David Paulowich first pointed this out and that's why his games do not include pointless underpromotions (and hopefully mine don't either.)