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Aviation ChessA game information page
. Legan's Aviation Chess, popular during WWI, featuring the Aviator piece (with zrf).[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
H. G. Muller wrote on Thu, Oct 20, 2022 06:02 PM UTC in reply to Greg Strong from 05:33 PM:

This is indeed rather weird. The description claims that it was played a lot, though, and I cannot imagine that for a variant that seems so obviously flawed. So I suspect there is something missing in the description. Like Aviators not being allowed to hop over each other, or over the 'hangar squares'.

There exists a ZRF file for it. Perhaps someone that has Zillions (or understands the Zillions coding language) could check it out? I am not sure whether Mats is still around; otherwise we could ask him.

[Edit] Oh, it says the Aviators are initially worth more than a Rook. And the Rooks are of course protected by their own Aviator. So perhaps it is just not smart to play AxR, like it is not smart in Xiangqi to start with CxH.

[Edit2] It is even worse: By capturing the Rook you just lose a full Aviator. The Aviator recaptures, and then your own Rook is trapped and no longer protected by an Aviator. And not protectable by anything else. (E.g. 1. Ab2xh8 Ag7xh8 2. any Ah8xa1.