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The Black Ghost. Black gets a teleporting Ghost piece that can not capture to balance White's first move advantage. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

George Duke wrote on Sat, Sep 29, 2007 04:10 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

On subject lately of switching, swapping and Betza's Wand One of Teleportation, RBetza's Black Ghost(1996) introduces a weak teleporting piece here. To balance the first-move advantage for White is the object. There are GC Presets for Black Ghost because we played one. Black Ghost is a disrupter able to make two-move sequences unexpectedly out of straightforward attack. As boards now go to 8x10 and 10x10(9x9,9x10,12x12) primarily larger, it may be interesting to give Black Ghost more power. In 1990's Betza had serious reforms for standard 8x8 like this, whereas by 2001-2003 his style was more free-form, fanciful, and sarcastic. How weak can a piece get? Weaker, because as Jeremy Good has started to catalogue, there are pieces of negative value. This Comment leads into pieces of negative value because Betza himself has some. Besides, there are other very weak pieces in Betza we may take up first.

Breadman wrote on Wed, Sep 1, 2004 07:34 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I have attempted to analyze this piece using Zillions, but the program values it almost as much as a Queen, neglecting the fact that it can't capture. Thus, a human player can win either side easily. Rook vs. Ghost seems like it should be a draw with perfect play, but I have managed to win with it.

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Sep 28, 2003 07:53 PM UTC:Good ★★★★

I like the idea of using the 'Black Ghost' to balance the first-move
advantage of White. However, I would have preferred a different name for
this piece as I don't really like the term 'Black Ghost'. This name
just doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the chess pieces. May I
suggest
the Latin term 'Servus' instead (which means serf and therefore fits
into the medieval settings of chess. Also, 'pawn', which means 'foot
soldier', is also a Latin term), as this piece is obviously of the
non-military sort as it cannot capture the opponent's pieces, but it can
still be used as a blockader or a sacrifice.
Another issue is that this new piece may just over-balance the first-move
advantage of White. I think the benefits of having this piece may just
exceed the benefits of moving first.

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