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This is an excerpt from an article that I started earlier this year about Musketeer chess, that unfortunately has metamorphosed into a booklet; so I will have to rethink what I am doing. Still a pity to waste the work and here is a piece of the overall article posted below. . . White : “Freus” Black : John Vehre "Panzerschiff" P1 Ch0 Cf9 P2 Lc0 Lb9 C=Cannon L=Leopard At the time this game was conducted in September and October of 2017, my German opponent was ranked second on the Jocly Musketeer Chess ladder. He had originally selected a Dragon, but I declined it and consequently we ended up with the default pieces. I have to admit that at the time I found the Dragon to be a little overpowering, especially if facing it with black. After rejecting the Dragon, Freus and I then had a short debate on the difficulties of playing against the Dragon as black. He did not think it was that big a deal to face such a powerful piece. He felt that black by setting up his reserve pieces last can take measures against whatever deployment white might have been considering with his placements. For my part, I argued that opening mistakes are less forgiving for black than similar mistakes are for white and powerful pieces like the Dragon as well as the deep leapers like the Hawk or Unicorn are able more easily to exploit early omissions in opening play. This debate in the end led to Freus challenging me to a game as black where he opted for the Dragon. This game was one of the examples of the Dragon play in Musketeer Chess Play, that we saw early in this article. I did win the game, and it was because of an early black opening mistake, but one positive test does not prove a hypothesis. Returning to this game as far as reserve placement goes, we both are pretty conventional using entry sites on both sides of the board and for the most part deploying behind the minor pieces. Placing both reserve pieces on one side of the board does signal aggressive intentions, but may have the disadvantage of slowing down or even eliminating the castling option there. As I noted earlier, I don't think an a or h-file deployment for the reserve pieces is optimal and white's short-legged Cannon struggles to find an active roll through most of this game. I usually like to place reserve knighted pieces behind the Knights and this reserve “cavalry” is often useful in the Sicilian-like openings that I like to use against 1 e4. 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6/Lb8 3 Bb5 A Rossolimo style variation is a good choice here. In Musketeer Chess, it is often very difficult to obtain a favorable Open Sicilian style game. Just as in my game with Vishwanathan Ramen, if white had played 3 d4, black could obtain a favorable form of a Sveshnikov-like Sicilian with 3...cd4 4 Nd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 and 6 N/4b5 is again useless because the Leopard is lending additional support to the d6 square. With the Leopard's aid, black does not have to waste time with ….d6 and can just play ….a6 and directly drive the Knight away, following up very quickly with ….Bb4 and ...d5, which at least leads to an equal game. With an Open Sicilian, White also has to worry about the possibility of 3...Nxd4 in Musketeer Sicilians. The Queen can be kicked away after 4 Qxd4 Lc6. However in my opinion, the Sveshnikov option is both better and more aggressive. 3...,g6 4 d3 Opening choices sometimes are a matter of taste, but 4 0-0/Ch1 seems more flexible to me. By castling white not only brings a reserve piece quickly into the game, but keeps open the option of erecting a nice pawn center with the pawn moves c3 and d4. 4....Bg7/Cf8 5 Re1 e5 6 c3 Nge7 7 d4!? cd4 8 cd4 ed4 9 Bf4/Lc1! Illustrates the dangers of following a standard chess variation too closely. Black must now play ...d6 to defend his threatened Leopard and after 10 Nxd4 a6 11 Ba4 b5 12 Nxc6 Lxc6 13 Bb3 white's position is superior. 4....Bg7/Cf8 5 c3 Lc7 Not necessarily a bad move, but it leaves a rather lame impression! Still black had a few concerns about a possible white Bf4/Lc1 and creeping up the board allows the Leopard to react better to this possibility, while putting the question to white's bishop on b5. If I had had an Archbishop on b8 I certainly would have played ….d5 here, but the short stepping Leopard would not have felt so great about this move! 6 Na3 Nf6 7 Bf4/Lc1 d6 8 Ld2 White continues to proceed cautiously, but maybe too cautiously. 8. d4 was worth considering and I wish I had written down what I was considering playing against that thrust. 8...cd4 9 cd4 Bd7 10 d5 Ne5 11 Bxd7+ Cxd7 probably is safe enough, although I am sure I also considered a crazy gambit like 8...Bd7 9 dc5 Nxe4 10 cd6 Le6 11 de7 Qxe7 with interesting play for the pawn sacrificed. 8...,e5 The game now takes on a closed, slow maneuvering character. 9 Bg5 h6 10 Be3 Ce7 * Position after 10...Ce7 White still has a Cannon in Reserve behind his h1 Rook. 11 h3 White correctly avoids the tactical sequence 11 d4 ed4 12 cd4 Ng4 13 dc5 Nxe3 14 Lxe3 Bxb2 15 Bxc6+ bc6 16 Nc4 Bxa1 17 Nxd6+ Lxd6 18 cd6 Bc3+ 19 Kf1 Ba6+ 20 Kg1 Qxd6. While the material disadvantage of a Leopard against a Rook and is not too horrible, his position otherwise is very disorganized and he has lost the right to castle. Even worse, it is still at least two moves before he can roll out his own cannon! 11...,0-0 12 0-0/Ch1 Better late than never. The white Cannon is finally on the board! 12...,Bd7 13 Ch2 Ce6 Black is preparing the advance ...d5, after which he should stand a little better. However black does have to pay a little price for the advance and the game soon takes on an interesting unbalanced character. Up to now It is interesting to observe that black has resisted the temptation to kick white's bishop away with ...a6, while white has resisted the Bxc6 capture devaluing black's pawn structure. 14 Bc4 d5 15 ed5 Nd5 16 Lb3 Ne3 17 fe3 Cd6 ** Posit ion after 17...Cd6 18 Nb5? White probably counted on this move to discourage black's ….d5 advance earlier. A few moves later Freus mentioned that he just simply forgot that black could take twice on b5. Easy enough to happen when you are working with entirely new pieces! Materially speaking trading a Bishop and a Knight for a Leopard is pretty much an even exchange, although at the time I thought I was obtaining the better end of the deal. Then I instinctively thought that the Leopard and Cannon were worth somewhere between 5 and 6 pawns splitting the difference in the middle! As we have seen earlier the truth is probably around 6 pawns and maybe a bit more for the lumbering cannon! White's move is a mistake not so much from a material perspective, but from a positional one. The white square bishop is performing important duties, and especially important is the holding up possible black advances in the center or on the Queen side. Instead of the Knight move, white should have fought for his fair share of the central territory and played 18 e4. After 18...a6 19 Bd5 Be6 20 c4 b5 21 Rc1 the game is still pretty tense, although black may have a small edge in this position. 18....,Lb5 19 Bb5 Cb5 20 Lc2 e4! One has to hesitate a little in giving an exclamation point to a rather obvious and typical positional pawn sacrifice. However, the sacrifice is pretty strong and not only opens the g7 bishop's diagonal, but weakens white's white squares in the center of the board and gives black's pieces possibilities of penetrating into white's position on the c4 and d3 squares. Black, despite his nominal material deficit, has a clear advantage, but it is not quite decisive yet. 21 de4 Be6 22 Cg3 Qc7 23 Cf2 White could have done this in one move, but perhaps is signaling to black to prove that his advantage is as big as he “thinks” it is after that pawn sacrifice. 23....Rad8 24 Qc1 Ne5 25 Ne5 Be5 26 Rd1 Cc4 27 Cf3 Qc6 Black puts immediate pressure on the doubled pawns. I also considered 27....a5 with the idea of playing a quick ...a4 and a3. However after 28 a4 Cb3 white did not have to play 29 Lxb3 Bxb3 ceding the d file to black but instead could try 29 Ra3 Cxc2 30 Qxc2 Rxd1 31 Qxd1 Rd8 32 Qc2 Bc4 33 Ra1 and black still has to prove that he can penetrate decisively into the heart of white’s position. Instead black might consider the more patient 27....b5 contemplating the pawn moves …..a5 and ….a4 and continuing positional pressure on white's queen side. 28 Rd3 Rd3 29 Ld3 Cd3 30 Cd3 Rd8 31 Cf3 Bc4 Black despite his slight material disadvantage has not minded agreeing to exchanges. He now threatens ….Bd3 and Bxe4. White also has to watch out for the possibilities of ….Rd6 ….Rf6 and ….Rf1+! Still white's position is a tough nut to crack and the cannon on f3 is proving to be a useful defensive piece, covering many of the entry squares into his position. 32 b3 Be6*** Position after 32...,Be6 33 Qc2 33 c4!? was an interesting defensive try hoping to tempt black to part with one of his mighty bishops for a material gain. The following line shows how dangerous a cannon can be if it is allowed to come to close to your king. 33....Bxa1 34 Qxa1 Qd6 35 Cf4 Qd1+ 36 Qxd1 Rxd1+ 37 Kf2!? Rd2+ 38 Kf3 Rxa2?? 39 Cf6 and black is actually losing here. If 39...g5 black mates with 40 Ce7+ Kh7 41 Cf8+ Kg6 42 e5 and there is no defense against the Cannon leaping to f6 and delivering mate. 39...h5 is even worse and the mate is delivered by 40 Ce7+ Kh7 41 Cf8+ Kh6 42 Cf6# Black does best to ignore the a-pawn and instead 37....Kg7 38 Ce5 Rd7 should not lose, but making progress for a black win certainly looks difficult if not impossible. Instead of taking the exchange I had planned on playing 33...a6 aiming after 34 a4 b5 35 ab5 ab5 36 cb5? Qxb5 to create a passed pawn, which offers great winning chances. White does not have to be so cooperative and can try 36 Ra7, when black can hope to both attack the c pawn and perhaps penetrate along the b file after 36...,Rb8 37 Cd3 Rb4 followed by ….Qb6. 34...c4 Black of course jumps at the chance to increase his space advantage on the Queen-side. White's d3 now becomes a tempting entry square for black's pieces and the doubled pawns must now be feeling a little unprotected! 34 b4 Rd3 35 Ce2! The Cannon certainly is a great defender! This move defends all three pawn weaknesses (e3, e4, c3) in white's position. 35...Qd7 White' last move showed that his position is still a tough nut to crack and if he is allowed to play 36 Rd1 safely, it is hard to see how he should lose. At this point I spent a lot of time analyzing 35...f5. The basic idea is to anchor the rook in on d3 after 36 Rd1 with 36...,fe4. If white plays 36 ef5 Bxf5 black gains new possibilities with his white squared bishop. One common tactic being ...Rxc3 attacking the white queen and winning the c-pawn. One line that I considered was 37 e4 Bxe4 38 Re1 Qb6+ 39 Kf1!? [39 Kh1 Rxh3+] Rf3+ 40 Cxf3 Bxc2 41 Rxe5 Qf6 when I thought the resulting position was close to winning for me. White can play more actively with 36 b5!? and after 36....Qxb5 [If black does not like this 36...Qb6 37 Cxd3 cd3 38 Qd3 f4 39 Re1 fe3 40 Qxe3 Qxe3+ 41 Rxe3 Bxa2 is a highly favorable ending and black should win pretty easily once he creates a passed pawn on the Queen-side.}37 Rb1 Qc5 38 Cxd3 cd3 39 Qxd3 Qc7 the position looks a little messy, but black should be much better after 40 Qb5 b6 41 Qe8+ Kg7. Why didn't I play this? It is hard to say, but my intuition did not quite trust 35...f5, plus I eventually hit on another idea of advancing my g-pawn to open up another front of attack against White's king. This idea seemed to be a much safer way of conducting the attack and adhered to Dvoretsky's principle of playing against two weaknesses. In this case the weaknesses being white's pawn structure and the suddenly less than safe position of his king. 36 Rf1 g5! 37 Rf2? This loses quickly, but is is hard to suggest a reasonable defense against black's coming pawn thrust to g4. 37....g4 38 hg4 Bxg4 39 Cd2 Rxd2 40 Rd2 Qe7 41 Rd5 Bg3 White Resigns White is mated in a few moves. After 42 Qd2 Qh4 43 Rd8+ Kh7 44 Rh8+ Kxh8 45 Qd8+ Kh7 white's checks run out and he is mated after ….Qh2+ and Qh1 mate. The power of the two active bishops even against the new pieces was nicely demonstrated in this game. The question still arises, would I have gone for the positional sacrifice that allowed the bishops to shine if I had thought the cannon was worth 6.25 rather than the 5.5 pawns? .

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http://musketeerchess.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=477

Can somebody make a board with K+H+8 pawns vs K+U+ 8 pawns? My guess is that the unicorn is superior, but let’s play it out

Sorry to send this again, but I am planning to expand musketeer chess by adding pieces from myths and legends. If you have any ideas on piece names and rules, send me your messages.

Hi everyone, I'm a new member in the Musketeer club. I don't understand clubs yet because this is my first one. (I joined the cheaters club, but I never go there). My first question, is it OK to add the Musketeer emblems to the work we create? I use the pieces, but what about the emblems like the crossed swords:

Hi thr Raven is modified super pawn. You can play against a weak engine here: http://musketeerchess.net/games/sp/colonel/. enjoy Zied