What Type of Pawn has More Value?

Some people may not care about this topic, but I've been seeing online the statement that Berolina pawns (or Hoplites if you play Spartan Chess) are more valuable than FIDE pawns.

To give some background for those who don't know, a Berolina pawn moves like a normal pawn captures, and it captures like a normal pawn moves.  Knowing this, the Berolina pawn is not limited to one file, as it can traverse the board almost freely (since they can't move backwards, an H pawn can't reach the A file until it promotes, but whatever).  The intrinsic value of the piece is therefore commonly cited as being higher than that of a pawn, because its mobility allows it to resist being blocked.

The downside, though, is that the pawn has only one capture square, directly ahead of it.  So, white it can't be blocked, it can much more easily be attacked.  In your opinion, is this balanced by the movement of the pawn, is it a large downside, or is it inconsequential?  In other words, which is better: FIDE, Berolina, or neither?

Don't be so defensive. I think it's not that people here don't care. They just don't have any idea what a Berolina pawn is or that it is used in a variant called Berolina chess.

I had to look it up. Like you said, in Berolina chess, pawns capture straight ahead and move on the diagonals (including 2 spaces on the first move), exactly the opposite of regular chess. Everything else in the game is the same as regular chess.

After thinking about it for a second, these pawns would lose the ability to support each other in a diagonal chain but could possibly form a vertical chain-- to what use it is not clear.

It seems like it would be harder to use these pawns to protect the king but perhaps that isn't necessarily so.

As to which is stronger, a regular pawn or a Berolina pawn, it seems a strange question, since they will never meet in a game.

// Why don't you move this to the Chess 960 and other variants forum?

Interesting question. The dynamic of the game is completely changed so it's hard to say.

Another way of asking the question is, if the pawns can move like berolina pawns, then is the relative value of all other pieces decreased?

Thinking about it this way, I tend to think yes, the berolina pawn is worth more. I think the other pieces may be less effective (compared to regular chess) because there will be fewer static targets. So in a tactic rich, initiative based environment, I imagine you'll typically have a number of pieces that aren't worth much, and are mostly getting in the way. Another way to say it is: it's harder to organize your pieces to the point they're all working together. The game will be a series of smaller skirmishes.

This is what I imagine anyway.

You can put both a berolina and a classic pawn in a custon variant.

I didn't know about the Berolina and I haven't played any variants, except one when I joined here and had no idea what was going on. I did invent Battle Chess, which is a 16 by 16² board, with 3 armies on each side, 5 queens, put up a blind and place your armies. The rules were loose nd it's sort of a cross between Stratego and Chess. I have sort of fleshed it out over the years, but we could never get through a whole game. Playing as fast as we could we figured it would take a week. I had to modify the pawn movement to: can move two squares in any direction, attack one square in any direction. The reason for this is that they were getting wiped out in droves by the minor pieces and Queens. You really have to watch out for the Bishops in this one. Of course, such movement in Chess would change everything. Interesting subject as I am reading (trying to) Kmoch and studying Pawn structures.

I just inspired myself to take a look at what would happen with that type of pawn movement. This is either gonna be really fast or really slow and I'm betting it's gonna be bloody.

An e2 pawn is defined to be exactly 1000 millipawn. A seventh rank pawn is worth a minor.