Two changes have been made to Horde Chess.
1) White is now the Horde, and has the first move.
2) Pawns on the first or second ranks can move two squares.
What do players think of the resulting balance? I can't decide, but my hunch is that the pieces are still a bit stronger.
I've always felt that having the pawns is a huge advantage. After all, you have four more pawns than in the original Horde chess. Should be interesting to see what the statistics says now.
This is the only variant that has different pieces for each side, so these discussions about imbalance and inequality are inevitable.
However, regardless of what people think, the statistics show the true imbalance.
The statistics slightly favored the "pieces" before, and were a great improvement on the original horde (from ~70% to ~45% win rate) so I'm interested to see how this plays out as well.
I'm amazed by how useful it is to move two squares from the first rank. I thought it would not be a big boost, since it still takes 6 moves from the back to reach queening square, but the versatility is enormous.
I'm still guessing piece advantage, but I really don't know. I agree, the stats will be interesting.
Well, this is probably not going to happen in a lot of games... But wouldn't it make sense to allow en-passant capture for pawns that moved from the 1st to 3rd rank?
My (rather limited) experience tells me that the pawns are more pleasant to play with. Being the pieces, I have a hard time to come up with any constructive idea unless the Horde player blunders a couple of pawns. Sometimes this does not help much, though :)
The more I play, the more I am amazed. The pawns may now be the stronger. Perhaps they should be reblackened.
Can't wait to see stats between closely-rated top players.
I've always thought that pawns are the stronger, and strong opponents generally agree. When I play strong opponents, the player with the pawns win pretty easily.
I think the pawns are stronger.
You should give the pawns back to black and remove the 2-squares move from rank 1 or 2, to balance the game, or giving white more pieces instead of pawns in the 2nd rank, that may be super interesting!
#5 Good point.
I too look forward to seeing statistics between top players, especially as we learn more about the game.
On the other hand, it's possible that #8 is correct despite the fact that in the old Horde chess rules, Stockfish evaluated the starting position as +10 to White (the pieces). Once I've tweaked it again I look forward to playing an "Advanced Horde" simul (casual, engines allowed)...
