I never said black has to play the perfect game to win, far from it. black can lose several pieces and still win. It is a pointless game.

seems odd, since if there are ten people in it hte prize will be divided ten ways....... playing a set, on as eahc color, is not going to change the fact that white doesn't have a chance to win this game. white should have two maharaja's, perhaps one of them being a "king" that cannot be lost or else white loses. I think Gary Barnes might have suggested that a long while back.

what exactly is the discussion about here? this variation of chess is obviously heavily favored towards black. white should never win.

I saw an idea where someone suggested the maharajah be given extra moves, those of a knight that can move in a 3-1 L. I do not believe this will change things a whole lot. The problem is, white cannot make any kind of attack on a defended piece, since it has no piece to back up a capture with. It is not difficult for black to keep all his pieces defended. Losing as black is inexcusable. Heck, losing a PIECE as black is inexcusable. I lost a rook in one game only because I failed to notice it was threatened. That is a pure careless error, it was not the result of clever play by my opponent.

Regarding what one person said about having 35 moves be a draw and 50 be a loss. That also does not work. The game appears to be a forced win for black in approximately 20 moves, as was demonstrated to me by a player whose name I cannot remember. It might have been whisperz.

The only way ot make this a game (right now it hardly qualifies as one, given the tremendous advantage that black has) is to add more pieces for white. Gary Barnes suggested having THREE maharajah pieces, one of them a King maharajah and theo ther two Queen maharajahs. The queen ones can be lost, but not the King. Even then black may have an advantage.

Uil-- I saw that you posted that you are undewfeated as white (although it seems like you have since picked up one loss). This is surprising, but it doesn;t prove much. It had to be careless play by your opponents that resulted in all those wins as white.

I am willing to guarantee that I will win this game as blakc against ANYONE. I am not even willing to do that in pente or Keryo pente, despite not having lost once yet as player 1 in either game.

The game of maharajah may have history, but it need to be changed. If the purists are bothered by this, then call it something different. But as it stands now, I cannot see any reason to play maharajah chess.