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1972 in the Reformed Courier-Spiel page was a error. 1971 was meant and I have corrected it.
The date of invention of this game is confusing. Pritchard, who seemed in relationship with Byway, had probably the correct date with 1971.
The date of 1992 mentioned by Begnis in his page, and also in my own French book "L'Odyssée des jeux d'échecs" taken as reference by Begnis, is the date at which Modern Courier Chess seems to appear in Variant Chess magazine.
In http://www.mayhematics.com/v/vol5/vc37.pdf, Byway says "Some two decades passed before extended experiments at Powdermill chess club resulted in the present rules". The 1971's moves were different from the one, definitive, of 1992.
EDIT (Monday) The mating percentages I quoted were inflated by King captures, as H. G. Muller explained here an hour later. So I plan to be more careful when quoting statistics in the future. - David
Longest Checkmate Victory with K+N+(AD) vs K
in 35 moves on the 8x8 board (27.3%)
in 38 moves on the 12x8 board (18.6%)
in 38 moves on the 10x10 board (18.1%)
The Checkmating Applet on these Chess Variant Pages reveals that Knight and Courier (also known as an Alibaba = AD) are sometimes sufficient mating force. I am also intrigued by their ability to force stalemate victories in approximately 99% of random setups (see the information below). I have a couple of games here using stalemate victory, including Shatranj Kamil X on a 10x10 board. Byway has stated his belief that Modern Courier Chess permits a variety of minor piece checkmates, including the one using King, Knight and a pair of Couriers. The stalemating statistics suggest that this small army can easily trap a lone King in the nearest corner - the question remains, can they push the opposing King all the way to a corner which allows checkmate?
Longest Stalemate Victory with K+N+(AD) vs K
in 25 moves on the 8x8 board (98.9%)
in 35 moves on the 12x8 board (99.4%)
in 36 moves on the 10x10 board (99.5%)
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Oct 5, 2024 07:09 PM UTC in reply to David Paulowich from 06:26 PM:Note that the percentages you quote are for the strong side to move, and for the checkmating almost exclusively reflect the number of immediate King captures. If the King cannot be captured in the first move, so that the weak side gets the opportunity to move, the winning chances on 8x8 have already dwindled from 27.3% to 1%. The long lines all stay within those 1%.
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Have we missed the fiftieth anniverary of Modern Courier Chess? The rules page for Reformed Courier-Spiel (2011) contains the sentence: "With this design, Begnis also intended to improve Modern Courier Chess invented by FIDE Master Paul V. Byway in 1972."
On his own website, Clément Begnis writes: "In this respect, I need to mention here that at first (in the 1970's), Byway had made an attempt to modernize the Courier game with more powerful extra pieces."
On his own website, John Savard writes: "Attempts have been made to modernize the game, one in 1824 and one in 1971. The one in 1971, Modern Courier Chess, changed the moves of several of the pieces. Even that of 1824 by Albers made a number of changes, although it was less radical."
The current address is: Modern Courier Chess. Meanwhile, the year when Byway finished creating his game remains a mystery. VARIANT CHESS No. 8 does contain the following game from the previous year - with the letters "F" and "C" standing for Ferz and Courier (Alibaba).