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In fact, I don't know immediately how to save this game. The problems are obvious: A blocked pawn threatened by a knight will bring the game to an early end, and white has the initiative which brings free moves for white while black is forced to answer all the threats by the white knight. The key is the forking power of the knight. So there is much room for experimentation and playtesting. Ideas include: * Make pawns insensitive to the knight * Allow the capture of the knight if there are no forced moves left after the knight is removed * Allow suicide of a stopped pawn * Use multiple moves * Tune down the knight to a Mao, a Moa, or a heavenly horse (vN) Each idea and combinations of them need intensive playtesting, many of them probably must be discarded as the original sketch. Is it allowed to move to a square threatened by a knight (of course you have to move away in one of the following moves, but maybe you can just oscillate between two threatened squares in order to avoid to be forced to move a blocked pawn?) At last, a more precise description of the interaction between 'check' and forced moves is required. Does a piece give check and mate when it cannot move because other pieces have forced moves? What happens if your king is in check but other pieces have forced moves (you loose, you may move the king or remove the check in another way)? Again, the rules need playtesting to see whether they result in an interesting game or not.

Note that, filling in the blanks in the write‐up by analogy with the rules of Compulsion in the original Nemoroth, the zugzwang can in fact be lifted by a ‘saving move’ such as capturing the knight; as such 5. Nb5
would be a blunder: after 5. … c6
, 6. c4
is forced (White in any case had only up to 2 free moves), allowing 6. … c4xb5
and white is an N
down, which might well be a crippling disadvantage; white can force capture of the Nh6
before it goes on to wreak its own compulsion havoc, but only in exchange for its queen, and of the unmoved knights the black one would seem to have the advantage in terms of enemy pieces' positions (Na6
introduces no new compulsions, is safe from attack, and with the queen gone it poses a credible threat in the white camp, especially if preceded by Qa5
to prevent the white K
chasing the N
away once it reaches c2
).
Also, applying Nemoroth rules, moving into a square under a knight's control is prohibited (4. c3 f6
is exactly forced; the double‐push is illegal), even when coming from another knight‐threatened square (all squares are equally far from the knight and there seems to be no other criterion to favour any above others).
I haven't tried out other openings though as yet; it may well be that there's some other forced win for white. And indeed all this really ought to have been specified in the rules, as with the interactions with check/‐mate.
(I was reminded of this sketch by this discussion; check‐plus‐Nemoroth‐compulsion and check‐plus‐king‐capture present very similar issues in their interactions.)
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