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Bushka Strategy
I'd like to introduce two terms, tempo and pace.
The concept of linear movement gives Bushka an unusual flexibility in both. They
tend to lose much of their meaning once kings come into play.
Pace is calculated by giving one point to each man on the bottom rank, two points to
each man on the second rank, and so on.
It does not depend on mobility or the opponent's position (though the difference in pace
of course does). Tempo is more difficult to calculate. Roughly speaking it is the number
of moves a player has available. In the opening and middle game, it is usually
the number of moves a player has available behind a frontline. Since tempo concerns the number of moves,
it may (and usually will) be affected by the opponent's moves.
In the diagram below, the player to move loses the game. Of course this position is as artificial
as it is double-edged, but the point is that there are many positions where tempo is
more crucial than pace.
White, if he were to move, would still lose, despite 20 tempi
advantage in terms of pace.
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Making much pace is good in an open game: you go for the back rank
- Making little pace is good in a closed game: you need tempo-moves behind the front-line
- As far as anticipating the nature of the game goes, the decision whether
to keep men back is a strategic one
Bushka started out on a 9x11 board, with trhee ranks on either side separated by three vacant ones. This may appear
rather wide for a draughts game, but it proved too tight for Bushka's ways of capture. There was in fact only
one solid way to cope with 1. f25, and the sub-lines diverging from it were investigated very thoroughly indeed.
That's all down the drain now because it eventually became clear that the boobytrapped openings were too narrow and
did too little justice too the strategic and tactical variety found it the middle and endgame.
In terms of opening theory we're back to square one.
You're on your own!
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