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Fairy chess piece
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts.
Most are symbolised as inverted or rotated icons of the standard pieces in diagrams, and the meanings of these "wildcards" must be defined in each context separately. Pieces invented for use in chess variants rather than problems sometimes instead have special icons designed for them, but with some exceptions (the princess, empress, and occasionally amazon), many of these are not used beyond the individual games for which they were invented.
The earliest known forms of chess date from the 7th century in Persia (chatrang) and India (chaturanga). They had different rules from the modern game. The game was passed to the Arabs, then to the Europeans, and for several centuries, it was played with those ancient rules. For example, the queen was once able to move only a single square diagonally, while the bishop could jump two squares diagonally. The change of rules occurred in Spain in the end of the 15th century when the queen and the bishop were given their modern moves. In the old Muslim manuscripts those two pieces were referred as ferz (meaning advisor) and fil (meaning elephant). The queen is still called ferz and the bishop is called slon (elephant) in Russian and Ukrainian. The bishop is still called alfil (from al fil, using the article) in Spanish. Due to the pieces' change in movement, the ferz and the alfil are considered non-standard chess pieces. As those who created modern chess did in the 15th century, chess enthusiasts may still create their own rule variations and how the pieces move. Pieces that move differently from standard rules are called "variant" or "fairy" chess pieces.
The names of fairy pieces are not standardised, and most do not have standard symbols associated with them. Most are represented in diagrams by rotated versions of the icons for normal pieces, though a few exceptions sometimes get their own icons: the equihopper and the knighted pieces (princess, empress, and amazon), and a few of the basic leapers (e.g. wazir, ferz, and alfil). The common names for the pieces are used here whenever possible, but these names sometimes differ between circles associated with chess problems and circles associated with chess variants.
Many of the simplest fairy chess pieces do not appear in the orthodox game, but they usually fall into one of three classes. There are also compound pieces that combine the movement powers of two or more different pieces.
A leaper is a piece that moves directly to a square a fixed distance away. A leaper captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits. The leaper's move cannot be blocked (unlike elephant and horse in Xiangqi and Janggi) – it "leaps" over any intervening pieces – so the check of a leaper cannot be parried by interposing. Leapers are not able to create pins, but are effective forking pieces. A leaper's move that is not orthogonal (i.e. horizontal or vertical) nor diagonal is said to be hippogonal.
Moves by a leaper may be described using the distance to their landing square – the number of squares orthogonally in one direction and the number of squares orthogonally at right angles. For instance, the orthodox knight is described as a (1,2)-leaper or a (2,1)-leaper. The table to the right shows common (but by no means standard) names for the leapers reaching up to 4 squares, together with the letter used to represent them in Betza notation, a common notation for describing fairy pieces.
Although moves to adjacent squares are not strictly "leaps" by the normal use of the word, they are included for generality. Leapers that move only to adjacent squares are sometimes called step movers in the context of shogi variants.
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Fairy chess piece AI simulator
(@Fairy chess piece_simulator)
Fairy chess piece
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts.
Most are symbolised as inverted or rotated icons of the standard pieces in diagrams, and the meanings of these "wildcards" must be defined in each context separately. Pieces invented for use in chess variants rather than problems sometimes instead have special icons designed for them, but with some exceptions (the princess, empress, and occasionally amazon), many of these are not used beyond the individual games for which they were invented.
The earliest known forms of chess date from the 7th century in Persia (chatrang) and India (chaturanga). They had different rules from the modern game. The game was passed to the Arabs, then to the Europeans, and for several centuries, it was played with those ancient rules. For example, the queen was once able to move only a single square diagonally, while the bishop could jump two squares diagonally. The change of rules occurred in Spain in the end of the 15th century when the queen and the bishop were given their modern moves. In the old Muslim manuscripts those two pieces were referred as ferz (meaning advisor) and fil (meaning elephant). The queen is still called ferz and the bishop is called slon (elephant) in Russian and Ukrainian. The bishop is still called alfil (from al fil, using the article) in Spanish. Due to the pieces' change in movement, the ferz and the alfil are considered non-standard chess pieces. As those who created modern chess did in the 15th century, chess enthusiasts may still create their own rule variations and how the pieces move. Pieces that move differently from standard rules are called "variant" or "fairy" chess pieces.
The names of fairy pieces are not standardised, and most do not have standard symbols associated with them. Most are represented in diagrams by rotated versions of the icons for normal pieces, though a few exceptions sometimes get their own icons: the equihopper and the knighted pieces (princess, empress, and amazon), and a few of the basic leapers (e.g. wazir, ferz, and alfil). The common names for the pieces are used here whenever possible, but these names sometimes differ between circles associated with chess problems and circles associated with chess variants.
Many of the simplest fairy chess pieces do not appear in the orthodox game, but they usually fall into one of three classes. There are also compound pieces that combine the movement powers of two or more different pieces.
A leaper is a piece that moves directly to a square a fixed distance away. A leaper captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits. The leaper's move cannot be blocked (unlike elephant and horse in Xiangqi and Janggi) – it "leaps" over any intervening pieces – so the check of a leaper cannot be parried by interposing. Leapers are not able to create pins, but are effective forking pieces. A leaper's move that is not orthogonal (i.e. horizontal or vertical) nor diagonal is said to be hippogonal.
Moves by a leaper may be described using the distance to their landing square – the number of squares orthogonally in one direction and the number of squares orthogonally at right angles. For instance, the orthodox knight is described as a (1,2)-leaper or a (2,1)-leaper. The table to the right shows common (but by no means standard) names for the leapers reaching up to 4 squares, together with the letter used to represent them in Betza notation, a common notation for describing fairy pieces.
Although moves to adjacent squares are not strictly "leaps" by the normal use of the word, they are included for generality. Leapers that move only to adjacent squares are sometimes called step movers in the context of shogi variants.