The white nightrider on a1 is blocked from reaching c5 by its pawn on b3. Many of these basic leapers appear in Tamerlane chess. The giraffe, stag, and antelope are level-4 leapers (1,4), (2,4), and (3,4). The 'level-3' leapers are the threeleaper (0,3), camel (1,3), zebra (2,3), and tripper (3,3). The wazir is a (1,0)-leaper (an "orthogonal" one-square leaper). In shatranj, a Persian forerunner to chess, the predecessors of the bishop and queen were leapers: the alfil is a (2,2)-leaper (moving two squares diagonally in any direction), and the ferz a (1,1)-leaper (moving one square diagonally in any direction). Leapers that move only to adjacent squares are sometimes called step movers in the context of shogi variants. The table to the right shows common (but by no means standard) names for the leapers reaching up to 3 squares, together with the letter used to represent them in Betza notation, a common notation for describing fairy pieces.Īlthough moves to adjacent squares are not strictly "leaps" by the normal use of the word, they are included for generality. For instance, the orthodox knight is described as a (1,2)-leaper or a (2,1)-leaper. 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. Leapers are not able to create pins, but are effective forking pieces. 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. A leaper captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits. (Piece names in this table are not universally recognized for all games.)Ī leaper is a piece that moves directly to a square a fixed distance away. Simple pieces Leapers Names and moves of the leapers There are also compound pieces that combine the movement powers of two or more different pieces. Many of the simplest fairy chess pieces do not appear in the orthodox game, but they usually fall into one of three classes. This article uses common names for the pieces described whenever possible, but these names sometimes differ between circles associated with chess problems and circles associated with chess variants. Most are typically represented in diagrams by rotated versions of the icons for normal pieces. The names of fairy pieces are not standardised, and most do not have standard symbols associated with them. Pieces which move differently from today's standard rules are called "variant" or "fairy" chess pieces.
Chess enthusiasts still often create their own variations of the rules and the way the pieces move. Thus, the ferz is now considered a non-standard chess piece. Today, this piece still starts next to the king, but has gained new movement abilities and become today's queen. For example, the queen was once able to move only a single square diagonally, and the piece was referred to as a ferz. Today's chess exists because of adjustments made to the rules of an earlier version of the game. This may once have been a "standard" form of chess in a particular area.
įragment of a chessboard and chess pieces from the 17th century. 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. 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. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces the same name in various contexts. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Playing piece with non-standard chess rulesĪ 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 chess problems.