Questions tagged [unorthodox-pieces]
Questions about or involving pieces not used in orthodox chess; such as but not limited to the nightrider, archbishop, chancellor, and or amazon. Such pieces are also often referred to as "fairy pieces".
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Rook and promoted Bishop vs Rook endgame--forced win or draw?
I've recently been trying to learn the queen vs rook and rook and bishop vs rook endgames, and I've found it interesting how close the margin of victory vs draw is. I was thinking about whether the ...
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3
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Given the value of a given piece is there a way to find the value of a similar piece that can only move, without capturing, or only capture?
Let's say the value of a piece that moves and captures in the same way is known. Then a similar piece that can move in the same way as the piece of known value, but which cannot capture, and ...
- 537
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Do amphibians usually have more synergy than other compound pieces?
Reading about fairy pieces I can see that an amphibian is a type of compound piece that has a larger range than either of it's components. For instance the 3 leaper is restricted to approximately 1/9 ...
- 537
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Was there a chess piece—elephant, knight or rook—rendered as a being looking into two directions?
I have found a chess set of unknown origin with ducks as pieces. Simple ducks for pawns, king and queen crowned and big, okay, but then, for rook, knight and bishop, I don't know.
There is a duck ...
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Is it possible for the hopper/locust to jump over unmovable squares?
If a board with unmovable squares, such as Chessence, has a Cannon on a1, and an enemy piece on a3, can the Cannon jump over the unmovable square (a2) and capture the target?
Normally, a "leaper&...
- 21
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Is it possible to put special pieces on a chess.com custom board?
I would really like to create custom positions with custom pieces (and maybe even variants) to play with my friends because we have always enjoyed playing custom variants. So for example a board with ...
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An online dictionary of fairy chess pieces indexed by move
While trying to accurately describe the intended movement of the "doubled knight" in this chess puzzle, I realized that what I really wanted right at that instant was a "dictionary"...
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How to solve this puzzle of Martin Gardner?
Martin Gardner mentioned the following "chess" problem in his column, Mathematical Games, for Scientific American (he got it from Smullyan, who learned about it from a high school math ...
- 221
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1
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Controversy over the Xiangqi cannon piece?
When reviewing the nature of the pieces of various chess variants, namely the xiangqi cannon, I asked about its history. I was surprised that the dates of its mentions did not match 8th century ...
- 59
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1
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Material value of the Berolina pawn
The Berolina pawn is a fairy piece that moves like a normal pawn, but can move two (and one in all other cases) steps diagonally and capture one forward. How much better (or worse) is this piece ...
user24344
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Would a piece that moved like a king – but could be captured (and could be moved en prise) – be considered a major or a minor piece?
I could be wrong, but it seems like the major determinant of whether a piece is a major piece or a minor piece is whether a king and one of that piece can force checkmate on a lone king. Would this be ...
- 151
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What arrangement of 8 each of these 4 different compound leapers has the "strongest coverage properties" on a 16x16 board?
The 4 compound leapers I'd like to look at are:
(1,2), (0,3), (2,2); knight+threeleaper+alfil
(1,2), (0,2), (1,1); knight+kirin
(1,2), (1,3); knight+camel
(1,2), (2,3); knight+zebra
What arrangement ...
- 308
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2
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Chess variants-Anyone recall the name for one that has a "superpiece" with the movements of the queen and knight?
What is the name of the chess piece in a variant game where there is a piece that moves like the queen AND a knight?
Is there a name for this variant?
- 3,813
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16 roses, 16x16 board; maximum double-attacked squares while all 256 squares are attacked at least once?
The rose is a piece that is best described as a "circular nightrider", able to reach up to 32 other squares from the center of a 13x13 area by making consecutive knight jumps in a rotating fashion in ...
- 308
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What is the maximum number of squares 8 queens and 8 nightriders can attack on a 16x16 board?
Including but still obstructed by occupied squares, what is the maximum number of squares on a 16x16 board that 8 queens and 8 nightriders can collectively attack at least once each? Even if attacking ...
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Fairy endgame statistics for KDDDDvKN (D=dabbaba; '2,0' leaper)?
The dabbaba is a '2,0' leaper fairy piece, only able to ever reach a quarter of the squares on the board. According to the linked Wikipedia page, a quartet of them can apparently "easily" force mate ...
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1
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Would certain checkmates be possible if the king could move into check?
Similar to a previous question of mine, let's suppose there's a piece that moves like the king, but isn't restricted from moving into check.
While a normal king and two knights can't force checkmate, ...
- 946
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1
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Is this a sound elephant offer?
In the following dobutsu shogi position, is Gc3xc2 a bad move?
ABC
+---+
1| | g
2|lce|
3|E G|
4| L | *C
+---+
- 1,654
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Fairy chess: KNNvK
I just wondered: can K + 2 nightriders force a mate against bare K? (A nightrider can make an unlimited number of knight moves in any direction - it cannot change direction partway through its move.)
- 10k
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Marshall vs. Queen Endgame
In a game of "Sort of Almost Chess", the variant from Mr. Betza that replaces one of the queens with a Marshall (the Rook+Knight compound, also known as the Chancellor, or the Empress in Fairy Chess ...
user16860
8
votes
1
answer
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Amazon vs Chancellor endgame
Many online sources (such as Wikipedia) state that the endgame of amazon (piece that moves like Queen and knight) and chancellor (piece that moves like rook and knight) is a draw. I did some ...
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Could two kings force checkmate against a lone king?
I was looking at minimal combinations of material needed to force checkmate (K+R, Q+B, R+N+N, etc). You end up with a sort of threshold of how much material is needed, and that sort of assigns a ...
- 946
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What is the maximum DTM with K+J vs K?
What is the maximum Depth to Mate (DTM) in the endgame king + janus vs king on a 10x8-board ?
The janus can move like a bishop or like a knight. Since both sides have two
additional pieces, the board ...
- 3,359
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Queen with Knight capabilities
I find it interesting that the Queen can move with the same capabilities as the Rook and the Bishop, but cannot 'jump' or move like the Knight, I understand that this would overpower the queen but ...
