Heterodox chess pieces
I will share with you some heretical ideas in the field of fairy chess composition, and at the same time I will give life to never-before-seen fairy chess pieces, which should soon populate the world of my new chess variant.
I propose to start with a truly amazing creature, capable of inflicting insidious and devastating blows on its opponents.
Scorpion (S)
In Ancient Egypt, the scorpion was considered the incarnation of the goddess Selket - the daughter of Ra, the patroness of the dead, who helped her father defeat his enemies.
Our Scorpion masters this skill simply perfectly:
- Moves and captures one square forward vertically.
- Moves and captures like a chess knight only forward, like a knight in Shogi, that is, without jumping to the side.
- Moves backward and captures as a rook on any number of available squares. If during such a move the enemy piece was not captured, then Scorpion MUST continue his move FORWARD as a bishop in any of the two diagonal directions (left or right) to any number of available squares.
Thus, Scorpion standing on f6 can end up on any of the 63 squares of an empty 12x12 board. All its possible moves are shown by arrows in the figure below:
In the corner of the board, in enemy territory, Scorpion is able to control up to 78 squares of an empty 12x12 board:
In the corner of the board on its own territory, only two squares are available to it:
To better understand the maneuvers of this amazing fairy chess piece, let’s move to the standard 8x8 chessboard we are used to and and consider a couple of checkmate problems involving it.
White to move and mate in one
1. Sd4-d1-g4#
By moving back, Scorpion is in the right place and at the right time for the finishing blow:
Look at the following example and appreciate the beauty of what is happening:
White to move and mate in one
1. Sd4-d3-h7#
The black king has nowhere to run - it is impossible to hide from the check.
Scorpion's backward move is the hallmark of this fairy chess piece, which is perhaps one of my finest creations in the field of unorthodox chess pieces and fairy chess composition.
It must be remembered that a backward movement and subsequent obligatory forward movement by the bishop's move is only possible if a capture was not made during the rook movement.
Here, Black's d4 pawn prevents White Scorpion, after moving down the d-file, from being displaced by moving the bishop along the diagonal d4-a7 or d4-h8.
Having captured the d4 pawn, Scorpion stops - its move is completed:
Lizard (L)
The symbolism of the lizard in different cultures of the world, as a rule, comes down to such concepts as fertility, vitality, dexterity, logic and even military art. Being a flexible, nimble and fast animal, it may well personify elusiveness. All these qualities are best demonstrated in the new fairy chess piece - the Lizard.
The Lizard's movement on the chessboard is somewhat intricate. It is easier to show it in a picture than to give a detailed description, but nevertheless I will try to do it.
— Lizard moves and captures enemy pieces in a zigzag pathway within three horizontal and vertical rows, starting from their central part.
Its first movement corresponds to the Ferz's move in Shatranj - one square diagonally in any of the four directions, and then the Lizard, changing the angle of its movement by 90 degrees, continues its path diagonally two squares, after which again, turning by 90 degrees, continues its move two squares in the direction of the initial movement and then, following such a given trajectory of movement, is capable of moving any distance along the chessboard. Any capture during this movement ends the Lizard's turn.
Guys, I hope I succeeded. If not, then look at the examples:
Here, in the picture above, the Lizard's route from the f6 square is shown, provided that the player, having made the initial move on the g7 square, decided to continue moving the Lizard upward.
If the player decides to move to the right, after the initial move on g7, then the Lizard’s movement trajectory will look like this:
For greater clarity, let's move our Lizard to a regular 8x8 chessboard, placing it in the habitat of standard chess pieces.
White to move and mate in one
1. Ld2-e7#
The e7 square is the only square from which the Lizard standing on d2 can give check to the black king.
Black is unable to block the f6-g7-h8 trajectory of the Lizard standing on e7 - the black king gets checkmated:
Another example where Black also cannot escape the attack of this agile and nimble fairy chess piece.
White to move and mate in one
1. La7-a5#
Having started moving down from square b6, Lizard a7 was able to advance only to square a5, but this is enough to deliver a fatal blow to the black king - there is no escape from the threat of La5-a3.
Please note that standing on the edge of the board and moving along this extreme row, the Lizard will always move only two squares, since after the initial movement one square diagonally, it is not possible to continue its path two squares in another diagonal direction - geometry the board will not allow this.
In the next article we will meet no less amazing and delightful inhabitants of my new fairy chess variant, which will change our understanding not only of fairy chess pieces, but also of unorthodox variants of chess in general.
