Heterodox chess pieces II
Part II
This will be the last article dedicated to the fairy chess pieces of the new chess variant, the rules of which I will publish later. In the meantime, let's get acquainted with three more new fairy chess pieces.
Fleur-de-lis (FL)
The heraldic meaning of the lily flower is associated with the legend of the Frankish king Clovis I of the Merovingian dynasty (481-511). At a critical moment in the battle with the Alemanni, foreseeing imminent defeat, the king turned to the Christian God for help, exclaiming: “I believe in You!” Then an angel appeared with a white lily in his hand and ordered him to make this flower his weapon. At that very moment, Clovis's warriors put their enemies to flight.
Our Lily is also a very effective tool on the chessboard:
- Can make one to two moves like a chess knight only forward, like a knight in Shogi, that is, without jumping to the side.
- Moves forward and captures like a rook.
- Moves and captures orthogonally one square in three other directions, i.e. left, right and back.
- Moves backward and captures like a regular chess knight.
Although not such a powerful piece compared to Scorpion or other representatives of this chess variant, Fleur-de-lis is able to bring significant benefits by supporting attacking pieces on the chessboard.
Let's take a look at Fleur-de-lis in action on a standard 8x8 board.
White to move and mate in one
1. FLf4-h8#
The black king has nowhere to escape - checkmate.
Another example.
White to move and mate in two
1. Ra8-h8+ Nxa8 2. FLf4-f8#
Somewhat reminiscent of a smothered mate in standard chess. It looks very impressive.
Archer (A)
Just like the once legendary warrior Barbarika from the ancient Indian epic "Mahabharata", who was able to hit all his enemies by firing only three arrows, our Archer has a special unique talent and crushing power, which manifests itself especially well on large chessboards:
- Moves forward and captures like a rook or bishop
- Moves backward and captures like a rook
- Moves and captures sideways (left or right) like a Dabbabarider, to any number of available squares, leaping over any piece in its way and capturing any enemy piece on the landing square.
Let's take a look at Archer in action on a standard 8x8 board.
White to move and mate in one
1. Ae7-e2#
Another example.
White to move and mate in two
1. Ag1-g5 Kh5-h4 2. Ag5-h6#
Flail (F)
A flail is a weapon consisting of a striking head attached to a handle by a flexible rope, strap, or chain. The chief tactical virtue of the flail was its capacity to strike around a defender's shield or parry. Its chief liability was a lack of precision and the difficulty of using it in close combat, or closely-ranked formations.
Our Flail is a truly terrifying weapon:
- Moves backward and captures like a rook.
- Moves forward and captures as a rook on any number of available squares. If during such a move the enemy piece was not captured, then Flail MUST continue its move BACKWARD as a bishop in any of the two diagonal directions (left or right) to any number of available squares.
Thus, the Flail standing on f6 can end up on any of the 77 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, the Flail is able to control only 11 squares of an empty 12x12 board:
Being in the corner of the board on its territory, it has access to as many as 77 squares of an empty 12x12 board:
Along with the Scorpion piece, it is one of the strongest pieces in the game, inferior to Scorpion quite a bit due to mobility.
As with other fairy chess pieces, I will show you what the Flail is capable of on a standard 8x8 board.
White to move and mate in one
1. Fd1-d7-f5#
The maneuver of this amazing piece is truly impressive:
Now it’s easy to see how the checkmate turns out:
The effectiveness of this fairy chess piece is simply amazing.
It must be remembered that Flail's sliding diagonally, after moving forward, is only possible if there is no capture during the rook movement.
For example:
Here, after move 1. Fc1xc7 Flail's movement on the board ends. It cannot move down the b8-h2 diagonal due to the capture, so the black king is not in check.
This concludes the description of the new fairy chess pieces. Their unusual movements on the chessboard were specially created for the new chess variant, however, as we could see, all these strange, at first glance, moves and captures are also perfect for a standard 8x8 board.
In the next article I will describe the rules of my new chess variant, in which the maneuvers of Scorpion, Lizard, Fleur-de-lis, Archer and Flail will no longer seem so pretentious and unusual.
