Variants Piece Guide for Beginners

This forum post is intended to help beginners understand all of the variant (and normal) chess pieces, as well as their relative value. While some pieces' values are not widely agreed upon, this list will be ordered using the 4-player chess point values for each piece (with one exception, as the piece in question is an outlier and does not fit among its point group, and each entry will list said value as the piece's point value), as well as an arbitrary ordering for pieces of the same value which groups similar pieces together in order to help this guide flow better. Keeping this in mind, the guide will also use terminology that some people may not fully understand. Therefore, I will attempt to define all important terms here:

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Orthogonal: This word means "in a straight line". It is the opposite of "diagonal".

Promotion: When some pieces reach a specific rank (typically the 8th rank, though this may change for some variants), they promote to a piece of choice (this is typically a queen, bishop, rook, or knight by default, but may also be any other piece, and may have many other options, depending on the variant). They then act as the new piece from that turn onward, gaining its movement abilities.

Blocked: When a piece is blocked, it cannot advance beyond that point. If the piece is blocked by the edge of the board or a friendly piece, it cannot travel to that point. If the piece is blocked by an enemy piece (and its movement would not result in check), the former piece can travel to that square, but not beyond it.

Gaps: This refers to a transparent brick or set of transparent bricks, which would make a hole in the board that cannot be moved into or through. Regular bricks and ducks also have this property, though ducks can (and in those cases, must) be moved to unoccupied squares in some variants.

Jump vs. Move: If the word "jump" is used, the piece travels directly to the target square, ignoring any pieces or gaps between the two squares. If "move" is used, the piece travels along a path to that square, and can be blocked by gaps or other pieces.

Royal: A royal piece is one that cannot normally be captured by opposing pieces; a move must always be played to prevent a royal piece from being captured. If an enemy piece is threatening to capture the royal piece, it is check, and a move must be played to escape the attack. If there is no move that can prevent the royal piece from being captured, it is checkmate. Some variants end when the royal piece is captured instead of checkmated, however.

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Note that some pieces' movement descriptions will be simplified when they are a combination of other pieces' movements. If you cannot use this information to discern the piece's movement abilities, refer to those movement descriptions to get a better idea of what the piece moves like. In addition, I should clarify that all rider pieces cannot change direction after a jump; they may only continue to jump in that direction.

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1. Ferz: Moves one square diagonally in any direction. Point value: 1

2. Wazir: Moves one square orthogonally in any direction. Point value: 1

3. Alfil: Jumps two squares diagonally in any direction. Point value: 1

4. Dabbaba: Jumps two squares orthogonally in any direction. Point value: 1

5. Soldier: Moves either one or two squares forward orthogonally on its first move (unless blocked two squares ahead, in which it can only move one square, regardless of what is blocking it). After its first move, it can only advance one square in that direction. Can promote. Point value: 1

6. Stone General: Moves either one or two squares forward diagonally on its first move (unless blocked two squares ahead, in which it can only move one square, regardless of what is blocking it). After its first move, it can only advance one square in that direction. Can promote. Point value: 1

7. Berolina: Moves either one or two squares forward diagonally on its first move (unless blocked two squares ahead, in which it can only move one square, regardless of what is blocking it), or can capture orthogonally forward. After its first move, it can only advance one square in that direction. If a berolina, stone general, or sergeant advances two squares diagonally across the square in front of it, it can capture en passant by moving forward orthogonally. Can promote. Point value: 1

8. Pawn: Moves either one or two squares forward orthogonally on its first move (unless blocked two squares ahead, in which it can only move one square, regardless of what is blocking it), or can capture diagonally forward. After its first move, it can only advance one square in that direction. If a pawn, soldier, or sergeant advances two squares orthogonally to a square orthogonally adjacent to it, it can capture en passant by moving forward diagonally in that direction. Can promote. Point value: 1

9. Sergeant: Has the combined movement abilities of a pawn and berolina (including their en passant capabilities). Point value: 1

10. Xiangqi Horse: Moves one square orthogonally, then one square diagonally to a target square. Point value: 2

11. Knight: Jumps two squares orthogonally and one square in a perpendicular direction to land on a target square. Point value: 3

12. Camel: Jumps three squares orthogonally and one square in a perpendicular direction to land on a target square. Point value: 3

13. Grasshopper: Moves in eight directions by jumping to the square beyond the first piece encountered in that direction. Point value: 3

14. King: Has the combined movement abilities of a ferz and wazir. Is royal by default unless another piece is set. Point value: 3

15. Alibaba: Has the combined movement abilities of an alfil and dabbaba. Point value: 3

16. Alfil-rider: Jumps like an alfil in a given direction until blocked. Point value: 3

17. Dabbaba-rider: Jumps like a dabbaba in a given direction until blocked. Point value: 4

18. General: Has the combined movement abilities of a knight and king. Point value: 5

19. Bishop: Moves diagonally in any direction until blocked. Point value: 5

20. Rook: Moves orthogonally in any direction until blocked. Point value: 5

21. Wildebeest: Has the combined movement abilities of a knight and camel. Point value: 5

22. Alibaba-rider: Jumps like an alibaba in a given direction until blocked. Point value: 6

23. Knight-rider: Jumps like a knight in a given direction until blocked. Point value: 7

24. Camel-rider: Jumps like a camel in a given direction until blocked. Point value: 7

25. Dragon Bishop: Has the combined movement abilities of a xiangqi horse and bishop. Point value: 7

26. Archbishop: Has the combined movement abilities of a knight and bishop. Point value: 7

27. Chancellor: Has the combined movement abilities of a knight and rook. Point value: 7

28. 1-point Queen: Moves like a queen, but is worth 1 point when captured. Point value: 1 (regard as 9 when comparing piece value by strength)

29. Queen: Has the combined movement abilities of a bishop and rook. Point value: 9

30. Amazon: Has the combined movement abilities of a knight and queen. Point value: 12

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I hope this guide has been helpful for those who are unfamiliar with any pieces used in Variants. If you have any additional questions, would like me to clarify something or clarify it yourself, or wish to add additional points to this guide, feel free to reply to this post.