New piece suggestion: the robot

The robot is basically a programmable chess piece.

The robot moves like a king, i.e. one square h/v/d.

When it is your turn, you could annnounce a program for your robot consisting of 5 moves, and perform the first move of this sequence.

After this the game is continued as usual, but each of your own subsequent move is immediately followed by the subsequent move of your robot-program.


The program is finished when
- the last move of the program is performed, or
- the robot is captured, or
- the robot is forced to a square occupied by a piece of the same color - in which case the robot will be permanently removed from the board.


Example:

White announces the program d1, e1, f1, g1, h1, thus capturing the black h-pawn and simultaneously approaching the black king:

No. If you promote three pawns, you get an AIRSTRIKE!

Stalemate example:

Let's assume that white announces the program c1, d1, d2, d3, d4 and performs the first movement:

Let's assume that black plays Kc7:

Now white could for example play Kb1, and the robot simultaneously moves to d1 following the program:

Let's assume black plays Th1?:

This is stalemate. The white king is not in check, but any legal move of white will involve the robot going to d2 leaving the white king in check.

no

Its a bit to complicated to be added to the board.

That sounds really confusing.  It might be easier if the robot only moves orthogonally and the programs were, perhaps, 3 moves long.

IMHO the robot shouldn't move in addition to the normal move.  It's not fair for a player to have 2 moves per turn.

Maybe you're right, but I've seen marvellous peaces being invented by others that actually work once you get used to them.

On the contrary I think the robot should move in addition to a normal move. It's like a wind up toy car. You can't change its course but you continue your game as the robot is moving. Only 3 moves and orthogonally might be a very good idea.

Way too confusing lol

Where might it be placed on the board?

The robot doesn't really fit into the medieval castle theme that chess provides. If anything, a new piece would be something like a trebuchet, or a bow and arrow

invent your own chess... new king.. new queen... you know

True.  A robot might be an interestingly modern twist.

Tornado, avalanche, canon ball or comet?

This is a quite original concept. It does complicate the game state a lot, of course. So I guess it would be a good idea to limit the length of the program. I would also consider it more logical if in case of a collison with an own piece, that piece would disappear, rather than the Robot. Then it becomes more like an all-destroying force of nature. Perhaps 'Landslide' would be a good name for such a piece.

For over-the-board play a Robot / Landslide could be represented by a stack of Draughts chips, as many as the maximum length of the program. When a player uses his move to 'program' the Robot, he would unstack the chips to mark the trajectory (they could have numbers written on them to make that unambiguous), placing pieces currently occupying the future squares on top of the chips. In the aftermath of each move you would then stack onto the next chip along the trajectory, destroying whatever was there at the time, until the stack is complete again.

Actually there is no need to stack only after your own turn. The piece could be made faster by stacking it after every half-move.

This is very complicated... there have been other forums where many of us have suggested new pieces, this is certainly a unique idea, but complex, consider simplifying it, chess pieces and their behaviour is relatively easy to understand, the complexity of chess is the interrelationships between the pieces as plan tactics, not the complexity of the pieces themselves. 

@HGMuller, @kiwi

A simplification could be that the robot can only move in one direction per program, and indeed use some object to mark the final square. This way it would essentially be a canon ball.

What do you think of the Robot/Avalanche/Canon replacing the king's pawn?

It should replace one of the peaces on the first row, otherwise it would be captured before playing any significant role. Furthermore I like the chess-960 approach: the pieces behind the pawns can be shuffled at will. (Or the Superchess approach, where players choose some classical pieces that should be replaced by new pieces, such that more initial positions exist.)

After playing a few testgames by myself i've made some adjustments.

As for naming, this piece could be called a witch carrying a stone.
The stone is put on the target square as a mere indicator - without affecting or disturbing any piece also present on that square.
The course is always a line, row or diagonal, so the witch is actually a slowly wandering queen.
A possible collision with a friendly piece would end the course on the square before the collision.
While not on course she behaves like a normal piece that can move like a king.
Once on course - or separated from her stone - the witch cannot be captured, so she could capture enemy pieces on her way regardless of any defence.