Fun with Non-standard pieces

Just post an idea for a new chess piece, and estimate how many "points" it would be worth. Also, I have given rough point values to the pieces below, but am willing to change them according to suggestions. Everything I post in red is an edit in this post. Everything I post in this color is an edit made starting 10/15/2011 at 2:45pm.

Assume pawns are 1 point, Bishops 3, Knights 3, Rooks 5, and Queens 9. Also assume for the sake of rating pieces, that each new piece faces only itself and the standard pieces, since including other nonstandard pieces in an actual game will have an effect on the worth of each.

Here are some well known "nonstandard" pieces along with a few I made up:

Superqueen: Moves like a queen or a knight. 14 points

Hawk (aka Archbishop): Moves like a bishop or a knight. 7 points

Elephant (aka Chancellor): Moves like a rook or a knight. 9 points

Defender: When behind the middle line (between ranks 4 and 5), the defender is a queen. When it crosses the line, it becomes a rook. It cannot move diagonally across the line. 7 points

Sidekick (aka General): Moves like a king (only you don't have to protect this like the king). 2 points

Avenger: Moves like a knight, but when captured, is replaced by a checker, and the enemy piece placed on top. On the player's (owning the captured Avenger) turn (any turn, not necessarily the following), the player has the option of removing the checker (unless his/her own piece occupies it). If an enemy piece is on the checker, that piece is also removed from the board. This takes the turn. The checker does not move. 6 points.

Occupant: Controls the square it rests on and no other. If an enemy piece captures it, the enemy piece is also removed from the board. Although it doesn't move, it can "move" by moving into the square it already occupies (essentially zugzwangproofing the army). This piece is placed on the board by both opponents immediately after move seven, provided the game lasts that long, and cannot be placed on an occupied square. 3 points.

Monk: It moves like the king.  If an enemy piece is next to it, the monk may convert the piece to the other's army.  It's abilities are not affected by the conversion.  A conversion counts as a move.  If an enemy piece captures it, it is not converted upon capturing.  The monk may not convert the enemy king.  It also cannot deliver check or assist in checkmates.  It may convert and be captured by any enemy piece. 5 points

Chinese Knight: Moves like a knight but can't jump over pieces. 2 points

Chinese Elephant: Moves like a bishop, but exactly two squares (no jumping over pieces either). 1.5 points

Blocker: Can move like a rook as many times as desired in one move, but without the capability of capturing. 3 points (previously 4 points)

Teleporter: Can teleport anywhere once per one turn, cannot teleport onto an occupied space (and therefore cannot check). 4 points (previously 5 points)

Cannon: Moves like a rook, but to capture, jumps over a piece before capturing the enemy piece behind. 5 points

Wild Knight: Has the option of moving exactly 3 squares horizontally or diagonally, OR moving 3 in one direction, 2 in another (the same way a normal knight moves 2 in one direction, 1 in another). 5 points

Triple Knight: Moves like a knight, three times in one turn and without repetition. Only captures on final destination square. 14 points (Old estimate: 8 points)

ThreeKnight: Moves like a triple knight, but is subject to "en passant" which in this case means that the opponent may capture this knight if it landed (on one of its knight jumps) on a square the opponent may capture on. Note that if the ThreeKnight later captured on this move, the opponent may replace the piece, since the ThreeKnight never made it that far. Only captures on final destination square. 8 points

Treacherous Bishop: Moves like a bishop, but with the option of moving one square horizontally or vertically (not stuck on one color any more). 5 points

Squire: Shares a square with the knight and enables this joint piece to move either once or twice if desired. Upon the knight's first capture, the Squire is forfeited, and if captured, both are captured. 3 points

Esquire (aka Page; Gentleman):  Moves like a pawn, but may always move 1 or 2 squares forward. If it moves 2 squares, it may jump over a piece. It captures like a pawn, and promotes to a knight. 3 points

Deathknight: Moves like a queen, can jump over pieces, can sacrfice itself to capture all pieces around it, can move two times in one turn but cannot check or capture on the second move. 19 points

Jedi-Knight: By sacrificing itself, this knight first gets the opponent to make a forced (legal) move, i.e. on the opponent's turn, the player can declare that the opponent has to move a certain piece to a certain location, followed by the player then having to move that (jedi) knight...and regardless of that knight making a capture or not, it is promptly removed from the board. 14 points

Wall: Takes up a 2x2 square, cannot move, you can place it anywhere behind the "4" line.Can only be captured by a queen or rook (on any of the four squares). 2 points

Nuker: Does not move, but sacrifices itself to capture 3 pawns or one bishop/knight, you can sacrifice 2 nukers to capture a rook or a bishop and knight. 6 points

Striker: Moves like a rook but cannot move horozontally. When it reaches the 8th rank, it becomes a regular rook. 3 points

Cavalier: It moves just like a knight, except that it has twice the range.  It may make two standard knight moves in a row, or it may combine them to make one large move.  In a large move, instead of "up one and over two or up two and over one", it is "up two and over four or up four and over two".  It is able to check, deliver checkmate, and assist in checkmates and can capture and be captured by any enemy piece. 5 points

Siege Tower: It moves just like a rook.  It is made up of two segments, one on top of the other.  Each attack on it removes one segment, so it must essentially be "captured twice" to be removed from the board.  Siege towers can damage and capture each other.  The loss of one segment does not affect its abilities.  It may check, deliver checkmate and assist in checkmates, and it can capture and be captured by any enemy piece. 9 points

Robot: Moves like a queen, but can't stop until it's obstructed, either by a piece in the same army, by the side of the board, or by capturing an enemy piece. 5 points

Pikeman: Moves forward one square at a time.  Like a pawn, it can move forward two squares on its first move if desired.  However, also like pawns, it cannot move backwards or sideways.  It may capture any piece (only one, not all three at once) on the three squares immediately in front of it, meaning it can capture diagonally up to the left and right, or straight forward.  It may check, deliver and assist in checkmates, and capture and be captured by any enemy piece.  If a pikeman reaches the eighth rank, it is promoted to a Champion. 1 point

 Champion: It possesses the same abilities as the pikeman, but is able to move backwards one square per turn.  It may not move sideways.  It also may not move backwards to the first rank.  If a champion reaches the eighth rank, it becomes a General (a.k.a. Sidekick), which retains all of the champion's abilities, but may move like a king. 2 points

 Bigot (aka Madman): Moves like a bishop, but with the option of capturing pieces in the same army. 3.5 points

 Traitor (aka Whip): Moves like a rook, but (see above). 6 points

 Kitty (aka Commander): Moves like a queen, but (see above). 10 points

 Trojan Pony (aka Sadist): Moves like a knight, but (see above). 3.5 points

 Wizard: Moves like a king, but has the option of creating an opponent's piece (not a king, and no pawns on first or eighth ranks) on the square he left. 3 points

 Bloody Saint: Moves like a bishop, but can jump over pieces like the knight. 5 points

Bully: moves like a rook, can only capture pawns. 3 points

Morpher: Can morph into rook/bishop/knight, but morphing into another piece takes a turn. 6 points

Secretive Queen: When checking the King, you dont have to announce that you are checking their King. If their King doesnt move, then you could capture it. 9.1 points

Mine: Moves 1 space at a time. when Detonated, it explodes everyting within a radius of 2 squares. 8 points

Drunken Bishop: Moves like a rook but may only occupy squares of a certain colour. Can jump over (multiple) pieces. 3.5 points

Chinese Drunken Bishop: Moves like a rook but may only occupy squares of a certain colour. Cannot jump over pieces. 2.5 points

Paladin: Moves two squares in any direction diagonally, then 1 square horizontally or vertically. 8 points

Time Pawn: Moves like a pawn, bet when you capture a piece with it, it adds 20% extra to your time limit. Correspondence: 1.1 points; 30min: 1.5 points; blitz: 2 points; bullet: 3 points

Boulder: Moves like a King. Cannot capture. Its purpose is to block attacks. Can be only captured by the Queen. 1 point

Blader: Moves like a queen; if it captures a piece, then it has the ability to capture any one piece in the surrounding 8 squares, by moving into the square of that piece. 15 points

Also, if you can come up with better names for the pieces I came up with, please present them here.

That's called a chancellor as well.

And a hawk is also called an archbishop.

Interesting (about the names)

Also a curiosity, I wonder how changing the board size would change the value of pieces.

For example, on a 16X16 board, knights surely would be worth less relative to the "long-range" pieces.

The Chinese pieces come from Chinese Chess. I believe there are also pieces that can move only one diagonally (I forget the name). Also the Emperor moves one square like a rook.

And the pawns would be SIGNIFICANTLY lower-valued, since it takes much longer for them to get to the end, and if it is combatting a rook, the rook has plenty of checking distance, if the king is supporting it.

On a larger board, we probably would want the pieces to be more powerful to keep the game interesting (of course this would complicate the game!)

"Chezilla" - takes the whole board, one square at a time.

I assume the King is exempt from the attack of this piece. I also think this is so much power in one piece, white would immediately get rid of black's chezilla, which would be situated somewhere instant recapture is possible.

When placed in the same spot as a knight it is a mate in 1. Nc3-a4-c5 2. Ne6-c7-e8 is inevitable. Triple knights are worth way more than 8 points. They are incredibly powerful.

Perhaps we would only use them in a variant of chess with a larger board, or else limit their power (obviously the game isn't interesting if it's mate in one from the start!)

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

Yes, the triple knight is very powerful-- maybe worth 14 points like the superqueen.

Squire: Shares a square with the knight and enables this joint piece to move either once or twice if desired. Upon the knight's first capture, the Squire is forfeited, and if captured, both are captured. 3 points

Deathknight: Moves like a queen, can jump over pieces, can sacrfice itself to capture all pieces around it, can move two times in one turn but cannot check or capture on the second move. Worth: 19 Points

Jedi-Knight: by sacrificing itself, this knight first gets the opponent to make a forced move, i.e. on the opponent's turn, the player can declare that the opponent has to move a certain piece to a certain location, followed by the player then having to move that (jedi) knight...and regardless of that knight making a capture or not, it is promptly removed from the board.  It's worth: 3-12, depending on captured piece or not.

I think the Jedi-Knight is worth more than you say it is, since we must always assume we put them to the best use when rating their worth. Never underestimate the power of forcing moves, esp. because now both players must steer clear of positions where they could legally move into a forced mate situation (of course, if they still have their own Jedi-Knight, they might be able to counter that type of attack).

Please stay on top of my red text in post #1!!

ThreeKnight: Moves like a triple knight, but is subject to "en passant" which in this case means that the opponent may capture this knight if it landed (on one of its knight jumps) on a square the opponent may capture on. Note that if the ThreeKnight later captured on this move, the opponent may replace the piece, since the ThreeKnight never made it that far. 8 points

Also note that Triple Knights and ThreeKnights only capture on their final destination square.