Check out Glinski's Hexagonal Chess, our featured variant for May, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
H. G. Muller wrote on Sat, Jan 4, 2014 09:33 AM UTC:
> Have anybody ever noticed that cannon (in some sense) is also some kind
of piece, wich starts move as one, and continues as another?

Fairy-Max implements all its pieces this way: they always have a primary
and a secondary move, and on pieces that don't need that, these two are
simply taken the same. Primary moves kan be marked as 'hopping', in which
case the transition to the secondary phase takes place when it lands on an
obstacle with its primary move. Otherwise the transition to the secondary
phase is spontaneous, and can be configured to occur with a delay, i.e.
after making a specified number of steps of the primary move. This to
implement limited-range sliders, which first make a number of slider steps,
before reverting to a leaper for the final step.

In general all 'move rights' can change in the transition; not only the
'rider' right that allows repeating the step (if not blocked), but also
capture and non-capture rights. So a Cannon is defined as a hopper with a
Wazir step and rider rights, with primary non-capture and secondary capture
rights.

A difference with the interpretation given below is that in the Fairy-Max
description the transition takes place when the hopper is on the platform
square, not just behind it (Grasshopper) or before it (Contragrasshopper).
So the Grasshopper itself is in fact considered a transition piece, which
loses its rider rights in the transition, but gains capture + non-capture
rights, which it didn't have before.

Where exactly the transition takes place would only be noticeable if the
direction (actually board step) would differ between primary and secondary
step. A Mao is indeed implemented as a primary Wazir without rights and a
secondary Ferz with capture + non-capture rights, the transition taking
place spontaneously after the first Wazir step. Hoppers that alter
direction would be bifurcators.

The extension of Betza notation I proposed also uses 'chaining' of
different, independently specified phases, where the number of phases is
not limited to two (as it is in Fairy-Max). As there is also a notation
there for "indefinite repetition" of a phase, it would be possible to
define "multi-hoppers", like the mentioned Grasshopper-rider.

Edit Form
Conduct Guidelines
This is a Chess variants website, not a general forum.
Please limit your comments to Chess variants or the operation of this site.
Keep this website a safe space for Chess variant hobbyists of all stripes.
Because we want people to feel comfortable here no matter what their political or religious beliefs might be, we ask you to avoid discussing politics, religion, or other controversial subjects here. No matter how passionately you feel about any of these subjects, just take it someplace else.
Quick Markdown Guide

By default, new comments may be entered as Markdown, simple markup syntax designed to be readable and not look like markup. Comments stored as Markdown will be converted to HTML by Parsedown before displaying them. This follows the Github Flavored Markdown Spec with support for Markdown Extra. For a good overview of Markdown in general, check out the Markdown Guide. Here is a quick comparison of some commonly used Markdown with the rendered result:

Top level header: <H1>

Block quote

Second paragraph in block quote

First Paragraph of response. Italics, bold, and bold italics.

Second Paragraph after blank line. Here is some HTML code mixed in with the Markdown, and here is the same <U>HTML code</U> enclosed by backticks.

Secondary Header: <H2>

  • Unordered list item
  • Second unordered list item
  • New unordered list
    • Nested list item

Third Level header <H3>

  1. An ordered list item.
  2. A second ordered list item with the same number.
  3. A third ordered list item.
Here is some preformatted text.
  This line begins with some indentation.
    This begins with even more indentation.
And this line has no indentation.

Alt text for a graphic image

A definition list
A list of terms, each with one or more definitions following it.
An HTML construct using the tags <DL>, <DT> and <DD>.
A term
Its definition after a colon.
A second definition.
A third definition.
Another term following a blank line
The definition of that term.