Joe Joyce wrote on Mon, Oct 12, 2009 03:45 AM UTC:
Recently, in another thread, Sam Trenholme made the statements found below.
He argues one side of the question very well, saying all the new simple
pieces are used up, and only complicated pieces are left.
How do you define a 'simple piece', anyhow? Hasn't anything in the last
2 years, say, counted as a simple piece?
2009-10-09 Sam Trenholme Verified as Sam Trenholme
'What I see ... is that all of the simple pieces a Chess-like game can
have are already invented, and that we’re having to come up with some
pretty convoluted moves to come up with new piece types.
The simple Chess pieces seem to be:
* Simple leapers (Such as the knight and the king) I wrote, a couple
of years ago, an essay describing 31 such leapers
* Simple sliders, such as rooks, bishops, and queens. There are ... 16
symmetrical sliders that can traverse the entire board if the board is a
bounded square; there is also the bishop and Shogi’s lance
It’s possible, of course, to combine leapers and sliders (Can you say
“Capablanca Chess�), but the only combined leapers + sliders in a
national game are Shogi’s promoted rooks and bishops. There are also
“ridersâ€, sliders whose 1-move “atom†is not to an adjacent square;
the knightrider is the most famous piece of this type.
Once we move past these simple pieces, things get complicated and the
learning curve goes up. One relatively simple piece is a piece that
captures differently than it moves; a piece that, say, moves like a knight
or captures like a bishop.
Betza covered the “crooked rookâ€, “crooked bishopâ€, and
“roseâ€â€”sliders which change their direction every square they slide.
Chinese Chess, of course, has the “Cannonâ€, which has inspired all
kinds of pieces that leap before moving or capturing (or a combination
thereof). Speaking of leaping pieces, I’m surprised no one has recently
discussed having a checker’s king in Chess: A piece that moves like a
Ferz, but captures by jumping over an adjacent piece, and can (optionally)
capture multiple times in its move. We can, of course, have a wazir
(horizontal and vertical) form of this piece, or combine it with any other
chess piece.
So, yeah, it looks like pretty much any kind of piece chess can have with
a simple move has been discussed here, so we’re moving on to complicated
pieces that don’t seem very intuitive to me.'
Recently, in another thread, Sam Trenholme made the statements found below. He argues one side of the question very well, saying all the new simple pieces are used up, and only complicated pieces are left. How do you define a 'simple piece', anyhow? Hasn't anything in the last 2 years, say, counted as a simple piece? 2009-10-09 Sam Trenholme Verified as Sam Trenholme 'What I see ... is that all of the simple pieces a Chess-like game can have are already invented, and that we’re having to come up with some pretty convoluted moves to come up with new piece types. The simple Chess pieces seem to be: * Simple leapers (Such as the knight and the king) I wrote, a couple of years ago, an essay describing 31 such leapers * Simple sliders, such as rooks, bishops, and queens. There are ... 16 symmetrical sliders that can traverse the entire board if the board is a bounded square; there is also the bishop and Shogi’s lance It’s possible, of course, to combine leapers and sliders (Can you say “Capablanca Chessâ€?), but the only combined leapers + sliders in a national game are Shogi’s promoted rooks and bishops. There are also “ridersâ€, sliders whose 1-move “atom†is not to an adjacent square; the knightrider is the most famous piece of this type. Once we move past these simple pieces, things get complicated and the learning curve goes up. One relatively simple piece is a piece that captures differently than it moves; a piece that, say, moves like a knight or captures like a bishop. Betza covered the “crooked rookâ€, “crooked bishopâ€, and “roseâ€â€”sliders which change their direction every square they slide. Chinese Chess, of course, has the “Cannonâ€, which has inspired all kinds of pieces that leap before moving or capturing (or a combination thereof). Speaking of leaping pieces, I’m surprised no one has recently discussed having a checker’s king in Chess: A piece that moves like a Ferz, but captures by jumping over an adjacent piece, and can (optionally) capture multiple times in its move. We can, of course, have a wazir (horizontal and vertical) form of this piece, or combine it with any other chess piece. So, yeah, it looks like pretty much any kind of piece chess can have with a simple move has been discussed here, so we’re moving on to complicated pieces that don’t seem very intuitive to me.'