George Duke wrote on Sat, Dec 28, 2013 04:24 PM UTC:
Thanks for featuring Falcon/Bison, Charles. ChessboardMath6 has many different "Falcons" arriving at same
Falcon/Bison squares just beyond the Knight:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=ChessboardMath6. They include: (1) Osprey, (2) Bison, (3) Fourriere Falcon. There is only one Orthodox Falcon and all others to exclusive (1,3) plus (2,3) are heterodox including Bison. There is only one Orthodox Rook and all others to its (0,n) are heterodox, including Ramayana Buddha and limited Sissa. (follow-up elsewhere emphasizes standard f.i.d.e. 64-square form is flawed without 4 basics F,R,N,B, not simplemindedly three only)
Chess variants often rename piece-types acknowledging origination: 17th-century Centaur and Champion have score of names by now. Beyond mere naming, given piece-type is technically even legitimately "new" if it has different pathway(s) than earlier one to all-same arrival squares. Past Gnu (1,2 plus 1,3) in travel length, the better oblique piece-types are multi-path and usually least-path. Except a very few of these fixed-length sliders -- Scorpion, Dragon, Phoenix -- none of them have names yet, with potentially thousands needed. It is understandable Man & Beasts has to begin with oblique leapers and their compounds all far from ideal in play. For example Beastmaster's awkward leapers in Zillions would far better interact under rules of blocking and blockability.