Piececlopedia: Friend
Historical notes
The friend was invented by David L. Brown in the early 1970s.
Brown, who is a problemist, invented it almost as an afterthought
after he invented the Orphan. Brown's book,
White and Black from Brown - A
Selection of 168 Diagrams and Chess Related Fluff, which
contains many problems using the Orphan, mentions the Friend but does
not use it in any problems. Brown points out that from a problem
standpoint, the Friend is less interesting than the Orphan because it
lacks the interplay between the two sides.
The standard symbol for the friend in problem diagrams is a square
rotated 45 degrees.
Movement
The Friend is a dummy unit that has no movement powers of its own.
Rather, it has the power to move like any friendly piece that is
guarding it. If the guarding piece or the Friend moves away, or
another piece intervenes, the Friend loses the power it had gained
from that piece. Friends can gain powers from more than one piece,
and can also gain powers from other Friends, setting off chain
reactions if enough friends are positioned right. Brown does not
specifically say so, but from the rules of the Orphan, the Friend's complimentary piece that
was also invented by Brown, we can determine the following: a Friend
guarded by a Rook can not be used to castle, and a Friend guarded by a
pawn can not promote or capture en
passant.
Movement diagram
In the diagram below, the Friend on b4 has the power of both Rook (guarding the Friend from d4) and Bishop (guarding from e1), and hence can move
to any of the squares marked by a black circle. If the Rook were to
move to d2, the Friend would become immobile, since neither piece
would be guarding the Friend.
Remarks
The Friend has not been used in any game thus far, however, it would
be an interesting piece on the gameboard. Its potential powers of
course, are totally dependent on the army being used, and will
diminish as pieces were traded down unless the game is played with
drops.
The Hero in Tomas Forsman's game Hero Chess is like a
Friend, but more powerful since it borrows its moves from any friendly
piece on the board, not just those guarding it.
David Howe discusses the Friend and Orphan in a broader context in his
article on mimics.
This is an item in the Piececlopedia: an overview of
different (fairy) chess pieces.
Written by Benjamin C Good.
WWW page created: September 9, 1998.
Last modified: Sunday, April 1, 2012
