Check out Grant Acedrex, our featured variant for April, 2024.

Enter Your Reply

The Comment You're Replying To
George Duke wrote on Thu, Jan 12, 2017 08:04 PM UTC:

In only eight comments here are Lists of specific piece-types clearly defined, one by one, numbering about 2500. 2500 different pieces not enough to choose from?

Suffix Use Charles Gilman's Suffix Index to generate multiples more.

Take the first one ALTERNATOR:

ALTERNATOR after angle (rounded to nearest degree on these pages) and full name of 2 pieces square hex a piece whose move's odd stages are those of the first, and even ones those of the second, piece, each in one direction. An alternator can be prefixed MIRROR to start with the second-named piece, CONTRA- to end with the first-named piece (and start with either), MIRROR CONTRA- to end with the second-named piece (and start with either), and DOUBLE that to be free to start or end with either.

Say you want to combine Wazir and Knight, not as compound but as combination or sequential piece. The first new type of piece is "27 degrees Wazir Knight," meaning a piece that moves first as W then N in the narrow direction as one move. 'Mirror 27 W N' starts with Knight then Wazir, and in a class you may want to keep the naming order the same and so actually use "Mirror." "Contra 27 WN" must stop with a Wazir but can start with either. "Mirror Contra (implied 27) WN" has to stop with a Knight. "Double WN" is higher value because can start or end with either. There are other possibilities including making the angled change of direction 63 degrees for the wide Knight mode. And there is the opportunity to allow both 27- and 63-degree angled changes of direction. Estimate there are about 20 reasonable p-ts by combining Wazir and Knight in different ways as ALTERNATOR.

WEAVER is the last suffix alphabetically. A weaver is an alternator by definition. If we make all the above special-case Weaver instead of plain Alternator, it means the Knight's direction changes systematically every other step in its leg of a solitary move -- that is alternating between Wazir and Knight as well as weaving like a crooked nightrider. Jorg Knappen finds in "Nachtmahr" there are quite a few Nightriders so it needs specification between which two the Knight weaves as part of the ALTERNATOR. That is just a matter of putting two different angles in the piece description, or else using accepted name for it from Knappen.

Probably 100 reasonable piece-types can come about from combination piece -- meaning more than one leg -- of Wazir and Knight. Gilman's system can describe the movements well enough, and it's not worth trying to adapt simple Betzan notation become anachronistic.


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.