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This page is written by the game's inventor, Charles Gilman.

Chevron Ranks

The Glinski-McCooey debate on hex analogues to Pawns is familiar to variant enthusiasts. The Broker (my coinage for McCooey's analogue) is more consistent with both variants' analogues to other FIDE pieces, but it does advance more quickly on average than a Pawn. This is because when it captures outward it effectively moves forward two ranks. Conversely the Migrant (my coinage for Glinski's analogue) advances more slowly on average than a Pawn. This is because when it captures inward it remains on the same rank. The same applies in principle to the corresponding pieces without the restriction of certain moves having to be noncapturing and some capturing - thus a Count moves forward more quickly, and a Superpoint more slowly, than a Princeling. Noting that other captures move it forward at the "correct" rate I wondered about pieces moving inward as a Broker/Count but outward as a Migrant/Superpawn. I also saw here that an alternative name for the piece that I term Princeling is Sergeant, and that the hex Pawn-analogue ranks are shaped like the chevron insignia of NCOs. Therefore I decided to use Sergeant for the Princeling's chevron-rank analogue and Corporal for the Pawn's.

My first idea for a game using these pieces was in conjunction with the Altorth pieces named after commissioned officers - the Colonel, Brigadier, and General. This was the initial radial-only form of CANCO. To this I added a chevron analogue to the Knight, under the intermediate name of Captain. Both forms of CANCO are shown below.

I then realised that variants could be played entirely with chevron analogues, and began with analogues to FIDE pieces. This is not as tame as it sounds for while each player can view either army, or even both view the same army, as one of purely FIDE pieces, albeit on a board shaped like a shield or possibly like a Shogi piece, they cannot view both armies as FIDE ones at once. Even with two players the other army is extremely exotic, and with three the other two are still more so. To the basic game I added a Doubleback version - see the Notes section of Nearlydouble Chess. As well as being played straight both can be played either Inspegi - the Bishogi analogue - or Frontofhouse (FOH).

Finally I added a few chevron analogues to variant forms of square-board Chess. Variants with analogues to Shogi generals now have a separate page, Gyokugi.

It took me a while to decide on suitable images from here for Chevron Ranks pieces.

Setup

Variants with only 16 pieces aside are suitable for 3 players as well as 2.

CANCO - Commissioned And Non Commissioned Officers (uses entirely pieces whose names are military titles, in numbers in inverse proportion to seniority):

CANCO radial-specific (the same but without the Captains that I devised later):

Chevron Chess, Inspegi (a Bishogi analogue, named after the Insperider), Chevron FOH:

Doubleback variants:

Chevron Chess Kamil:

Chevron Courier Kamil:

Yang Chevron Chess:

Akond Chevron Chess:

Eurasian-style Akond:

Pieces

Piece names are fully explained in Man and Beast 15: Strengthened Across the Board, except for the diveregent Corporal and Batman, which are explained in Man and Beast 16: Diverging Further.

The following one-step pieces cannot, in this page's games, be promoted or return from capture:

The GENERALISSIMO, Chevron analogue to King, moves along any orthogonal, the forward half-inward hex diagonal, or the backward half-outward hex diagonal and must be kept out of check.
The GENERAL, AltOrth analogue to King, moves along any orthogonal and must be kept out of check.
The WARLORD, Chevron analogue to Prince, moves like the Generalissimo but is capturable.
The BRIGADIER, AltOrth analogue to Goldgeneral, moves along any orthogonal except straight backward.
The COLONEL, AltOrth analogue to Silvergeneral, moves along any orthogonal except the half-backward ones.
The WARRANT, Chevron analogue to Wazir, moves along any orthogonal except outward half-forward and inward half-backward.
The INSPECTOR, Chevron analogue to Ferz, moves along the outward half-forward and inward half-backward orthogonals and forward half-inward and backward half-outward hex diagonals.

FIDE-analogue pieces can be promoted and/or return from capture in Inspegi and FOH:

The WARLADY, Chevron analogue to Queen, is the compound of the next two pieces. It is unpromotable. It returns as whatever it started as in Inspegi, and as a Sergerider in FOH.
The WARRARIDER, Chevron analogue to Rook, makes repeated Warrant moves through empty intervening cells in the same direction, save that when crossing the middle file the half-forward switches to half-backward. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi. It returns as itself in Inspegi, and as a Wing in FOH.
The INSPERIDER, Chevron analogue to Bishop, makes repeated Inspector moves through empty intervening cells in the same direction, save that when crossing the middle file during orthogonal switches to hex-diagonal or vice versa. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi. It returns as itself in Inspegi, and as an Invesrider in FOH.
The CAPTAIN, Chevron analogue to Knight, takes a step as a Warrant followed by another outward as an Inspector. It cannot be blocked on the intermediate cell. It is promotable to Warlady in Inspegi. It returns as itself in that, and as a Cadet in FOH.

Forward-only pieces return from capture as themselves in FOH and Inspegi:

The SERGERIDER, Chevron analogue to Princess, is the compound of the next two pieces. It is promotable to Warlady in FOH.
The WING, on a G/McC board the same piece as in Shogi, is a Warrarider restricted to the straight forward orthogonal. It is promotable to Warrarider in FOH.
The INVESRIDER, Chevron analogue to Mitre, is an Insperider restricted to the two forward directions. It is promotable to Insperider in FOH.
The SERGEANT, Chevron analogue to the Princeling, is the compound of the next two pieces. It is promotable to any non-FO captured ally in CANCO.
The POINT, on a G/McC board the same piece as in Shogi, moves one step along the straight forward orthogonal.
The INVESTIGATOR (component of other pieces only), Chevron analogue to Cross, is an Inspector restricted to the two forward directions.
The CORPORAL, Chevron analogue to Pawn, moves like a noncapturing Point or a capturing Investigator. Its move was first described here. It is promotable to any non-FO captured ally in CANCO/Chevron Yang variants/Eurasian-style Akond, any stronger capturable array piece in Chevron Chess/Akond, Warlady/Warlord/Warlodemon/Akond in Chevron Courier Kamil, Batman in FOH, and Warlady in Inspegi.

Pieces specific to Kamil and/or Yang/Eurasian variants cannot be promoted or return from capture:

The WARRADEMON and INSPEDEMON, Chevron analogues to Dabbaba and Elephant, move exactly two steps as the -riders but cannot be blocked. The WARLODEMON (promotee-only) is their compound.
The WARRAHOPPER and INSPEHOPPER, Chevron analogues to Cannon and Arrow, differ from the -riders in that capturing requires exactly one intervening piece.
The WARLOHOPPER is their compound.
The KAIMAKAN, Chevron analogue to Camel, takes a leap as a Warrademon followed by an outward step as an Inspector. It cannot be blocked on the intermediate cell.
The AKOND (Ak) is its compound with the Captain.
The BATMAN of FOH, Chevron analogue to Steward, moves like a noncapturing Warrant or a capturing Inspector. It returns as a Corporal.

Rules

Corporals have an optional double-step initial move, except for the outer four in the variants with 20-piece armies. Enemy Corporals can immediately capture it as if they had made only the first step. Points have no double-step move.

There is no Castling.

The promotion zone is the far edge of the board except in games being played Inspegi/FOH, in which it is the far edge plus the rank immediately before it. If a piece can still move further unpromoted, promotion is optional, otherwise it is required.

In games being played Inspegi/FOH, pieces captured from an enemy can be reintroduced as part of the capturing player's army in place of a normal move. They must return in unpromoted form on a cell where promotion is not required.

Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate are as standard.

Notes

"Pawn" refers to the standard definition on a square-cell board. A board where Pawns, Migrants, Brokers, and Corporals can be compared together is the Glinski-level hex-prism board, on which Pawns move within filestacks and the rest within levels.

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By Charles Gilman.
Web page created: 2011-06-28. Web page last updated: 2016-03-04