featured variant for September, 2023.

The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games.

Piececlopedia: Dragon Horse

Historical notes

Drawn by Stable Diffusion from the prompt 'a white dragon horse bust chess piece'

In Shogi, the Japanese form of Chess, the Dragon Horse is the promoted form of the Bishop, moving like a Bishop or a Wazir.

In Holywar, Fergus Duniho has called this piece a Lady, in reference to Joan of Arc, the Lady of Lorraine. In the context of this game, it was a weaker version of a Queen.

Although it isn't normally a royal piece, Fergus Duniho has used a royal version of the Dragon Horse in Fusion Chess and several more games based on it, such as Bedlam and Thunder Chess. In these games, it is called a Pope, and it is one of four possible royal pieces, which a player can form by merging his King with a Bishop.

Movement

The Dragon Horse may slide any number of spaces diagonally, or it may step one space orthogonally. Diagonal movement follows along lines of spaces connected only at their corners. Spaces are orthogonally adjacent when they share a side in common.