仙子棋 IX：历史棋子的诠释

In a way, the moves of all (or nearly all) other pieces in any chess game can be thought of as extensions of these four very basic pieces: sliders and other "lame" pieces come from the Wazir and Ferz, while leapers come from the Alfil and Dababa.

The Alfil ("Elephant") moves by leaping two spaces diagonally. It's quite a weak piece, being able to visit only one-eighth of the spaces on any board.

The Dababa ("War Machine") moves by leaping two spaces orthogonally. It can visit only one-fourth of the spaces on a board.

The Ferz ("Counselor") moves by sliding one space diagonally. It's colorbound, only able to visit half of the spaces on a board.

The Wazir ("Vizier") moves by sliding one space orthogonally. It's able to reach any space on a board.

The pieces in this section combine two or three of the fundamental atoms, or extend one of them in some way.

In a way, the Bishop and Rook already do this, as "riders" of the Ferz and Wazir respectively.

The Alibaba can leap two spaces orthogonally or diagonally. It's only slightly more effective than a Dababa, since it can move diagonally in one move while the Dababa moves two, but it still can only reach only one-fourth of the spaces on the board. (But still, the image of an elephant with a gun turret is pretty cool.)

The Guard, or Mann, moves like a King -- that is, combining the Ferz and Wazir, moving one space in any direction -- but isn't Royal and so don't need to be protected. Other names that this may go by include Commoner, Prince, Spy, and more.

An alternate move for the Guard is that when the King moves, the Guard automatically follows it by moving to the space the King just vacated. This version of the Guard cannot move any other way.

Named for a creature from Japanese myth, the Kirin moves one space diagonally like a Ferz, or leaps two spaces orthogonally like a Dababa.

The Knight is not the only leaping piece to come to us from before the 20th century; others have been around for a while.

For the unfamiliar, a leap is noted with two numbers in parentheses, separated by a comma, such as (1,2). The piece moves orthogonally one way for the greater number of spaces, and then makes a right turn and moves the smaller number. (Or the other way around, if that's easier.) In the case of (1,2) for the Knight, the Knight moves two spaces orthogonally one way, and then turns 90 degrees left or right and moves one more space before landing.

The Camel makes a leap of (1,3).

The Giraffe makes a leap of (1,4).

The Threeleaper does what its name says: it leaps three spaces orthogonally, as a (0,3) leap. It's not used in many games (it can only access about 1/9 of a board), but it's in a few, including at least one version of Tamerlane.

The Zebra makes a leap of (2,3).

Riders are pieces that make repeated (usually hippogonal, but sometimes orthogonal or diagonal) leaps in the same direction; sliders are those that make the same orthogonal or diagonal move in the same direction without leaping, sometimes with short leaps as alternate moves.

The Free Bear can move diagonally like a Bishop, or sideways like a Rook; or it can leap forward diagonally 2 spaces.

This is an old piece from large versions of Shogi, and not to be confused with the modern Bear, which is an alternate name for the Squirrel.

There are numerous pieces called a General; this piece is designed for that created by Guiseppi Ciccolini in 1820 for his version of chess. It moves diagonally like a Bishop, or leaps orthogonally to every other space (a Dababarider).

This old Shogi piece can slide one or two spaces diagonally.

Also from Shogi, the Lion Dog slides up to 3 spaces diagonally or orthogonally.

Another old Shogi piece, the Violent Ox slides one or two spaces orthogonally.

And then there are the pieces that don't quite fit into the other categories.

To move without capturing, the Cannon moves just like a Rook. However, to capture, it must leap over a piece (which may be friendly or enemy) and then land on the target piece, which may be any distance past the intervening piece.

In the illustration, the White Cannon can leap over the White Knight to capture the Black Rook.

The Cannon's game of origin is the Chinese game Xiangqi, where it's called the Pao. Oddly, while the Pao has existed for centuries, it wasn't until the 20th century that it got a diagonal counterpart.

The Cloud Eagle can move forward or backward like a Rook, forward diagonally up to three spaces, or one space sideways or diagonally backwards.

Despite the Native American-sounding name, the Cloud Eagle comes from large versions of Shogi, making it Japanese.

The Donkey can leap two spaces forward or back, or move one space left or right. (Notably, this limits the Donkey to every other row.)

The Goose leaps two spaces forward diagonally, or directly backward two spaces.

The Gryffon moves one space orthogonally, from which point it may move diagonally outward like a Bishop.

The name may be spelled Griffin, Gryphon, or several other ways, depending what you feel comfortable with. The piece is sometimes also known as the Eagle.

The modern Lion simply covers the two perimeters around itself: it can move one space like a King, or leap to the second space outward in any direction, including like a Knight.

In some variants (including Chu Shogi and other forms of Shogi), the Lion is much more powerful. Its move counts as one or two King-like moves. This allows the Lion to capture two enemy pieces in one turn; or to move to an adjacent space and then back, effectively creating a null move (thus passing the turn).

The Rhinoceros moves one space diagonally, from which point it may move orthogonally outward like a Rook.

This piece is sometimes called the Manticore, especially in more recently-developed chess variants.

The Whale can slide forwards or backwards orthogonally like a Rook, or backwards diagonally like a Bishop.