仙女棋子 XIII: 游戏组别

Robert Shimmin's chess variant Scheherezade introduces a good number of new pieces, all of which deserve more exposure.

These pieces all take the (1,3) leap from the Camel, in keeping with the game's Middle Eastern theme.

The Emir can move orthogonally like a Rook or one space diagonally, or leap like a Camel.

The Grand Vizier can move to any adjacent space, or leap two spaces diagonally as well as a Camel's leap.

The Sheik can move one space diagonally, leap orthogonally every other space, or leap like a Camel.

The Sultan can move one space diagonally, or leap like a Knight or Camel.

Adrian King's massive game Jupiter presents so many clever new pieces -- including several borrowed from his other games, Scirocco and Typhoon -- that I hardly know where to begin. I'm not presenting all of them here (and I probably won't ever get around to that), but here are some of the most interesting; I'll be slowly adding to this section.

The Blue Gecko (which, initially, I wanted to just call Gecko until I learned that there really is a species called blue gecko) has a very unusual move: it slides up to four spaces forward and to the right; two spaces orthogonally backward or to the left; or one space directly forward, diagonally forward and to the left, or diagonally backward and to the right.

King doesn't provide a "mirror image" piece for this, so I created one (the Purple Finch) and put it in Part VI.

The Boxer can move to any adjacent square, or leap to any space 3 spaces away.

The Cicada can move to an adjacent square, but cannot capture there; it may also move two or three spaces diagonally or orthogonally, but must jump over another piece to do so.

The East Wind moves to the left like a Rook or Bishop; forward or backward, sliding up to three spaces; or to the right like a Knight.

(In King's original writing, the move to the right is one space directly, or (1,3) like a Camel; I prefer symmetry, so decided to make the East and West Winds mirrors of each other. I chose the West over the East in this case.)

The West Wind, naturally, is the mirror image: it moves to the right like a Rook or Bishop; forward or backward up to three spaces; or to the left like a Knight.

(The way to tell which is which is that the arrow always points forward, and the larger part of the funnel is where the Rook/Bishop moves are.)

The Fire Horse slides directly forward like a Rook, or backwards like a Knight.

The Foursquare can move one space diagonally, or leap like a Knight (1,2), Camel (1,3), Zebra (2,3), or Tripper (3,3). It's name comes from the appearance of four squares on its move diagram.

The Ghost Warrior slides directly forward like a Rook, or steps one space diagonally backwards.

The great dragon can slide like a Rook sideways, up to three spaces diagonally, or up to two spaces forward or backward.

The Left Knight moves like a Knight, but only to the left of the orthogonals -- that is, it moves two spaces orthogonally, then makes a 90 degree left turn to move one more space.

The Right Knight does the same, but to the right.

The Mad Hatter and the March Hare are as intertwined as chess pieces as they are as characters in Lewis Carroll's books.

The Mad hatter moves like a Queen, but captures as a Knight...

...while the March Hare does the reverse, moving like a Knight but capturing as a Queen.

The otter can move four spaces to the side, one space diagonally, or one space directly forward.

The Tiger Horse can move one space diagonally, or leap to any square two spaces away or like a Camel (1,3). If it captures with a Knight's move, it may subsequently move one space orthogonally, and may capture with that move as well.

H. G. Muller's game Minjiku Shoji has only a few new pieces, but they're worth mentioning here.

The Cobra and Viper are a rotary pair, being 45 degree versions of each other.

The Cobra slides orthogonally like a Rook, or may rifle capture to any diagonally adjacent space.

The Viper, on the other hand, slides diagonally like a Bishop, but may also rifle-capture to any orthogonally adjacent space.

Seireigi ("Spirit's game") is a creation of Adam DeWitt, alongside two larger variations, Chu Seireigi and Dai Seireigi. This "family" of games are presented as variants of shogi, each a different size.

The Cat Sword steps one space directly forward or backward, or in any diagonal direction; or leaps two spaces diagonally forward; or can capture a piece in an adjacent diagonal space, then move to any empty adjacent square, including the one where it started.

The Free Demon slides diagonally forward, jumping over one or two pieces if necessary; or it steps one or jumps two spaces diagonally backwards.

The Great Dream-Eater slides directly forward, jumping over one or two other pieces if necessary; or it steps one or jumps two spaces sideways or directly backwards.

The Great Elephant slides diagonally forward; or moves one space sideways, directly forward, or diagonally backward.

The Ram's Head Soldier slides diagonally forward, like a Bishop.

Mad Chess is a chess variant by Jason Wittman, wherein White and Black have two different armies. Some of the pieces share names with orthodox pieces or established fairy pieces, but a few are original.

The Warlord leaps (1,2) like a Knight, or three spaces orthogonally.