Fairy Chess Pieces - Part I

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Introduction

Who doesn't love a good game of chess? But there's a problem  — there's no real change. You have the same pieces every time, and they make the same moves every time. However, we don't have to play like that. Fairy pieces, pieces that are not found in standard chess, bring a lot of variety to the table. Let's take a look at some of them.

Amazon

The Amazon, also called the Giraffe, is a combination of the knight and queen. This makes it an extremely powerful piece. It was first used by the Turks in medieval times, and was slowly brought into European chess to make games faster. However, its power was deemed excessive, and eventually the queen took its role.

The Amazon can control the entire 5 x 5 area surrounding it.

Chancellor

The Chancellor, also known as the Empress or Knook, is a combination of the knight and rook. Like the Amazon, it was first used by the Turks, who called it the Dabbabah. It was brought to Europe in 1617, however, it was not widely popular. Today, it has become one of the most famous fairy pieces.

The Chancellor is a fairly powerful piece, despite its openness to capture.

Archbishop

The Archbishop, also known as the Princess or Cardinal, is a combination of the Knight and Bishop. Seeing a pattern here? Like the two above, it was first Turkish and brought to Europe in 1617, then known as the Centaur. Its strategic worth is debated, but most chess players rank it somewhere between a Rook and a Queen.

The diagonally-bordering "blocks" are excellent capture points.

Camel

Finally breaking the Knight fusion pattern, we have the Camel. It is essentially an elongated Knight, moving three spaces before going horizontal / vertical , unlike the Knight's two. It is one of the oldest chess pieces, originating in Central Asia around ~ 1380.

The Camel is very effective for getting across the board quickly.
Interesting fact: the Camel cannot make a Knight's Tour (visiting every space on the board) due to its colorboundness.

Mann

Next up is the Mann. It moves the same as a King, the whole 3 x 3, but it is not royal. Thus, it cannot check, checkmate, or castle. Essentially, it is a more powerful pawn. It probably came from Persia around ~ 950.

A vital piece, if you know how to use it, that is.

Wazir

Finally, we have the Wazir, also known as the Minister. It can only move one space horizontally or vertically, making it essentially a crippled Rook. It originated either in Persia or Japan around ~ 1400 (sorry about all the approximations, this stuff is murky!), but was probably developed in both regions simultaneously.

A pretty weak piece, best used as cannon fodder. ):

Puzzle

Using the knowledge you learned above, can you solve this puzzle? White to move and checkmate in one (the King you want to capture is in red). Level: easy.

This puzzle has been solved by nios.

Variant Showcase

This is the variant showcase, where I'll show off a cool or unique chess variant every blog. To play it, simply copy and paste the code below into the custom variant maker on chess.com. Then, modify the rules as explained below.

Note: email verification is required to play and create variants!

Camel Racing is a variant created by me, Qy. Each player starts with a King, Queen, Rook, Knight, two Camels, and two Pawns on a 2 x 14 board. Use your Camels to progress, but don't let them get captured!

R-0,1,0,1-1,1,1,1-1,1,1,1-0,0,0,0-0-{'pawnBaseRank':5,'wb':true,'dim':'2x14'}-

x,x,x,x,x,x,yQ,yK,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,yR,yN,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,yC,yC,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,yP,yP,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,2,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,rP,rP,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,rC,rC,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,rR,rN,x,x,x,x,x,x/

x,x,x,x,x,x,rQ,rK,x,x,x,x,x,x

Rules: pawns promote to Queen on the fourteenth rank.

Conclusion

And that's all for today! Let me know if there's any pieces you'd like to see in the next blog, and thanks for reading.

(By the way, if you've a variant you'd like me to showcase, feel free to paste the code and rules in the comments!)

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Level 66
Jan 25, 2023
My chess.com account is called CoolJamesX, just in case anyone'd like to befriend me.
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Level 60
Jan 25, 2023
Really cool! I’ll be sure to add some of these into my games!
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Level 66
Jan 26, 2023
If you mean to play on a physical board, better get those custom pieces.
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Level 50
Jan 25, 2023
Doing duck chess on that camel racing variant would be interesting.
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Level 44
Jan 26, 2023
Right! Imagine if those pieces would be added to chess.com.
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Level 66
Jan 26, 2023
They are, actually, using the variant maker. In fact, all of the images in the blog were made using chess.com.
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Level 63
Jan 25, 2023
The last time I saw a chess blog is when... that guy literally copied word-for-word off of Chess.com and passed it off as his own. ;-;

Anyway, great blog, Qy. Also, can we talk about something in private?

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Level 75
Jan 26, 2023
Good blog post. Not a huge chess fan so didn't know other pieces existed, but found this interesting nonetheless
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Level 43
Jan 26, 2023
Didn't knew about those pieces! Really nice read. I'm quite of struggling with the puzzle tho lol
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Level 53
Jan 26, 2023
Amazon C5?
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Level 66
Jan 26, 2023
Not quite — the Knight and Chancellor can still block her, so it's only check.
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Level 53
Jan 26, 2023
oh lol i forgot
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Level 53
Jan 26, 2023
on second thoughts, archbishop to e5?
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Level 66
Jan 26, 2023
Solved.
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Level 50
Jan 26, 2023
The King is already in check in the puzzle ...
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Level 59
Jan 27, 2023
Qy lost a lot of games recently ig. I sent a friend req
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Level 62
Feb 23, 2023
Wish I had an Amazon in my chess set (and preferably to have my opponent not have one) xD
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Level 66
Feb 23, 2023