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Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Oct 26, 2008 07:45 AM UTC:
Ah, you've fallen for the old idea of problematists' names for pieces
being standard. In fact, piece naming follows two very separate strands,
'fairy-problems' - the variant-piece equivalent of newspaper chess
problems - and actual variant games. I would have liked the two
communities to have met long ago to agree a standard naming system, but
they did not. Thus game after game features Wazir+Ferz, but none as far as
I know the problematists' Knight+Ferz, under the name 'Prince'. Likewise
Wazir+Alfil appears as Waffle or Phoenix, never Caliph. What looks like
'duplication' is two separate usages. Only older pieces like Timur's
Giraffe or very obvious nasmes like Alibaba are shared by both. This is
why my extensive use of the piece here under the name Caliph never raised
mention of Wazir+Alfil from any previous contributor. Not being
problematists, most were as ignorant of the other usage of Caliph as I
was. Those who did know also knew of the separation and so never
considered it worth raising.
	For my own preference I value memorability first, while also taking note
of usage in past games and suitability for extrapolation. There being no
intuitive reason why Bishop+Camel should be a Flying Dragon, I forgot -
not even consciously rejected - this naming long before I began using the
piece myself. The Bishop component suggests religion, and the Camel one
certain parts of the world, many of which have Islam their main religion.
Of the various Islamic titles that would have suited that piece, I found
Caliph the easiest to extrapolate - to Bishop+Zemel=Zeliph,
Bishop+Gimel=Giliph, et cetera. 
	An example of where another game designer's name has grabbed my
imagination is Timothy Newton's Kangaroo, also giving a piece which
problematists call by a different name a name which problematists use for
a different piece. For me Mr. Newton's usage had the better appeal,
(Zebra+Alfil=Zengaroo et cetera) and up went my page on the piece as he
had named it. Waffle is also a name that I have taken up for my own games,
its meaning being so blindingly obvious.
	Finally, where I have known about and been inspired by a problematist
name is the Sexton. This inspired my names of most of the shortest-range
cubic oblique leapers. Again its memorability - leap length root 6 - is
what won me over to it in preference to Captain, Red Knight, or Wyvern
(all of which I had to look up).

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