Comments by JorgKnappen

Here are a few additions sourced from:

Hans Gruber: Märchenschachlexikon, Schwalbe - Deutsche Vereinigung für Problemschach, zuletzt aktualisiert am 26.08.2011,
http://www.dieschwalbe.de/lexikon.htm

The source contains tons of information on fairy problem conditions and some pieces. Most of them are outside the scope of the Concise Guide to Chess Variants, but I propose the following additions:

Piece names

ibis - elemental piece, (1,5)-leaper

lancer - elemental piece, (2,4)-leaper
    Note: This piece has a different german name, Hase (engl. hare)

okapi - compound leaper (1,2)+(2,3)


Note. If the charset is mangled, then: ä ist ae (a-umlaut) and ü ist ue (u-umlaut)

A few miscellaneous entries from the Chess Variant Pages


Piece names

capricorn - a hook mover moving on diagonal lines. Occurs in several large shogi variants

hook mover - a hook mover on horizontal and vertical lines. Occurs in several large shogi variants

querquisite - a piece that has the moves of the piece on its current file in the FIDE starting position. Synonym: oddyseus
(see A. Sibahi: Querquisite Chess, http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MSquerquisiteche )

Piece terms

divergent piece - A piece with different capturing and non-capturing moves. Synonym: Sniper
  Source: A. J. Winkelspecht: Divergent Chess http://www.chessvariants.org/large.dir/contest/divergentchess.html

hook mover - a piece that can optionally turn 90 degrees and move on. It can capture on its final square only. From large shogi variants.

igui capture - restricted rifle capture of lion movers, capture on a adjacent square without moving

lion mover - a piece that can do two moves in one turn, including the possibilities to capture two pieces in one turn, to pass the turn, or to capture one piece and then return to its starting square. Lion movement can be unrestricted (as in the lion of Chu Shogi) or restricted to certain directions (as in the soaring eagle or the horned falcon of Chu Shogi)

planar piece - a kind of lame hook mover, a piece that can optionally turn 90 degrees and move on as long as the rectangle spanned by the two legs of its move is free from any other piece, friend or foo. It can capture only on its destination square.
    source: Gavin Smith: Prince http://www.chessvariants.org/3d.dir/prince.html

Sigh, link rot hits again. Fortunately, I have printed the Theory of Moves when it was available on the net.

Christine, you found another nice reference, and I immediately love the names toad and newt for the other simple amphibians!

This is a suggestion to David:

Add all contest winning games to the Game section.

This gives a nice overview of the activity of the CVP community over a decade.

Hi Charles,

I skimmed through my sources again and could not locate a reference to 'gazelle' as a synonym for the okapi (Knight-Zebra-compound). Where did you get it from?

I share your feelings with respect to the name 'prince': it is quite unspecific and used for a whole bunch of pieces, most notably the commoner. The aim of my comment was to give a summary of this important source.  Note that Jelliss gives prince for Knight+Ferz (not Knight+Wazir) following the male/female logic from the King/Queen pair. And problemists call the Janus/Palladin piece princess.

The name hospital(l)er is  worth mentioning for the knight-alfil compound, kangaroo as a synonym ist certainly worth mentioning, too. Outback Chess was a contest winning variant, at least.

Going through my sources I found a synonym for the newt: it is called counsellor in Quang Trung Chess and this name propagated in Töws' piece creation system and in Ivan Derzhanski's list.

To the very first comment: The crippling of the Charging Knight is intentional. The fact that a Charging Knight and a King can checkmate a solitary King has dramatic influence to the endgame. Replacing the Charging Knight by a Charging Moo leaves the endgame value untouched, and I doubt that the weakening in the opening phase and the middlegame is sufficient to tone done the Nutty Knights enough. But I have not playtested your proposal.

As I said in the notes, there are lots of possibilities to weaken the Nutty Knights, if you find another one, it is fine.

Finally I found a work-around that allows me to update the information here, editing in the missing user name to submission form. The forward Ferz move is now added to the Colonel, as it should be.

The piece I inadvertedly created, the Charging Chancellor, may also be of the right strength to tone the Nutty Nights down. An army with srunken Nights and Charging Chancellor together will probably already being on the weak side, but inside the error margin of my estimates.

Grandmasters of the Nutty Nights may prefer this very weak version.

Hi, Charles, I think you are supposed to follow the link and undergo the 'purchase' procedure, as there is currently a special offer at $0.00 for this nice chess variant.

There is far too much in it to summarise it here in a comment. There are 6 different armies (one of them the FIDEs), and each of the new armies is equipped with 'mutators' (as George terms it) that still feel fresh and unusual. 

Besides the new armies, the general rules are extended by new ways of winning the game, bringing down the number of draws, and duelling (introducing a poker-style element). So Chess 2 is different even with FIDE vs. FIDE armies.