Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

58. Malkia. Some time ago, I presented the Kuhani (26) and Mtawala (27), compounds of the Zebra with (respectively) the Bishop and Rook. I intended to include the Queen compound of the set, but forgot about it, so here it is. (QZ)

All things considered, this is my favorite piece of my own invention -- the move, the name, and the piece design all come together just right. (The Kuhani and Mtwala certainly didn't come out looking this good!)

Any resemblance between this piece and the costumes worn by Angela Bassett in the Black Panther movies is neither deliberate nor coincidental. Both drew heavily on actual headgear worn by women of power in eastern Africa.

59. Pyramid. The Pyramid is a piece that cannot move, cannot be moved, and cannot be captured.

To date, it's been used exclusively in fairy chess problems, and it would seem at first look that that's all it's good for. But it does have a little potential, as either a drop or a Pawn promotion (especially a Mecklenbeck Pawn). As a drop, it can be put in a place that blocks an attack (especially a check) where the opponent's response with any other piece would be to simply capture the blocking piece, leaving the player in no better position.

Even just getting a Pawn (again, especially a Mecklenbeck Pawn) to promote to a Pyramid in the opponent's home area can throw a wrench into things, depending on where it is.

The design is, obviously, a pyramid; it nearly fills a square, and it's taller than any other piece (including the King).

Maybe, the cube can be the best solution as the most elementary form in 3D dimension. Pyramid is still okay though.

Speaking of dimensions, I once read a funny observation in an old chess magazine questioning why 3D pieces can make do with 2D space.

Well, of course we're 3D figures, and in battle situations we tend to "make do" with 2D space -- though a variant might be interesting that had "trees" (elevated squares, or 4x4 areas) where rifle-capturing pieces could snipe at others.

60. Pirate Ship. Simiilar to the Pirate (one of my first posts), the Pirate Ship is a "neutral" piece that may be moved by either player. Its move rotates the regular Ship: it moves one space diagonally, then proceeds outward orthogonally like a Rook, but instead of moving forward or backward like the Ship, the Pirate Ship moves sideways; and, like the Pirate, it may only move to capture. ([cF?scR])

Arguably, I should've left this piece until next Tuesday (International Talk Like a Pirate Day), but I've already mentioned other plans for the first four days of next week.

(I'm still not sure whether I should've left the sail on the ship.)

61. Muezzin. and 62. Cantaloupe. These are two pieces that compound the Camel with fourth-perimeter pieces.

The name of Muezzin was proposed by Charles Gilman for the Camel and Giraffe, as someone who is "high off the ground in lands with camels." In the real world, the Muezzin makes the call for prayer from a mosque's minaret (tower). (CFX)

The piece's design is based on a photograph of a minaret.

For the compound of Camel with Antelope, all I could come up with was the portmanteau of the two words: Cantaloupe. (I do seem to have a habit of making portmanteau names for compound pieces; see the Gerbil and Anteater.) (CNY)

I think the piece design is pretty self-explanatory.

Along with the ZFX and ZNY I imagined this to be the knights in an 18x18 environment. That is because on an empty board they have almost the same number of moves as the bishop. But it turns out that they are stronger!

I actually would love to see how either of these handle on a 12x12 or 16x16 board, especially the Cantaloupe. As I pointed out for the Midnighter, they have a longer leap to get to the business, and the shorter one to do business.

I'm also contemplating what Ferz and Wazir compounds with these would be like. Maybe even QBRM sets as well.

PS: I actually have the ZFX and ZNY figured out. Maybe I'll post them in two weeks (I have something else planned for next weekend.)

63. Cicada. As promised, most of this week will be dedicated to those pieces whose physical designs that have given me trouble, with results that are... well, OK, they're barely good enough for me to even upload. The pieces are great on the board; the physical designs, not so much. Suggestions on how to make them better are more than welcome.

I found the Cicada in Adrian King's massive game Jupiter. It can move to, but not capture in, any adjacent space; or leap two or three spaces in any radial direction, but it has to jump over another piece. (mKjAjDjGjH)

To be honest, the diagram could use a little help too.

As for the design, the wings came out better than I expected, but the overall effect just doesn't say "insect" to me, much less "cicada." On this current look at it, I can see that bringing the bezel up around the head would help, but that's not quite a full solution.

The (slightly) improved version, with the bezel raised:

The name of Muezzin was proposed by Charles Gilman for the Camel and Giraffe, as someone who is "high off the ground in lands with camels." (CFX)

This piece is also created by me under name Long Gnu / Longdebeest (Ō in my notation, worths 5 like a Rook)

The (slightly) improved version, with the bezel raised:

It wasn't immediately obvious to me what it was supposed to be, but my first guess was cicada.

This piece is also created by me under name Long Gnu / Longdebeest (Ō in my notation, worths 5 like a Rook)

That's good info to have. I'll make a note of it.

It wasn't immediately obvious to me what it was supposed to be, but my first guess was cicada.

Nice! Maybe the model isn't quite as bad as I thought it was.

64. Otter. This is another Arian King creation, and one that I think has some decent potential. It can move one step directly forward or in any diagonal direction, or four spaces to the left or right.

I could easily see this as a mid- to late-game defender, moving around to block captures or to defend other pieces. In a game with three or more rows of setup, I'd gladly see this in the second row...

...unless, of course, it looked like this. It's supposed to suggest the familiar sight of an otter floating on its back, but if anyone reading this realized that before I said it then I'm very surprised. I'm at a loss as to what would be better, though.

Jean-Louis:

A question for piece hunters here. Does anyone have ever seen a WAN and a FDN played in any chess variant? Although being rather "simple", I can't remember having seen them somewhere. If they exist, what is their names? Thanks

In case it makes a difference, I finally got around to making a Raccoon (FDN) and Horned Lizard (WAN). They'll eventually find their way into a Dealer's Chess Expansion Set, and probably an "American Prairie" (or American Civil War) type game my brain's been brewing.

65. Retriever. No, this isn't the dog breed from Labrador; it's supposed to be short for "Fugitive Retriever." (Clearly the piece design isn't the only problem here; I need a better name for someone who hunts down fugitives, but "Hunter" and "Marshall" were already taken by well-known pieces, and "Brute Squad" just doesn't quite work.)

I'd just finished a set of leapers when I noticed that one had a good opening for a Bishop, and the other for a Rook. The Bishop-based one, the Inquisitor, came out fine (I might share that one next week). The Rook one, not so much, though I like the concept: it also moves as an Alfil or Zebra, in a sort of broad diagonal jump. (RAZ)

This (and the Inquisitor) could be a decent powerhouse in a large-board game, I think.

The big thing is, as you can see, I'm rather at a loss for even a decent concept for a look. I thought about doing something that looked like the medieval counterpart of a paddy-wagon (think of all those period and fantasy movies where someone's being transported in a cage on wheels), but somehow this is what developed. It has distinctiveness in its favor, but nothing about it says (at least, to my eye), "This represents someone who hunts down fugitives."

As with the last two pieces, suggestions are very welcome. (In this case, it also includes name suggestions!)

66. Centaur. This has been a topic of discussion before, and it's definitely a challenge. Generally the piece is represented by its alternate name, the Crowned Knight, based on its KN move.

I have my own Crowned Knight version, putting on the King's crown with the cross removed (to make it distinguishable from the Royal Knight).

But as for a Centaur, I really couldn't think of many ways to represent it short of trying to sculpt the full figure of a centaur (and trust me, the world is better off without me trying that). I did come up with two ideas, neither of them really satisfactory.

Given the option right now, I'd go with the horseshoe for most purposes, but I'm not ready to give up on the helmeted version quite yet if there are any ideas out there about how it could be better.

I'm away for Rose City Comic Con this weekend, so my ability to post my Piece of the Day will be rather limited. (Not that some of you wouldn't welcome its absence, I'm sure...) So rather than my usual two-piece weekend, I'm posting a full QRBM set.

QRBM stands for Queen, Rook, Bishop, and Mann (because the King is royal), and refers to combining each of those four pieces with the same oblique leaper. So, here we go with the Wildebeest Set:

67. Indlovukazi. 68. Sangoma.  69. Umbusi. and 70. Mkuu. Since the wildebeest (ala gnu) is native to southern Africa, I thought that a southern African language would be a good choice to go with, in the same way that I'd used Swahili for the Zebra QBRM. When Aurelian Florea mentioned the Sangoma, I checked and found it as a Zulu name, and I knew that Zulu would be the language to go for.

I therefore have Aurelian to thank for this group.

The Indlovukazi is a dead-on translation from "Queen." The word takes a little practice for an English-speaker to pronounce, but it's worth it; the word is (in my opinion) as beautiful as the personage to which it refers. (QNC)

On the piece design, I think I need to raise the collar a bit to make it more visible, but otherwise it fits.

The Sangoma is named for a traditional Zulu healer, in keeping with Bishop compounds being religious leaders (such as the Archbishop and Caliph). (BNC)

The piece is based on photos I was able to find of actual, modern-day sangomas, with tightly braided hair, crossed sashes, and in a couple of cases a distinctive headpiece. I need to fix the shoulders of the sashes on this piece, but otherwise I'm pretty satisfied.

Umbusi is, quite directly, the Zulu word for 'governor." I take a cue from the Chancellor, and name Rook compounds for top government officials. (RNC)

The piece shows the formal cylindrical hat and chest drape worn by government officials in parts of southern Africa. The latter does need a bit of work, but it's getting there.

Finally, for the Mkuu... while the Mann is basically a Commoner, for the Camel compound, István Paulovits called this a General in 1890, and for my version I translated this to Janaaral (the English loanword to Arabic). Thus, when I can, the Mann compounds are named General, and only if that fails do I go with Commoner. Therefore, the Mkuu is named for a Zulu war leader. (KNC)

The piece features the headband, triangular fur-shouldered shoulder drape, and distinctive shield of a Zulu warrior.

I'd promise to soon feature more QBRM groups in the future, but I'm having a little trouble naming the Mann figures for the Okapi (Lingala) and Bison (Russian), and a lot of trouble finding any good translations for the whole Buffalo set (probably Lakota or some other mid-North American language). There may be others, too; the Giraffe, Antelope, Impala, and Aurochs all have potential, and I have a Tibetan group set aside for my (2,5) Bharal.

My apologies for taking up such a large chunk of Comments; I hope these pieces inspire some creativity in y'all (or, conceivably, a desire to include one or more of them in your variants).

Well, I'm back from the convention, so it's time to get back to annoying people with my Piece of the Day.

71. Double Cross. After working out the Vivi (#57), I thought I'd experiment a bit with 135-degree turns, and this was the only one that really seemed to work. The Double-Cross starts its move one space to the left or right, then may stop there or turn 135 degrees to slide diagonally like a Bishop. ([sW?bB])

Notably, while the spaces directly in front and behind are a part of the piece's move, they can only be reached if the space to the left and/or the right are open; the Double Cross cannot go directly to those spaces.

I think this would be an interesting substitute for a Bishop in a Chess With Different Armies setup, in a game where the player otherwise only gets one (since the Bishop is colorbound whereas the Double Cross is color-switching), or similar situations.

The piece design echos the move diagram, so that the name Double Cross applies equally well to both.

72. Colonel. There are many possibilities for military ranks in chess games; there certainly are plenty of them. In fact, I have piece designs for every rank from Soldier and Corporal up to Brigidier and General. But the Colonel is the interesting one for today. It moves to any adjacent space, or three spaces forward and one to the side. (KfC)

If you think you can see how I came up with that, you're probably right.

I'm building the "officer rank" pieces out of just putting the modern-day rank insignia on top of a base and stem, the latter of increasing height as the rank increases.

73. Yaf. In the Berber languages of northern Africa, including the still-extant Tuareg, the alphabet used is called the Tifinagh. One of the letters is yaf (ⴼ), and the piece bearing that name (and appearance) also has a move that mimics it.

The Yaf first moves one space sideways; then may move one or two spaces forward or backward; and from that endpoint, may continue in its original sideways direction, sliding like a Rook. ([sW?sW?fW?sR])

How useful this piece is could easily be the subject of some debate. I could see it as a decent piece to have on either end of a row in a large-board game for use as mid- to late-game defense, or possibly to help corner an opposing King for checkmate.

It's not the only letter of the Tifinagh that could represent a good chess move, though. Yaa (ⵄ), yagn (ⵐ), and yagh (ⵖ) could be interesting too, to name just the ones that don't look like Roman or Greek letters and/or already-existing chess moves.

Tuareg; not Taureg

Tuareg; not Taureg

Oops. Thanks for the typo catch!

74. Bharal. I've done a little work with fifth-perimeter leapers, and while most of the practical pieces in that group are compounds with shorter leapers, if there's one fifth-perimeter atom that I'd actually put into a game of my creation*, this (2,5) leaper is the one. (AX)

A bharal, also known as a blue sheep, is native to the upper Himalayas, and is distinctive for the males' large, outwardly-curved horns (the females' horns are shorter and straighter). It's also the second-longest leaper (after the Klipspringer of southern Africa) in the bovine family.

Part of what I like about the Bharal is the general look (though I do need to rework this one; I'm currently in the process of thickening all bovid ears, and the head proper may need remodeling). It's also surprisingly agile for a long leaper; it can make a "Knight's tour" covering the entire board (of any size), can easily leap across a 3x3 spell zone, and on a larger board has a decent selection of spaces that it can land on in 2-3 moves.

And of course there's my favorite part: the puns. Compound it with a War Machine, and you have a Bharal Roll. Compound it with a Joker, and it's a Bharal of Laughs. Let it make two leaps per turn, and it's a Double Bharal. Compound it with an Archer, and it's a Shooting Fission a Bharal. (Okay, maybe that last one's scraping the bottom of the bharal.) And I'm sure there are plenty more.

(I'm also working up a [pun-free] QBRM set for this piece, focusing on Tibet.)

*Dealer's Chess doesn't count.