Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Actually, I'm now contemplating the idea a third promotion level for the Beast and Leader pairs, where the 6 would simply be dropped. The Leaders would clearly become the Chancellor (RN) and Archbishop (BN), but what about the Beasts? Do RFN and BWN already exist anywhere (with animal names)? While I'm actually leaning against this change, (and I defimitely won't do it if these don't already exist), I do have a general interest in this so any help would be appreciated.

Addendum: I did find the Crown Princess (BWN) and Archchancellor (RFN) in Teutonic Knight's Chess, by way of the Popess (BWN) and Heroine (RFN) in Very Heavy Chess. Those aren't animal names, though; I can't find any that go that route, and I'm really not inclined to invent something, so this change will almost certainly not happen.

I am not sure that having an animal's name is so important. In the context of Very Heavy Chess it was not, for sure. I wanted feminine character to fit with the Amazon (RBN), a military flavor for the RFN to fit with the Admiral (RW) and the Marshall (RN); a clerical flavor for the BWN to fit with the Missionary (BF) and the Cardinal (BN). Popess has been very criticized though, we don't have all the same sensitivity on that matter, a cultural baggage, I have understood that. So I have kept it for my game.

Having only animals is making difficult to distinguish them if you start to make real pieces. Distinguishing a Cheetah from a Tiger or a Panther, or a Zebra from a Horse or a Donkey, a Wolf or a Fox or a Dog, etc. is a problem when you manufacture pieces.

But there are plenty of animal orders that are not closely related, (some of the animals you mention can even breed with each other!), and look very different. A Turtle would not look much like a Dog, Tiger or Elephant. And a Stork looks very different from a Duck or an Eagle.

The significance of using animal names in this context is that these two pieces are the "Beast" pair. I'd feel silly using the Teutonic Knight or Very Heavy Chess names and calling them beasts.

Note that, as H.G. suggests, the beasts aren't necessarily of the same family: already it's Kirin -> Tiger -> Unicorn and Phoenix -> Elephant -> Buffalo. If they went on to be Penguin and Tasmanian Devil or even Babe the Blue Ox and the Loch Ness Monster, it wouldn't be out of place.

PS: Not that it matters so much, but I still favor "Abbess" over "Popess." :)

Of course HG, but I was making a point that is a concern when you want to design a physical set anyway. The Musketeer set had this problem with too many pieces looking too closed (at the point that the manufacturer did mix up some of them). In the case of pieces like those triple compounds, I don't think that it is necessary to make them an animal. Just an opinion, everybody does as he/she likes, no problem.

Yes, right, I had not seen that you needed Beasts in this context.

Abbess, yes it would work, but in my mind Abbess was a low rank. Oh, I'm not expert in these religious matters and maybe I'm wrong. For a triple compound with this strengh I was looking for an higher rank. Again my perception of Abbess is probably wrong, I won't complain if someone is using Abbess.

I looked things up a while back, and Abbess is actually the highest rank for a woman (that is, specifically female) in the Catholic Church. There are a few women who have been ordained as bishops; the more-or-less nickname "womanbishop" (an extension of the movement name Roman Catholic Womenpriests, or RCWP) would be a bit awkward, I think.

And just musing here, but I may go ahead and make pieces for Babe and Nessie -- though probably quad-sized.

Pursuant to creating an Interactive Diagram, here are some test images for pieces used here:

• Malkia (zebraqueen)
• Mtawala (zebrarook)
• Bodyguard

Just offhand, I think the first two could be added to the official list (as could the Bowman I made for Vanguard Chess), but the Bodyguard needs work on several things, including the size, the transparency of the background, and the black side's color.

The color of the black pieces in the Alfaerie set is #5984bd.

Thanks for writing that out; I'd been using the "eyedrop" function to copy the color, but having it written out is much easier (for me, anyway).

Attempted improvements:

While I have some ideas brewing for most of the Leader group, I'm still feeling a bit out of my depth when it comes to the Healer, Crusader, Bongo, Serval, Dolphin, Walrus, and Turtle.

Testing a few other icons:

• Crusader
• Hospitaller
• Turtle
• Zebrarider

(The Zebrarider isn't used in this game, but I like it so I thought I'd test it.)

I think I screwed up the color for black again (I thought it was set to the right one until I saw these all together; I'll fix them later) but other than that I think these are acceptable.

Here we go, with the color-corrected black Crusader, Hospitaller, and Zebrarider:

I'm not sure why the size discrepancy (other than it has to do with the tiles I used for source material), but I still think they look just like what I was trying for -- even though it's probably hard to tell the Zebrarider from a regular Zebra.

As for the animal pieces... the Turtle below is merely "acceptable" (for this game, anyway), but my efforts thus far at any of the others I listed have been pitiful.

A few more icon trials:

• Healer
• High Priest(ess)
• Bongo
• Serval
• Dolphin
• Walrus

Looking at these, I wouldn't think that the Healer, Serval, or High Priest(ess) would be out of place in the main collection (though possibly under different names), the Bongo is OK for this game... and I'm not too sure about the other two. The Walrus, at the least, needs a thicker border, but the Dolphin looks to me more like a hummingbird.

One more trial of new pieces for a future Interactive Diagram on this game, filling out the Leader group:

• Marquis
• Priest
• Abbot

(I did the High Priest earlier, the Minister is already in the main collection, and the Duke basically is the Castellan.)

I probably will rework a couple of the ones I've already posted (the Walrus for sure, to fix the outline; the Turtle and Dolphin if I can figure out how to do better), and a couple that I'm ambivalent about using the main set for (like the Jackal), but otherwise I think this is the end of these.

(There also are a few, such as the Zebrarider, that I wish were part of the main collection, and are simple enough to make, but I'm not sure what to do about them.)

Hi, Bob. Thank you for mentioning the High Priestess, which apparently was the first use of the FAN on this site - I looked but could not find an earlier usage. I have an odd request. You prefer High Priest as the piece name, and I prefer High Priestess, because I feel women players and designers get short shrift in chess. The oval in an opened circle is a nice icon, but it can be used 2 ways, the orientation you show here, or upside down. Would you be willing to use the upside down version to specifically designate the high priestess, and the right-side up orientation be used to designate the high priest?

I got the icon shown from pictures of actual high priestesses, so I'll do it the other way around: the one already posted is High Priestess (and it's already labeled as such in the filename), and I'll use this new flipped one for High Priest.

Like so:

Oh, and for most purposes I actually prefer to call it High Priestess. It's just that High Priest fits better for what's happening with it in this particular game.

By the way, your use of High Priestess is the only FAN on the Wikipedia page on fairy chess pieces, and I haven't been able to find any other name for that move combo anywhere.

PS: It's the High Priestess in the Dealer's Chess Expansion Set #1.

I worked up a new & improved Walrus:

This almost actually looks like a walrus drawing!

I may have one or two other "improved" icons on the way....

Slightly improved Dolphin icons:

At any rate, they now look more like dolphins to me than hummingbirds.

I still think they are a bit skinny.

I agree; I'm just not sure how to fix that with the tools at my disposal.

(Still, it's worlds better than every try I've made at a Jackal!)

I think I've finally managed something reasonably decent for the Jackal:

Now I'd really like to find or figure out something for Bison and Buffalo that's distinctive from the Wildebeest....

You had this marked with three "Usual Equipment" (sub)categories, which it certainly isn't?

Evidently I've misunderstood what the "Usual Equipment" section is about.

The author, Bob Greenwade, has updated this page.