Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

I extend that group even further in Short Sliders with the Crusader (KDNH), Healer (KANG), Bongo (AGZNY), and Serval (DCHFX), as well as of course the Thaumaturge (KCZ).

(I still could use a better name for the Healer, though.)

79. Inquisitor. When I posted the Retriever a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned but didn't post its diagonal counterpart.

Like the Retriever, the Inquisitor travels along its expected path, but can jump a couple of spaces off if something's in the right place. The difference is, of course, that the Inquisitor follows diagonal slides, leaping two spaces orthogonally or like a Camel. (BCD)

The leaps are, of course, such that the Inquisitor remains colorbound.

The piece design is closely based on the Bishop; while distinctive enough to tell the two apart, a player who isn't paying close enough attention might find the Inquisitor's leap to be quite unexpected. And of course nobody expects the... well, you know.

80. BWND. Just as yesterday's piece was the rotary companion of a previously-listed piece, so is today's. As a companion of the NARF, the proper pronunciation of this pieces name is "booned," though thanks to Ben Reniger it can also be pronounced "bwained," especially if the NARF is on the board.

True to its name, the BWND combines the moves of the Bishop, Wazir, Knight, and Dabbabah: it can slide diagonally any distance, move to an adjacent orthogonal space, or leap two spaces orthogonally or like a Knight. (BWND)

Both are powerful pieces on an 8x8 board, though on a larger board their influence approaches those of the Dragon Horse and Dragon King.

For its appearance, I do think I need to work on the forehead so it looks more like a bulging forehead and less like a pompadour.

81. Boxer. Another creation of Adrian King, the Boxer gets its name from its move diagram: it can step to any adjacent sqiare, or leap to any square three spaces away -- basically a compound of the King and the Cheetah. (KHCZG).

The obvious route for this would've been to make a piece that looked like a box, or perhaps a Cheetah with a King's crown. I decided to take a different approach.

OK, it's far from perfect, but at least you can tell what it is. And it's a good deal better than if I'd decided to go with a bust of a dog.

A few minutes ago, I had the thought of cataloging pieces according to their move, starting just with those made up of single steps or leaps to the second or third perimeter.

Then I calculated how many of those there would be: 512 (including the Zero and other "unmovers").

I think I'll let it wait. Or leave it to someone else. :)

82. High Priestess and 83. Minister. A brief discussion with Joe Joyce about these two pieces, borrowed from his Two Large Shatranj Variants for my own Short Sliders variant, led me to present this pair for this weekend.

The High Priestess moves one space diagonally, or leaps two spaces diagonally or like a Knight. (FAN) The Minister, on the other hand, moves on space orthogonally, or leaps two spaces orthogonally or like a Knight (WDN).

(My apologies for not having move diagrams ready for these; they really should have them. I'll see if I can't rectify that by the end of the weekend.)

I think both of these pieces would have a good presence on a chess-variant board.

84. Baboon. I originally thought of this piece for completely different move combo, but decided against it in favor of something else; weeks later, this combo came to mind, and I thought it was perfect to call it a Baboon. The combo is simply a leap of three spaces either orthogonally or diagonally, or (1,2) like a Knight. (NGH)

I haven't put this into a game yet (not even a Dealer's Chess Expansion Set), but that'll come. I think it'd make a fine piece on a 10x10 or 12x12 board. In fact, I really only have one problem with the piece.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. With the abstract-geometric style of my physical pieces, this is the best I could come up with for the long-faced ape. I think just about anyone else could do better.

85. Clown. We already have the Fool, the Jester, the Joker, and various others, so why not a Clown?

The Clown's basic move is four spaces in any direction; however, it cannot capture with this move. The Clown also can imitate the move of any piece, whether friendly or enemy, in a space adjacent to its starting spot. It can capture in this manner, but doing so is an act of self-sacrifice. (mQ4xK+)

(The + in the above refers to the kamikaze nature of the xK, which I don't know how to code in XBetza.)

The Clown also has a special ability all its own, which comes in two parts: first, it's a bifold piece, meaning that two can fit into one space. A capture made against two Clowns in one space captures both if it's a regular displacing capture; rifle, locust, withdrawing, and similar captures only capture one.

Second, if the player also has a piece like a Carrier (a special piece that transports other pieces), the player can fit as many Clowns on it as he has. However, sitting on a Carrier, the "move borrowing" is suppressed. When they get to their destination, all Clowns unload in the same turn, using only their innate (non-capturing) move; if spaces run out before Clowns, the remaining Clowns stay on board the Carrier

86. Antelope. There's plenty of love for the Giraffe (which I don't mind, given that giraffes are my favorite animal), but we don't see much from the Antelope; to date, that I'm aware of, the only game where it's used is my own Dealer's Chess; otherwise it's only been seen in fairy chess problems. With a (3,4) move, it's not exactly a powerhouse, and better suited as part of a compound such as the Impala or the Rabbit, but it could be handy in a particularly large board. (NY)

Notably, the Antelope is a color-switcher, and can access the entire board... eventually. A leap of (4,3) is built for speed rather than precision, so making good use of an Antelope takes either a bit of luck or, more likely, masterful strategy.

The Antelope is distinguishable from other ungulate-based pieces mostly by the backward-curving shape of the horns.

87. King Cheetah. In a rare genetic mutation, some cheetahs have spots that run together, such that most appear large and blotchy, with those on the back forming stripes running parallel to the spine. Though not a separate species or even breed, they've come to be known as king cheetahs. As an animal with both stripes and splotches, it seemed appropriate that the name apply to a chess piece compounding the moves of a Zebra and a Giraffe. (ZFX)

Usually, having longer leaps such as those of the Zebra and Giraffe make for a weaker piece, because of the sacrifice of speed over precision. I think that this combination can have the opposite effect, though, because the landing spaces are clustered together; the King Cheetah could be pretty formidable.

The physical piece I have for it takes some liberties with the animal's description, but it does have the benefit of being distinctive.

Too bad you haven't chose a name of ungulate in order to stay in the lexical of okapi, impala, etc. which are used for other compounds of two oblique leapers. Proghorn maybe? There are so many. King Cheetah is also very close to the Cheetah used elsewhere and this is not King+Cheetah. Just to say.

I thought about Pronghorn for this, and it's not exactly off the table; the main issue I have with King Cheetah is the potential for King + Cheetah confusion (despite the Gilmanesque logic behind it). I've settled on this for now, though I may make Pronghorn an alternate form in the not-too-distant future. (Good suggestion, that.)

Honestly, the King Cheetah is the only animal I could find that had both spots and stripes.

Plus, I put a lot of effort into getting those vertical stripes right (I wish I'd done that for the spots on the sphere).

But I think you'll like tomorrow's. :)

Well a King cheetah is a cheetah, it is not a different animal. Just a particular fur mutation.

I don't think it needs to be a separate animal to be a separate piece, as long as it's distinctive.

That said, on reflection your earlier arguments convinced me. I'll do something different tomorrow, and come back to this (as a Pronghorn) and its rotary companion next week.

It’s interesting about spots and stripes, though. I agree with Bob in this question. Possibly like albinos animals with unique traits on chessboard.

UPD: Can you draw my Magician from Horizons as your 90th piece of the day, please?

Well, there's already the Dog and the Blind Dog from Shogi, which are two different pieces, and there are probably other examples from Shogi as well. But that's neither here nor there; the name confusion with a King/Cheetah compound would be enough (even though I think that exists under another name).

As to your Magician, Lev, I have another piece whose physical appearance could easily enough stand in for it without designing something new, and I'll put it up for you Monday as #91 (since #89 and #90 will be a weekend pair).

88. Mongolian Pawn. Since I'm set to make serious changes to yesterday's piece before posting its companion, today I'll be presenting something else. (The companion piece, and the updated version of yesterday's, should be up on Tuesday.)

Hiashatar is played on a 10x10 board. With the larger board, Pawns get an extra forward space for their initial move; otherwise they move as in standard chess. (mfWcfFimfW3).

I'm not aware of any other game that uses this, though

The design on the head is simply the top of the Bodyguard (scaled down to fit).

89. Blue Gecko. and 90. Purple Finch. While they make for a symmetrical pair on the board, these two strange pieces are so diverse in background that I couldn't even reasonably put them together in the same collection on Thingiverse.

The Blue Gecko is an invention of Adrian King, for his game Jupiter. It can move up to four spaces diagonally forward and to the right; two spaces directly backward or to the left; or one space directly forward, diagonally forward and to the left, or diagaonlly backward and to the right. (frB4lbW2flFbrFfW)

This, to be honest, is the most incomprehensible move combination I've seen to date -- which is part of why I'm drawn to it.

The blue gecko is an actual species of gecko, native to Tanzania (and critically endangered). I hadn't been aware of that before, so I simply named the piece Gecko at first, but there's room for other species of gecko -- though probably not on the same board.

(At first, I wasn't very happy with this design, but then every time I look at it I hear this London-accented voice trying to sell me auto insurance. I don't know how well that reference will play outside the USA, of course.)

Mr. King doesn't provide any symmetrical partner for the Blue Gecko, so I invented one myself: the Purple Finch. This piece, not unexpectedly, slides up to four spaces diagonally forward and to the left, or two spaces directly backward or to the right; or steps one space directly forward, forward and to the right, or backward and to the left. (flB4brW2frFblFfW)

I don't recall why I zeroed in on the purple finch for the name, especially since I found it before I realized that the gecko was legitimately blue by name. I wanted a different order of animal, and a bird seemed right.

Maybe it was the distinctive crest on the bird's face, coupled with its small size. (At least it isn't trying to sell me auto insurance; I don't even own a car!)

I could happily put one of each of these on any large chess board, with the Blue Gecko on the far left and the Purple Finch on the far right, on the row behind the Pawns.

91. Thaumaturge. After working for a bit with the Wizard (FC) and Sorcerer (WZ), I wondered what a piece would be like that combined the two. The result was the Thaumaturge. Given that it's also a compound of Guard and Bison, this probably isn't the last time you'll see a piece from me with this move combo; eventually I'll be posting a Bison-based QBRM set. (KCZ)

The piece itself is basically just the Sorcerer design with the Wizard's traditional crescent moon on top.

I think that this would also be a good piece for Lev Grigoriev's Magician. I may make a Magician piece at some point in the future, based on the Magician icon I created for my icon cleearinghouse, but this one would (in my opinion) still be better for Lev's game.

Thx, but my Magician is much more than simply magical piece. Piece you’ve done definitely not suit to it, but as Sorcerer/Wizard/Thaumaturge it’s beautiful.

Sorry I couldn't be of better help, then. I'll see if I can't revisit the idea at a later time.

First, in my Thingiverse collection I've changed the King Cheetah (#87) to a Pronghorn, as suggested.

The King Cheetah is still there as an alternate, but I'm primarily making this piece the Pronghorn.

As for its companion....

91. Kudu. The kudu is a pair of antelope species (greater and lesser, so named for their relative size) native to eastern and southern Africa. They have thin white stripes on their otherwise brown fur, making them good representatives of a piece that compounds the Antelope and the Zebra. (ZNY)

Another way of looking at it is as an Impala on steroids! But for the physical piece, not so much....

I only noticed this moment that I neglected to include the animal's distinctive corkscrew-shaped horns, but that's not super important; just assume that this is a female.

I think the XBetza for it is ZNY!

Quite correct. I don't know why I was thinking ZYZ.