Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

221. Spiral and 222. Plummet. This is a pair that I found courtesy of the British Chess Problem Society's Glossary of Fairy Chess Definitions. That document calls them SpiralSpringer and Diagonal SpiralSpringer respectively, but since I already have a piece called Springer, I decided to drop that part; and "Diagonal Springer" seemed so contrived and awkward that I consulted a thesaurus to find the opposite of spiral. Plummet is what I settled on.

For a change, figuring out the XBetza for the pieces was actually easier than figuring out how to describe the moves in text. Perhaps the simplest description of the Spiral makes a series of (1,2) moves in a zigzag of either 45° turns or 135° turns, with every other step directly orthogonal from the starting point. (Nabr(abz)Nafl(afz)N)

The blue arrows here show probably the clearest visualization of the Spiral's move; it can be interpolated to the other three orthogonal directions.

The Plummet does roughly the same thing, but moves so that every other step is directly diagonal from the starting point. (Nabl(abz)Nafr(afz)N)

Again, the blue arrows show the clearest visualization, which can be interp;olated to the other three diagonal directions.

While the Spiral does bear a superficial resemblance to the Springer, I think they're distinctive enough to tell apart.

223. Hellstripe. This piece was inspired somewhat by the Worsen, which I posted last Friday. It similarly moves in a star-like fashion, making repeated leaps with 135° turns in between. However, its leaps are a Zebra's (2,3) leaps, and it can capture enemy pieces on each leap, even returning to its starting point (provided the path isn't blocked by a friendly piece). ((mcabq)Z)

These moves criss-cross so many times on a diagram, that trying to post a full diagram would be a mess. Instead, here are two of its possible move patterns:

Of course, two other paths are available by just reversing the arrows on these stars, and each can be rotated to the other four diagonal (blue) or orthogonal (green) directions, for a total of 16 possible paths. Many of the spaces are on more than one path, too, so there may be many ways to approach a space.

Still, even though the Hellstripe could potentially capture as many as 7 pieces with a single move, it's highly unlikely that a set of enemy pieces would ever be in the positions needed to do that much damage. I'd anticipate three as being an achievement, and four a rarity.

This diagram simply shows all of the spaces where the Hellstripe could land.

The model is simply a Zebra with a Worsen on its head, and a flame on top of that to indicate the "hellish" aspect of its multi-capture capability.

224. Drive-By Rook. and 225. Drive-By Nightrider. Since I have an extremely full day traveling tomorrow, I'm putting a pair of related pieces up here. They're from a recent inspiration of mine, and I haven't had a chance to test them much yet other than to be sure that their listed XBetza does work in the XBetza Sandbox (and in the Play-Test Applet).

The Drive-By Rook is the basic form of this piece. It moves like a regular Rook, but also has the option of replacing a capture at the end with a capture in a space it's passing by. Basically, it begins its move, stops, does a rifle capture to the immediate left or right, and then continues. (RyascabyaqmR)

The four posts represent the guns it presumably uses to shoot to the side as it passes.

This same principle can obviously be applied to the Bishop and Queen, and it's not much of a stretch to also apply it to bent sliders such as the Rhinoceros and Griffin. Less obvious is an oblique piece: the Nightrider. (NNyascafyaqmNN)*.

As you can see, the front post is taken up by the horse's head; what you can't see here is that the back one remains, obscured by the Rider wings.

*I really do not know why the usual b in a rifle-capture goes forward, turning its longer path around, while f lets it behave like b should. If I had to guess, I'd say it had to do with how the relative chiral movements are arranged on a Knight. Regardless, there's a solution here, and it works.

226. (1,1) Zigzag Nightrider. 227. (2,0) Zigzag Nightrider. 228. (3,3) Zigzag Nightrider. and 229. (4,0) Zigzag Nightrider. I'm posting this group of four all together because I'm at Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle this weekend, and things are pretty busy. In fact, today was so tense that I almost didn't get them up at all! But I'll be headed back Monday evening, when I can post from home.

When I first encountered these pieces, I had no idea what the descriptions were trying to tell me. Only recently did I get it: the numbers are where the piece is, relative to its starting point, after two moves. So the (1,1) Zigzag Nightrider starts with a standard Knight's move, then turns back (about 135°) to the space diagonally adjacent to its start, and continues in a zigzag manner from there. (Nabl(abz)N)

The (2,0) Zigzag Nightrider makes that first move, then turns back the other way so its second stop is two spaces away orthogonally from its starting spot. (Nabr(abz)N)

The (3,3) Zigzag Nightrider makes its initial Knight move, then turns only about 45° to the square three spaces diagonally from the starting point, and zigzags away from there. (Nafr(afz)N)

And the (4,0) Zigzag Nightrider, after its first move, turns about 45° to get to the space four spaces away from the starting square orthogonally, and zigzags that way. (Nafl(afz)N)

There are various way of combining these, of course, among them the Spiral and Plummet that I shared last week.

The models aren't much to look at, but hopefully this description will help someone else who's having trouble understanding these pieces to find the light of understanding.

And this is probably not that last you've heard of them from me....

230. Raven. and 231. Unicorn. I had been going to post a new piece last night after returning home from Seattle, but delays* stopped me from doing so. Therefore, I'm posting a pair that I have on file, that doesn't require a lot of work on my part... though I do have an interesting pair in mind that I'll be putting up this weekend. These here are both quite familiar to most of you, so I fully expect to be called out on any errors (which is perfectly OK).

The Raven is, of course, a Rook/Nightrider hybrid, sliding orthogonally or making (1,2) leaps in a straight line. (RNN)

The Raven is also known as a Waran, the common name in other languages for what English speakers generally know as the monitor lizard.

The Raven's rotary counterpart is the Unicorn, also called the Banshee, a Bishop/Nightrider compound. It also makes a series of (1,2) leaps in a straight line, but instead of sliding orthogonally it slides diagonally.

There are actually several pieces called Unicorn here and there, but this is the one I usually think of. (It's not the only one I use, of course.)

I'm fairly happy with the Unicorn model, but less so the Raven. I wasn't sure what else to do at the time I made it... and I'm only a little better now.

*Suffice it to say that, instead of my anticipated time of getting home at 8:30pm, I actually arrived after 12:30am.

232. Balaklava Mammoth. In Balaklava Chess, All pieces except King are enhanced with a non-capturing Knight's move (the Pawn's is forward-half only). Since this wouldn't affect the Knight, that piece is replaced by the game's version of a Mammoth. While the usual Mammoth moves one or leaps two spaces in any direction, the Balaklava Mammoth only does the latter (making it technically an Alibaba), with the Knight enhancement. (SmN)

It's not a powerful piece, but it could become useful as a sort of "unbound Alibaba" that can visit any space on the board rather than just 1/4 of them.

I wasn't sure whether to enhance the Mammoth piece I already had with the miniaturized Knight popping out of its head, or the front. The latter made it look like the mammoth was pregnant with the horse, and did nothing to distinguish it from the player's own perspective; so, to quote Thor, "I went for the head."

*Avengers: Endgame.

233. Boomerang. During a recent discussion, H. G. Muller showed how a "bent rifle capture" could be achieved. I tried it out in the XBetza Sandbox, and sure enough, it worked as advertised, and so the Boomerang was born.

The Boomerang (as I present it here, since others will surely have different ideas) moves up to three spaces orthogonally, or makes a rifle capture with a 45° bend at the end. (W3yafscabyaifzB)

I actually initially wanted to allow the Boomerang to shoot its rifle capture at the end of its slide (which was two spaces while I was developing it), but for some reason the end point never came out right.

I'm also still trying to figure out what to call its rotary counterpart (F3yafscabyaifzR). It'd be something ecumenical, I'm about 99% sure (though Yo-Yo isn't out of the question). And then a compound would be called for.

I'm not 100% sold on this model, though as I examine it closely I think it'd be sturdier than it appears at first look.

234. Trophy (Champion). This piece, another candidate for inclusion as the eighth piece in my Clue Chess variant (joining the six classics plus Poison), is one that could be considered taken from other existing games.

Since a trophy suggests a champion, I thought to use a Champion's move to represent it. My problem was, I found two very similar but different Champions, one in Omega Chess stepping orthogonally or leaping radially (WS), and the other in Reformed Courier, stepping radially or leaping orthogonally (KD). I decided to combine the two, making it basically an alternate for the Mastodon. (KS)

Of the five candidates, it's the one with the simplest move, and the one with a move that already exists in variant chess.

As for the model, I think it'd be suitable as a Champion in other games... at least, if you can get past the 12MB file size! (Sorry about that; I guess it's what happens with a hollowed-out parabolic cone. Probably someone else -- like Jean-Louis -- could do better)

235. Night Rose and 236. Roserider. This weekend's pair are examples in divergent thinking, in more ways than one. While I normally present rotary counterparts on the weekends these days, in this case they're more like "divergent counterparts."

Both pieces can move and capture normally like a Knight (a (1,2) leap), but can then continue on, and how that continuation happens is what makes them different. The Night Rose moves without capture in a circular manner (like a Rose), or captures in a straight line (like a Nightrider). (mqNcNN)

The Roserider (you guessed it) moves without capture in a straight line (like a Nightrider), but captures in a circle (like a Rose). (mNNcqN)

The Rose and Nightrider can be combined in other ways as well (including a simple compounding that I call the Nightmare*), but I'll explore those at another time.

These two were kind of thrown together a little hastily, though I think they're still usable. That's not the point of this listing, though; rather, I'm wanting in this case to encourage thinking about further expanding the possibility of rider/rose combinations. Among other things, any new (or even old) thing that I do with the Knight could also be done with the Camel, Zebra, or just about any other oblique leaper.

*I thought I'd already shared the Nightmare in this collection, but I'm not finding it on my list now. Maybe I'll bring it out next week.

237. Arion. In Greek mythology, Arion was an incredibly fast horse, conceived by Demeter and Poseidon when both were disguised as horses. He belonged first to Hercules; and then to Adrastus, the king of Argos. He seemed to me like a good representative for a piece that does for the Knight what the Manticore/Rhinoceros and Griffin/Eagle do for the Rook and Bishop.

As a piece, the Arion makes a single Knight's (1,2) leap, from which point it may turn ~45° and advance in a straight line like a Nightrider. (NyasfN)

In principle, this idea could be extended to any style of bent rider, and to any oblique leaper. However, because leapers have longer strides than steppers, they're generally only impressive on larger boards.

For the model, since many (though admittedly not all) depictions of Arion show him as a winged horse, I decided to extend the model that I already had for Pegasus, making it a bit larger and adding an impressive mane. (Question: should I generate another version, without the wings?)

Is that the gift to the 8th of March though there’s probably no women?

Is that the gift to the 8th of March though there’s probably no women?

I do not understand.

238. JuggerKnight. This play on the word "juggernaut" seems like a natural event, especially since my term "juggernaut capture" (or "juggernaut move") has seemingly been catching on to refer to a move that captures all enemy pieces in its wake. I initially gave the move to the Helepolis in Vanguard Chess (named for the massive seige tower of ancient Greece) with its destructive Rook-like move, but I've also seen other pieces that do it... though this invention here is the first time that I know of where it's been applied to a Nightrider. ((caf)N)

Though this may seem much more powerful than a Juggernaut Rook or Juggernaut Bishop, since it can leap over pieces, it's actually somewhat less so because it can only reach alternating rows or columns with any given series of leaps. On the other hand, since it can't be blocked by anything on the rows that it doesn't visit, it's a little more likely to be able to deliver check.

The model make look like a Knight in general shape, but its dimensions are those of a Queen. With a size ratio of nearly 3:2, there'll be no mistaking one for lthe other. (It'd be somewhat like confusing Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito.)

@ Bob:

Can't recall for sure if you've ever diagrammed a new-fangled piece type of yours that you've called a 'Komodo Dragon'. If not, it's food for thought.

I haven't done a Komodo Dragon, but I did do a Kimono Dragon quite early on.

As I imagined, it's a dragon wearing a kimono.

Good job.

8th of March is actually an International Women’s Day.

8th of March is actually an International Women’s Day.

No. It's not. It was a communist anti family celebration day since the beginning. 

It was a communist anti family celebration day since the beginning.

As well as these two pieces;)

As I imagined, it's a dragon wearing a kimono.

Of course! On Thingiverse, I have it filed under "Mostly for Laughs."

No. It's not. It was a communist anti family celebration day since the beginning. 

I seriously have no idea what you're talking about here. I looked it up, and other than a few feast days (such as Felix of Burgundy and Philemon the Actor), the only observance for March 8 is International Women's Day.

As well as these two pieces;)

Wherein I clearly "rose" to the occasion....

239. Llama. This is another compound from my "Fifth Circle" collection, and one that I created before I was aware of the Camel-Pawn compound of the same name. In this case, the (1,3) leap of the Camel is combined with the (3,5) leap of the piece I dubbed Klipspringer* -- so I'm not sure what else to call it. (CNX)

Even more than its namesake, I suspect that this Llama isn't much use outside fairy chess problems -- though someone could surprise me. After all, there are games with non-compounded Camels, and the Klipspringer's leap can simply be a bonus for crossing a large board quickly.

On this model, I probably need to rework the ears a bit, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with it.

*Gilman calls it a Gimel, the name of the third letter in the Hebrew abjad (consonant alphabet); while this Llama is, in his parlance, a Colookout. I may or may not feature the Klipspringer at some point; among other things, the current model on Thingiverse is still in my original style of putting a pre-existing model onto a pre-existing base.

Wikipedia will never tell you how certain events have been decided. If we have Fake News, and Fake Science, we can also have Fake History.  Orwell predicted all of this. 

I'm afraid Florin might be right about IWD, at least as far as its socialist origins (though I'm not too surprised in that case), even if you want to trust Wikipedia, for Wikipedia has a separate entry on International Women's Day that shows the history in some sections:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women%27s_Day#:~:text=IWD%20remained%20predominantly%20a%20communist,Women's%20International%20Day%20of%20Struggle%22.