Bob Greenwade wrote on Sat, Oct 28, 2023 02:41 PM UTC:
103. Minor Annoyance. and 104. Major Annoyance. Speaking of these two inventions of Ralph Betza, I thought they'd be interesting as this weekend's pair. He discusses them, more or less in passing, in his article on Bent Riders, As far as I know they've never appeared in any actual chess variant... yet.
The Minor Annoyance steps one space sideways, then proceeds outward and forward like a narrow Nightrider. (sWsyyyafsW)
(The diagram only shows forward movement because of an earlier misunderstanding on my part. The same reason applies to the rest of the images here.)
The Major Annoyance has the exact same move; plus it can move one step backward, allowing the piece to reach every row rather than just every other one. (sbWsyyyafsW)
With or without the backward move, I think either (or both) of these pieces would be handy in a row of Spears -- not as the Spears, but supplementing them.
As for the physical pieces, the only difference between the two is the little Wazir's hat on the Major Annoyance, the extreme similarity only increasing how annoying they can be to both players.
103. Minor Annoyance. and 104. Major Annoyance. Speaking of these two inventions of Ralph Betza, I thought they'd be interesting as this weekend's pair. He discusses them, more or less in passing, in his article on Bent Riders, As far as I know they've never appeared in any actual chess variant... yet.
The Minor Annoyance steps one space sideways, then proceeds outward and forward like a narrow Nightrider. (sWsyyyafsW)
(The diagram only shows forward movement because of an earlier misunderstanding on my part. The same reason applies to the rest of the images here.)
The Major Annoyance has the exact same move; plus it can move one step backward, allowing the piece to reach every row rather than just every other one. (sbWsyyyafsW)
With or without the backward move, I think either (or both) of these pieces would be handy in a row of Spears -- not as the Spears, but supplementing them.
As for the physical pieces, the only difference between the two is the little Wazir's hat on the Major Annoyance, the extreme similarity only increasing how annoying they can be to both players.