Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Shouldn't the Rose have the move qN8 (including a zero move if the full circle is available) instead of just qN4? In the starting position after

1. k4-k5 ... it should be possible to play 2. Of2-f6.

Nice to see the Spotted Gryphon in this diagram, it is another difficult piece to describe!

Nice to see the Spotted Gryphon in this diagram, it is another difficult piece to describe!

Indeed. Before I had introduced the paretheses notation, it would have been necessary to mention every distance separately, with a large number of intermediate steps.

I understood from the article that in this variant the Rose only has 4 steps.

Ah yes, I see, it is a halfling Rose indeed!

I have recently recalculated the piece values in this game. And finally gave Ralph Betza due credit for inventing the Spotted Gryphon. Unlike me, Fergus managed to read all of Ralph's bent rider theory without falling asleep. Caïssa Britannia, invented by Fergus Duniho in 2003, contains the Dragon (Alfilrider + Dabbabarider). But what about the squares that are skipped over? On [2021-02-24] Fergus Duniho wrote a Comment (worth quoting here) to Bent Riders by Ralph Betza.

"Last night I was thinking of bent riders that are not bent in the sense of changing direction. I suppose they are among the 25 possibilities Betza mentions, but I don't think he elaborated on them. One piece I was thinking of would initially move as a Wazir, then if it continues, continue as a Dabbabbah-Rider. Unlike the Dabbabbah-Rider, this would not be color-bound. Another one would initially move as a Ferz, then if it continues, continue as an Alfil-Rider. Unlike the Alfil-Rider, this would be able to reach every space of the same color instead of just half of them. I was thinking I might call these the Shifty Rook and the Shifty Bishop and their compound the Shifty Queen. Has anyone used these pieces before?"

In the terminology of All the King's Men the 'degenerate' bent riders that double their stride after the first step are called slip pieces. (While the normal riders with a two-square stride are called skip pieces, and those that half their stride ski pieces.) So the Spotted Gryphon would be a Slip Griffon.

This is the only ID where the ID seems to undervalue Rose. Other IDs assign Rose at higher values.

This is the only ID where the ID seems to undervalue Rose. Other IDs assign Rose at higher values.

This is probably because it is not really a Rose (which can make up to 7 Knight jumps), but a Half-Rose, which can only do up to 4. I suppose the other Diagrams you refer to use genuine Roses.

This is a late reply ... the bent riders that are not bent are in fact long known, problemists call them slip pieces (slip-R, slip-B, and slip-Q). The slip-R is also known under the name Panda and plays with this name in the S(w)eeping Switchers army for CwDA (2002).

4-Knight-Jumps Rose shouldn't be half a ♟️ weaker than 6-Knight-Jumps Rose. They should be as close as B5 is to B.

Charles Gilman explored those pieces and assigned some more names in the game "Commedia dell'Arte Chess"

https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/commedia-dellarte-chess

As I mentioned in my Notes, the "Half-Rose" used in H. G. Muller's Interactive Diagram was chosen to be noticeably weaker than the "six-leaping Rose" used in Charles Gilman's Irwell and Wey.

For example, the "Half-Rose" on e9 does not give check here, because the Black King is located five Knight-leaps away. This is true whether you move clockwise along the blue dots or move counter-clockwise along the yellow dots. The Rose does manage to pin the Nightrider against its King.