Comments/Ratings for a Single Item

Google search can't find this page.

oh dear, quick, someone, alert the media

Go to Piececlopedia (Articles on Pieces). Or go to David Howe's Person Information page (Items this person authored). Or Google 'mimics' and scroll down - last time I checked it was entry 9.

As this article covers all three types of mimic concerned in a question of mine that I posted under Joker (and got no answer) I'll post it again here. A Joker imitates the last piece moved - but using its own player's sense of 'forward' where applicable. If the last piece moved was another imitating piece, the Joker imitates the piece that that piece was imitating - in the case of another Joker, the piece that moved before that. Now, what if the last move was a noncapturing move one step forward by an Orphan threatened by - or a Friend protected by - a Queen, Rook, and Pawn? Who decides which 'normal' piece is being imitated?

Idle thoughts: we can consider a dynamic piece to be 'relative positional' if its move is determined by its position relative to other pieces. Mimes would be a subset. An 'absolute positional' dynamic piece would then be one with a move determined by its coordinates without regard to other pieces: the zelig would fall in this category. Imitators are 'relative temporal' (determined by time after an event). An 'absolute temporal' piece would then be one that has a move determined by how many plies have passed since the start of the game. The pieces of Flip Chess/Shogi are neither, since the player chooses the change. Discretional?