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Shield Bearers. A systematic set of names for pawnlike pieces.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Sat, Oct 25, 2003 07:58 AM UTC:Evidently Michael Howe's definition of 'Pawnlike' is broader than mine. I think of a few others that come close to my limits, such as the Pawn in Glinsky's Hex Chess. That might as well still be called a Pawn as it uses something that dose not exist on the square board (a part-forward orthogonal) in place of something that does not exist on the hex board (a diagonal). The other forward-only pieces of Shogi will be dealt with in other articles but I can think of extendable names for divergent versions: Pawnrider and Workhorse.
Charles, Thought experiment and philosophical question. I select a an 8x8 playing area of regular hexagons resting on their points and arranged in the overall shape of a rhombus (let's say the major diagonal is NE-SW). The leftmost line of hexes can be called the 'a-file', the second (parallel) line from White's left can be called the 'b-file', etc.; the line of hexes closest to White can be called the '1st rank', the next parallel line the '2nd rank', etc.. A certain type of movement can be described as 'Wazir-like': one space along a file or a rank. Pursuing this analogy, we can generate analogs for all the units of standard chess and adopt analogous rules. A Staunton chess set is arranged so the chessmen or on the spaces with the same labels as in standard chess (White Staunton Rook on a1). Play begins: 1 e2-e4 e7-e5; 2 g1-f3 b8-c6; 3 f1-b5 a7-a6; 4 b5-a4 g8-f6; 5 Castles ... My question: What would be an appropriate name for the unit White moved first?
In reply to Tony Paletta's 'What would be an appropriate name for the unit White moved first?', the same could be asked about any of the pieces. It seems to me that they should all be called by their usual names as the board is really a square one in disguise. Only two orthogonals are being used as orthogonals. The other is being used as a diagonal, as is one root-3 axis. The two remaining root-3s and two of the four root-7s are being used as root-5s. A problem would only arise were pieces added that actually reflect the nature of the board - and then only as regards orthogonal moves - but each group of pieces when viewing the board as that of the other group would be more exotic than I am considering in this series.
Following correspondence on the companion article Constitutional Characters I have realised that there is a board on which Glinsky's Pawnlike piece and the standard Pawn could coexist: a 3d board of hex-prism cells, with forward being a hex orthogonal. Perhaps Glinsky's piece might be called a Migrant, as Glinsky himself was born in Poland but made his reputation in London. Thus the Wellisch, Glinsky, and McCooey extrapolations of the Pawn to hex boards would readily be distinguishable as Point, Migrant, and Broker.
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