A. A violent order is disorder; and
B. A great disorder is an order. These
Two things are one.

-- Wallace Stevens, Connoisseur of Chaos


Too much of everything is just enough.

-- The Grateful Dead, I Need a Miracle

Jupiter

[AMK 29 April 1999: This description of Jupiter is not as polished as I plan for it to be. In particular, the long descriptions of many of the pieces that are present in Jupiter but absent in Typhoon are missing from this file. However, the short descriptions should be sufficient to let you play the game, if you are so inclined. Meanwhile, I am working on the complete description, and hope to have it ready within a few weeks. It is possible I may make some minor rule changes before then, if I find any problems with the rules as presented here.]

Jupiter is a truly large chess variant played on a 16 by 16 board. I, Adrian King, must take responsibility for it, although in my defense, I claim that I was incited by the the contest to design large chess variants, for which Jupiter is a non-competing submission.

The Origins of Jupiter

Jupiter is the third in a series of progressively larger games I have come up with. The first was Scirocco, a 10 x 10 chess variant, and the second was Typhoon, a 12 x 12 variant.

Any reasonable person would stop after designing a game the size of Typhoon, in which each player starts off with 46 pieces, as in Chu Shogi. I find it hard to explain why I feel it necessary to inflict an even larger game on the world, except that I can. Perhaps you will accept the excuse that when I first saw "contest to design a large chess variant", I misunderstood it as "contest to design as large a chess variant as possible".

The examples of some of the very large Shogi variants have served to egg me on in this misadventure. Tenjiku Shogi (played on a 16 x 16 board) and Dai Dai Shogi (played on a 17 x 17 board) both contain an appalling miscellany of bizarre pieces. The existence of Tai Shogi (played on a 25 x 25 board) has given me precedent for the pursuit of size for its own sake.

The name "Jupiter" results from my attempt to come up with something much bigger than a "typhoon". A typhoon is probably at the upper limit of meteorological phenomena on Earth, but the planet Jupiter has a much bigger and more violent atmosphere, and the images we see of the vast, swirling, churning Jovian atmosphere suggest something of the feeling I wanted to evoke with this immense, sprawling chess game.

The Initial Setup

Jupiter is a game on a 16 x 16 board for two players, called Blue and Tan. Blue moves first.

The setup is rather flexible. Except for the pawn row, where the setup is fixed, the setup is designed in terms of pairs of pieces. One member of each pair goes on the left side of the board, and the other on the right, but it does not matter which one goes on which side, provided that the overall setup is symmetrical.

The symmetry requirement is as follows: Tan's setup must be identical to Blue's (rotated 180 degrees about the center of the board). That is, Blue and Tan have the same pieces at a1 and p16, b1 and o16, c1 and n16, and so on. (Unlike Typhoon, Jupiter does not allow Blue's arrangement to be a mirror image of Tan's; this is because some pieces in Jupiter move in ways that do not have left-right symmetry, so that Tan could make a mirror image of Tan's setup noticeably weaker than Tan's own initial position.) By convention, the King starts just left of center on the first rank, that is, on h1 for Blue and i16 for Tan.

Tan gets to choose the entire initial setup. (This is only a modest compensation for the fact that Blue gets the first move, since no setup appears to provide much advantage for either player over any other setup.)

The initial setup looks like this for each player (either member of a pair may be placed in a spot where the name of a pair appears, except that the King and Commoner are usually placed as shown):

• For Blue:
  Lance Pair: a1, p1; Hook Pair: b1, o1; Fat Pair: c1, n1; Animal Pair: d1, m1; Queenlet Pair: e1, l1; Bent Pair: f1, k1; Guardian Pair: g1, j1; Regal Pair: h1, i1
  Artillery Pair: a2, p2; Letter Pair: b2, o2; Skipping Pair: d2, m2; Dragonlet Pair: f2, k2; Directional Pair: g2, j2; Mover Pair: h2, i2
  Scattered Pair: a3, p3; Relay Pair: b3, o3; Magnetic Pair: c3, n3; Tank Pair: d3, m3; Odder Pair: e3, l3; Pretentious Pair: f3, k3; Chu Pair: g3, j3; Poison Pair: h3, i3
  Dagger Pair: a4, p4; Linear Pair: b4, o4; Colorbound Pair: d4, m4; Fifth Pair: f4, k4; Ancient Pair: g4, j4; Short Pair: h4, i4
  Side Pair: a5, p5; Barbarian Pair: b5, o5; Odd Pair: c5, n5; Square Pair: d5, m5; Horse Pair: e5, l5; Skewed Pair: f5, k5; Metal Pair: g5, j5; Princely Pair: h5, i5
  Two Fus: a6, p6; Four Berolinas: b6 - c6, n6 - o6; Eight Pawns: d6 - e6, g6 - j6, l6 - m6; Two Guards: f6, k6
  Went-Between Pair: c7, n7; Go-Between Pair: f7, k7
• For Tan:
  Lance Pair: a16, p16; Hook Pair: b16, o16; Fat Pair: c16, n16; Animal Pair: d16, m16; Queenlet Pair: e16, l16; Bent Pair: f16, k16; Guardian Pair: g16, j16; Regal Pair: h16, i16
  Artillery Pair: a15, p15; Letter Pair: b15, o15; Skipping Pair: d15, m15; Dragonlet Pair: f15, k15; Directional Pair: g15, j15; Mover Pair: h15, i15
  Scattered Pair: a14, p14; Relay Pair: b14, o14; Magnetic Pair: c14, n14; Tank Pair: d14, m14; Odder Pair: e14, l14; Pretentious Pair: f14, k14; Chu Pair: g14, j14; Poison Pair: h14, i14
  Dagger Pair: a13, p13; Linear Pair: b13, o13; Colorbound Pair: d13, m13; Fifth Pair: f13, k13; Ancient Pair: g13, j13; Short Pair: h13, i13
  Side Pair: a12, p12; Barbarian Pair: b12, o12; Odd Pair: c12, n12; Square Pair: d12, m12; Horse Pair: e12, l12; Skewed Pair: f12, k12; Metal Pair: g12, j12; Princely Pair: h12, i12
  Two Fus: a11, p11; Four Berolinas: b11 - c11, n11 - o11; Eight Pawns: d11 - e11, g11 - j11, l11 - m11; Two Guards: f11, k11
  Went-Between Pair: c10, n10; Go-Between Pair: f10, k10

The Pieces

Here is a summary of the pieces used in the game. Their moves are described in a notation that I hope will not be too obscure (at least to those familiar with other chess variants), but if it is not clear, each piece is described in detail below.

All of the pieces from Typhoon also appear in Jupiter, with the same promotions. Furthermore, the Frog and Emperor, which appear in Scirocco but not Typhoon, are both present in Jupiter (although the Emperor has been renamed the Ancient Emperor).

As in Scirocco and Typhoon, most of the initial pieces are fairly weak, none being worth more than about a Rook. This leads to a relatively quiet opening. However, many of the promoted pieces are both strong and strange, so endgames should be wild and extremely varied, depending on what pieces manage to promote.

The King has a special promotion rule, as explained below.

In alphabetical order:

Abbot (Ab)

• Promoted Marquis
• Twin: Duke

The Abbot moves and captures like a Knight, or like a Bishop, but not farther away than four spaces.

The Abbot is based on the frequently invented combination of Knight and Bishop. Since Grand Chess was a part of the inspiration for this game, I thought I should have a Knight + Bishop piece in the game somewhere, but I seemed to have too many strong promoted pieces, so I limited the range of the Bishop movement. The Knight + Bishop combination is called the "Cardinal" in Grand Chess, and I thought I'd keep the ecclesiastical theme in the Abbot's name (as well as the Priest's).

Alfil (A)

• Promotes to Scirocco
• Twin: Dabbaba

The Alfil is a (2,2) leaper; that is, it leaps two spaces diagonally, ignoring any intervening piece.

The Alfil is a piece of ancient lineage, being the predecessor to the modern Bishop. It is a very weak piece, worth not much more than a Pawn, although it promotes fairly strongly (to the Scirocco, which is the piece I used in the game of Scirocco to replace the modern Bishop, which replaced the Alfil -- so there is a logic behind this promotion).

Banner (Ba)

• Promotes to Raven
• Twin: Lantern

The Banner moves and captures as a Wazir in the forward and side directions; it cannot move backwards.

The Banner, along with its twin the Lantern, replaces the Go-Betweens of Chu Shogi. The Go-Betweens move only straight forward and backward, but I thought that being confined to a single file was too limiting a life, so I gave the Banner a little more freedom.

Beaver (Be)

• Promotes to Sorcerer
• Twin: Otter

The Beaver moves and captures as a Firzan in the two forward directions, or one step forward as a Wazir, or up to four steps to the left or right as a Rook, or straight backwards any distance as a Rook.

The Beaver and its twin the Otter are kin to the Chu Shogi Side Mover; they are difficult to advance, but their strong sideways movement makes them quite useful as defenders.

Bishop (B)

• Promoted Guard

The Bishop moves the same as its Orthochess equivalent; that is, it moves when not capturing diagonally any number of clear spaces, and captures by moving diagonally across any number of clear spaces to the first space occupied by an opposing piece, which the Bishop replaces.

Bishop's Dog (BD)

• Promotes to Centaur
• Twin: Camel

The Bishop's Dog moves and captures like a Bishop, but not farther than three spaces from its starting square.

The name is taken from the Bishop and from the Lion Dog, a piece from some of the larger Shogi variants that moves like a Queen up to three spaces.

Blind Tiger (BT)

• Promotes to Tiger Prince
• Twin: Drunk Elephant

The Blind Tiger moves and captures like a Commoner, but not straight forwards.

The Blind Tiger is retained from class=extern Chu Shogi. In that game, the Blind Tiger does not promote to a royal piece, as it does in Typhoon; however, the idea of twinning the Drunk Elephant and Blind Tiger (and making their promotions similar, too) seemed to good to pass up.

Boyscout (Boy)

• Promoted Hooklet

The Boyscout traces a zigzag path. It moves and captures by moving alternately one step in one diagonal direction and one step in another direction at right angles. It must stop if blocked by a friendly piece or if it makes a capture by landing on an opposing piece.

A Boyscout at c4 can move along these lines:

• b5, c6, b7, c8, ...
• d5, c6, d7, c8, ...
• d5, e4, f5, g4, ...
• d3, e4, f3, g4, ...
• d3, c2, d1
• b3, c2, b1
• b3, a4
• b5, a4

The Boyscout is one of the gems in Anthony Dickins's A Guide to Fairy Chess; Dickins reports that the piece was invented by J. de A. Almay of Budapest.

Camel (C)

• Promotes to Squirrel
• Twin: Bishop's Dog

The Camel is a (3,1) leaper; that is to say, it leaps directly to any space that could be reached by moving three spaces along any rank or file, and then one space at right angles. It is thus a sort of extended, colorbound Knight.

As is typical of the initial Typhoon pieces, the Camel is fairly weak, but not worthless (it's worth a little less than a Knight). The Camel's movement geometry is also different from that of every other unpromoted piece, so that it can attack without being attacked.

Capricorn (Cap)

• Promoted Toucan
• Twin: Great Hook

The Capricorn moves and captures by first moving like a Bishop; then, if the arrival square is empty, it may turn 90 degrees to the right or left and again move like a Bishop. A Capricorn cannot capture more than one piece on a turn, and must stop when it makes a capture.

In the middle of an empty board, a Capricorn can half the squares on the board.

The Capricorn is taken from class=extern Tai Shogi.

Centaur (Ce)

• Promoted Bishop's Dog
• Twin: Squirrel

The Centaur moves and captures as a Wazir, Firzan, or Knight.

The Centaur's name is taken from its ability to move as a man (Commoner; German Mann) or horse (Knight).

Chariot (Ch)

• Promotes to Octopus
• Twin: Wagon

The Chariot moves and captures like a Rook, but not farther away than four spaces.

The Chariot is one of the two Rook-like pieces I derived by reducing the strength of a Rook, the other being its twin, the Wagon.

Ralph Betza has conducted some experiments with this piece.

Cicada (Ci)

• Promotes to Typhoon
• Twin: Salamander

The Cicada moves and captures along Queen lines up to three spaces away. However, it must hop over at least one piece on the way to its destination square (it may hop over two). The piece or pieces hopped over are not captured. For example, given a Blue Cicada at b2, a Tan Bishop at b3, a Blue Guard at d4, a Blue Knight at c2, a Tan Rook at d2, and a Tan Spider at e2, the Cicada may make any of the following moves:

• Hop the Bishop to b4;
• Hop the Bishop and continue on to b5;
• Hop the Guard to e5;
• Hop the Knight to capture the Rook at d2; or
• Hop the Knight and Rook to capture the Spider at e2.

The Cicada is fairly agile in the earlier parts of the game when there are plenty of pieces to hop over, but should be exchanged off or promoted before the board becomes too sparsely populated.

The Cicada is named for the insect whose loud droning song is characteristic of summer in many parts of the world; cicadas are particularly common in Japan, so many historical games of Chu Shogi must have been played to its accompaniment.

Commoner (Co)

• Promotes to Wildebeest
• Twin: King

The Commoner (known in some games as the "Mann") moves and captures exactly like a King, but is not royal (capturing it does not end the game).

This piece was handed down from Courier Chess, where it also sits next to the King in the initial setup.

Copper General (CG)

• Promotes to Ibis
• Twin: Silver General

The Copper General moves and captures like a Commoner, but not orthogonally sideways or diagonally backwards; in the middle of an empty board, it can move to any of four squares.

The Copper General is a piece from Chu Shogi. It is part of a logical progression: a Gold General that can reach six squares, a Silver General that can reach five, and the Copper General, which can reach four. The pieces are set up in that order on the first rank of a Chu Shogi board.

Crow (Cro)

• Promotes to Great Hook
• Twin: Toucan

The Crow has a complex move. It can do any of the following:

• Move or capture as a Firzan.
• Move or capture as a Dabbaba.
• Capture a diagonally adjacent opposing piece and make a 90 degree turn, landing on a space diagonally adjacent to the one where the capture occurred and one Dabbaba leap from the Crow's starting position. If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.

The Crow is a variation on the Raven; whereas the Raven's second step is either 0 or 180 degrees from the direction of its first step, the Crow's second step makes an angle of 90 degrees to its first.

Cuckoo (Cu)

• Promotes to Longleaper
• Twin: Hummingbird

The Cuckoo moves and captures like a Wazir sideways and backwards, or like a Dabbaba forwards. In addition, on the orthogonally adjacent squares to the left, right, and straight ahead, or on the square two steps straight back (ignoring any piece on the square one step straight back), the Cuckoo may, without moving, convert an opposing piece to a friendly piece; this takes a turn.

For example, given a Blue Cuckoo on a4 and a Tan Pawn on a5, the Cuckoo may transform the Tan Pawn into a Blue Pawn. This makes the Pawn effectively change direction; that is, the transformed Blue Pawn moves northwards like all other Blue Pawns, and does not somehow remember its previous southward orientation from its life as a Tan Pawn.

Because the Cuckoo is not particularly agile, its ability to change the ownership of a piece is not as formidable as you might suppose. However, the ability makes it more awkward to exchange an orthogonally moving piece for a Cuckoo.

Dabbaba (D)

• Promotes to Dragon Kite
• Twin: Alfil

The Dabbaba is a (2,0) leaper; that is, it leaps two spaces orthogonally, ignoring any intervening piece.

The name "Dabbaba" was used for various unorthodox pieces in medieval Islamic chess variants. The move we generally associate with this name today is the one from Timur's Great Chess. The word "dabbaba" means a kind of war machine; its English translation is "sow", but I have no idea what it looks like.

Dayrider (Da)

• Promoted Undertaker
• Twin: Nightrider

The Dayrider may move and capture as a Dabbaba or Alfil; it may also repeat a Dabbaba's or Alfil's move as far as it wishes in the same direction through clear spaces until it reaches the edge of the board, or is blocked by a friendly piece, or lands on an opposing piece, capturing it. In addition, the Dayrider may move without capturing as a Commoner (to prevent the Dayrider from being colorbound).

In short, the Dayrider is a Dabbabarider plus an Alfilrider plus a noncapturing Commoner.

I invented the Dayrider as a complement to its twin, the Nightrider.

Dervish (De)

• Promotes to Harpy
• Twin: Knight

The Dervish moves and captures two steps orthogonally or diagonally. It leaps any intervening piece without capturing or being blocked by it. In addition, any friendly piece on any of the eight adjacent squares may leap to the opposite side of the Dervish (to move or capture, provided the target square is not occupied by a friendly piece). Thus, if there is a Blue Dervish on b5 and a Blue Pawn on a4, the Pawn may leap to c6 (or make a normal Pawn move to a5).

A piece cannot promote on a turn when it uses the Dabbaba- or Alfil-like move relayed by a Dervish; it can promote only when moving under its own power.

A dervish is a Muslim ascetic. Dervish orders are known for their whirling dances (to induce a trance-like state). The movements of the adjacent pieces across the Dervish reminded me of whirling, whence the name.

Diving Osprey (DO)

• Promoted Ferocious Leopard
• Twin: Horned Owl

The Diving Osprey can move and capture like a Rook up to 4 steps, or like an Alfil in the backward directions. It can also move like a Raven in the forward directions only; that is, it can:

• Move or capture forwards as a Firzan.
• Move or capture forwards as an Alfil.
• Capture an opposing piece on either of the two squares diagonally forward by igui, that is, without moving.
• Capture an opposing piece on a square diagonally forward and land on the adjacent square two steps diagonally forward (effectively performing a hop-capture). If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.
• Pass a turn.

The Diving Osprey was inspired by the Chu Shogi piece called the Soaring Eagle, but is less powerful.

Dragon Kite (DK)

• Promoted Dabbaba
• Twin: Scirocco

The Dragon Kite moves and captures one step diagonally or any number of steps orthogonally, that is, as a Firzan or Rook. This is the same as the move of the promoted Rook (or Dragon King) in Shogi; the Dragon King also exists as an unpromoted piece in Chu Shogi.

I renamed this piece "Dragon Kite" from "Dragon King" to preserve the wind-related theme of its twin, the Scirocco (which was itself renamed from "Dragon Horse").

Drunk Elephant (DE)

• Promotes to Elephant Prince
• Twin: Blind Tiger

The Drunk Elephant moves and captures like a Commoner, but not straight backwards.

The Drunk Elephant is retained from Chu Shogi. As in that game, it promotes in Typhoon to a royal piece (although not to the Crown Prince of Chu Shogi, which moves just like a King).

In Chu Shogi, the Drunk Elephant starts on the first rank, and is such a good defender of the King that it almost never ventures far enough forward to promote. The Drunk Elephant in Typhoon starts on the third rank, somewhat increasing its chance of actually promoting to an Elephant Prince.

The abbreviations for the Drunk Elephant and the Dervish differ only in case; if there is a chance of ambiguity, you might prefer the abbreviations "DEl" and "Der".

Duke (Du)

• Promoted Priest
• Twin: Abbot

The Duke moves and captures like a Knight, or like a Rook, but not farther away than four spaces.

The Duke is to the Marquis as the Abbot is to the Priest; it extends the one-step move to a four-step ride. However, I made the Marquis promote to the Abbot, not to the Duke, so that the promoted Marquis wouldn't be a superset of the Marquis (meaning there might be situations where you would decline promotion). Hence the Priest promotes to the Duke, not to the Abbot.

The Knight + Rook combination is called the "Marshall" in Grand Chess, and I thought I'd give this piece a vaguely military sounding name. "General" sounded too much like "Genie", and is also the translation of "Firzan". The two-character abbreviation for "Colonel" would have been identical to that of "Commoner". I settled on "Duke"; the name is hard to confuse with that of other pieces, and was originally a military title, from Latin dux, meaning "leader".

Elephant Prince (EP)

• Promoted Drunk Elephant
• Twin: Tiger Prince

The Elephant Prince, a royal piece, moves when not capturing as a Commoner, and captures like Knight or Alfil.

The Elephant Prince can capture on more spaces than a King, and so is better than a King as an offensive piece; however, a King can single-handedly checkmate an Elephant Prince.

Emperor (Em)

• Promoted King
• Twin: Wildebeest

The Emperor, a royal piece, moves and captures like a Knight, or like a Queen up to two steps; it is thus nearly as powerful as a Lioness. The strength of this promotion may give your King a powerful incentive to make the risky journey to the promotion zone.

The Emperor is only one of two possible promotions of the King; the other is the Emperor of Emperors. The entry for the King describes the difference.

Emperor Of Emperors (EE)

• Promoted King
• Twin: Wildebeest

The Emperor of Emperors is a royal piece. It leaps to move or capture to any square within three steps of its starting square; that is, it moves as a non-capturing Wazir, Firzan, Dabbaba, Knight, Alfil, (3,0) leaper, Camel, Zebra, or (3,3) leaper. The Emperor of Emperors may also capture any piece a Queen could capture, but the Emperor of Emperors does so without moving; various authors have called this kind of capture "rifle capture", "shooting", or "igui". The game of Rifle Chess is based on rifle capture.

Players of Rifle Chess sometimes use the rule that capture is obligatory, but the Emperor of Emperors is never obliged to make a capture.

The Emperor of Emperors is an exceedingly powerful piece, but difficult to obtain. The Emperor of Emperors is only one of two possible promotions of the King; the other is the Emperor. The entry for the King describes the difference, and tells why it is easier to get an Emperor than an Emperor of Emperors.

Ferocious Leopard (FL)

• Promotes to Diving Osprey
• Twin: Gold General

The Ferocious Leopard moves and captures like a Commoner, but not sideways orthogonally; in the middle of an empty board, it can move to any of six squares.

The Ferocious Leopard is a piece from Chu Shogi. It is certainly a useful piece in both defense and offense, but the inventor may have overstated the case in calling it "ferocious".

Fire Horse (FH)

• Promotes to Flying Ox
• Twin: Ghost Warrior

The Fire Horse moves and captures forwards like a Rook, or backwards like a Knight.

Starting in a back corner of the board, the Fire Horse is difficult to get moving in any direction except straight ahead. Its inspiration was the Chu Shogi Lance, which starts in the same position, and also moves forwards like a Rook (but the Lance can't move backwards).

Firzan (F)

• Promotes to Zig
• Twin: Wazir

The Firzan, also known variously as "Fers", "Ferz", or "Farzin", moves and captures one step diagonally.

The Firzan (Arabic, from the Persian word for "general") was present in the oldest forms of chess of which we are aware, but has been replaced in Orthochess by the Queen.

Flying Ox (FO)

• Promoted Fire Horse
• Twin: Free Boar

The Flying Ox moves and captures like a Queen, except that it may not move or capture sideways like a Rook.

The Flying Ox is a Chu Shogi piece, although in Chu Shogi it promotes from a different piece (the Vertical Mover, which doesn't appear in Typhoon).

Free Boar (FB)

• Promoted Ghost Warrior
• Twin: Flying Ox

The Free Boar moves and captures like a Queen, except that it may not move or capture forwards or backwards like a Rook.

The Free Boar is a Chu Shogi piece, although in Chu Shogi it promotes from a different piece (the Side Mover, which doesn't appear in Typhoon).

Fu (Fu)

• Promotes to Zebra

The Fu moves and captures one step straight ahead.

The Fu is the pawn used in Shogi and Chu Shogi, and "Fu" is the usual Japanese term for the piece (the characters written on the piece actually read "fuhyou" or "hohei", meaning "foot soldier").

Genie (Ge)

• Promoted Salamander
• Twin: Typhoon

The Genie moves and captures as a Queen, but not farther away than three spaces. In addition, the Genie can capture an opposing piece on an (orthogonally or diagonally) adjacent square without moving.

The Genie is a reasonably powerful piece in the endgame because of its ability to capture a protected piece without exposing itself to harm. However, it is generally not the most powerful piece in the game, as it is in Scirocco; it is relatively weaker on the 16 x 16 board compared with long-range pieces like the Queen, and there are a number of other powerful promoted pieces available.

Ghost Warrior (GW)

• Promotes to Free Boar
• Twin: Fire Horse

The Ghost Warrior moves and captures forwards like a Rook, or backwards like a Firzan.

Starting in a back corner of the board, the Ghost Warrior is difficult to get moving in any direction except straight ahead. Its inspiration was the Chu Shogi Lance, which starts in the same position, and also moves forwards like a Rook (but the Lance can't move backwards).

Girlscout (Gir)

• Promoted Hawklet

The Girlscout traces a zigzag path. It moves and captures by moving alternately one step in one orthogonal direction and one step in another direction at right angles. It must stop if blocked by a friendly piece or if it makes a capture by landing on an opposing piece.

A Girlscout at c4 can move along these lines:

• c5, d5, d6, e6, e7, ...
• c5, b5, b6, a6, a7
• d4, d3, e3, e2, f2, f1, g1
• d4, d5, e5, e6, f6, ...
• c3, b3, b2, a2, a1
• c3, d3, d2, e2, e1, f1
• b4, b5, a5, a6
• b4, b3, a3, a2

The Girlscout is the orthogonal counterpart of its diagonal twin, the Boyscout.

Goat (Go)

• Promotes to Lioness
• Twin: Stork

The Goat moves and captures by leaping two steps orthogonally (like a Dabbaba); it may also move one square diagonally, but not to capture. When moving two steps, it leaps any intervening piece without capturing or being blocked by it.

The Goat is a weakened form of Kirin, a piece from Chu Shogi. The Kirin can capture as well as move one step diagonally. I wanted to add the Kirin for a bit of Chu Shogi flavor, but I already had too many eightfold leapers, so I toned it down a bit and gave it a less exotic name.

Gold General (GG)

• Promotes to Horned Owl
• Twin: Ferocious Leopard

The Gold General moves and captures like a Commoner, but not diagonally backwards; in the middle of an empty board, it can move to any of six squares.

The Gold General is a piece from Shogi (as well as Chu Shogi). It appears to have replaced the less powerful Firzan back in the prehistory of Shogi.

Great Hook (GrH)

• Promoted Crow
• Twin: Capricorn

The Great Hook moves and captures by first moving like a Rook; then, if the arrival square is empty, it may turn 90 degrees to the right or left and again move up to three squares like a Rook. A Great Hook cannot capture more than one piece on a turn, and must stop when it makes a capture.

The Great Hook is a weakened form (though still powerful enough) of the Hook Mover, a piece found in the largest Shogi variants.

Guard (Gu)

• Promotes to Bishop

The Guard moves without capturing one step orthogonally, or captures one step diagonally. It is a sort of omnidirectional Pawn.

The Guard's Pawn-like nature allows it to participate in a Pawn chain, but unlike an easily blocked Pawn, it can get up and leave if it becomes bored.

Harpy (Ha)

• Promoted Dervish
• Twin: Rook

The Harpy moves like a Queen, but cannot capture by itself. However, any friendly piece a Knight's move away from the Harpy is temporarily granted the additional power to move and capture like a Knight (as long as it starts its move a Knight's move away from the Harpy); pieces that can already move like a Knight are not affected. A piece cannot promote on a turn when it uses the Knight's move relayed by a Harpy; it can promote only when moving under its own power.

The Harpy is kin to the Knight in Knight-Relay Chess, but unlike the Relay Knight, a Harpy is not immune from capture.

The Harpy is pretty useless if you don't have a lot of pieces left; in such a case, it may be better to leave your Dervish unpromoted. If you have a bunch of weak pieces and can place the Harpy where it influences several of them, however, the Harpy can be quite powerful.

Hawklet (Haw)

• Promotes to Girlscout
• Twin: Hooklet

The Hawklet moves and captures by moving one step, like a Commoner; then, if the arrival square is empty, it may turn in any direction except back to its starting square, and again move one step, like a Commoner. A Hawklet cannot capture more than one piece on a turn, and must stop when it makes a capture.

In the middle of an empty board, a Hawklet can reach the same squares as a Lioness; however, pieces on some squares can block the Hawklet's access to other squares, which cannot happen with the Lioness. The Hawklet's twin, the Hooklet, can also reach the same squares as a Lioness on an empty board, and is also blockable by other pieces; however, the other pieces may cut off access to different squares for the Hawklet and the Hooklet.

The Hawklet is derived from the so-called "area move" capability of a Tenjiku Shogi piece called the Lion Hawk, which can move as a Hawklet or as a Bishop.

Hooklet (Hoo)

• Promotes to Boyscout
• Twin: Hawklet

The Hooklet moves and captures by moving one or two steps orthogonally, like a Rook; then, if the arrival square is empty, it may turn 90 degrees to the right or left and again move one or two steps orthogonally, like a Rook. A Hooklet cannot capture more than one piece on a turn, and must stop when it makes a capture.

In the middle of an empty board, a Hooklet can reach the same squares as a Lioness; however, pieces on some squares can block the Hooklet's access to other squares, which cannot happen with the Lioness. The Hooklet's twin, the Hawklet, can also reach the same squares as a Lioness on an empty board, and is also blockable by other pieces; however, the other pieces may cut off access to different squares for the Hooklet and the Hawklet.

The Hooklet is a miniaturization of a piece from the largest Shogi variants called the Hook Mover. The Hook Mover does not have the two-step restriction of the Hooklet, and so can reach any square on an empty board. The Great Hook is another (and larger) subset of the Hook Mover.

Horned Owl (HO)

• Promoted Gold General
• Twin: Diving Osprey

The Horned Owl can move and capture like a Bishop up to 4 steps, or like a Dabbaba in the side and backward directions. It can also move like a Parrot in the forward direction only; that is, it can:

• Move or capture forwards as a Wazir.
• Move or capture forwards as a Dabbaba.
• Capture an opposing piece on the square straight ahead by igui, that is, without moving.
• Capture an opposing piece on the square straight ahead and land on the square two steps straight ahead (effectively performing a hop-capture). If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.
• Pass a turn.

The Horned Owl was inspired by the Chu Shogi piece called the Horned Falcon, but is less powerful.

Hummingbird (Hu)

• Promotes to Immobilizer
• Twin: Cuckoo

The Hummingbird moves and captures like a Wazir sideways and backwards, or like a Dabbaba forwards. In addition, the Hummingbird may exchange places with any piece (friendly or opposing) on the four orthogonally adjacent squares and on the two squares that are two steps straight ahead and straight back (ignoring any piece on the square one step straight ahead or straight back); this takes a turn.

For example, given a Blue Hummingbird on a4, a Tan Pawn on a5, a Blue Otter on a2, and a Tan Squirrel on b4, the Hummingbird may move to a5 while moving the Pawn to a4, or it may capture the Squirrel by moving to b4, or it may exchange places with the Squirrel or the Otter. The Hummingbird may also leap to the empty square at a3 or a6.

In practice, the Hummingbird's ability to exchange places with a piece is usually easier to exercise on a friendly piece than on an opposing piece.

Ibis (Ib)

• Promoted Copper General
• Twin: Vulture

The Ibis captures like a Bishop and moves without capturing like a Rook. It may also capture like a Wazir and move without capturing like a Firzan, so that it can both move and capture on adjacent squares.

Immobilizer (Im)

• Promoted Hummingbird
• Twin: Longleaper

The Immobilizer moves like a Queen, but cannot capture. However, any opposing piece orthogonally or diagonally adjacent to an Immobilizer is incapable of movement as long as it remains next to the Immobilizer, except that the immobilized piece may capture itself ("commit suicide").

An immobilized piece cannot make any type of move under its own power except self-capture; for example, an immobilized Cuckoo cannot convert an opposing piece, an immobilized Harpy cannot relay the ability to move as a Knight, and an immobilized Raven cannot pass a turn. However, a piece with relay power (such as a Dervish or Harpy) or the ability to exchange places with another piece (a Hummingbird) can allow an immobilized piece to make a move with the relayed ability (as long as the relaying piece is not itself immobilized).

An immobilized Immobilizer cannot move, but is still capable of immobilizing adjacent opposing pieces. This means that two adjacent Immobilizers immobilize each other until one is captured or until some other piece relays a move to one of the Immobilizers.

The purpose of the self-capture move allowed to immobilized pieces is to disclose a line of attack on the Immobilizer.

The Immobilizer, like its twin the Longleaper, is taken directly from Robert Abbott's unusual and innovative game Ultima.

King (K)

• Promotes to Emperor or Emperor of Emperors
• Twin: Commoner

The King moves and captures one step to any of the eight orthogonally and diagonally adjacent squares. It is a royal piece, one of five in the game; capturing all your opponent's royal pieces wins the game (by convention, the game more commonly ends with checkmate, an unstoppable threat to capture the last royal piece. However, note that the victory conditions for Typhoon are different from those of Orthochess).

The King has moved the same way for almost a millenium and a half.

Special rules govern the promotion of the King. If there is no Emperor on the board (belonging to either player), then the King promotes to an Emperor. However, if either player has an Emperor, the King promotes to an Emperor of Emperors, which is far more powerful than an Emperor.

This rule came about as follows: I wanted to encourage players to try to promote the King, since marching the King across the board is generally risky, and adds to the excitement of the game. The best way to encourage promoting the King is to have it promote strongly. However, if the King promotes to a strong Emperor, the Emperor will be difficult to catch; if both players have an Emperor, the game may be a draw, since neither can pin the oppponent's Emperor down. After a game as long as Typhoon, a draw is hardly a satisfying outcome, so I built into the game a strong disincentive to promote to an Emperor unless you are confident that your opponent won't be able to do the same: if you have an Emperor and your opponent promotes a King, your opponent gets an Emperor of Emperors, a piece of overwhelming power.

This promotion rule means that an Emperor of Emperors won't appear in games of Typhoon very often, unless the player who promoted to Emperor made a serious miscalculation; however, the threat that one player might get an Emperor of Emperors can have a real effect on the course of the game, by preventing promotions to Emperor.

Note that although the reasoning behind introducing the Emperor of Emperors is to try to avoid the situation where both players have equally mobile strong royal pieces, it is possible (although not very likely) for the same player to acquire both an Emperor and an Emperor of Emperors. If your opponent has two royal pieces (after, say, promoting the Drunk Elephant to an Elephant Prince), your Cuckoo or Missionary can convert the opponent's King to your ownership, so that you may have two Kings on the board. In such a case, if you promote both Kings, the first becomes an Emperor and (provided you don't lose your Emperor in the meantime) the second becomes an Emperor of Emperors.

Knight (N)

• Promotes to Rook
• Twin: Dervish

The Knight is a (2,1) leaper; that is to say, it leaps directly to any space that could be reached by moving 2 spaces along any rank or file, and then one space at right angles.

The Knight is a piece retained from the earliest known forms of chess.

Lantern (La)

• Promotes to Parrot
• Twin: Banner

The Lantern moves and captures as a Firzan in the two forward directions; it cannot move backwards.

The Lantern, along with its twin the Banner, replaces the Go-Betweens of Chu Shogi. The Go-Betweens move only straight forward and backward, but I thought that being confined to a single file was too limiting a life, so I gave the Lantern a little more freedom.

Lioness (Li)

• Promoted Goat
• Twin: Queen

The Lioness can leap to any square a King could reach in two moves; that is, it is a combination of Wazir, Firzan, Dabbaba, Knight, and Alfil.

The Lioness is inspired by the Chu Shogi piece called the Lion. In addition to moving like the Lioness, the Lion can make two full King-type moves on a single turn, with the ability to capture pieces on both parts of the move, or to move back to the starting square. The Chu Shogi Lion is generally valued at about twice a Queen; the Lioness is distinctly weaker than a Queen on a 16 x 16 board.

The promotion of Goat to Lioness also has a Chu Shogi origin; in Chu Shogi, the Kirin, which inspired the Goat, promotes to a Lion.

Longleaper (Lo)

• Promoted Cuckoo
• Twin: Immobilizer

The Longleaper moves when not capturing like a Queen. To capture, it hops along Queen lines over an opposing piece to an empty space beyond the piece along the same line; the opposing piece is captured. The space immediately beyond the opposing piece on the Longleaper's line of movement must be empty. If there are more opposing pieces along the same line of movement, the Longleaper may continue to capture pieces along that line as long as the square beyond each captured piece is empty and no friendly pieces are interposed between the captured opposing pieces. The Longleaper may land on any empty space along the line of movement beyond the last captured piece.

The Longleaper may never leap an empty space or land on an occupied square.

The Longleaper is extremely powerful when opposing forces consist mainly of widely scattered weak pieces; it can often position itself so that it threatens to capture in several different directions.

The Longleaper is taken directly from Robert Abbott's Ultima.

Marquis (Ma)

• Promotes to Abbot
• Twin: Priest

The Marquis moves and captures like a Wazir or a Knight.

The antecedent of the Marquis is the Marshall (Rook + Knight) of Christian Freeling's Grand Chess, but the Marshall is too powerful to be a starting piece in Typhoon.

Missionary (Mi)

• Promoted Otter
• Twin: Sorcerer

The Missionary moves like a Wazir, or up to two steps as a Bishop. It cannot capture, but if it ends its move adjacent to an opposing piece along the line of the Missionary's movement, then the Missionary may (but is not required to) convert the opposing piece to a friendly piece.

For example, given a Blue Missionary on a3 and a Tan Pawn on d6, the Missionary may move to c5 and convert the Tan Pawn to a Blue Pawn (it may also leave the Tan Pawn as a Tan Pawn). This makes the Pawn effectively change direction; that is, the transformed Blue Pawn moves northwards like all other Blue Pawns, and does not somehow remember its previous southward orientation from its life as a Tan Pawn.

The Missionary's twin, the Sorcerer, can capture multiple pieces on the same turn, but the Missionary can convert only one piece per turn.

The Cuckoo's ability to change the ownership of a piece is slightly different, since the Cuckoo cannot move and convert in the same turn, while the Missionary cannot convert without moving.

The Missionary's ability to start its move at a distance from the piece to be converted makes it moderately strong, but its low mobility means that it is not really formidable.

Nightrider (Nr)

• Promoted Overtaker
• Twin: Dayrider

The Nightrider may move and capture as a Knight; it may also repeat a Knight's move as far as it wishes in the same direction through clear spaces until it reaches the edge of the board, or is blocked by a friendly piece, or lands on an opposing piece, capturing it. In short, the Nightrider is to the Knight as the Rook is to the Wazir.

The Nightrider is a well-known fairy chess piece, introduced to many readers by Anthony Dickins's A Guide to Fairy Chess.

Octopus (Oc)

• Promoted Chariot
• Twin: Spider

The Octopus moves one step diagonally, then like a Rook orthogonally, but only in a direction away from its starting square. That is, it cannot reach an orthogonally adjacent square. It can both move and capture on the Rook-like part of its move, but it can only move without capturing to the diagonally adjacent square. That means that the closest square on which it can make a capture is a Knight's move away.

The name "Octopus" for this piece comes from a copy of some unpublished material on a game concept called "Generalized Chess" by the great game inventor Wayne Schmittberger, forwarded to me by Edward Jackman. It wasn't clear from Wayne's description whether his Octopus could actually move one space diagonally or had to move at least as far as a Knight, so I split the difference and allowed my Octopus to move like a Firzan but not to capture like one.

The ultimate ancestor of the Octopus is probably the Giraffe of Timur's Great Chess. Timur's Giraffe moves differently from the piece we usually know today as the Giraffe; Timur's Giraffe moves like the Octopus, but must move a minimum distance of four steps, i.e., at least as far as a modern Giraffe's move.

Otter (Ot)

• Promotes to Missionary
• Twin: Beaver

The Otter moves and captures as a Firzan, or one step forward as a Wazir, or up to four steps to the left or right as a Rook.

The Otter and its twin the Beaver are kin to the Chu Shogi Side Mover; they are difficult to advance, but their strong sideways movement makes them quite useful as defenders.

Overtaker (Ov)

• Promotes to Nightrider
• Twin: Undertaker

When not capturing, the Overtaker moves like a Commoner. To capture, it may leap an orthogonally or diagonally adjacent hostile piece to capture it, provided that the space immediately beyond (where the Overtaker winds up) is empty.

For example, given a Blue Overtaker on a4 and a Tan Pawn on a5, the Overtaker may capture the Pawn by hopping it to a6.

The Overtaker cannot hop a friendly piece.

Parrot (Pa)

• Promoted Lantern
• Twin: Raven

The Parrot has a complex move. It can do any of the following:

• Move or capture as a Wazir.
• Move or capture as a Dabbaba.
• Capture an opposing piece on an orthogonally adjacent space by igui, that is, without moving.
• Capture an orthogonally adjacent opposing piece and land on the square immediately beyond that (two steps from the Parrot's starting square; effectively a hop-capture). If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.
• Pass a turn.

The Parrot is derived from a Chu Shogi piece called the Horned Falcon, which moves like the Parrot but only forwards (it moves like a Queen in the other directions). I eliminated the Queen-like movement and extended the forward movement to all four orthogonal directions.

Pawn (P)

• Promotes to Tadpole

The Pawn moves one step straight ahead when not capturing, or one step diagonally forwards (left or right) to capture. Unlike the Orthochess Pawn, the Pawn in Typhoon does not have the option of making a two-step move.

Priest (Pr)

• Promotes to Duke
• Twin: Marquis

The Priest moves and captures like a Firzan or a Knight.

The antecedent of the Priest is the Grand Chess Cardinal (Bishop + Knight), just as that of the Marquis is the Grand Chess Marshal.

Queen (Q)

• Promoted Stork
• Twin: Lioness

The Queen moves and captures like a Rook or Bishop, as in Orthochess.

The promotion of the Stork to the Queen was inspired by the Chu Shogi Phoenix's promotion to Free King. In Chu Shogi, the Free King moves just like an Orthochess Queen, and the Stork was derived from the Phoenix.

Raven (Ra)

• Promoted Banner
• Twin: Parrot

The Raven has a complex move. It can do any of the following:

• Move or capture as a Firzan.
• Move or capture as an Alfil.
• Capture an opposing piece on a diagonally adjacent space by igui, that is, without moving.
• Capture a diagonally adjacent opposing piece and land on the square immediately beyond that (two steps from the Raven's starting square; effectively a hop-capture). If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.
• Pass a turn.

The Raven is derived from a Chu Shogi piece called the Soaring Eagle, which moves like the Raven but only forwards (it moves like a Queen in the other directions). I eliminated the Queen-like movement and extended the forward movement to all four diagonal directions.

Rook (R)

• Promoted Knight
• Twin: Harpy

The Rook moves the same as its Orthochess equivalent; that is, it moves when not capturing orthogonally any number of clear spaces, and captures by moving orthogonally across any number of clear spaces to the first space occupied by an opposing piece, which the Rook replaces.

The Rook has moved the same way since the earliest forms of chess.

Salamander (Sa)

• Promotes to Genie
• Twin: Cicada

The Salamander moves when not capturing like a Queen, up to four steps away; however, it can capture only adjacent pieces, like a Commoner.

The Salamander is fairly agile but not particularly powerful; the best thing to do with it is often to promote it.

A salamander is an amphibian with a lizard-shaped body. Did you know that the largest salamander in the world is the Japanese Salamander? (If that's a reference to Chu Shogi, it's an oblique one.)

Scirocco (Sc)

• Promoted Alfil
• Twin: Dragon Kite

The Scirocco moves and captures one step orthogonally or any number of steps diagonally, that is, as a Wazir or Bishop. This is the same as the move of the promoted Bishop (or Dragon Horse) in Shogi; the Dragon Horse also exists as an unpromoted piece in Chu Shogi.

This piece appears as an initial piece in the game of Scirocco, but only as a promoted piece in Typhoon.

Silver General (SG)

• Promotes to Vulture
• Twin: Copper General

The Silver General moves and captures like a Commoner, but not orthogonally sideways or backwards; in the middle of an empty board, it can move to any of five squares.

The Silver General is a piece from Shogi (as well as Chu Shogi). It appears to have replaced the less powerful Alfil in many chess variants in the eastward branch of chess evolution; the same piece is found today (in what Westerners think of as the Bishop's slot) in the native chess variants of Burma and Thailand.

Sorcerer (So)

• Promoted Beaver
• Twin: Missionary

The Sorcerer moves like a Wazir, or up to two steps as a Bishop. It cannot land on an opposing piece, but if it ends its move adjacent to an opposing piece along the line of the Sorcerer's movement, then the Sorcerer may (but is not required to) capture the opposing piece and all contiguous opposing pieces along the same line of movement. (The Sorcerer must capture all the pieces it can, or none; it cannot capture only some of the pieces eligible for capture.)

The type of capture the Sorcerer performs is sometimes called "capture by approach".

In the unlikely event that opposing pieces are lined up just right, the Sorcerer can capture as many as ten pieces in a single turn.

For example, given a Blue Sorcerer on a3, a Tan Pawn on c3, a Tan Camel on d3, and a Tan Knight on f3, the Sorcerer can move to b3, capturing the Pawn and Camel (it may also leave the Pawn and Camel uncaptured). It cannot capture the Knight because there is a gap between the Knight and the Camel.

The Sorcerer's ability to end its move on a square other than one previously occupied by a captured piece and its ability to capture multiple pieces at a time may make it sound powerful, but its mobility is low, so it's not as tough as you might think.

Spider (Sp)

• Promoted Wagon
• Twin: Octopus

The Spider moves one step orthogonally, then like a Bishop diagonally, but only in a direction away from its starting square. It can both move and capture on the Bishop-like part of its move, but it can only move without capturing to the orthogonally adjacent square. That means that the closest square on which it can make a capture is a Knight's move away.

The Spider is the diagonal counterpart of the orthogonal Octopus, and like the Octopus, was taken from an unpublished piece by Wayne Schmittberger.

Squirrel (Sq)

• Promoted Camel
• Twin: Centaur

The Squirrel moves and captures as a Dabbaba, Knight, or Alfil.

The Squirrel is among the many interesting pieces that appears in Anthony Dickins's A Guide to Fairy Chess. Dickins ascribes its invention to N. Kovacs of Budapest.

Stork (St)

• Promotes to Queen
• Twin: Goat

The Stork moves and captures by leaping two steps diagonally (like an Alfil); it may also capture one square orthogonally, but not move there without capturing. When moving two steps, it leaps any intervening piece without capturing or being blocked by it.

The Stork is a weakened form of Phoenix, a piece from Chu Shogi. The Phoenix can both move and capture one step orthogonally.

Tadpole (Ta)

• Promoted Pawn

The Tadpole moves and captures as a Firzan or as a (3,0); that is, it can move to an adjacent square, or leap to a square three steps away orthogonally or diagonally (ignoring any intervening pieces). It may also capture as a Wazir, but not move without capturing as a Wazir.

The Tadpole is a slightly weaker version of the Scirocco Frog. Since the Pawn doesn't go through a complex promotion cycle in Typhoon, I figured it shouldn't promote quite as strongly.

Tiger Prince (TP)

• Promoted Blind Tiger
• Twin: Elephant Prince

The Tiger Prince, a royal piece, moves when not capturing as a Commoner, and captures like Dabbaba or Knight.

The Tiger Prince can capture on more spaces than a King, and so is better than a King as an offensive piece; however, a King can single-handedly checkmate a Tiger Prince.

Toucan (Tou)

• Promotes to Capricorn
• Twin: Crow

The Toucan has a complex move. It can do any of the following:

• Move or capture as a Wazir.
• Move or capture as a Firzan.
• Capture an orthogonally adjacent opposing piece and make a 90 degree turn, landing on a space orthognally adjacent to the one where the capture occurred and diagonally adjacent to the Toucan's starting position. If the destination square contains an opposing piece, that piece is also captured.

The Toucan is a variation on the Parrot; whereas the Parrot's second step is either 0 or 180 degrees from the direction of its first step, the Toucan's second step makes an angle of 90 degrees to its first.

Typhoon (Ty)

• Promoted Cicada
• Twin: Genie

The Typhoon moves and captures like a Firzan or an Alfil, or like a Rook up to three spaces. When moving like a Rook, however, it does not have to stop when it makes a capture; it can continue in the same direction as long as it does not hit a friendly piece or exceed the three-step limit. This means it can capture up to three pieces in a single turn.

Since the game of Scirocco includes a piece with the same name as the game, I thought I'd put one in this game as well.

The Typhoon is not especially mobile, but its ability to capture multiple pieces or to keep moving after a capture make it fairly valuable.

Undertaker (Un)

• Promotes to Nightrider
• Twin: Undertaker

When not capturing, the Undertaker moves like a Commoner. To capture, it moves on step (like a Commoner) away from an orthogonally or diagonally adjacent hostile piece; if the hostile piece lies along the line of the Undertaker's movement, it is captured.

For example, given a Blue Undertaker on a4 and a Tan Pawn on a5, the Undertaker may capture the Pawn by moving to a3.

An Undertaker cannot move to an occupied square.

Vulture (Vu)

• Promoted Silver General
• Twin: Ibis

The Vulture captures like a Rook and moves without capturing like a Bishop. It may also capture like a Firzan and move without capturing like a Wazir, so that it can both move and capture on adjacent squares.

Wagon (Wa)

• Promotes to Spider
• Twin: Chariot

An adjacent-space restriction similar to the Wagon's is also found in the Talia, or Scout, in Timur's Great Chess (the web page translates "Talia" as "Picket"). However, the Talia moves as a restricted Bishop, rather than a restricted Rook.

I wanted a weakened form of the Rook so that the Rooks would not dominate the board too early. Of all the spaces a Rook can move to, the immediately adjacent spaces are probably the most important (at least until the board opens up), so removing the ability to reach an adjacent space makes the Wagon weaker than the Rook by more than you might expect (although less so on the 16 x 16 Jupiter board than on smaller boards). I chose the name "Wagon" because its meaning is similar to "Chariot", the original name of the Rook; wagons are generally less maneuverable than chariots, so the name seemed appropriate.

Wazir (W)

• Promotes to Zag
• Twin: Firzan

The Wazir moves and captures one step orthogonally.

The name "Wazir" (Arabic, "vizier", meaning a government minister or adviser), like the name "Dabbaba", was used for pieces with different moves in different medieval Islamic chess variants. The Wazir's move in this game is the one commonly used today, and is the same as in Timur's Great Chess.

The Wazir has sufficiently low mobility that it is seldom worthwhile advancing it, and it often winds up as a defender of the King in the endgame.

Wildebeest (Wi)

• Promoted Commoner
• Twin: Emperor or Emperor of Emperors

The Wildebeest moves and captures like a Knight or Camel.

The Wildebeest, also called the Gnu ("gnu" being another word for "wildebeest"), is among the pieces described in Anthony Dickins's A Guide to Fairy Chess. Wayne Schmittberger liked the piece well enough to name a chess variant, Wildebeest Chess, after it.

Zag (Za)

• Promoted Wazir
• Twin: Zig

The Zag moves and captures like a Firzan or Alfil; in addition, it may leap an orthogonally adjacent hostile piece to capture it, provided that the space immediately beyond (where the Zag winds up) is empty. The Zag may not move orthogonally when not capturing, however.

I made up the name and the move of this piece for the game of Scirocco. The Zag is the diagonal counterpart of the orthogonally moving Zig.

Zebra (Z)

• Promoted Fu

Because of its long reach, the Zebra is fairly weak as leapers go; it has relatively few squares on the board from which it exercise its full power.

Zig (Zi)

• Promoted Firzan
• Twin: Zag

The Zig moves and captures like a Wazir or Dabbaba; in addition, it may leap a diagonally adjacent hostile piece to capture it, provided that the space immediately beyond (where the Zig winds up) is empty. The Zig may not move diagonally when not capturing, however.

I made up the name and the move of this piece for the game of Scirocco. The Zig is the orthogonal counterpart of the diagonally moving Zag.

Latent Abilities

Some pieces (the Doubler, Fiery Dragon, Immobilizer, and Poisoner) have "latent" abilities; that is, they can affect other pieces without being the piece that makes a move on the current turn. Each of these abilities has a set precedence with respect to the others, to avoid ambiguity in the game.

A Fiery Dragon effectively trumps an Immobilizer. That is, whether a Fiery Dragon moves to a space next to an opposing Immobilizer or an Immobilizer moves to a space next to a Fiery Dragon, the Immobilizer is captured and the Fiery Dragon is not immobilized.

An opposing Immobilizer prevents a Doubler or Poisoner from moving, but the Doubler's or Poisoner's ability to double or poison is not affected. However, if a piece is under the influence of both a Doubler and an Immobilizer, it is immobilized, not doubled. For example, given a Blue Immobilizer on a2, a Tan Doubler on b2, a Blue Guard on b4, and a Tan Rook on b1, the Doubler and Rook are immobilized, but the Guard may make a double move because it is under the influence of the (immobilized) Doubler.

Poison

Poison is a temporary or permanent characteristic of a piece that can cause an opposing piece to be removed from the board in circumstances where it ordinarily would remain on the board.

The Deadly Nightshade is permanently poisonous; other pieces become temporarily posionous when under the influence of a (friendly or opposing) Poisoner.

Poison works as follows: if a piece of the opposite side from the poisonous piece ends the turn on the same space where the poisonous piece started the turn, the opposing piece is removed. In most cases, this means the opposing piece will have captured the poisonous piece, but that is not necessary in order for a poisoning to occur. For example, if a Hummingbird swaps places with an opposing poisonous piece, the Hummingbird is captured. If the Hummingbird in question is also under the influence of a Poisoner, both pieces are captured.

Poison affects only pieces unfriendly to the poisonous piece; for example, a Hummingbird exchanging places with a friendly poisonous piece is not poisoned.

A piece that captures a poisonous piece but does not end the turn on the poisonous piece's square is not removed, so that a hop-capture of a poisonous piece does not cause a poisoning. A piece that makes two consecutive moves under the influence of a Doubler may land on a poisonous opposing piece at the end of its first move, but does not suffer poisoning if it moves to a nonpoisonous location by the end of the turn.

Promotion Rules

A piece may promote at the end of any move it makes that starts or ends (or both starts and ends) in its owner's promotion zone. Blue's promotion zone is ranks 11 through 16, or Tan's pawn row and beyond; Tan's is ranks 1 through 6, Blue's pawn row and beyond.

Promotion is always optional. Even when you move a Pawn onto the last rank, you are within your rights (if not in your right mind) not to promote it.

Promotion cannot occur when a piece moves using a movement capability relayed by another piece, e.g., a Dervish, Harpy, or Hummingbird (a Hummingbird may itself promote if it changes place with another piece, provided that the Hummingbird starts or ends its move in the promotion zone). If a piece to which a movement capability could be relayed already has the movement capability in question (as in the case of a Goat leaping orthogonally over a Dervish), the piece is considered to be moving under its own power, and may promote if its move starts or ends within the promotion zone.

A piece is not entitled to promote when a Cuckoo or Missionary changes its ownership within the promotion zone; the piece itself must make a subsequent move (starting or ending within the zone) in order to promote.

If an unpromoted piece with relay power (e.g., a Dervish) located within the promotion zone relays a move to another piece, the piece with relay power does not thereby gain the right to promote on that turn. Similarly, a Cuckoo changing the ownership of a piece within the promotion zone is not entitled to promote.

Victory Conditions

• The last of your royal pieces (King, Emperor, Emperor of Emperors, Elephant Prince, Tiger Prince, Ancient Emperor, or Sultan) is captured.

• Your last royal piece is bared; that is, your forces are reduced to a single piece.

  Unlike the usual version of this Bare King rule, there is no provision for a draw if you can immediately bare the opponent's last royal piece; as soon as you are down to one piece, you lose, period.

• It is your turn and you have no legal move.

It is not, strictly speaking, illegal to move your last royal piece into check. It is certainly foolish, though. On the other hand, there is no constraint on moving a royal piece into check when you have more than one royal piece; in fact, there are situations where it is advantageous to do so.

Note that these rules make stalemate a loss for the stalemated player, not a draw.

The Bare King rule means that when you are reduced to two pieces, both are effectively royal.

You can move your King into what looks like check if it captures your opponent's last piece, since you win the game before your opponent can recapture.

Repetition

It is illegal to make a move that causes a given game situation to occur a third time in the same game. Two game situations are considered the same if the same types of pieces are in the same places and it is the same player's turn to move.

Specifically, repetition does not result in a draw; one player must make a move that leaves the cycle of repeating moves. When a player is to move but has no move that would not cause an illegal repetition, that player loses the game.

As an example of this repetition rule, consider how it would apply to a trivial game played on a 2 by 3 board, with rules the same as Jupiter except as specified. The game starts with a White King on a1 and a Black King on b3; in this microscopic chess variant, there is no Bare King rule (so the game is not already over at the beginning). This game must proceed as follows:

1. K-b1 K-a3
2. K-a1 K-b3 ; 2nd occurrence of initial position
3. K-b1 K-a3
4. K-a1

At this point, the move 4. ... K-b3 would recreate the initial position again; this would be the third occurrence of that position, so the move is not legal. If this variant allows a King to move into check, Black must do so (with 4. ... K-a2 or 4. ... K-b2), in which case White will capture the King and win on the next move; if this variant does not allow moving into check, then Black has no legal move, and loses immediately.

Draws

If you have read the above rules carefully, you will realize that any game of Jupiter played to the bitter end cannot result in a draw. Even if neither player is checkmated or reduced to a single royal piece, the repetition rule ensures that the game will end, because the number of possible board positions is finite, and each position cannot occur more than twice. When no more positions are available, the player whose turn it is will lose.

Players may, however, agree to a draw if they are so inclined.

It is conceivable that both players may be reduced to a small number of weak but highly mobile pieces, so that the repetition rule must be invoked to determine who wins the game.

I'm not going to pin down exactly when agreeing to a draw is advisable. If you want to spend the rest of your life playing a single game, fine by me. (In the extremely unlikely event that Jupiter is ever played in a serious tournament, tournament organizers will want to come up with a more specific rule.)

Strategy

I have not playtested Jupiter at all. However, I'd guess the following:

• The game is likely to start out sedately enough, because most of the pieces are only moderately strong and can't move very far.

• The scale of the game is such that one or both sides may achieve a breakthrough into the promotion zone even while the other side has a very large force on the board. Consequently, conventional divisions of the game into "opening", "midgame", and "endgame" may be hard to apply.

• I'd guess that a full game of Jupiter might typically take somewhere around 400 or 500 moves, or a weekend of two long days for a friendly game.

Notation

• Simple moves: Because the abbreviations of many piece names are two or three characters, it looks less confusing to me to use a dash consistently between a piece abbreviation and the piece's destination (e.g., Wa-a7 rather than Waa7), but leaving out the dash does not actually introduce any ambiguity.
• Relayed moves: These can be recorded as normal moves; it should be obvious from context when a move was relayed.
• Promotions: You can record these as unpromoted-destination=promoted or Shogi-style as unpromoted-destination+, since it is always obvious from context what a piece promotes to. When a legal promotion is not taken, you can clarify this with an equals sign followed by nothing; e.g., DE-f11= (the Drunk Elephant moves to f11, where it could legally promote, but chooses not to).
• Igui captures: I suggest using the x! notation usual for Chu Shogi; e.g., Gex!c6 for a Genie capturing a Pawn on c6. This notation can also be used for the long-distance igui capture by an Emperor of Emperors.
• Passing a turn: Put an exclamation point after the abbreviation for the piece that can pass a turn, e.g., HO!.
• Hop-captures: This can be notated as a normal capture or normal move, since there is no ambiguity (a Zig or Zag always winds up one square beyond where the capture occurred); however, a notation showing both the capture square and destination square (e.g., Zixd4-e5) may avoid momentary confusion in the mind of a reader.
• Multiple captures: Some pieces can capture more than one piece on a turn; use something like Raxi4xj5, or Loxd3xd8xd10-d12, or So-f5xg6xh7, or Coo-m9xe9xm3 (assuming a royal piece is at e3; the Coordinator moves to m9 and captures at e9 and m3).
• Change of ownership: When a Cuckoo changes the ownership of a piece, you can use a notation like a3=Tan (it should be obvious that a Cuckoo caused the change of ownership). A Missionary's move might look like Mi-e5:e6=Blue.
• Pushing and pulling: If a Come Here or Go Away causes an opposing piece to move, you can just record the movement of the opposing piece; if this looks funny to you, you can precede it with the abbreviation of the piece that caused the move, followed by a colon, e.g., CmH:Pd7-c6. A pushing move by a tank might look like OxT-k4:A-k5,Goxk6 (the Ox Tank moves to k4, pushing the Alfil to k5, which in turn pushes the Goat into k6, which contains an opposing piece that is captured).
• Self-capture of immobilized piece: Use an asterisk to record this; e.g., Pe7* means "the Pawn at e7 commits suicide".
• Moves and captures that entail self-capture: You can end the move with an asterisk to mark that the capturer of a poisonous piece was itself captured, e.g., Bxn11* (the Bishop captures a poisonous piece at n11, and so is itself captured). Similarly, end a move with an asterisk when a piece moves to a space next to an opposing Fiery Dragon, or when a Kamikaze makes a capture.
• Captures by a Fiery Dragon or a Communist: These are usually shown by x! followed by a comma-separated list of the squares on which captures occurred, e.g., FiD-f16x!e15,e16 (this is taken from the standard notation for Tenjiku Shogi's Fire Demon).
• Tribble reproduction: You can use an equals sign followed by the abbreviation for Tribble after the position on which the new Tribble appears, e.g., o11=Trb (a new Tribble is born on o11).
• Doubled moves: These can be written as two consecutive moves after the same piece abbreviation; e.g., Rxa11-m11.

Where's the Zillions File?

Zillions of Games! is the remarkable computer program from Zillions Development that will play with you any game you can describe to it (using a special programming language called ZRF).

The Zillions file for Jupiter is under development; I expect it to be a challenge for Zillions as well as for me. With any luck, I will have it done some time this summer (the summer of 1999).