Heavy Shako
Heavy Shako was invented by Eric Silverman, with Jean-Louis Cazaux as an inspirator.
When Eric Silverman implemented Yangsi in Ai Ai, he played it many times, and found that he really enjoyed the game - so much so that he was inspired to create a similar game. Eric put together a concept for this new game, which was improved with the help of Jean-Louiz Cazaux, the creator of the original Shako. The resulting game became Heavy Shako, which, in Eric's own words, is "an extension of Shako that fills in all the gaps in the back rank with other pieces used in the larger variants by Jean-Louis Cazaux". It is certainly an intriguing game, with its focus on compound leapers.
Setup
Pieces
King |
The King moves one space in any direction but not into check. It moves the same as it does in Chess but castles differently. | 
Queen |
The Queen moves as a Rook or a Bishop, the same as it does in Chess. |
Sorceress |
The Sorceress moves as a Queen but must hop over an intervening piece to capture. | 
Buffalo |
The Buffalo moves as a Knight, Camel, or Zebra (It can make a (1,2), (1,3), or (2, 3) leap in any direction). |
Rook |
The Rook slides across the board in a vertical or horizontal direction, as it does in Chess. | 
Bishop |
The Bishop slides across the board in any diagonal direction, as it does in Chess. |
Knight |
The Knight leaps to a space one file and two ranks away or two files and one rank away, as it does in Chess. | 
Pawn |
The Pawn moves one space vertically forward without capturing, and it moves one space diagonally forward to capture, as it does in Chess. It can also move two squares forward on its first move and capture by en passant a Pawn that has just made a double move like it does in Chess. However, it is subject to different rules of promotion. |
Woody Rook |
The Woody Rook leaps one or two spaces in any orthogonal direction. It is a compound of the Wazir and the Dababbah. | 
Elephant |
The Elephant leaps one or two spaces in any diagonal direction. It is a compound of the Ferz and the Alfil. It was introduced in Shako, and it moves the same as it does in that game. |
Cannon |
The Cannon moves as a Rook but must hop over an intervening piece to capture. This piece comes from Chinese Chess and moves the same as it does in that game. | 
Crocodile |
The Crocodile moves as a Bishop but must hop over an intervening piece to capture. It was created in the early 20th century as the diagonal counterpart to the Cannon. |
Squirrel |
The Squirrel moves as a Knight or jumps to the second square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction. |
Rules
Aside from differences in the board, pieces, and setup, Heavy Shako is played like FIDE Chess with the following difference:
Pawn promotion: When a Pawn reaches the last rank, it must promote to another piece of that player's choice: a Queen, Buffalo, Rook, Squirrel, Woody Rook, Sorceress, Cannon, Knight, Bishop, Crocodile, or Elephant of the same color. It cannot promote to King or another Pawn.
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Author: A. M. DeWitt. Inventor: Eric Silverman and Jean-Louis Cazaux.
Last revised by Fergus Duniho.
Web page created: 2021-12-05. Web page last updated: 2024-02-27