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The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games.

The Piececlopedia: Dragon

Historic remarks

This piece, unlike the Dragon from T.R. Dawson's Five Classics of Fairy Chess, is from the chess variant, DragonChess, invented in 1985 by Gary Gygax (inventor of (Advanced) Dungeons & Dragons)

As far as I am currently aware, this variant is the only variant which uses the Dragon as a functional piece.

See: rules and links for DragonChess

Movement rules

The Dragon can move on the top board (representing the sky) as an orthodox King (one square any direction) or an orthodox Bishop (any diagonal). It also has the ability to capture "from afar", which means it can capture the piece either directly below it (on the "Earth" board) or one square orthagonally adjacent, i.e. capturing a piece on the board below, which is one square to the left, right, forwards or backwards. Obviously, it cannot do both in one turn, nor can the dragon move onto the middle board.

Movement diagram

Squares marked green are places a Dragon can move to, squares marked red are where a Dragon can capture, without moving.

Written by Peter Spicer.

WWW page created: November 9, 2001.