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Wazir (chess)
The wazir or vazir is a fairy chess piece that may move a single square vertically or horizontally. In notation, it is given the symbol ''W''. In this article, the wazir is represented by an inverted rook. Name etymology The name wazīr (vazir) (Arabic/Persian: وزير from Middle Persian vichir) means "minister" in several West and South Asian languages and is found in English as vizier. Wazīr (Vazir) is also the name of the queen in Arabic, Persian, and Hindi. History and nomenclature The wazir is a very old piece, appearing in some very early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. The wazir also appears in some historical large shogi variants, such as in dai shogi under the name ''angry boar'' (嗔猪 ''shinchō''). The general in xiangqi moves like a wazir but may not leave its palace or end its turn in check (chess), check. Value The wazir by itself is not much more powerful than a pawn (chess), pawn, but as an additional power to other pieces, it is worth about half a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairy Chess Piece
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in Rules of chess#Movement, the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts. Most are symbolised as inverted or rotated icons of the standard pieces in diagrams, and the meanings of these "wildcards" must be defined in each context separately. Pieces invented for use in chess variants rather than problems sometimes instead have special icons designed for them, but with some exceptions (the princess (chess), princess, empress (chess), empress, and occasionally a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stalemate
Stalemate is a situation in chess where the player whose turn it is to move is not in check and has no legal move. Stalemate results in a draw. During the endgame, stalemate is a resource that can enable the player with the inferior position to draw the game rather than lose. In more complex positions, stalemate is much rarer, usually taking the form of a swindle that succeeds only if the superior side is inattentive. Stalemate is also a common theme in endgame studies and other chess problems. The outcome of a stalemate was standardized as a draw in the 19th century . Before this standardization, its treatment varied widely, including being deemed a win for the stalemating player, a half-win for that player, or a loss for that player; not being permitted; and resulting in the stalemated player missing a turn. Stalemate rules vary in variants and other games of the chess family. Etymology and usage The first recorded use of stalemate is from 1765. It is a compounding of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chess Variant Pages
''The Chess Variant Pages'' is a non-commercial website devoted to chess variants. It was created by Hans Bodlaender in 1995. The site is "run by hobbyists for hobbyists" and is "the most wide-ranging and authoritative web site on chess variants". The site contains a large compilation of games with published rules. The aims of the site are to educate readers about chess variants, encourage gameplay, and provide a place for free discussion. The site has featured game competitions as well as variant design competitions, and provides facilities for publishing documents. Numerous files are available for playing variants using the Zillions of Games proprietary software engine. The site also features The Game Courier software developed by Fergus Duniho which can be used to play almost any variant. There is also an extensive encyclopedia of fairy chess piece A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Betza
Ralph Betza (born 1945) is a FIDE Master and inventor of chess variants such as chess with different armies, Avalanche chess, and Way of the Knight. Betza was a user of the website The Chess Variant Pages, on which several chess related works of his can be found. These include the rules of his chess variants, his article on his funny notation, and articles about the value of fairy chess pieces. Invented chess variants * Multiplayer chess (date unknown) * High-low chess (1968) * Strange relay chess (1970s) * Coordinate chess (or Co-chess) (1973) * Conversion chess (1973) * Co-relay chess (1973) * Double conversion chess (1973) * Heterocoalescence chess (1973) by Philip Cohen, based on an idea by Betza * Inverter chess (or Switch chess) (1973) * Metamorphosis (c. 1973) * Pinwheel chess (1973) * Reversion conversion chess (1973) * Transportation chess (or Transchess) (1973) * Watergate chess (1973) * Weak! (1973) * Biflux chess (1974) a variant of Co-chess * Brownian moti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fairy Chess Pieces
A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compared to conventional pieces, fairy pieces vary mostly in the way they move, but they may also follow special rules for capturing, promotions, etc. Because of the distributed and uncoordinated nature of unorthodox chess development, the same piece can have different names, and different pieces can have the same name in various contexts. Most are symbolised as inverted or rotated icons of the standard pieces in diagrams, and the meanings of these "wildcards" must be defined in each context separately. Pieces invented for use in chess variants rather than problems sometimes instead have special icons designed for them, but with some exceptions (the princess, empress, and occasionally amazon), many of these are not used beyond the individual ga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dover Publications
Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books in the public domain. The original published editions may be scarce or historically significant. Dover republishes these books, making them available at a significantly reduced cost. Classic reprints Dover reprints classic works of literature, classical sheet music, and public-domain images from the 18th and 19th centuries. Dover also publishes an extensive collection of mathematical, scientific, and engineering texts. It often targets its reprints at a niche market, such as woodworking. Starting in 2015, the company branched out into graphic novel reprints, overseen by Dover acquisitions editor and former comics writer and editor Drew Ford. Most Dover reprints are photo facsimiles of the originals, retaining the original pagination ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giraffe (chess)
The giraffe is a fairy chess piece with an elongated knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ... move.Piececlopedia: Giraffe by Hans Bodlaender, '' The Chess Variant Pages'' It can jump four squares vertically and one square horizontally or four squares horizontally and one square vertically, regardless of intervening pieces; thus, it is a (1,4)- [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Camel (chess)
The camel or long knight is a fairy chess piece with an elongated knight move.Piececlopedia: Camel by Hans Bodlaender, '''' It can jump three squares horizontally and one square vertically or three squares vertically and one square horizontally, regardless of intervening pieces. Therefore, it is a (1,3)-leaper. The piece commonly represented in diagrams as an inverted knight. Movement In the diagram below, the white camel on d4 can move to the squares marked with black dots (a3, a5, c1, c7, e1, e7, g3 and g5 ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ferz
The ferz or fers is a fairy chess piece that may move one square diagonally. It was used in orthodox chess and in Shatranj form of chess before being replaced by the queen. History and nomenclature The ferz is a very old piece, appearing in chaturanga and shatranj, the ancestors of all chess variants; it also featured in games such as Tamerlane chess. The ferz was a standard chess piece until the modern moves of queen and bishop were developed around the 15th century, with the ferz being replaced by the former. The ferz also appears in some large historical shogi variants, such as in dai shogi under the name ''cat sword'' (). The Thai variant of chess, makruk, retains the ferz from shatranj as the "Met", both as a starting piece and as the only pawn promotion option. Thus, much of shatranj endgame theory is also valid for makruk. The piece was originally called the (Sanskrit for "minister" or "counsellor"), which was translated by the Persians to ''farzin'' or ''farzīn'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortress (chess)
In chess, a fortress is an Chess endgame, endgame draw (chess), drawing technique in which the side behind in sets up a zone of protection that the opponent cannot penetrate. This might involve keeping the enemy king out of one's position, or a safe zone the enemy cannot force one out of (e.g. see the #Opposite-colored bishops, opposite-colored bishops example). An elementary fortress is a theoretically drawn position (i.e. a ) with reduced material in which a passive defense will maintain the draw. Fortresses commonly have the following characteristics: # Useful pawn (chess), pawn are not possible. # If the stronger side has pawns, they are firmly blocked. # The stronger side's king (chess), king cannot penetrate because it is either cut off or near the edge of the chessboard, board. # Zugzwang positions cannot be forced because the defender has available. Fortresses pose a problem for computer chess: computers fail to recognize fortress-type positions (unless using a suitabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Endgame (chess)
The endgame (or ending) is the final stage of a chess game which occurs after the middlegame. It begins when few pieces are left on the board. The line between the middlegame and the endgame is often not clear, and may occur gradually or with a quick exchange of pieces. The endgame, however, tends to have different characteristics from the middlegame, and the players have correspondingly different strategic concerns. In particular, pawns become more important as endgames often revolve around attempts to promote a pawn by advancing it to the eighth . The king, which normally is kept safe during the game, becomes active in the endgame, as it can help escort pawns to promotion, attack enemy pawns, protect other pieces, and restrict the movement of the enemy king. Not all chess games reach an endgame; some of them end earlier. All chess positions with up to seven pieces on the board have been solved by endgame tablebases, so the outcome (win, loss, or draw) of best play by both ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bare King
In chess and chess variants, a bare king (or lone king) is a king whose player has no other remaining pieces (i.e. all the player's other pieces have been ). Effect on the game Historical In some old versions of chess, such as "baring chess" and shatranj, leaving the opponent with a bare king was one way of winning the game (see ). The relative weakness of the pieces in shatranj may have made this form of a win desirable. A possible exception to the bare king rule was if the king immediately after being bared was able to recapture, leaving the opponent with a bare king as well. This situation, called a "Medinese victory" (because in Medina, it was still a win for the player first baring the opposing king), was often considered a draw. Contemporary Under modern rules, a player with a bare king does not automatically lose and may continue playing. A bare king can never give check, however, and can therefore never deliver a checkmate or win the game. A bare king can in some situa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
