Many of the simplest fairy chess pieces do not appear in the orthodox game, but they usually fall into one of three classes. There are also compound pieces that combine the movement powers of two or more different pieces.
Simple pieces Leapers A
leaper is a piece that moves directly to a square a fixed distance away. A leaper captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits. The leaper's move cannot be blocked (unlike elephant and horse in
Xiangqi and
Janggi) – it "leaps" over any intervening pieces – so the
check of a leaper cannot be parried by interposing. Leapers are not able to create
pins, but are effective
forking pieces. A leaper's move that is not orthogonal (i.e. horizontal or vertical) nor diagonal is said to be
hippogonal. Moves by a leaper may be described using the distance to their landing square – the number of squares orthogonally in one direction and the number of squares orthogonally at right angles. For instance, the orthodox
knight is described as a (1,2)-leaper or a (2,1)-leaper. The table to the right shows common (but by no means standard) names for the leapers reaching up to 4 squares, together with the letter used to represent them in Betza notation, a common notation for describing fairy pieces. Although moves to adjacent squares are not strictly "leaps" by the normal use of the word, they are included for generality. Leapers that move only to adjacent squares are sometimes called
step movers in the context of
shogi variants. In
shatranj, a Persian forerunner to chess, the predecessors of the
bishop and
queen were leapers: the alfil is a (2,2)-leaper (moving two squares diagonally in any direction), and the ferz a (1,1)-leaper (moving one square diagonally in any direction). The wazir is a (0,1)-leaper (an "orthogonal" one-square leaper). The dabbaba is a (0,2)-leaper. The 'level-3' leapers are the threeleaper (0,3), camel (1,3), zebra (2,3), and tripper (3,3). The (0,4),
giraffe (1,4), stag (2,4), antelope (3,4), and commuter (4,4) are level-4 leapers. Many of these basic leapers appear in
Tamerlane chess.
Riders A
rider, or
ranging piece, is a piece that moves an unlimited distance in one direction, provided there are no pieces in the way. Each basic rider corresponds to a basic leaper, and can be thought of as repeating that leaper's move in one direction until an obstacle is reached. If the obstacle is a friendly piece, it blocks further movement; if the obstacle is an enemy piece, it may be captured, but it cannot be jumped over. There are three riders in : the
rook is a (0,1)-rider; the bishop is a (1,1)-rider; and the queen combines both patterns.
Sliders are a special case of riders that can only move between geometrically contiguous cells. All of the riders in orthodox chess are examples of sliders. {{Chess diagram Riders can create both
pins and
skewers. One popular fairy chess rider is the
nightrider, which can make an unlimited number of knight moves in any direction (like other riders, it cannot change direction partway through its move). The names of riders are often obtained by taking the name of its base leaper and adding the suffix "rider". For example, the '''''' is a (2,3)-rider. A nightrider can be blocked only on a square one of its component knight moves falls on: if a nightrider starts on a1, it can be blocked on b3 or c2, but not on a2, b2, or b1. It can only travel from a1 to c5 if the intervening square b3 is unoccupied. Some generalised riders do not follow a straight path. The
aanca from the historical game of
Grant Acedrex is such a "bent rider": it takes its first step like a ferz and continues
outward from that destination like a rook. The unicorn, from the same game, takes its first step like a knight and continues outward from that destination like a bishop. The
rose, which is used in
chess on a really big board, traces out a path of knight moves on an approximate regular octagon: from e1, it can go to g2, h4, g6, e7, c6, b4, c2, and back to e1. The
crooked bishop or
boyscout follows a zigzag: starting from f1, its path could take it to e2, f3, e4, f5, e6, f7, and e8 (or g2, f3, g4, f5, g6, f7, and g8). A
limited ranging piece moves like a rider, but only up to a specific number of steps. An example is the
short rook from
Chess with different armies: it moves like a rook, but only up to a distance of 4 squares. From a1, it can travel in one move to b1, c1, d1, or e1, but not f1. A rider's corresponding leaper can be thought of as a limited ranging piece with a range of 1: a wazir is a rook restricted to moving only one square at a time. The
violent ox and
flying dragon from
dai shogi (an ancient form of Japanese chess) are a range-2 rook and a range-2 bishop respectively. There are other possible generalisations as well; the
picket from
Tamerlane chess moves like a bishop, but
at least two squares (thus it cannot stop on the square next to it, but it can be blocked there.) These are in general called
ski-pieces: the picket is a ski-bishop. A
skip-rider skips over the first and then every odd cell in its path: it cannot be blocked on the squares it skips. Thus a
skip-rook would be a , and a
skip-bishop would be an . A
slip-rider is similar, but skips over the
second and then every
even cell in its path. In some
shogi variants (variants of Japanese chess), there are also
area moves. These are similar to limited ranging pieces in that the pieces with such moves repeat one kind of basic step up to a fixed number of times, and must stop when they capture. However, unlike other riders, they may change direction during their move, and do not have a fixed path shape like riders or bent riders do.
Hoppers A
hopper is a piece that moves by jumping over another piece (called a
hurdle). The hurdle can be any piece of any color. Unless it can jump over a piece, a hopper cannot move. Note that hoppers generally capture by taking the piece on the destination square,
not by taking the hurdle (as is the case in
checkers). The exceptions are
locusts which are pieces that capture by hopping over its victim. They are sometimes considered a type of hopper. There are no hoppers in Western chess. In
xiangqi (Chinese chess), the
cannon captures as a hopper along rook lines (when not capturing, it is a (0,1)-rider which cannot jump, the same as a rook); in
janggi (Korean chess), the cannon is a hopper along rook lines when moving or capturing, except it cannot jump another cannon, whether friendly or enemy. The
grasshopper moves along the same lines as a queen, hopping over another piece and landing on the square immediately beyond it. Yang Qi includes the diagonal counterpart of the cannon, the
vao, which moves as a bishop and captures as a hopper along bishop lines.
Compound pieces Compound pieces combine the powers of two or more pieces. The queen may be considered the compound of a rook and a bishop. The king of standard chess combines the ferz and wazir, ignoring restrictions on check and checkmate and ignoring castling. The alibaba combines the dabbaba and alfil, while the squirrel can move to any square 2 units away (combining the knight and alibaba). The
phoenix combines the wazir and alfil, while the
kirin combines the ferz and dabbaba: both appear in
chu shogi, an old Japanese chess variant that is still sometimes played today. An
amphibian is a combined leaper with a larger range than any of its components, such as the
frog, a (1,1)-(0,3)-leaper. Although the (1,1)-leaper is confined to one half of the board, and the (0,3)-leaper to one ninth, their combination can reach any square on the board. When one of the combined pieces is a knight, the compound may be called a
knighted piece. The
archbishop,
chancellor, and
amazon are three popular compound pieces, combining the powers of non-royal orthodox chess pieces. They are the knighted bishop, knighted rook, and knighted queen respectively. When one of the combined pieces is a king, the compound may be called a
crowned piece. The crowned knight combines the knight with the king's moves (when royal, it is called a knighted king). The dragon king of
shogi is a crowned rook (rook + king), while the dragon horse is a crowned bishop (bishop + king). The knighted compounds show that a compound piece may not fall into any of the three basic categories from above: a princess slides for its bishop moves (and can be blocked by obstacles in those directions), but leaps for its knight moves (and cannot be blocked in those directions). (The names
princess and
empress are common in the problemist tradition: in chess variants involving these pieces they are often called by other names, such as
archbishop and
chancellor in
Capablanca chess, or
cardinal and
marshal in
Grand Chess, respectively.) Combinations of known pieces with the
falcon from falcon chess are named
winged pieces, in Complete Permutation Chess not only winged knight, bishop, rook, and queen are featured, but also winged marshal, winged cardinal, and winged amazon. Marine pieces are compound pieces consisting of a rider or leaper (for ordinary moves) and a locust (for captures) in the same directions. Marine pieces have names alluding to the sea and its myths, e.g.,
nereide (marine bishop),
triton (marine rook),
mermaid (marine queen), and
poseidon (marine king). Examples named for non-mythical sea creatures include the
seahorse (marine knight),
dolphin (marine nightrider),
anemone (marine guard or mann), and
prawn (marine pawn). Games that consist of these marine pieces, known as "sea chesses", are often played on larger boards to account for these pieces needing more squares available for their locust-like capturing moves.
Restricted pieces In addition to combining the powers of pieces, pieces can also be modified by restricting them in certain ways: for example, their power might only be used for moving, only for capturing, only forwards, only backwards, only sideways, only on their first move, only on a specific square, only against a specific piece, and so on. The
horse in xiangqi (Chinese chess) is a knight that cannot leap: it can be blocked on the square orthogonally adjacent to it. The
stone general from
dai shogi is a ferz that can only move forwards (and therefore is trapped when it reaches the end of the board). Such restrictions may themselves be combined. The
gold general from
shogi (Japanese chess) is the combination of a wazir and a forward-only ferz; the
silver general from shogi is the combination of a ferz and a forward-only wazir. The pawn has the power of a wazir, but only forward and for movement; the power of a ferz, but only forward and for capturing; the power of a rook with a limited range of 2 squares, but only forward, without capturing, and on its first move; the power to be replaced by a more powerful piece, but only upon reaching its last rank; and the power to capture
en passant. A piece that moves and captures differently, like the pawn, is called
divergent. There are some powerful notation systems, described below, that can more succinctly represent arbitrary combinations of the basic restrictions of basic pieces.
Capturing All of the above pieces move once per turn and capture by replacement (i.e., moving to their victim's square and replacing it) except in the case of the
en passant capture. A
shooting piece (as in Rifle Chess) does
not capture by replacement (it stays in place when making a capture). Such a shooting capture is termed
igui "stationary feeding" in the old Japanese variants where it is common.
Baroque chess has many examples of pieces that do not capture by replacement, such as the
withdrawer, a piece which captures an adjacent piece by moving directly
away from it.
Moving multiple times per turn The lion in
chu shogi, as do the pieces in
Marseillais chess, can move
twice per turn: such pieces are common in the old Japanese variants of chess, termed
shogi variants, where they are called
lion moves after the simplest example. The lion is a king with the power to move twice per turn: thus it can capture a piece and
then move on, possibly capturing another, or returning to its original square. When a double-moving piece captures and then returns to its original square, it acts like a shooting piece.
Games Some classes of pieces come from a certain game, and will have common characteristics. Examples are the pieces from
xiangqi, a Chinese game similar to chess. The most common are the
leo,
pao and
vao (derived from the Chinese cannon) and the
mao (derived from the horse). Those derived from the cannon are distinguished by moving as a hopper when capturing, but otherwise moving as a rider. Pieces from xiangqi are usually circular disks, labeled or engraved with a Chinese character identifying the piece. Pieces from
shogi (Japanese chess) are usually wedge-shaped chips, with kanji characters identifying the piece.
Special attributes Fairy pieces vary in the way they move, but some may also have other special characteristics or powers. The joker (in one of its definitions) mimics the last move made by the opponent. So for example, if White moves a bishop, Black can follow by moving the joker as a bishop. The orphan has no movement powers of its own, but moves like any enemy piece attacking it: so if a rook attacks an orphan, the orphan now has the movement powers of the rook, but those are lost if the enemy rook moves away. Orphans can use these relayed powers to attack each other, creating a chain. A
royal piece is one which must not be allowed to be captured. If a royal piece is threatened with capture and cannot avoid capture the next move, then the game is lost (a generalization of
checkmate). In orthodox chess, the kings are royal. In fairy chess any other piece may instead be royal, and there may be more than one, or none at all (in which case the winning condition must be some other goal, such as capturing all of the opponent's pieces or promoting a pawn).
Tamerlane chess and
chu shogi allow multiple royals to be created via promotion. With multiple royal pieces the game can be won by capturing one of them (absolute royalty), or capturing all of them (extinction royalty). The rules can also impose a limit to the number of royals that are allowed to be left in check. In
Spartan chess, Black has two kings, and they may not
both be left in check even though they can not both be captured in one turn. In
Rex Multiplex, a fairy chess condition, pawns can promote to king: a move that checks multiple kings at once is illegal
unless all the checks can be resolved on the next move; checkmate happens when a move
checkmates all kings of the opposite colour. (A player may not expose any of their kings to check or checkmate, even if it is to resolve checks or checkmates on other attacked kings.) Pieces, when moving, can also create effects (temporary or permanent) on themselves or on other pieces. In
knight relay chess, a knight grants any friendly piece it protects the ability to move like a knight. This ability is temporary and expires when the piece is no longer protected by a knight. In
Andernach chess, a piece that moves or captures changes its colour; in
volage, a genre of fairy chess problems, a piece changes colour the
first time it moves from a light square to a dark square (vice versa), after which its colour is fixed. In
Madrasi chess, two pieces of the same kind but different colour attacking each other temporarily
paralyse each other: neither may move until the mutual attack is broken by an outside piece. The
basilisk from Ralph Betza's Nemoroth inflicts a permanent form of this paralysis (but paralysed pieces may be pushed by the
go away, another piece in the game, so they are only prevented from moving of their own accord); the
ghast from the same game restricts friendly pieces within two squares of it to moves that take them geometrically further from it, and
compels enemy pieces to do so (similar to the compulsion of resolving check in orthodox chess). The
immobiliser from Baroque chess immobilises any piece next to it; the
fire demon from
tenjiku shogi and
poison flame from
ko shogi capture any enemy pieces that end the turn next to them. The
teaching king and
Buddhist spirit from
maka dai dai shogi are "contagious"; any piece that captures a teaching king or a Buddhist spirit becomes one. (This can be considered as a kind of forced promotion.) Pieces may promote to other pieces, as the pawn automatically does in orthodox chess on the last rank: the pawn has a choice of what it promotes to. In xiangqi, pawns automatically promote as soon as they cross the river in the middle of the board, but this promotion is fixed and only gives them the power to move sideways as well as forward. In shogi, the pawn is not the only piece that can promote; promotion can occur if a move takes place partly or wholly in the last three ranks from the player's viewpoint, and is optional unless the piece could not move further, but a piece's promotion is fixed. In
dai dai shogi, promotion (again fixed depending on the piece) happens when a piece that can promote makes a capture, and may not be refused. Pieces may also have restrictions on where they can go. In xiangqi, the
general and
advisors may not leave their
palaces (a 3×3 section of the board for each player). The topology of the board can also be changed, and some pieces may respect it while others ignore it. In Tamerlane chess, only a king, prince, or adventitious king may enter the opponent's citadel, and only the adventitious king may enter its
own citadel. In
cylindrical chess, the left and right edges are joined to each other so a rook can continue to the right from h1 and end up on a1. It would be possible to have both cylindrical pieces and normal pieces on the same board. Pieces may also have restriction on how they can be captured. An
iron piece may not be captured at all. There are other possibilities, like a piece that can be captured by
some pieces but not others, which is common in
ko shogi (e.g. a shield unit is invulnerable to bows and guns). In Ralph Betza's
Jupiter army, the Jovian bishop is a Nemesis
ferz: it cannot capture, it cannot increase its distance from the enemy king, and it may not be captured (except possibly by the enemy king itself; Betza vacillated on this point). Such special characteristics of pieces are normally not included in the notations describing the movement of fairy pieces, and are usually explained separately.
Higher dimensions Some
three-dimensional chess variants also exist, such as
Raumschach, along with pieces that take advantage of the extra dimension on the board. Chess variants and fairy piece movements with even more than three dimensions also exist. For example, the chess variant video game
5D Chess with Multiverse Time Travel has four usable dimensions of movement. One of the fairy pieces featured in the game is known as the
dragon, which must use all four dimensions when moving. In particular, it may move any distance along four dimensions, an equal distance along each one, as long as there is no piece blocking the movement in the middle of the path. The game refers to a straight line of squares forming such a path as a
quadragonal. ==Notations==