Essedar Chess
introducing the Essedar
The Essedar is a
bifurcation piece. It moves by colliding
orthogonally against any piece, and then deviating to any of the two adjacent
diagonals (in the prolonged movement direction). But it captures like a rook by
jumping directly to the enemy piece, provided that any intermediate squares are
empty. The Essedar's value is 3, that is, the same as bishop or knight
(preliminary estimate). Other rules are the same as in standard chess, except
for the possible promotion to Essedar. As it can move only by coordinating with
another piece, the Essedar is a highly cooperative piece, something which makes
it interesting for the positional player. The structure on the board decides its
possibilities. The Essedar loses less power in the endgame than one would
expect. Although screens for colliding become fewer, its scope and mobility also
increases. Essedar Chess, and the new Essedar piece, were invented by
undersigned, October 2006.
The Essedar (lat. essedarius), which
means chariot warrior, was perhaps the most popular gladiator type in ancient
Rome. The name derives from the Celtic chariot (essedum). The essedar fought on
foot and probably used the chariot to make a spectacular entrance to the arena.
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 You
can download my free Essedar Chess program
here (updated
2007-09-26), but you must own the software
Zillions of Games to be able to
run it (I recommend the download version). You can play Essedar Chess
online
here. Don't miss my other
chess variants. |
© M. Winther (October 2006).
The Essedar can move in two legs, the first is a
rook slide and the second is a diagonal collision-move. Capture occurs
orthogonally (red = capture).
The Essedar's movement principle. The screens,
that are used for colliding, occur anywhere on the first leg. Should the screen
be an enemy piece, it could be captured.