Essedar Chess
This page contains one or more presets for playing a game online with Game Courier, an online server for playing Chess variants by correspondence.
The Essedar 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 (estimate). 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.The Essedar, which means chariot warrior, was perhaps the most popular gladiator type in ancient Rome.
Extended castle: when castling the king may jump three squares, but it can also jump two as usual. The rook ends up on its usual square. The extended castling rule makes play on the wings easier to achieve. The king can rapidly take control over the kingside or queenside corner square, and advancement on the wing can occur without putting the king at risk.
The Essedar can move in two legs, the first is a rook slideand the second is a diagonal collision-move.
Capture occurs orthogonally (red = capture).
In the following preset moves are validated and automated, including Secutor moves, castling and 'en passant', but check, etc., are not parsed. Pieces can be moved by pointing and clicking. When promoting a pawn, it will automatically turn into a Queen. Should you prefer another piece then you must type it manually (e.g., add N a8; capture a7). Use small piece-letters for black. E-mails to your opponent are generated.
Essedar Chess
(A Zillions
program and more information is here.See also related variants Dimachaer Chess and Secutor Chess.)
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By M Winther.
Web page created: 2010-02-17. Web page last updated: 2010-02-17