User:NikNaks/Chess

Current piece list

 * a: elephant ("alfil")
 * b: bishop
 * c: cardinal
 * d: war machine ("dababa")
 * e: giraffe ("zurafa")
 * f: ferz
 * g: grasshopper
 * h: horse
 * j: camel ("jamal")
 * k: king
 * l: lion
 * m: marshall
 * n: knight
 * o: circle/dot
 * p: pawn
 * q: queen
 * r: rook
 * s: ship
 * t: threeleaper
 * u: unicorn
 * v: vao
 * w: wazir
 * x: cross/x
 * z: zebra


 * A: amazon
 * B: flag ("banner")
 * C: cannon
 * F: fool
 * W: wizard
 * Z: champion

Alfaerie uploading
Set 1

Not all images are actual pieces. Those can be uploaded later. The most important are:

Chess
Goes without saying.
 * King - k
 * Queen - q
 * Rook - r
 * Bishop - b
 * Knight - n
 * Pawn - p

Inverted
Useful for accommodating pieces not here.
 * Inverted King - ki
 * Inverted Queen - qi
 * Inverted Rook - ri
 * Inverted Bishop - bi
 * Inverted Knight - ni
 * Inverted Pawn - pi
 * Inverted Cardinal (Bishop+Knight) - ci
 * Inverted Marshall (Rook+Knight) - mi

Historical
Necessary - basic pieces.
 * Wazir - w
 * Ferz - f
 * Ship - s
 * War Machine - d (dabaaba)
 * Elephant - a (alfil)
 * As this already exists on e, it would need to have its uses moved.

Skip the tripper. Neither Threeleaper nor Tripper are actual historic pieces, and are only used in problems (and compounds, in the case of a Threeleaper). The Threeleaper is fine, because it is part of the Half-Duck, the NH, and the Grande Acedrex Lion, and on par with the Ferz, Alfil, Wazir, and Dabbaba, but Tripper is weaker than all of those, and not part of any used compound (unless you count the seldom used NG).
 * Camel - j (jamal)
 * Zebra - z
 * Threeleaper (t)

Animal forms
Only a few are actually necessary:
 * Giraffe - e (zurafa)
 * Lion - l
 * Gryphon - G
 * Unicorn - u (can use for kylin also)
 * Grasshopper - g
 * The inverted queen is frequently used for the grasshopper, so I'm not sure which ones should be replaced and which not.
 * We'll also need to do something about the arrows: my suggestion is using the numberpad, so a down arrow would be 2, left 4 etc
 * Yeah, Q can be used instead of g. We should keep the numberpad for labeled numbers. Then we can use 22 = down, 44 = left, 66 = right, 88 = up. Double sharp (talk) 14:29, 3 April 2013 (UTC)

Riders
Quite common pieces, and useful to see denoted with unique symbols.
 * Nightrider - nr
 * Alfilrider - ar
 * Dabaabarider - dr
 * Camelrider - jr
 * Amazonrider - Ar
 * Marshalrider - mr
 * Cardinalrider - cr

Composite
Mainly useful for absorption chess and Carrera/Capablanca-style variants.
 * Equus Rex (K+N) - kn
 * Amazon - x (this and the two below get special treatment due to commonness) As "A"
 * Marshall - m
 * Cardinal - c
 * Knight Pawn - np
 * Camel Bishop - jb
 * Pope (K+B) - kb
 * Western Dragon King (K+R) - kr
 * Knight Camel (Wildebeest) - jn
 * Alibaba/Daffy (D+A) - da
 * Bishop Pawn - bp
 * Rook Pawn - rp
 * Knight Ferz - nf (for Different Augmented Knights - please also design Knight Dabbaba nd, Knight Alfil na, Knight Threeleaper nh)
 * Knight Wazir - nw
 * Leo - L

Forward/Backward
Also useful for Betzan pieces. These abbreviations look a bit like chemical symbols!


 * +K -N: Kn
 * +B -N (bishight): Bn
 * +B -R: Br
 * +N -K: Nk
 * +N -Q: Nq
 * +N -B (knishop): Nb
 * +N -R: Nr
 * +Q -N: Qn
 * +R -B: Rb
 * +R -N: Rn
 * Can I recommend we have the "forward" piece as the lowercase, to match the rest of the scheme?  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 14:55, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * No problem. Double sharp (talk) 09:28, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Leapers/Hoppers
Chinese pieces


 * Cannon - C
 * Clash with inverted cardinal.  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 14:56, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Change to CC, then. Double sharp (talk) 09:28, 5 April 2013 (UTC)


 * Vao - V
 * Leo - L

Modern
Unnecessary.

Miscellaneous (random stuff)

 * Fool/Jester - F
 * Crooked Bishop - zb
 * Crooked Rook - zr
 * Moon - W (wizard)
 * Champion - Z (wazir alibaba)
 * Banner/Flag - B
 * Man - wf
 * Prince - vk (vice king)
 * Princess - vq
 * Reflecting Bishop - ab (archbishop)
 * Not sure I agree with these. I would suggest "crooked" or "vice" pieces be given a non-letter suffix rather than a prefix.  And why fl for wizard when W is free?  And Z for a flag?   Nik Naks  talk - gallery 14:59, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * This is from Betza notation, crooked bishop = zB = zFF = zF7. Vice can be changed – it's just a description. The wizard is FL in Betza notation, although W should be fine too. (Then can we have champion = Z or something for apparent backward compatibility?)
 * Z for zero, since it doesn't move. But fl is certainly more intuitive. (Is F free?) Double sharp (talk) 09:30, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

Pawns

 * Berolina - bp (Berlin pawn) as pB
 * Quick pawn - qp as pQ

Diminished
Half = s(piece abbrev) - half queen = sq. Halfling is h - halfling rook = hr. add halfling queen if you want.

Last four are nn, wn, cn and bn.

Chinese

 * horse - h
 * pawn - cp (Chinese pawn)

Japanese

 * Gold - au (short: u)
 * Silver - ag (short: g)
 * Copper? - cu (only front three dots)
 * Iron? - fe (only front two diagonal dots)
 * Lance - fr (fragrant rook, literal Chinese translation of name)
 * Dragon King - dk
 * Dragon Horse - dh
 * Promoted X - pX (promoted silver - pg, promoted pawn = tk, for tokin)

Ultima

 * Pincer - up
 * Coordinator - ur
 * Withdrawer - uq
 * Immobilizer - um
 * Long-Leaper - un
 * Chameleon - ub (Ultima (Western piece abbrev.))

CWDA

 * Clobberers
 * Bede - bd
 * Waffle - wa
 * FAD - fd


 * Rookies
 * Woody - wd
 * HFD - hf


 * Knights
 * Furlurlbakking - wr
 * Fibnif - vf
 * Forfnibakking - wk
 * Forfnifurlurlking - wq

Combination leapers

 * WF - man (wf)
 * WA - waffle (wa)
 * WD - woody (wd)
 * FA - falafel (fa) - make it, or use B
 * FD - kylin (fd, but can use u for unicorn)
 * DA - alibaba (da)

Discussion
Phew. Any duplicates? Double sharp (talk) 13:39, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I've only found one duplicate, but this system seems to contradict itself towards the end; in the first half, the primary piece is the first letter, and the secondary piece or descriptor is the second letter, but then it changes with things like "vk" or "bp" for the Berolina pawn. I'd be much more inclined to stick to the first way, with "pb" or even "pB" for a Berolina pawn.
 * I'm constructing a spreadsheet of used combinations, so expect some more suggestions later. I think I'll do up to "Pawns" [without forward/backward just yet] first, as those seem fairly straightforward and mostly alterations of existing pieces.   Nik Naks  talk - gallery 15:03, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Also, is there any reason you are aware of as to why the SVGs are 45 pixels wide when the templates use either 22 or 26?  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 16:20, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I've attempted to make some at 26 px with lines 1px thick but it doesn't seem to make much difference in practice.  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 19:04, 3 April 2013 (UTC)
 * This inconsistent system was used based on the natural English order you would say the components, but your method makes more sense. (What's the duplicate?) Double sharp (talk) 13:24, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
 * The dupe is for capital C (cannon and inverted cardinal).  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 16:08, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Cannon can go to CC, then. (Per CCCC Chess, where all the pieces move cannonically.) Double sharp (talk) 09:26, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I've made a start on the new pieces here. If you have any suggestions about their designs, please post there.   Nik Naks  talk - gallery 18:54, 4 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Very nice! (I think we should swap w and f though. It fits better with their movement pattern.) Double sharp (talk) 09:27, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
 * My bad! I knew I was going to get those two the wrong way round...  Nik Naks  talk - gallery 14:16, 5 April 2013 (UTC)
 * I've done a few more. How do you feel about using _i for the inverted pieces?   Nik Naks  talk - gallery 20:57, 7 April 2013 (UTC)
 * No problem with me. It make sense. Double sharp (talk) 11:40, 11 April 2013 (UTC)
 * What do you think of the new cannon and amazon pieces? I struggled to get the queen and knight on one piece without it looking weird.
 * Also, what should the threeleaper, tripper and vao look like? I can make an edited bishop for a vao if there's nothing else to go on, but it'd be better to have it as something more distinctive.   Nik Naks  talk - gallery 14:47, 11 April 2013 (UTC)

For the amazon, you could design a crowned knight with the crown looking like the queen's coronet.

Vao can be an edited bishop. Threeleaper can be a taller dabbaba (like "Great War Machine + Ferz" minus the cross); tripper can be a sort of "Great Elephant". Double sharp (talk) 06:04, 12 April 2013 (UTC)