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Courier-Spiel. 19th century variant of Courier Chess. (12x8, Cells: 96) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
John Ayer wrote on Tue, Jan 21, 2003 03:27 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
This is my absolute favorite chess variant. It's great fun to play (I have found it so). It also has some interesting symmetries. The pieces with unlimited moves in a straight line number five, as in standard chess: rooks, couriers (German for bishops), and queen. The pieces with one-square moves also number five: the king, the councillor, the fool, and the two 'bishops' (ferz-alfils, elephants on my board). The leapers are, again, five in number: the knights, the councillor, and the 'bishops' or ferz-alfils. Unlike so many other games played on this board, it does not leave the couriers (bishops, we would call them) facing one another along shared diagonals.

John Ayer wrote on Sun, Jun 1, 2003 12:46 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Of course the printable board and pieces for the Courier Game will also serve for this one.

John Ayer wrote on Tue, Sep 2, 2003 11:34 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
My son and I dislike the pawn promotion rules in this game, and have our own: A pawn reaching the last rank is immediately promoted to the rank of the master-piece of that file, except that a pawn promoting on the king-file is made a prince, moving as the squirrel. Thereafter, if the king is checkmated, he is removed from the board, the prince succeeds, and the game continues. This is idle speculation, though; neither of us has ever allowed the other to promote a pawn.

📝Eric Greenwood wrote on Fri, Oct 10, 2003 10:42 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Hi!

   An excellent idea-promotion according to John Ayers' rules make for a
better game!

   I have an idea: Let the Man have the Squirrel (or Castle from
Renniassance Chess) move to start with, and let the promoting Prince have
the original Man move (as Horse or Fool).

   If anyone wants to play me using these rules, my userid is:   cavalier
(another Renniassance piece!  :})


       Eric V. Greenwood        e-mail:   [email protected]

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2003 06:54 AM UTC:
Regarding the 'promotion by file' rule, Prince is an alternative name for a piece already in the array, the capturable version of the King. Therefore it would seem most logical to promote to that piece on the King's file.

📝Eric Greenwood wrote on Wed, Oct 15, 2003 12:49 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
The rule Mr. Gilman suggests is the rule we are, in fact, using. Thank you for clarifying it for those who might have missed it. :)

📝Eric Greenwood wrote on Thu, Oct 16, 2003 04:48 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
To clear up any confusion, the name 'Prince' is ONLY used for our variant as a promoted piece, it moves as fool or Knight, and can only come into play in the rare instance of a pawn promoting on the King File. Prince is definitely *NOT* used as an alternate name for any piece in the original setup. The piece w/ the king-like move (w/o the restrictions about check, ewt.) is the Fool. While many princes may be, in fact, fools, ;} we do NOT use the name interchangeably in this game. I hope this clears up any confusion created. :)

John Ayer wrote on Wed, Jun 30, 2004 07:07 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
On reviewing Murray and Gollon, I find that the pawn promotion rule for this game is unknown. The rule given is from another game, and its application to this one is a conjecture by Murray. Promotion determined by file is therefore as valid as any other rule agreed on by two players.

Yu Ren Dong wrote on Sun, Jul 26, 2009 08:02 AM UTC:
http://www.chessvariants.org/index/msdisplay.php?itemid=MZcourier-spiel

The zog.

John Ayer wrote on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 02:29 AM UTC:
Thank you, Yu Ren Dong!

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Mon, Apr 2, 2012 03:21 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
The 'Bishop' in this game moves as a 'Ferfil', and the 'Councillor' moves 
like a 'Centaur' (knight, wazir, fers).
Would this be the first appearance for these pieces?
Anyone know an earlier game they are in, or another old game anyway. 
I know 'Ferfil' is in the game 'Shako', 1990, by Jean-Louis Cazaux.

John Davis wrote on Fri, Mar 27, 2015 09:50 PM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
Courier-Spiel is the basis for my other favorite, Dragon Chess, so I chose it as my first addition to the Grand Chess & Beyond project. For my "Grand Courier" I chose the names Duke (KN), Elephant (FA) and Fool (WF) so they wouldn't conflict alphabetically with the other pieces of my basic set. I drew my E & F file placement from Chu Shogi.
King ; F1 & 10
Queen ; E2 & 9
Rook ; A1 & 10, J1 & 10
Knight ; B2 & 9, I2 & 9
Elephant ; C2 & 9, H2 & 9
Bishop ; D2 & 9, G2 &9
Duke ; F2 & 9
Fool ; E1 & 10
Pawns ; ranks 3 & 8

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