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White Elephant Chess. Four variants pitting the white Elephant army against black with the normal FIDE array. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Fri, Nov 19, 2010 06:56 AM UTC:
My Man and Beast series now has names for most piees that have been considered elephantine. 2:2 movers are something of a special case as I use Elephant as a generic for both but also subdivide such pieces in to the leaping Alfil and stepping Xiang. Others are:
* the Bishop (FF) called Alfil in Spanish and Slon in Russian;
* the Silvergeneral (FfW) known by the Burmese word for elephant in that country, although silver is a paler shade of grey than is usually associated with elephants;
* the Silverelephant (AfW) so named as adding the orthogonal part of the Silver move to an existing symmetric diagonal piece;
* the Silverbishop of Silverchess and Electrum Chess (FFfW) ditto;
* the Silverthief of Alibishogi (AfD) so named as expanding a forward-only piece to the Silver range of directions;
* the Silverpashtun (FAfWfD) ditto, same as this page's Great Elephant;
* the Fearful (FA) called Modern Elephant by some;
* the Silverfearful of Unidirectional Shogi and Saint Pancras Shogi (FA);
* the Elephrider (AA) which may be specified as Alfilrider or Xiangrider depending on the effect of occupied odd squares;
* the Silverrider of Silverchess and Electrum Chess (FFfWW) which nearly got used as this page's Mammoth;
* the Goldrider of Goldchess and Electrum Chess (WWfFF) which actually did;
* the Waffle (WA);
* the Wafflrider (WWAA) sae as this page's War Elephant;
* the Spear, a 2:2 mover requiring an intervening piece for some or all moves, named by analgy with...
* the Arrow of Yang Qi, a Bishop requiring an intervening piece for some or all moves.
* mastodons, oblique riders that cannot make the single leap except in the two most forward directions;
* the Goldmammoth and Silvermmamoth, a Goldrider and Silverrider that cannot make the single step except in the three forward directions. At the time of these coinages I had quite forgotten this page's Mammoth, and had used the name in allusion with the mastodons.

This page's Tiger also appears under the name Columbine, as part of a family of names for pieces of its kind.