Chancellor (chess)

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abcdefgh
8
e7 black pawn
d6 black circle
e6 black cross
f6 black circle
c5 black circle
d5 white pawn
e5 black cross
g5 black circle
a4 black cross
b4 black cross
c4 black cross
d4 black cross
e4 white chancelor
f4 black cross
g4 white pawn
c3 black circle
e3 black cross
f3 white pawn
g3 black circle
d2 black circle
e2 black cross
f2 black circle
e1 black cross
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Chancellor (notation C) can move as a rook or a knight. Crosses mark squares where chancellor can move but not jump; dark circles mark squares where chancellor can jump. In the diagram, it can capture the black pawn on e7.

A chancellor (also known as a marshal, empress, or simply rook+knight compound) is a fairy chess piece that can move like a rook or a knight. It cannot jump over other pieces when moving as a rook, but may do so when moving as a knight. Below, it is given the symbol RN from Betza notation.

History and nomenclature

abcdefgh
8
e8 black cross
e7 black cross
d6 black circle
e6 black cross
f6 black circle
c5 black circle
e5 black cross
g5 black circle
a4 black cross
b4 black cross
c4 black cross
d4 black cross
e4 white chancelor
f4 black cross
g4 black cross
h4 black cross
c3 black circle
e3 black cross
g3 black circle
d2 black circle
e2 black cross
f2 black circle
e1 black cross
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
Maximum range of a chancellor on an empty board

The chancellor is one of the most simply described fairy chess pieces and as such has a long history and has gone by many names. A generic name would be the rook+knight compound. The most commonly used names for this piece are the marshal, chancellor and empress.[note 1]

The name chancellor was introduced by Ben Foster in his large variant Chancellor Chess (chess on a 9×9 board, with a chancellor on the opposite side of the king as the queen), and the name marshal was introduced by L. Tressan in his large variant The Sultan's Game. José Raúl Capablanca used both in his large variant Capablanca chess: he originally called this piece the marshal, but later changed this to chancellor. Coincidentally, chancellor was his original name for the archbishop. Both chancellor and marshal are popular names for the rook+knight compound, although a case could be made for marshal as the word is related to mare (female horse) and thus fits better for a piece that can move like a knight than chancellor, which has no connection to horses. Also, there are many commonly used chess pieces that, like chancellor, begin with C (e.g. the cannon in xiangqi, the camel in Tamerlane Chess, the champion in Omega Chess, and the cardinal or archbishop), and using the name marshal for the rook+knight compound would reduce this difficulty.

The name empress is more widely used among problemists. By analogy with the queen, which is a rook+bishop compound, it was decided that the three basic combinations of the three simple chess pieces (rook, knight, and bishop) should all be named after female royalty. Since the rook+knight compound seemed to be obviously stronger than the bishop+knight compound (as the rook is stronger than the bishop), the name empress was used for the rook+knight compound and the bishop+knight compound was called the princess. However, the bishop+knight compound can get (but not force) checkmate of a lone king by itself (with the king in a corner and the attacking archbishop two squares diagonally away), while the rook+knight compound cannot. Worse, empress suggests a piece stronger than the queen, while this piece is at best equal to and perhaps weaker than the queen, especially in the endgame.

The chancellor was first used in Shatranj al-Kabir, a large variant of chess from around the 14th century, but its name in that game is unknown. It was introduced in the West with Carrera's chess from 1617, where it was called a champion, and has been used in many chess variants since then.

Value

abcdefgh
8
f8 white king
h7 black king
f5 white chancelor
8
77
66
55
44
33
22
11
abcdefgh
White to move can mate in one with 1. (RN)h4#.

Ralph Betza (inventor of chess with different armies, in which the chancellor was used in one of the armies) rated the chancellor as about nine points, equivalent to a queen, as the knight and bishop were about equal and the chancellor and queen were simply the knight and bishop with the power of a rook added to both. He noted that the queen may be slightly stronger than the chancellor in the endgame, but that the chancellor, on the other hand, has a great ability to give perpetual check and save a draw in an otherwise lost game. Unlike the queen, which can move in 8 different directions, the chancellor can move in 12.

In the endgame of king and amazon (queen+knight compound) versus king and chancellor, the weaker side may force a draw by setting up a fortress. These fortresses force the side with the amazon to give perpetual check, as otherwise the side with the chancellor can force a simplification or give its own perpetual check. King and chancellor versus king is a forced win for the side with the chancellor; checkmate can be forced within 11 moves. In comparison, the queen requires 10 moves and the rook requires 16.

The drawing positions in the queen versus pawn endgame do not exist in the chancellor versus pawn endgame.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Less common names the piece has acquired include admiral, cannon, champion, colonel, concubine, count, dabbaba, duke, guard, lambeth, lord chancellor, marshall, princess, samurai, superrook, tank, visier, and wolf.[1]

Citations

  1. ↑ Pritchard, D. B. (1994), "Pieces", The Encyclopedia of Chess Variants, Games & Puzzles Publications, p. 227, ISBN 0-9524142-0-1 

Bibliography

 
Orthodox pieces
Fairy pieces
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