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Kevin Pacey wrote on Thu, Dec 31, 2020 06:46 PM UTC in reply to Leon Carey from Sun Dec 27 10:04 PM:

On the idea of the distinction between major/minor/pawn and heavy/middle/light, here is a diagram.

  Heavy Middle Light
Major Amazon Queen Rook
Minor Nightrider Knight Ferz
Pawn N/A Sergeant

Berolina

Interesting table, Leon. It works for normal-sized square or rectangular board shapes (although I'd be shy about calling a rook a light piece myself - a Guard would qualify better), which is what most CVs are played on. However, I'd note that for Circular Chess, a lone rook cannot normally force mate. Also, on board sizes greater than 12x12, H.G. has discovered that a Champion cannot force mate, whereas on smaller square/rectangular boards it can. Also, editor Joe Joyce has used the Guard (Man) piece type numerously (like a pawn in all but name) in at least one of his CVs, and it is a major piece normally (e.g. even on 16x12). It also goes without saying that the mate must be delivered in less than e.g. 50 moves, if that's even possible for the given board size and exact position.

https://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/man.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circular_chess#Theory

https://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/champion.html

https://www.chessvariants.com/rules/chieftain-chess

@ H.G.: For a given board size and shape, I would count a piece type as a major piece only if it can deliver mate absolutely all of the time (with the exception that the piece cannot be forced-captured by the lone K right off the mark). In the case of a Gold General this does not apply. Just to be clear, we are talking about games that do not use drops (or other such special rules, possibly).


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