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This page is written by the game's inventor, Bob Greenwade. This game is a favorite of its inventor.

Short Sliders

(and the Leapers Who Love Them)

That's a lot of pieces for a bunch that don't move very far. But there's a method to my madness (as well as vice versa).

I was so used to the traditional Pawn promotion in chess that I had a hard time figuring out how some pieces (especially in Shogi and other games) could promote more than once. I managed to wrap my brain around it, though, and I immediately thought of this.

Short Sliders (and the Leapers Who Love Them) features pieces that are just exactly that: they're limited to sliding only a certain number of spaces. They may start with just one or two, but they graduate to half-board, and some reach the unlimited slides that we're used to seeing.

Setup

The game is played on a board 12 spaces wide by 16 spaces deep.

Each player gets four rows of twelve pieces each. To start out with the traditional 50% of squares empty, there are sixteen rows, but twelve columns.

The back row (Royal Row) is: Short Rook, Knight, Short Bishop, Magus, Guard, Lady-in-Waiting, King, Guard, Wizard, Short Bishop, Knight, Short Rook (Black is mirrored)

Second row: Dolphin, Walrus, Leon, Hospitaller, Jackal, Templar, Templar, Jackal, Hospitaller, Leon, Walrus, Dolphin

Third row: Marquis, Kirin, Priest, Phoenix, Archer, Satrap, Satrap, Archer, Phoenix, Priest, Kirin, Marquis

Fourth row (Pawn Row): Four Pawns, Four Berolina Pawns, Four Pawns

Pieces

The pieces are as described below.

Starting Lineup

Archer: Moves three spaces diagonally, or rifle-captures (that is, captures a piece without moving) at (1,2).

Berolina Pawn: Moves forward one space diagonally, or captures one space directly forward. As an opening move, may move forward two spaces diagonally. Promotes to a captured starter under the exact same rules as a regular Pawn.

Dolphin: Moves up to three spaces orthogonally; may leap to the second or third space, but only to capture.

Guard: Moves one space in any direction. Promotes to Bodyguard.

Hospitaller: Leaps two spaces diagonally, or (1,2). Promotes to Healer.

Jackal: Leaps three spaces diagonally, or (2,3). Promotes to Bongo.

King: Royal piece moving one space in any direction.

Kirin: Moves one space diagonally, or leaps two spaces orthogonally. Promotes to Tiger.

Knight: As in standard Chess, leaps (1,2). Promotes to Gnu.

Lady in Waiting: Moves up to six spaces either diagonally or orthogonally. Promotes to Queen.

Leon (Spanish Lion): Leaps three spaces orthogonally, or (1,3). Promotes to Serval.

Magus: Moves one square orthogonally, or leaps (2,3). Promotes to Thaumaturge if the Wizard has been captured.

Marquis: Moves one space orthogonally, or leaps (1,2). Promotes to Minister.

Pawn: Moves forward one space directly, or captures one space forward diagonally. As an opening momve, may move directly forward two spaces. Promotes to a captured starter.

Phoenix: Moves one space orthogonally, or leaps two spaces diagonally. Promotes to Elephant.

Priest: Moves one space diagonally, or leaps (1,2). Promotes to High Priest.

Satrap: Moves one space diagonally normally, one space orthogonally without capturing, or two spaces orthogonally only to capture.

Short Bishop: Moves up to six spaces diagonally. Promotes to Bishop.

Short Rook: Moves up to six spaces orthogonally. Promotes to Rook.

Templar: Moves two spaces orthogonally, or leaps (1,2). Promotes to Crusader

Walrus: Moves up to three spaces diagonally; may leap to the second or third space, but only to capture.

Wizard: Moves one square diagonally, or leaps (1,3). Promotes to Thaumaturge if the Magus has been captured.

First Promotions

Bishop: As in standard Chess, moves diagonally until an obstacle is reached. Promotes to Archbishop.

Bodyguard: Moves one or two spaces diagonally or orthogonally. Also, any sliding piece that enters any adjacent space immediately stops, and can only move one space as long as it's next to the Bodyguard. (This is called the Hia power, after the original Mongolian name for the piece, and does not affect leaping moves.)

Bongo: Leaps two or three spaces diagonally, or (2,3) or (3,4).

Crusader: Moves to any adjacent space, or leaps two or three spaces orthogonally or (1,2).

Elephant: Moves up to six spaces diagonally, or one space orthogonally. Promotes to Little Buffalo.

Gnu: Leaps (1,2) or (1,3). Promotes to Buffalo.

Healer: Moves to any adjacent space, or leaps two or three spaces diagonally or (1,2).

High Priest: Moves one space or leaps two spaces diagonally, or leaps (1,2). Promotes to Abbot.

Minister: Moves one space or leaps two spaces diagonally, or leaps (1,2). Promotes to Castellan.

Queen: As in standard Chess, moves any number of spaces diagonally or orthogonally. Promotes to Empress.

Serval: Leaps two or three spaces orthogonally, or (1,3) or (1,4).

Thaumaturge: Moves to any adjacent space, or leaps (1,3) or (2,3).

Tiger: Moves up to six spaces orthogonally, or one space diagonally. Promotes to Unicorn.

Rook: As in standard Chess, moves any number of spaces orthgonally. Promotes to Chancellor.

Second Promotions

Abbot: Moves up to six spaces diagonally, or leaps (1,2).

(Big) Buffalo: Leaps (1,2), (1,3), or (2,3).

Castellan: Moves up to six spaces orthogonally, or leaps (1,2).

Kuhani: Moves any distance diagonally, or leaps (2,3).

Little Buffalo: Moves up to six spaces diagonally, one orthogonally, or leaps (1,2).

Malkia: Moves any distance diagonally or orthogonally, or leaps (2,3).

Mtawala: Moves any distance orthogonally, or leaps (2,3).

Unicorn: Moves up to six spaces orthogonally, one diagonally, or leaps (1,2).

Table of two-promotion pieces
Start Symbol Move 1st Promo Symbol Move 2nd Promo Symbol Move
Kirin Kr FD Tiger Ti R6F Unicorn U R6FN
Knight N N Gnu Gn NC (Big) Buffalo Bf NCZ
Lady in Waiting L Q6 Queen Q Q Malkia Mk QZ
Marquis Mq NW Minister Mn WDN Castellan Cs R6N
Phoenix Ph WA Elephant E B6W Little Buffalo Bl B6WN
Priest Pr FN High Priest Hp FAN Abbot Ab B6N
Short Bishop Bs B6 Bishop B B Kuhani Kh BZ
Short Rook Rs R6 Rook R R Mtawala Mt RZ
Table of one-promotion pieces
Start Symbol Move Promo Symbol Move
Guard G K Bodyguard Bg K2 (+)
Hospitaller H AN Healer Hl KANG
Jackal J GZ Bongo Bo AGZNY
Leon Ln CH Serval Sv DCHFX
Magus M WZ Thuamaturge Th KCZ
Wizard W FC
Templar T DN Crusader C KDNH
List of other pieces
Name Symbol Move
Archer A B3cabN
Berolina Pawn Pb mfFcfeWinmfA
Dolphin D R3cDcH
King K KirO2ilO3
Pawn P mfWcfeFinmfD
Satrap S FmWcnD
Walrus Wl B3cAcG

+ Plus the Hia power, as described above.

Rules

Most rules are normal, except as otherwise stated. Victory comes through checkmate or bare king; stalemate is a draw.

Castling

Castling is pretty much normal, between the King and one of the Short Rooks and subject to the same restrictions (about the lane being clear, the King and Short Rook having not yet moved, and such). The King moves to the space where a Guard started, and the Short Rook moves to the space just inside the King (where the Wizard or Magus started).

Pawns

Other than how they move, Berolina Pawns are treated exactly the same as standard Pawns in all respects. They are equally subject to, and capable of, en passant capture, and use the exact same promotion rules (below).

Promotion

Pawns may promote upon reaching the opponent's Pawn Row to the starting version of any piece that the opponent has captured. The promotion is optional at that point. A Pawn that holds out and reaches the opponent's Royal Row may promote to a first-promotion piece, if the piece was captured that way (or as a second-promotion piece).

Other pieces that promote only promote to specific pieces. First promotion occurs when capturing an opponent piece (other than a Pawn), or upon reaching the opponent's Pawn Row. Second promotion, if any, only occurs upon capture of another promoted piece.

The Guard is promoted to Bodyguard only upon capture of an opponent other than a Pawn.

The Magus and Wizard are another special case: either can promote to Thaumaturge, but only if the other has been captured. (A Pawn can later Promote to the captured piece, but that piece cannot promote to Thaumaturge while there's already one on the board.)

Notes

The pieces listed here as moving six spaces are extended to fit the larger size of the board; on a standard 8x8 board, their moves are (or would be) four spaces. Similarly, the Archer would only move two spaces diagonally on an 8x8 (or 10x10) board.

I've tried to keep the game as symmetrical as possible; other than the Pawns, Archer, and Satrap, every piece has either a circular move or a counterpart whose move is turned 45 degrees, and (except for the Magus and Wizard) has a parallel promotion sequence. Also, all promotions feature only increases in abilities, other than a couple of cases where a two-space leaper becomes a six-space slider. There are a lot of different pieces in this game (44, by my count), and it's too much to expect players to keep track of a bunch of more-or-less random pieces.

Pieces created for this game (or otherwise appearing here first, as far as I know, since I couldn't find them anywhere else) include the Bongo, Castellan, Crusader, Healer, Jackal, Kuhani, Lady in Waiting, Little Buffalo, Magus, Malkia, Mtawala, Serval, Short Bishop, Thaumaturge, and Walrus. (The Archer -- at least, my version of it -- previously appeared in Vanguard Chess.)

The Kuhani, Mtawala, and Malkia are Zebra-based equivalents to the Archbishop, Chancellor, and Amazon. These pieces -- their names being Swahili for "Priest," "Administrator," and "Queen," respectively -- were chosen because Knight's moves are used with so many of the other pieces; just throwing in Arabic pieces (Caliph, Canvasser, and Sultana) would seem perfunctory; and I believe that the world needs more celebration of the cultures of sub-Saharan Africa.

While the Little Buffalo is the only piece with the word "Little" in its name here, I still think of the Elephant, Tiger, and Unicorn as having that word, since there are other pieces by those names running around with (mostly) bigger moves. The Buffalo just happens to be the only one whose "Big" counterpart is in this game.


This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Bob Greenwade.

Last revised by Bob Greenwade.


Web page created: 2023-08-08. Web page last updated: 2023-10-22

Revisions of MSshortsliders