Baroque Chess - Pieces

Pieces

The names of the pieces and rules for movement are as follows:

• The King moves and captures like a standard chess King. The objective of the game is to capture the opposing king. Fast play with a chess clock usually makes declaration of checkmate a very rare thing to achieve in actual face to face play.
• The pawns - or pincers, as it were - move like standard chess Rooks. A pawn captures any opposing piece horizontally or vertically between the square to which the pawn moved and a friendly piece (i.e. there may be no gaps between any of the three pieces). This is considered a custodial form of capture because it has been likened to two men coming up on the sides of the person to be seized, and taking hold of his arms to carry him off. Pawns never capture diagonally, only horizontally or vertically.

The remaining pieces all move like standard chess queens, but have unique methods of capture.

• The Withdrawer (or Retreater), represented by the Queen, captures by moving directly away from an adjacent piece.

• The long-leapers, represented by the Knights, capture by jumping over an opposing piece in a straight line. A long-leaper may make multiple captures in the same line as long as each piece is jumped independently. Those variants of Baroque prohibiting multiple leaps call this piece the Leaper, and restrict it to capturing the first enemy piece it encounters, provided the next space is empty or open. It appears that the choice between a Long-Leaper and a Single-Leaper tends to affect game play by encouraging "hunkering down" and overdefending pieces, and allowing pieces to spread across the board more, with less attention to bulky blockades.

• The Coordinator, represented by the unmarked Rook, captures any opposing piece that is on either of the two squares found at a) the intersection of its own file and the King's rank, and b) the intersection of the King's file and its own rank; these are found after the Coordinator has moved.

• The Immobilizer, represented by the inverted Rook, does not capture anything, but immobilizes all adjacent enemy pieces.

• The Imitators (or Chameleons), represented by the Bishops, capture any piece by moving as a piece of the type captured would have moved to capture. Also Imitators or Chameleons immobilize enemy Immobilizers to which they are adjacent. Imitators cannot capture Imitators. In order for an Imitator to capture an enemy King, it must begin its turn adjacent to it, and step into its square. This is because the King is the only piece on the board that steps one square at a time, and captures by 'occupation' and 'replacement' - stepping into the enemy's square to capture it.

Diagrammed examples are indispensable to understanding the rules.