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The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games.

Piececlopedia: Fibnif

Historical notes

AI Concept Art of this piece as a Knight with a Lance

The Fibnif is a `combination chess piece', introduced by Ralph Betza in 1996. The name comes from fbNF: a Knight (N) that can move forwards and backwards, but not sidewards, combined with a Ferz. In an attempt to get rid of nonsensical names derived from Betza move notation, the alternative name Lancer has been proposed.

Movement

The Lancer can either move one square diagonally, or can make a jump consisting of two squares vertically and one square horizontally: i.e., from the eight possible jumps a knight can make, the Lancer can make four.

Movement diagram

The Lancer can jump to all the squares marked with a circle.








Checkmating

The Lancer cannot inflict checkmate on a rectangular board with only assistance of its own King, and is thus a minor piece. But a pair of them can force checkmate on a bare King. Try it!

This is an item in the Piececlopedia: an overview of different (fairy) chess pieces.
Written by Hans Bodlaender.
WWW page created: March 20, 2001. Last Updated: April 10, 2025.