Piececlopedia: Raven

Historical notes

The Raven is a combined Rook and Nightrider. It is primarily a Chess problem piece, however, it does appear in Ralph Betza's game The Way of the Knight as a possible promotion. On Jérôme Grimbert's webpage on Fairy Chess pieces, this combination piece is called a Varan (another name for a Monitor Lizard).

Source: George Jellis, A Guide to Variant Chess.

Movement

The Raven combines the moves of the Rook and the Nightrider:

• As Rook, it may slide any number of squares in an orthogonal direction, as long as all but possibly the last square is empty.
• As a Nightrider it may make one or more leaps as a Knight in the same direction, as long all but possibly the last square lept to is empty.

Movement diagram

In the diagram below, the raven can slide to all the squares marked with a black circle, and leap to those squares marked with a white circle.