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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: Wolf

Historical notes

The Wolf is a doubly-bent rider, inspired by the Gryphon and Aanca, which are only singly-bent riders. It was invented in September 2004.

Movement

The Wolf steps one square diagonally (this move cannot be used to capture, and the Wolf cannot stop yet), then

1) Turns 45 degrees and slides as a rook, turns 45 degrees either way and steps diagonally again, finishing it's move (It must finish the move with this diagonal step, it cannot stop or capture with it's rook move)

2) Turns 90 degrees and steps another square diagonally, i.e. it makes a rook move of zero steps then proceeds normally

Since it cannot stop until it's final diagonal step, it can be considered a lame piece. On the other hand, it has a wide range of squares it can end up on in just one move, and does not have the problem the Gryphon has, being it cannot retreat the same way it moved in the first place.

As you can see from the diagram, assuming nothing is in its way, it can move to 25 squares from the center square of an 8x8 chessboard. This is less then a queen, so it shouldn't be too powerful. With a few extra moves added to it, this could well be used in a hypothetical "Tripunch with Different Armies" game.

Movement Diagram

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | X |   | X |   | X |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| X | X | . | X | . | X | X | X |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | . | . |   | . | . | . |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| X | X |   | W |   | X | X | X |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | . | . |   | . | . | . |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| X | X | . | X | . | X | X | X |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | X | . | X | . | X |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   | X |   | X |   | X |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

(W is the Wolf, dots (.) are squares that may be stepped on as it moves, X's are final destination squares)