Camel (chess)
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The camel or long knight is a fairy chess piece with an elongated knight move.[1] It can jump three squares horizontally and one square vertically or three squares vertically and one square horizontally, regardless of intervening pieces. Therefore, it is a (1,3)-leaper.[1]
History and nomenclature
The camel is a very old piece, appearing in some early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. It also appears in some modern variants, such as wildebeest chess.[1]
Value
The camel by itself is worth about two pawns (appreciably less than a knight) because of its colorboundedness and lack of sufficient freedom of movement on an 8×8 board. However, a king, a bishop, and a camel can force checkmate on a bare king, assuming that the bishop and the camel are not on the same square color;[2] a king, a knight, and a camel can usually force checkmate on a bare king, but not easily, and there are thirteen types of fortress draws;[2] lastly, a king, a camel, and a wazir can sometimes force checkmate on a bare king, but it can take up to 77 moves.[2] A king and two camels cannot checkmate a lone king, even if the camels are on different square colors.[2] While the rook versus camel endgame is usually a draw, more winning positions exist than there are in rook versus knight and rook versus bishop endgames; the longest win takes 35 moves.[2] (All endgame statistics mentioned are for the 8×8 board.)[2]
Usage and value as a component
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As a component of other pieces, the camel has about the same value as a knight (both pieces can move to at most eight squares). The camel plus ferz compound is used in Omega Chess, where it is called a wizard,[3][4] and the camel plus king compound is used in Paulovits's Game, where it is called a general.
Its long move carries the danger of unstoppable attacks in the opening and of capturing winning large amounts of material.[5] For example, if a camel plus wazir compound (LW in Betza's funny notation) replaces White's queenside rook, then White can immediately win material with 1.(LW)b4, threatening 2.(LW)e5 to win the black queen and 2.(LW)b5 to win the black rook on a8; the threats cannot both be parried.[5]
See also
- Giraffe (chess), a (1,4)-leaper
- Zebra (chess), a (2,3)-leaper
References
- ^ a b c Piececlopedia: Camel by Hans Bodlaender, The Chess Variant Pages
- ^ a b c d e f Endgame statistics with fantasy pieces Archived 2015-09-23 at the Wayback Machine by Dave McCooey, The Chess Variant pages
- ^ Dylan Loeb McClain (2007-08-19). "Giraffes, Viziers and Wizards: Variations on the Old Game". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-12.
- ^ "Omega chess"
- ^ a b DAN+, Different Augmented Knights by Ralph Betza, The Chess Variant Pages