Single Comment

I begin to see how the Murray Lion came about. :-)

The Pasha has re-surfaced as several pieces in the past 3 decades. After
its invention in the late 1800's [? - maybe, but unlikely; the piece had
to have been discovered over and over], it next appeared in Eric
Greenwood's Rennchess, 1980, as the Squire, that I know of. It appeared
again 4 years ago as the Kozu in Joshua Morris' Kozune and twice in my
shatranj series, in Grand and Barroom shatranj, as the Jumping General and
Jumping King. Mats Winther posted Mammoth chess about the beginning of
2006, but changed the name to Mastodon Chess, as Mammoth Chess was already
taken. Finally, this year, Ajax has the Minister, courtesy of Jose Carillo.


As I was looking over the presets for Rennchess [Renniassance Chess], I
noticed that one preset uses a squirrel with an 8-armed asterisk for the
squire piece. I suspect that many who play with this preset would turn the
Pasha into a piece that hit 24 squares unstoppably, rather than 16,
creating what I guess you'd have to call a Rennlion. 

Guess I should probably just ask Jose directly about his piece, rather than
speculating on the meaning of the 2 colors in the piece's diagram. But
this little excursion into the use of a piece has been interesting much
more for its demonstration of imperfect copying than anything else. Chess
evolution in action right before our eyes.