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Lion Chess[Subject Thread] [Add Response]

H. G. Muller wrote on Wed, May 15, 2013 10:27 AM UTC:

I wonder why the Chu Shogi Lion is not more often used in Chess variants,
as it is such an interesting piece. I am thinking of adding support for a
Chess variant that features it in WinBoard. A modest variant to allow
pwople to get acquainted with the Lion would be in the tradition of
Archbishop Chess - Chancellor Chess - Amazon Chess, where you simply
replace the Queen by the mentioned unorthodox piece. What would you think
of the following variant?

Lion Chess:

The rules are as in FIDE Chess, except that instead of Queens the players
start with Lions (L) on d1 and d8. A Lion can be moved as a King twice per
turn (even if both moves are captures). It can also stop after a single
King step, or directly jump to any square it could have reached on an empty
board by two King steps (this includes all Knight moves).

There is a special rule to make trading of the Lions (and thus quickly
convert to a rather dull end-game of orthodox Chess) almost impossible:
You are not allowed to put your Lion 'in check' when it captures the opponent's Lion. And you are not allowed to capture a Lion in the move following the one your own Lion was captured.

Pawns cannot promote to Lion, but they can promote to Queen (as well as
under-promote to R, B, N).