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Cannonrider Chess. The Cannonrider moves differently depending on square colour: on white squares as a Nightrider; else as a Chinese Cannon.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
🕸Fergus Duniho wrote on Wed, Jul 19, 2006 04:10 PM UTC:
I hope to stem the misuse of the term rider before it continues. Rider is a technical term in the field of Chess variants for a piece that may make multiple leaps in the same direction and of the same distance, so long as every space it passes over is empty until it reaches its destination, which may be empty or occupied. In Chess, the Rook is a Wazir-rider, the Bishop is a Ferzrider, and the Queen is a Kingrider. Rider is not synonymous with Nightrider. This piece is so called because it is a rider of Knight leaps, a Knightrider. The K is dropped because Nightrider is already an English word that's suitable for a Chess piece. The name of Cannonrider is confusing, because first the Cannon is already a rider, at least insofar as it can move like a Rook when it's not capturing, and when it captures, it moves as a hopper, not as a simple leaper. Each rider piece is normally related to an analogous leaper, not a hopper. But I could imagine extending the use of rider to cover a piece that can make multiple moves of the same type in the same direction. For example, I could imagine a Cannonrider to be a piece that can make multiple Cannon captures on the same move, so long as there are enough screens, empty spaces, and pieces in the same line. I'm not recommending this extension of the term, but it at least seems more natural than using the term rider to refer to a specific kind of rider.

Honeybear wrote on Wed, Jul 19, 2006 04:23 PM UTC:
i agree with Fergus. The name Cannonrider is misleading. 

'Cannonightrider Elk' is more accurate, or perhaps something more
original, like maybe.. "raindeer"? 

A cannonrider is a piece that can jump over one piece and then jump
over another, but not necessarily as a multiple displacer (i.e., able to
capture or change the color of more than one piece). 

Otherwise, it's a perfectly decent game.

Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Dec 11, 2017 06:50 PM UTC:

On the page for this preset I don't understand the comment: "...In the opening, white cannot obtain any advantage by immediately moving the Cannonrider to g3, because black can guard himself indirectly by moving the c pawn (the queen-bishop pawn)." If I understand how the Cannonrider moves correctly, 1.CNg3 would be 'threatening' to capture on g8 'for free' if allowed (besides threatening mate by going to e3), and moving the c-pawn at move one (even to c5, which would be best so that d6 can be reached from b6 laterally) would do nothing to defend against this particular 'threat' (granted, once on g8 the White CN could be trapped a while, particularly if Black pushes his f-pawn, but it seems it would take quite a bit of fortune to ever win it at little cost, e.g. for just a pawn). However, Black apparently should retaliate by moving 1...CNb6 instead (which may be the only way to go for Black), defending against the mate White threatened at move 1, and thinking about winning the White Q, or the N/b1, in particular after CNxg8. If he wishes, White can then move his c-pawn to free his Q (and allow it to go to c2 to quickly mop up a Black CN on b1 for a mere pawn, if it arrives there with a capture), and then the game goes on...

Also (again if I understand the rules for the Cannonrider piece correctly), on move one White can instead apparently take the unguarded pawn on a7 for free with the Cannonrider on a1, though Black could in turn take the undefended pawn on h2 with his Cannonrider on h8. Maybe equal, but permitting an immediate trade of pawns for White would not be a particularly good way to have any given variant's setup, IMHO.
 


Kevin Pacey wrote on Mon, Dec 11, 2017 07:32 PM UTC:

I've edited my previous post.


Greg Strong wrote on Tue, Oct 25, 2022 05:38 PM UTC:

There are a couple of issues that have been raised in previous comments but haven't been addressed. It looks like Mats is still active, so it would be nice if they were addressed. If this idea has value, we should make a game page. Otherwise, this page should be hidden. (The GC games and presets would still exist.)


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