Piececlopedia: Zebra

Historical notes

The Zebra is a fairly well known fairy chess piece, and has appeared in chess variants under different names. In Mideast Chess, for example, it is called the Courtier.

Movement

The Zebra is a (3,2)-leaper, i.e., it moves (with or without taking) three squares horizontally and two vertically, or two squares horizontally and three vertically. Like a Knight in chess, it jumps — it can move regardless whether the intervening squares are occupied or not.

Checkmating

The Zebra cannot inflict checkmate on a rectangular board with only assistance of its own King, and is thus a minor piece. Even with a pair of Zebras you cannot force checkmate on a bare King, but paired with another minor this is sometimes possible. Try it on a 9x9 board (where all corners have the shade the Ferz is on, which makes it easier than on 8x8, where it is in general not possible to force mate with Zebra and Ferz)!