The Alseid moves like a queen, any distance in any direction, but it cannot capture. Instead the Alseid, when it moves away from a piece that is hidden behind a screen, has the power to kidnap it and place it where the Alseid was located before the move. Any kind of piece can function as screen. The kidnapped piece, which can be of any colour, is the second nearest piece in the opposite direction of the move. Thus the Alseid can be used for transporting friendly pieces, or dislocating enemy pieces. Friendly pawns can be brought nearer to the promotion square. Other rules are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Alseid. The Alseid's value is the same as a knight (preliminary estimate).
If it is maneuvered to good positions the Alseid is very efficient. It can kidnap enemy pieces, which can subsequently be attacked, or it can improve the positions of the friendly pieces. Broken pawn chains can be repaired. The Alseid can open files for the friendly rooks by dislocating a friendly pawn sideways. Most importantly, in the middlegame the enemy king can be kidnapped to the middle of the board, which is not a good place for it to be. Due to its mobility, combined with its low value, the Alseid is very useful as a blocking piece, while it can block enemy pawns, and the diagonals and files to enemy pieces. This piece introduces interesting new problems to the chessplayer, and will create many unusual possibilities. Alseid chess, and the new Alseid piece, were invented by undersigned, October 2006.
Note: in an alternative variant the Alseid can only kidnap a piece if it moves one step. The 'weak' Alseid can better decide whether it wants to kidnap a piece. It can avoid dragging the piece along by moving farther than one step.
The Alseids (alsos, "grove") were nymphs of glens and groves. Like the other classes of nymphs, they were extremely long-lived, although not immortal.
The Alseid moves like a queen but cannot capture. The white pawn on the knight file can be dragged to d5, and the white bishop, too. The black king can be dislocated along the diagonal.
• You can download my free Alseid Chess program here (updated 2007-09-05), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it.
• Don't miss my other chess variants.
© M. Winther 2006
