The Laquear is a bifurcation piece. It moves by colliding diagonally against any piece, and then deviating to any of the two adjacent orthogonals (in the prolonged movement direction). But it captures like a bishop by jumping directly to the enemy piece, provided that any intermediate squares are empty. The Laquear also moves by colliding with the margin. In this case there is only one movement direction available. The Laquear's value is 3, that is, the same as bishop or knight. Other rules are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Laquear. As it can capture by coordinating with another piece, the Laquear is a highly cooperative piece, something which makes it interesting for the positional player. The structure on the board decides its possibilities. The Laquear's capacity to collide with the margin is an important capacity. Laquear Chess can also be played with Kwaggas instead of knights (see Bodyguard Chess). Laquear Chess, and the new Laquear piece, were invented by undersigned, October 2006.
The Laquear (lat. laquearius) was a gladiator type in ancient Rome that was equipped with a lasso and a lance.
The Laquear can move in two legs, the first is a bishop slide and the second is an orthogonal collision-move. Captures occurs diagonally (red = capture).
The Laquear's movement principle. The screens, that are used for colliding, occur anywhere on the first leg. Should the screen be an enemy piece then it could be captured.
• You can download my free Laquear Chess program here (updated 2007-02-04), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it (I recommend the download version).
• Don't miss my other chess variants.
© M. Winther (October 2006).
