The Thraex is a bifurcation piece. It captures like a rook, but makes non-capturing moves in two legs by leaping orthogonally over an intervening piece and temporarily land on the empty square immediately behind the piece. From there it slides like a bishop on any of the two diagonals in the prolonged movement direction. The Thraex's value is 3, that is, the same as a bishop or knight (preliminary estimate). Other rules are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Thraex. The Thraex is dependent on 'screens' for moving, but as it can capture directly on the orthogonals it can have a positional influence also when it's unable to make non-capturing moves. Thraex chess, and the new Thraex piece, were invented by undersigned, October 2006.
The Thraex was a gladiator type in ancient Rome, which was named after warriors from Thrace. The Thraex was equipped with a broad-rimmed helmet, a small round or square-shaped shield, and two thigh-length greaves. His weapon was the Thracian curved sword, or the sica.
The Thraex can move in two legs, the first is an orthogonal slide followed by a jump, and the second is a diagonal slide. Capturing occurs orthogonally on the first leg (red = capture).
The Thraex's movement principle. The screens, that are used for leaping, occur anywhere on the first leg. Should the screen be an enemy piece it can be captured.
• You can download my free Thraex Chess program here (updated 2006-10-03), but you must own the software Zillions of Games to be able to run it.
• Don't miss my other chess variants.
© M. Winther (October 2006).
