Top 10 forgotten pieces! Chess variants of history

Welcome to the top 10 forgotten chess pieces! We visit several historic chess variants.

Chess has had a long evolution, and the pieces that we are used to today did not just arrive fully formed as we know them.
Many varied and exotic pieces have battled it out on chess boards all across time and space.
This list is a list of my favourites, ordered from weakest to strongest.

10. Elephant / Al-fil
9. Ferz / Advisor / Minister
8. Jester / Wazir / Schleich
7. The Man
6. Lion
5. Centaur / Princess / Archbishop
4. Unicornio
3. Empress / Chancellor
2. Aanca
1. Amazon

Some chess variants featured in this video:
Shatranj
Grande Acedrex
Capablanca Chess

Here are two very old games of Shatranj, featuring the Elephant and the Ferz, that I have covered in the past:

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50 Comments

  1. NOT THE TOWERS OH GOD NOT THE TOWERS ๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€

  2. NIce video. For further reading: A World of Chess, McFarland, 2017.

  3. There is also the citadel from Mongolian variant of chess.

  4. in Russian bishops still called elephants too

  5. 2:33 in iran we still call bishops and queen elephant and vezir(Minister)

  6. I could have sworn I heard somewhere that the Elephant was a rook.

  7. Where is the artillery? Move like a rook and capture by jump over a pieces.

  8. Overkill Ecumenical Chess has most power full piece in chess history which has a piece which called actress which has combination of queen , knight and camel or we say combination of amazon and camel .Move of camel like long knight.

  9. Interesting that in Russian we name bishop elephan, and queen is ferz

  10. That joke in the beginning made me choke on my saliva.

  11. Hey im turkish and normally we are still calling the queen "vezir" and vezir is the prime assistant of the emperor and also we still call the bishop elephant in our language and we call the knight as horse and the rook as castle

  12. I've played some Shahtranj with Fairy Stockfish. The elephant is incredibly weak, even more than the pawn. The easiest way to win the game, BTW, is simply to bare the board except the king, then you just win. It's got a somewhat different feel than modern chess, more like playing with alot of pawns, as most of the pieces have limited movement.

  13. Its a shame that we can't use these old pieces in a way that allows for a custom strategy chess game.

  14. Sir Fil ููŠู„ is Bishop called in Sundhi , Urdu,Wazir ูˆุฒูŠุฑ is Queen . These are not literal translations but different names od exactly same pieces

  15. Man you are criminally underrated. Love your videos, earned a sub

  16. Compare bishop to most piece (except all rook variant since they're the same)they are actually very powerful even though bishop isn't very likely piece accord to me but I'd say it's very powerful

  17. Would be interesting to play some variant with all 16 pieces.

  18. wait,doesnt the jester move like the last piece that the oppositting player moved?

  19. most of these pieces seem either extremely weak or terrifyingly powerful

  20. Whatโ€™s the name of the program youโ€™re using ?

  21. The joke is really distasteful. Especially if you lost a loved one during 9/11. I didn't find that reference very funny at all. Anyways modern chess still has some of these pieces but it's in variants. Xiangqi, Makruk, and Seirawan Chess. So not all are forgotten just in other variants.

  22. So basically the unicorno is a queen in steroids

  23. People say that Americans are bad at chess until they see them saccing 2 rooks to checkmate bin laden

  24. Thanks mam found it really informative.. and had a good glimpse of history.. would seek to see more of your contents

  25. I've always wanted to play chess with new pieces, is there anywhere I can play something like what you played?

  26. I donโ€™t know what was more effed up that joke or me laughing

  27. The Amazon isn't the only piece that can mate the king with no help, The archbishop does aswell!

  28. I like how this game started from one leap moves and arrived to pieces able to cover half the board by themselves

  29. The elephant is exactly the same as the ่ฑก in Chinese chess. And ่ฑก means elephant in Chinese. I just made the connection that the piece is literally called the elephant thanks to your video. I always thought it was another way to say bishop in Chinese or something. I guess this ties into the evolution of chess as it evolved differently in the East and the west.

  30. I rated this vid 9/11Fairy Pieces XBetza notation, value on 8×8 board0:34 Alfil (A): 1 pawn1:50 Ferz (F): 150 centipawn2:54 Wazir (W): 1 pawn (less than Ferz cuz Ferz has more forwardness, tho Wazir is better than Ferz in the endgame)4:37 Mann (K): 3 pawn5:36 Lion (CH): 4 pawn (it lacks of short moves)6:38 Archbishop (NB): 7 pawn7:56 Manticore (ympafsW): 750 centipawn (color altenator so it don't have mating potential)9:10 Chancellor (NR): 9 pawn10:02 Gryphon (FyafsF): 8 pawn (less than Queen cuz it's first step is shared)10:56 Amazon (QN): 13 pawnAlso how 'bout forgotten fairy chess problem pieces?Such as Zebrarider, Non-stop Equihopper, Vao, Rose, Moa, Contragrasshopper, Friend, Chameleon, Joker, Root-50 Leaper, Kangaroo, Loa, Mao-hopper, Andernach Grasshopper, etc

  31. Elephant (feel) is still the name for the bishop in arabic, and wazeer is the queen. Wow.

  32. All invented by the spoilt kids who couldn't win a single match with the previous pieces I bet ๐Ÿ˜‚

  33. Man that joke at the start caught me off guard๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€๐Ÿ’€

  34. when Chinese Chess restricts the "elephant" and the "ferz ( commonly known as advisors)" even farther

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