The empress is a

fairy chess piece A fairy chess piece, variant chess piece, unorthodox chess piece, or heterodox chess piece is a chess piece not used in conventional chess but incorporated into certain chess variants and some chess problems. Compared to conventional pieces, fair ...

that can move like a rook or a

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the Christian denomination, church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood ...

. It cannot jump over other pieces when moving as a rook but may do so when moving as a knight. The piece has acquired many names and is frequently called chancellor or marshal. Chess moves in this article use ''C'' as notation for the empress.

Movement

The empress can move as a rook or a knight.

History and nomenclature

The empress is one of the most simply described fairy chess pieces and as such has a long history and has gone by many names. It was first used in Turkish Great Chess, a large medieval variant of chess, where it was called the ''war machine'' (dabbabah; not to be confused with the piece more commonly referred to as the dabbaba today, which is the (2,0) leaper). It was introduced in the West with Carrera's chess from 1617, where it was called a ''champion'', and has been used in many chess variants since then. The name ''chancellor'' was introduced by Ben Foster in his large variant Chancellor Chess (chess on a 9×9 board, with a chancellor on the opposite side of the king as the queen), and the name ''marshal'' was introduced by L. Tressan in his large variant The Sultan's Game.

José Raúl Capablanca José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera (19 November 1888 – 8 March 1942) was a Cuban chess player who was world chess champion from 1921 to 1927. A chess prodigy, he is widely renowned for his exceptional endgame skill and speed of play. Capabl ...

used both in his large variant

Capablanca Chess Capablanca chess (or Capablanca's chess) is a chess variant invented in the 1920s by World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca believed that chess would be played out i ...

: he originally called this piece the ''marshal'', but later changed it to chancellor. Notably, chancellor was his original name for the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

. Both chancellor and marshal are popular names for the rook+knight compound, although a case could be made for marshal, as the word is related to ''mare'' (female horse) and thus fits better for a piece that can move like a knight than chancellor, which has no connection to horses. Also, there are many commonly used chess pieces that, like chancellor, begin with ''C'' (e.g. the cannon in

xiangqi ''Xiangqi'' (; ), also called Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. ''Xiangqi'' is in the same family of games as '' shogi'', '' janggi'', Western chess, '' ...

, the

camel A camel (from: la, camelus and grc-gre, κάμηλος (''kamēlos'') from Hebrew or Phoenician: גָמָל ''gāmāl''.) is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. ...

in Tamerlane Chess, the champion in Omega Chess, and the cardinal or

princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subs ...

), and using the name marshal for the rook+knight compound would reduce this difficulty. The name ''empress'' is the most widely used name among problemists. By analogy with the

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

, which is a rook+bishop compound, it was suggested that the three basic combinations of the three simple chess pieces (rook, knight, and bishop) should all be named after female royalty. Since the rook+knight compound seemed to be obviously stronger than the bishop+knight compound (as the rook is stronger than the bishop), the name ''empress'' was used for the rook+knight compound, and the bishop+knight compound was called the ''

''. However, the word empress suggests a piece stronger than the

, while this piece is at best equal to and perhaps weaker than the queen, especially in the endgame.

Value

Ralph Betza Ralph Betza (born 1945) is a FIDE Master and inventor of chess variants such as Chess with different armies, Avalanche chess, and Way of the Knight. Invented chess variants * Multiplayer Chess (date unknown) * High-Low Chess (1968) * Strange ...

(inventor of

chess with different armies Chess with different armies (or Betza's Chess or Equal Armies) is a chess variant invented by Ralph Betza in 1979. Two sides use different sets of fairy pieces. There are several armies of equal strength to choose from, including the standard FI ...

, in which the empress was used in one of the armies) rated the empress as about nine

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Points ...

, equivalent to a queen, as the knight and bishop were about equal and the empress and queen were simply the knight and bishop with the power of a rook added to both. He noted that the queen may be slightly stronger than the empress in the endgame, but that the empress, on the other hand, has a greater ability to give perpetual checks and salvage a

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to: Common uses * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anything ...

in an otherwise lost game. Unlike the queen, which can move in 8 different directions, the empress can move in 12. In the endgame of king and

amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

(queen+knight compound) versus king and empress, the amazon usually wins, but in a few positions, the weaker side may force a draw by setting up a

fortress A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

. These fortresses force the side with the amazon to give perpetual check, as otherwise the side with the empress can force a simplification or give its own perpetual check. King and empress versus king is a forced win for the side with the empress;

checkmate Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game. In chess, the king is ...

can be forced within 11 moves. In comparison, the queen requires 10 moves, and the rook requires 16. The drawing positions in the

queen versus pawn The chess endgame of a queen versus pawn (with both sides having no other pieces except the kings) is usually an easy win for the side with the queen. However, if the pawn has advanced to its seventh rank it has possibilities of reaching a draw ...

endgame do not exist in the empress versus pawn endgame.

Examples

Many chess variants use a rook+knight compound, but due to its powerful ability, it is uncommon for variants to use more than one per colour on a normal 8×8 board. Seirawan chess uses one such piece (called an ''elephant'') per colour.

Capablanca chess Capablanca chess (or Capablanca's chess) is a chess variant invented in the 1920s by World Chess Champion José Raúl Capablanca. It incorporates two new pieces and is played on a 10×8 board. Capablanca believed that chess would be played out i ...

uses one chancellor per colour on a 10×8 board. Almost chess replaces queens with chancellors; these pieces are approximately equal in value.

Symbol

Both white and black symbols for the empress were added to version 12 of the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems. The standard, ...

standard in March 2019, in the Chess Symbols block: 🩏 U+1FA4F WHITE CHESS KNIGHT-ROOK
🩒 U+1FA52 BLACK CHESS KNIGHT-ROOK

Notes

References

Bibliography
Piececlopedia: Rook–Knight Compound
by Fergus Duniho and David Howe, '' The Chess Variant Pages''
Endgame statistics with fantasy pieces
by Dave McCooey, '' The Chess Variant Pages''
The Remarkable Rookies
(includes a section on the empress, where it appears in this army under the name ''chancellor'') by

BuyPoint Chess
by

; contains a list of pieces with approximate values
Chigorin Chess
at '' The Chess Variant Pages'' (Betza comments that the draws in the queen vs. pawn endgame are wins in the empress vs. pawn endgame)
Great Chess - Indian / Turkish variant
by Hans Bodlaender, '' The Chess Variant Pages'' {{Chess piece Fairy chess pieces