The zebra 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 unorthodox chess problems, known as fairy chess. Compar ...

that moves like a stretched

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

. It jumps three squares horizontally and two squares vertically or three squares vertically and two squares horizontally, regardless of intervening pieces; thus, it is a (2,3)-leaper.Dickins (1971), p. 11 A lame zebra, which moves one step orthogonally and then two steps diagonally outwards and can be blocked by intervening pieces, appears as the elephant in

janggi Janggi (, also Romanization of Korean, romanized as ''changgi'' or ''jangki''), sometimes called Korean chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game popular on the Korean Peninsula. The game was derived from xiangqi (Chinese chess), and is v ...

Movement

Value

The zebra by itself is worth just below two pawns (appreciably less than a knight) due to its restricted freedom of movement on an 8×8 board. Its larger move is the main reason why it is weaker than a

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

on an 8×8 board, even though the camel is colorbound and the zebra is not. A

king King is a royal title given to a male monarch. A king is an Absolute monarchy, absolute monarch if he holds unrestricted Government, governmental power or exercises full sovereignty over a nation. Conversely, he is a Constitutional monarchy, ...

, a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, and a zebra can force

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 ...

on a

bare king In chess and chess variants, a bare king (or lone king) is a king whose player has no other remaining pieces (i.e. all the player's other pieces have been ). Effect on the game Historical In some old versions of chess, such as "baring chess" and ...

; a king, a knight, and a zebra cannot; and a king, a camel, and a zebra cannot. The rook versus zebra endgame is a win for the rook. (All endgame statistics mentioned are for the 8×8 board.) As a component of other pieces, the zebra has about the same value as the knight (both pieces can move to eight squares). Its long move carries the danger of causing unstoppable attacks in the

opening Opening may refer to: Types of openings * Hole * A title sequence or opening credits * Grand opening of a business or other institution * Inauguration * Keynote * Opening sentence * Opening sequence * Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...

and winning large amounts of

material A material is a matter, substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an Physical object, object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical property, physical ...

. Ralph Betza opined that the zebra's move was too large to be functional on an 8×8 board and that only on a 10×10 board or larger would it be worth its ideal value of about a knight.

References

Bibliography * *
Piececlopedia: Zebra
by Hans Bodlaender, ''

The Chess Variant Pages ''The Chess Variant Pages'' is a non-commercial website devoted to chess variants. It was created by Hans Bodlaender in 1995. The site is "run by hobbyists for hobbyists" and is "the most wide-ranging and authoritative web site on chess variants". ...

''
Endgame statistics with fantasy pieces
by Dave McCooey, ''

''
Ideal and Practical Values (part 4): Odds and Ends
by Ralph Betza, ''

'' {{Chess piece Fairy chess pieces Works about zebras

Movement

Value

See also

References