218. Tarantula. A recent, brief discussion about the new S and T atoms in XBetza (shortenings, respectively, for AD and GH) led to a suggestion that they could be called Spider and Tarantula. While I find the suggestion elegant, there are already other Spider pieces (including one that I posted just last week), not to mention that the S already is known as the Alibaba; and the T by itself is fairly useless (outside of fairy chess problems), since it's only able to reach one-ninth of the board's spaces.
But of course the T doesn't have to stand by itself. The T part lets the piece leap three spaces orthogonally or diagonally; add a K, and it can also step to any adjancent square. (KT)
From the middle of a standard 8x8 board, this Tarantula can reach any square in two steps. This "amphibian" effect (even though a tarantula is an arachnid) makes this piece more powerful than a Rook -- according to the Play-Test Applet, it's on par with a Gnu or Unicorn.
While this model superficially resembles the Spider, it's noticeably larger in every respect, so the two should have no problem sharing a board.
218. Tarantula. A recent, brief discussion about the new S and T atoms in XBetza (shortenings, respectively, for AD and GH) led to a suggestion that they could be called Spider and Tarantula. While I find the suggestion elegant, there are already other Spider pieces (including one that I posted just last week), not to mention that the S already is known as the Alibaba; and the T by itself is fairly useless (outside of fairy chess problems), since it's only able to reach one-ninth of the board's spaces.
But of course the T doesn't have to stand by itself. The T part lets the piece leap three spaces orthogonally or diagonally; add a K, and it can also step to any adjancent square. (KT)
From the middle of a standard 8x8 board, this Tarantula can reach any square in two steps. This "amphibian" effect (even though a tarantula is an arachnid) makes this piece more powerful than a Rook -- according to the Play-Test Applet, it's on par with a Gnu or Unicorn.
While this model superficially resembles the Spider, it's noticeably larger in every respect, so the two should have no problem sharing a board.