unfortunately i can't make a thing that lets you play chess with custom pieces. thats a lifelong goal of mine but so far not achieved
for now on this page i will be highlighting as many fairychess/unorthodox chess pieces as i possibly can. these are sourced from all sorts of places - chess problems, older versions of chess, custom versions like capablanca, overseas versions like shogi or xiangqi, things from the game Ouroboros King, and stuff i made up :3
posts will not be consistent - weekdays maybe, weekends unlikely.
these are all variations of the knight!
the camel moves as a knight but moves over 3 spaces instead of 2 before shifting over 1, in a longer L
the zebra moves as a camel but shifts over 2, in a bigger L
the nightrider makes an unlimited number of knight moves in one direction
the zigzag nightrider is a variant of nightrider that makes alternating knight moves to move in one direction in a roughly straight line, up & down or left & right. difficult to explain exactly. it zigzags!
the giraffe is a long knight, moving 4 spaces up and 1 over.
the buffalo, also called the superknight, is a piece that moves as a camel, knight, zebra, and giraffe.
the horse, also called the wooden horse or the wooden knight, is my name for the knight as it appears in shogi. it moves as a knight, but only forwards. it promotes to either a knight or a promoted horse upon reaching the back rank depending on preference. the promoted horse moves the same as shogi's gold general.
the deacon is a piece made by me for my custom chess variant called "rainchess". the deacon moves up to 4 squares like a bishop. however, it can bounce at 45-degree angles from the sides of the board.
in the assymetric variant of rainchess, clergy rainchess, the deacon can not move backwards, and pawns, footsoldiers, and serfs (will go over serfs and footsoldiers at some point) cannot promote to deacon. the deacon, however, can promote to archbishop (called the rainarchbishop occasionally, to distinguish from other pieces given that name) at the end of the board. the archbishop moves like a bishop but can bounce off the edges of the board (once) like a deacon.
not integrated into any variant of chess, the cardinal is a hypothetical piece that moves like an archbishop but can bounce either two or an unlimited number of times.
these are 3 also rather simple and very old pieces common in chess problems and variants, all combining the movement of different pieces
also known as the archbishop, cardinal, or simply "bishop-knight compound", the princess moves like a bishop - diagonally any number of spaces - or a knight - two spaces cardinally, then over one. in a version of chess made by Pietro Carerra in the 1600s, it was called the "centaur". José Capablanca called it the archbishop in his Capablanca Chess, which also included the empress as the "chancellor".
these are 5 very basic fairy chess pieces, very common in chess problems. each one has fairly simple movement.
the mann (plural mannen) or simply the man (plural men) moves like the king, but is not royal. it cannot castle or be checked/checkmated
the ferz, also called the fers, moves one space diagonally in any direction. it and the wazir split the king's moves in two. it was called the "minister" or "counsellor" in older versions of chess, and in Tamerlane Chess, one of the earliest known variants, included it and the wazir instead of what would later become the queen. the ferz was also once called the queen before the modern piece was created.
the wazir, vazir, or vizier moves one space cardinally in any direction, and when combined with a ferz makes a mann. its name roughly translates to "minister" or "judge".
the alfil, alpil, fil, pil, or elephant jumps two spaces diagonally in any direction, bypassing any pieces in the way. its movement means it can only ever access 8 squares of the chessboard - it would take 8 alfils to access all of the squares.
the dabbaba, also spelled dabaaba or dabbabah, also called the "war machine", is similar to the alfil but jumps two spaces cardinally. this piece can only access 16 of the squares due to being twice-colorbound.
it wouldn't be right to call the western chess pieces not technically unorthodox, as there is no such thing as an orthodox chess piece. however, since western chess is the variant i know best (and it is for most of the people who will be reading this, i imagine) i will group them together and call it a day :3
a basic piece that moves one space cardinally or diagonally. if threatened by another piece (check), it must be moved. in a position where it can't be moved out of check, the opponent wins (checkmate). in a position where it is not in check, but cannot move without entering check, it is a stalemate and neither player wins. capable of castling - if neither the king nor a rook have moved, then the king may do a special move (queenside ("long") or kingside)
arguably the most basic piece in western chess, moves any number of spaces vertically or horizontally. castling is a thing but thats explained above.
moves any number of spaces diagonally. can only ever stand on squares of its own color, as such there is a "dark-squared bishop" and "light-squared bishop".
moves like a rook or a bishop (diagonally or cardinally). the strongest piece available
jumps two spaces in any cardinal direction and then over one at a 90 degree angle (an L shape). only piece in western chess capable of jumping. it is also the best piece for forking, as it can't be threatened by any piece it attacks other than another knight
fitting that the most abundant piece is also the most confusing. a pawn moves one space forward, but on its first move it may move two (two-step move). it can only capture diagonally in front of it. if another pawn moves two spaces forward in such a way that the pawn could have captured it if it had only moved once, it may still capture as if it did (en passant, "in passing"). if it reaches the back rank (1 for black, 8 for white) then it can promote and become a queen, knight, rook, or bishop. promoting to a rook or bishop is impractical but very rarely it is useful to "underpromote" to avoid stalemate. occasionally knights are useful to have, but in 90% of cases a queen is optimal.