A Critical Analysis of the Guard in Chess

In the beginning you state that by "guard" you mean a piece that moves as a King. I think it's incorrect to cite pieces like the Shi in Xiangqi or the Dabbabah in Courier as examples, since they move differently (the Shi may be called "Guard", but it is a Ferz. The Dabbabah isn't even called a guard).

However, a non-royal King is an interesting piece. It has mating potential against a lone king, and it can draw against a Queen (if it can be defended by the defending King there is no way for the Queen to force them apart).

Spartan Chess effectively has this piece (it has two kings, but the special checking moves in that variant practically makes them non-royal while they are both on the board). In that game its value is higher, just below a Rook at 4.5. This is at least partly due to the increase in king safety it provides.

You're right that the Shi and Dabbabah don't always move like a king (probably usually not). But according to: http://www.chessvariants.com/historic.dir/shkam2.html in the game of Shatranj Kamil "War machines (or dabbabahs) move like kings (one square in an arbitrary direction) but are not affected by check."

And probably a Shi is not best translated as "guard" into English. But this source: http://primaltrek.com/xiangqi.html says "The xiangqi piece at the left has the Chinese character shi (仕) which can translate as an official or government servant. In English, this piece is variously referred to as a guard, advisor, counselor, minister or warrior." You say Ferz so that's another name. (it sounds like you know what you're talking about!)

I do like the idea of two kings in Spatan Chess. I've never played it but sounds really interesting!

Thank you for your comments!

Previously  Guards of Waterloo were placed classically at the center. But variant turned out unsuccessful. So I transfer later Gs to flank and that was fortunate. I got a perfect variant. The meaning of the title Guard is now as Elite. 

Wikipedia: "The Imperial Guard was originally a small group of elite soldiers of the French Army under the direct command of Napoleon".

So your guard in Waterloo is like an "Elite Guard" (that's how I think of it). I am studying the rules - it looks really challenging and interesting.

When you say "The king moves by N mode" does that mean he can move to all squares in this diagram?

That's probably a good idea because the board is bigger so travelling more will help him. I think I might like to try Waterloo sometime!

That was my fault. The last party demonstrates that the Waterloo with a classical king and with a double castling is better (the idea of BattleChessGN18).

Double castling was never my idea; it has always been yours, my friend. ^-^

I was the one who merely suggested adding castling back into your variant. Ultimately, however, the idea and invention of it was yours and your own.

You have to give yourself more credit.

do it!

Hey, I am making my own chess variant! Can I have a guard in the spiked rook design, but with a transparent background? And also have both a black and a white, of course.

Unfortunately the graphics software I use (MS paint) doesn't produce transparent backgrounds. So I only have the guard (black and white pieces) shown on light and dark squares. You should be able to just lift the images from here:

I also have a large version, but it is only white, on the white background. You can resize this to any size you'd like, and maybe you can convert the image to black and white pieces, with a transparent background, or whatever else you need.

Btw, some of us have noticed that since the guard has a big "body", it's pretty easy to blank out its torso and put another symbol in there to make it into new pieces. This outline has been used as a Joker (adding a "J" in its body) and also a Builder (adding a "B" in its body). The jokers are in this collection:

Good luck with your game! I'll watch these forums to see if anything new is ever created!

Hi man

I noticed that you use MS Paint, I only use that for pasting in screenshots.

Here is a link to a free online graphics editor that I have been using for years.

Note that I don't know all the features, there is a lot of stuff you can do.

You can say open a graphic as .xxx then crop (cut out) resize shade etc etc then save as .png

http://pixlr.com/editor/

Here is picture of Chess Variant Kits suitable for representing "Guard" piece. 

http://www.chessvariants.com/d.photo/hos-cv-kits/

 This was very interesting to read.

What is double castling?

Thanks for reading about (my) interpretation of the history of the guard.

Double-castling is a move in Waterloo. There are more pieces in the 1st ranks, so three pieces move rather than two. The marshall (or "chancellor") and the rook move in, and the king moves outward.

This move was recently played in a game of Waterloo between Ivan and me:

Black just double castled, and (if) White moves the "superqueen" off f1, then White would be able to double-castle too.

Note this game also has "Elite Guards" (stronger than normal guards), and another piece called "spies" (move as guards in other games). But all pieces in this game are fairly easy to comprehend and I've found it fun to play. I just wish my opponent would make a move that appears to be more like a blunder.

ok, thanks for explaining. Double castling looks like a cool move. I am often against unnecessary complexity, but I like that rule.

Here is the Guard or Commoner used on "Green Chess" variant site. 

I like the graphics for the guard in Green Chess - crisp and simple.

In Waterloo, there is another type of gaurd (Elite Guard) which jumps two squares in any direction. If this type of guard captures a knight, then it becomes a "joker". This joker can capture anything in a massive 5x5 square.

Since it only shows up in this special case, it isn't seen very much. I think I've only seen it show up in a game for one move, and then was immediately captured.

This is what I've used for the joker, although the inventor (I. Kosintsev) issued it with a different graphic.

Is it possible to convert that 2D symbol into 3D character?

I also find symbol used on Green Chess decent. 

I've never seen this graphic in a 3D version and I don't have any 3D modelling software. Are you trying to use it for some particular game?