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Wazir (chess)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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d5 black pawn
c4 black circle
d4 white upside-down rook
e4 black circle
d3 black circle
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The wazir, represented by an inverted rook, may move to any marked square or capture the pawn on d5.

The wazir or vazir is a fairy chess piece that may move a single square vertically or horizontally. In notation, it is given the symbol W. In this article, the wazir is represented by an inverted rook.

Name etymology

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The name wazīr (vazir) (Arabic/Persian: وزير from Middle Persian vichir) means "minister" in several West and South Asian languages and is found in English as vizier. Wazīr (Vazir) is also the name of the queen in Arabic, Persian, and Hindi.

History and nomenclature

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The wazir is a very old piece, appearing in some very early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. The wazir also appears in some historical large shogi variants, such as in dai shogi under the name angry boar (嗔猪 shinchō). The general in xiangqi moves like a wazir but may not leave its palace or end its turn in check.

Value

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Fortress positions in the
rook vs. wazir endgame
a4b4 white rookc4 white kingd4
a3 black kingb3c3d3
a2 black upside-down rookb2c2d2
a1b1c1d1
Black to move, draw
a4b4c4 white rookd4 white king
a3b3 black kingc3d3
a2b2 black upside-down rookc2d2
a1b1c1d1
Black to move, draw

The wazir by itself is not much more powerful than a pawn, but as an additional power to other pieces, it is worth about half a knight.

Three wazirs and a king can force checkmate against a bare king and two wazirs and a king can force stalemate against a bare king, but not easily.[1]

The endgame of rook versus wazir is generally a win for the rook, but there are two drawing fortress positions for the wazir.

The ferz, despite being colorbound, is more powerful than the wazir in the opening phase of the game due to having a larger mobility.

A wazir and a ferz cannot force checkmate against a bare king unless the king is significantly close to a corner that is the same color as the square of the ferz, but the combination of a knight and a wazir, that of a camel and a wazir, and that of a giraffe (the (1,4)-leaper) and a wazir can usually do so.[2] 4.29% of the positions with knight and wazir against the bare king are fortress draws.[3]

Further reading

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  • Dickins, Anthony (1971) [Corrected repub. of 1969 2nd ed., The Q Press, Richmond, Surrey, England]. A Guide to Fairy Chess. New York: Dover Publications Inc. ISBN 0-486-22687-5.

References

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  1. ^ Kotesovec, Vaclav (2017). Fairy chess endings on an n x n chessboard (2nd ed.).
  2. ^ Kotesovec, Vaclav (June 2001). "King and two generalised knights against king". International Computer Chess Association. 24 (2).
  3. ^ "Endgame statistics with fantasy pieces". www.chessvariants.org. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
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