| The only difference between Elephant Chess and regular chess is that Burmese Elephants take the place of the bishops, and that the opening setup is different. The object is checkmate. The Burmese Elephant derives from Burmese Chess. It can move one step diagonally in any direction, or one step straight ahead. This piece is interesting. It has about the same value as a knight. Although it is a slow piece it also has an advantage: together with a king, or some other piece, it can sometimes give mate in the endgame. The bishop or knight can seldom achieve this. This has an impact in endings with pawns and light pieces. Unlike the bishop the Elephant can reach all squares of the board.
The second variant, Elephant Chess with Mammoth, features a Mammoth, deriving from Mammoth Chess. It takes the place of the queen. The Mammoth jumps two steps diagonally or orthogonally, or steps one square in any direction. On an 8x8 board I evaluate it to 6 points (a rook is 5). |
