Editing Baroque chess (section)

==Pieces==
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| date  = October 2017
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The names of the pieces and rules for movement are as follows:

*The king moves and captures like a standard chess [[King (chess)|king]]. There is no [[castling]]. The objective of the game is to capture the opposing king. Fast play with a [[chess clock]] usually makes declaration of checkmate a very rare thing to achieve in actual face to face play.
*The pawns (or ''pincers'' or ''squeezers'') move like standard chess [[Rook (chess)|rooks]]. A pawn captures any opposing piece horizontally or vertically between the square to which the pawn moved and a friendly piece (i.e. there may be no gaps between any of the three pieces). This is considered a ''custodial'' form of capture because it has been likened to two men coming up on the sides of the person to be seized, and taking hold of his arms to carry him off. Pawns never capture diagonally, only horizontally or vertically. It also moves the same as the pawn in [[Hasami shogi]].

The remaining pieces all move like standard chess queens, but have unique methods of capture.

*The ''Withdrawer'' (or ''Retreater''), represented by the queen, captures by moving directly away from an adjacent piece.
*The ''Long-leapers'', represented by the [[Knight (chess)|knights]], capture by jumping over an opposing piece in a straight line.  A long-leaper may make multiple captures in the same line as long as each piece is jumped independently.  Those variants of Baroque prohibiting multiple leaps call this piece the ''Leaper'', and restrict it to capturing the first enemy piece it encounters, provided the next space is empty or open.  It appears that the choice between a Long-leaper and a Single-leaper tends to affect game play by encouraging "hunkering down" and overdefending pieces, and allowing pieces to spread across the board more, with less attention to bulky blockades.{{Citation needed|date=March 2009}}
*The ''Coordinator'', represented by the unmarked rook, captures any opposing piece that is on either of the two squares found at the intersection of its own file and the king's rank, and the intersection of the king's file and its own rank; these are found after the Coordinator has moved.
*The ''Immobilizer'' (or ''Freezer''), represented by the inverted rook, does not capture anything, but immobilizes all adjacent enemy pieces.
*The ''Imitators'' (or ''Chameleons''), represented by the [[Bishop (chess)|bishops]], capture any piece by moving as a piece of the type captured would have moved to capture. Also Imitators or Chameleons immobilize enemy Immobilizers to which they are adjacent. Imitators cannot capture Imitators.  In order for an Imitator to capture an enemy king, it must begin its turn adjacent to it, and step into its square.  This is because the king is the only piece on the board that steps one square at a time, and captures by 'occupation' and 'replacement' – stepping into the enemy's square to capture it.

Diagrammed examples are indispensable to understanding the rules.

===King===
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| The king's movement
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The white king moves Kc4-d5 delivering checkmate.  Normally it would not be possible for the two kings to be adjacent, but here the black king is unable to move due to the white immobilizer on f4, thus the d5 square is not under attack by black, and the white king is not moving into check.

Note that White could not play Kc4-d4, as that would place his own king in check from the black Withdrawer.  Capturing the Withdrawer with Kc4xd3 would result in stalemate, as black would then have no legal moves.
{{clear right}}

===Pawn/Pincer===
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| The Pincer's movement
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The white pawn (or ''Pincer'') moves Pg4-d4, capturing the black Immobilizer and black pawn. The ''Pincer'' moves as the pawn in [[Hasami shogi]].   The black Withdrawer on e5 is not captured because pawns capture only vertically and horizontally, not diagonally.  The black Imitator (Chameleon) on d3 is not captured, because there is no white piece on d2.  Finally, the black Long-leaper on g3 was safe because it moved between the two white pawns, rather than a white pawn moving to complete the custodial capture.
{{clear right}}

===Withdrawer===
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| The Withdrawer's movement
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The white Withdrawer moves Wg6-d3, capturing the black pawn on h7.  The pawn on g7 and the Imitator (Chameleon) on h6 are unaffected because the Withdrawer did not move in their respective lines, but the Withdrawer could have captured either by a move in the g-file or sixth rank respectively.  Note that the Withdrawer also gives check to the black king by threatening to move away on the d-file.
{{clear right}}

===Long-Leaper===
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| The Long-Leaper's movement
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The white Long-Leaper moves Ld2-d4-d6-d8, capturing three black pieces.  It might instead have captured the black Withdrawer with either Ld2-g5 or Ld2-h6.  On the other hand, the black pawn on b2 and the black Chameleon on d1 are safe from the Long Leaper because there is no square on the opposite side on which the Long Leaper could land. Also the black pawns on f2 and g2 cannot be captured by Ld2-h2, because there is no space in between the two pawns which would allow the Long Leaper to make two separate jumps. A move of Ld2-b4 would be illegal because long leapers may not jump over friendly pieces. Some variations of Baroque forbid multi-leaping, if only because it is felt that the game is more playable if the Leaper is less powerful. By requiring the Leaper to stop its movement immediately after capturing the first piece, that objective is met.
{{clear right}}

===Coordinator===
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| The Coordinator's movement
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The white Coordinator moves Cd4-f6, capturing black's Leaper on c6 and Immobilizer on f2.  If White had played Cd4-d6 instead, he would have captured black's Leaper and pawn.  The Coordinator threatens only pieces on the same rank or file as the friendly king.  This kind of capture can be visualized by imagining an invisible cross emanating from the square the king is sitting on, and another invisible cross emanating from the square the Coordinator arrives at.  The points where these two crosses intersect are the places where captures are possible.
{{clear right}}

===Immobilizer===
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| The Immobilizer's movement
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The white Immobilizer moves If3-d5, immobilizing five black pieces.  The black Leaper on g4, which had been immobilized, is now free to move again.

An Immobilizer can never be captured by an Immobilizer, or Imitator (Chameleon). An Immobilizer can never be captured by a king or Withdrawer unless the variation popular in [[Cambridge]] is being played, in which case the Immobilizer itself must first be immobilized.  When an Immobilizer comes into contact with an enemy Chameleon or Immobilizer, the two pieces freeze each other, after which neither can move unless the other is captured.  In the version played at Cambridge, the power of an enemy Immobilizer to arrest a friendly piece's movement is defeated when another friendly Immobilizer or Chameleon is brought up to it, effectively cancelling out each other's power to arrest movement.

Some versions of Baroque allow an immobilized piece to commit suicide, i.e. be removed from the board, in lieu of the regular move of that player.  There may be strategic reasons to open a line.  For example, after the above diagrammed move, the black Leaper on c5 may wish to commit suicide, so that the other Leaper can capture the white Immobilizer by jumping over it on the fifth rank.  White cannot hinder this plan, because the Immobilizer is itself immobilized by the black Chameleon.

===Chameleon/Imitator===
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| The Chameleon's movement
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On the adjacent diagram, the white Chameleon moves Xg6-e6-c6, capturing all seven black pieces except the king in one move and delivering check.
*It captures the black withdrawer by moving away from it.
*It captures the black long-leapers by jumping over them.
*It captures three black pawns by surrounding them.  (A chameleon can only capture pawns on a horizontal move or vertical move, not on a diagonal move.)
*It captures the black coordinator by rank/file coordination with the white king.
*It delivers check by moving adjacent to the black king.
In the Cambridge rules, this capture is not possible. The move is legal, but it captures only the two leapers, because the move is not a legal move for any of the other target pieces. In the absence of  the two black leapers, the same move would capture the other five pieces.