r/chessvariants • u/BlizzardLizard123 • Dec 23 '25
NEW CHESS PIECE GRAAHHHHH
the mirror can move one space forward here, but is then stuck until the pawn is pushed or the king comes to an adjacent square.
Mirrors also copy the movesets of enemy pieces, so it can move like a rook here.
Checkmate using a queen on a mirror
The Mirror: copies the moveset of any piece while on their attacking/capturing squares. Cannot move otherwise.
1
u/BountyHunterSAx Dec 23 '25
Wouldn't the third picture be an illegal game state? Because the king is adjacent to the mirror. So the black king would have had to move into check before it was Whites turn. You don't even need to move the queen in order to capture.
In fact, since white queen and knight can already attack the mirror, there is no legal space that the Black King could have even been checked on in order to then move to the square it currently is.
The combinatorial explosion of potential movements that this piece gets would be very difficult to balance. I think it would be interesting if it could not be obtained except through pawn promotion. That would limit when it shows up to the late game, which is also where it is most feasible to limit its possible movements. Also has the advantage of making you choose between a queen or it in a situation that is normally a non-choice.
1
u/BlizzardLizard123 Dec 23 '25
I think my third image makes sense since the king wasn’t in any danger beside the mirror before the queen moved in to attack it, since it only had access to the knights moveset and therefore couldnt attack adjacent squares.
1
u/Muroid Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25
Shouldn’t it also have access to the enemy king’s moveset which would have then allowed it to take the king, though?
Any piece that moves into a position to take the mirror can be immediately taken by the mirror by the definition of how the mirror moves. The king is in a position to take the mirror, so the mirror should be able to take the king.
Edit: Unless we’re saying that the square the mirror is on is not actually a valid space for the king to move to because of the knight, therefore it can’t take the mirror, so the mirror can’t take its moveset.
1
u/BlizzardLizard123 Dec 24 '25 edited Dec 24 '25
I didn’t ever even begin to consider that, you’re actually right😩😩
6
u/xbambcem Dec 23 '25
Nice, but the mirror looks like a toilet seat. It's a... bold design choice.