Fairy Chess Piece - Notations - Parlett's Movement Notation

Parlett's Movement Notation

In his book The Oxford History of Board Games David Parlett used a notation to describe fairy piece movements. The move is specified by an expression of the form m={expression}, where m stands for "move", and the expression is composed from the following elements:

• Distance (numbers, n)
  • 1 – a distance of one (i.e. to adjacent square)
  • 2 – a distance of two
  • n – any distance in the given direction
• Direction (punctuation, X)
  • * – orthogonally or diagonally (all eight possible directions)
  • + – orthogonally (four possible directions)
  • > – orthogonally forwards
  • < – orthogonally backwards
  • <> – orthogonally forwards and backwards
  • = – orthogonally sideways (used here instead of Parlett's divide symbol.)
  • >= – orthogonally forwards or sideways
  • <= – orthogonally backwards or sideways
  • X – diagonally (four possible directions)
  • X> – diagonally forwards
  • X< – diagonally backwards
• Grouping
  • / – two orthogonal moves separated by a slash denote a hippogonal move (i.e. jumping like knights)
  • & – repeated movement in the same direction, such as for hippogonal riders (i.e. the nightrider)