| The Castalia moves like a queen, any distance in any direction, but it cannot capture. The Castalia can repulse an enemy piece ahead and attract any piece to the rear. (1) The Castalia kidnaps a piece located behind itself by dragging it to the square which the Castalia was positioned on. The kidnapped piece, which can be of any colour, is the nearest piece in the opposite direction of the move. (2) An enemy piece can be repulsed, concurrently with the kidnap move, if the Castalia stops next to it. The enemy piece is repulsed to the remotest empty square in the alignment direction. In case of a pawn, it cannot be pushed back to the first rank, that is, the second rank is the limit. A pawn that is pushed to its promotion square is promoted to a queen, as only option. Other rules are the same as in standard chess, except for the possible promotion to Castalia. The Castalia's value is 3, that is, like a knight or bishop (preliminary estimate).
Note: in an alternative variant the Castalia can only kidnap a piece if it moves one step. The 'weak' Castalia can better decide whether it wants to kidnap a piece. It can avoid dragging the piece along by moving farther than one step. |
