Mann (Chess)

A man (german: Mann) is a fairy chess piece often used in chess variants. It moves like a king, but is not otherwise treated as one (i.e., it has no royal power).

The man moves as a king in chess (one square in any direction) but is otherwise treated as a normal chess piece (i.e. can be captured; is not subject to check or checkmate).

The man is one of the most simply described chess pieces and as such has a long history and has gone by many names. A similar piece was described c. 950 in a form of chess on a 10×10 board and called a dabbaba. The man has been used since at least the 12th century in Courier Chess, and continued to be played in this game for at least six hundred years. Many chess variants have used the mann, for example these modern variants:

A man is approximately equal in strength and value to a knight, generally. Often it takes a few moves to get the man properly developed in the opening. It is effective at close proximity, where its striking power is considerable. Although it is rather slow, the man is excellent at both attacking and defending nearby pieces and pawns, similar to the king (Ward 1996:13). The man reaches its peak strength during the endgame, in which its value is slightly more than a knight, despite being slightly less than a knight in the opening.

The archers, or men are represented by inverted kings in the following examples.

Bibliography

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Wikipedia