Desperado (chess) Desperado (chess) In chess, a desperado piece is a piece that is or trapped, but captures an enemy piece before it is itself captured. This can be in either a situation where both sides have pieces, "...in which you use your doomed piece to eat as much material as possible before it dies"; or alternatively a sacrifice that will result in stalemate if it is captured. A simple example illustrating the first definition comes from a 1958 game between future World Champions Tigran Petrosian and Bobby Fischer (see diagram). White had just captured the e5-pawn with his knight on f3.
Dabbaba (chess) Dabbaba (chess) A dabbaba (or dabaaba, dabbabah) is a fairy chess piece that jumps two squares orthogonally (the directions a chess rook can move), leaping over any intermediate piece. In notation, it is given the symbol D. The dabbaba is a very old piece, appearing in some very early chess variants, such as Tamerlane chess. The name "dabbaba" (Arabic: دَبَّابَة) means "tank (vehicle)" in Modern Arabic. In older Arabic, it referred to a type of medieval siege engine designed to shelter men who are digging a hole in enemy fortifications (Latin: "vinea"). The name has sometimes been translated as "war