Kirin (chess) Kirin (chess) A kirin is a fairy chess piece that moves as a ferz or a dabbaba. In notation, it is given the symbol FD. In this article, the kirin is represented by an inverted knight. The kirin is also known as giraffe ( ). The kirin appears under this name (Japanese: 麒麟, "kirin") in the 14th-century Japanese game of chu shogi, and also in many other shogi variants. It appears in Ralph Betza's Chess on a Really Big Board. It is approximately equal to a knight in value. Two kirins can force checkmate on a bare king without the
Fairy chess piece is a piece that moves by jumping over another piece (called a hurdle). The hurdle can be any piece of any color. Unless it can jump over a piece, a hopper cannot move. Note that hoppers generally capture by taking the piece on the destination square, "not" by taking the hurdle (as is the case in checkers). The exceptions are locusts which are pieces that capture by hopping over its victim. They are sometimes considered a type of hopper. There are no hoppers in Western chess. In xiangqi, the cannon captures as a hopper (when not capturing, it is a