Princess (chess)
History and nomenclature
History and nomenclature
------------------------

[thumb\|upright\=0\.80\|[Staunton\-style](/wiki/Staunton_chess_set "Staunton chess set") princess pieces. Many other designs have been used, usually based on the name used for the piece in each variant.](/wiki/File:Archbishop_Chess_Piece.jpg "Archbishop Chess Piece.jpg")
The princess is one of the most simply described fairy chess pieces and as such has a long history and has gone by many names. It was first used in Turkish Great Chess, a large medieval variant of chess, where it was called the *vizir* (not to be confused with the piece more commonly referred to as the wazir today, which is the [(1,0\) leaper](/wiki/Wazir_%28chess%29 "Wazir (chess)")). It was introduced in the West with [Carrera](/wiki/Pietro_Carrera "Pietro Carrera")'s chess, a chess variant from 1617, where it was called a *centaur*, and has been used in many chess variants since then.

The name *archbishop* was introduced by [José Raúl Capablanca](/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Ra%C3%BAl_Capablanca "José Raúl Capablanca") in his large [variant](/wiki/Chess_variant "Chess variant") [Capablanca chess](/wiki/Capablanca_chess "Capablanca chess"). He originally called it the *chancellor*, but he later changed the names, and the [rook](/wiki/Rook_%28chess%29 "Rook (chess)")\+knight compound became known as the chancellor. Both of these names refer to higher ranks than the bishop in the [Roman Catholic Church](/wiki/Roman_Catholic_Church "Roman Catholic Church"), but archbishop does so more obviously to most people and thus became more popular. In fact, the name *archbishop* has been used for other augmented bishops as well, such as the reflecting bishop (which reflects off the sides of the board) and the bishop\+[wazir](/wiki/Wazir_%28chess%29 "Wazir (chess)") compound. [Christian Freeling](/wiki/Christian_Freeling "Christian Freeling"), the inventor of [Grand Chess](/wiki/Grand_Chess "Grand Chess"), took a similar approach to Capablanca, naming the piece the *[cardinal](/wiki/Cardinal_%28Catholicism%29 "Cardinal (Catholicism)")*.

*Princess* is the most widely used name among [problemists](/wiki/Chess_problem "Chess problem"). By analogy with the [queen](/wiki/Queen_%28chess%29 "Queen (chess)"), which is a rook\+bishop compound, it was decided that the three basic combinations of the three simple chess pieces (rook, knight, and bishop) should all be named after female royalty. Since the bishop\+knight compound is obviously weaker than the rook\+knight compound (as the bishop is weaker than the rook), the name *princess* was assigned to the bishop\+knight compound, while the rook\+knight compound was named the *[empress](/wiki/Empress_%28chess%29 "Empress (chess)")*.


What was it called when introduced in Western chess variants?