"N" I can understand, since that's the consonant prounced when you say "knight". But why is "S" or "C" acceptable?
Not sure about 'C', but 'S' is for 'Springer', which is German for knight. Problem composers often use 'S' so that 'N' can be reserved for a popular unorthodox piece called the nightrider, which performs one or more knight-leaps in a straight line in a single move (e.g. on a clear board, a nightrider on a1 can move to b3, c5, d7, c2, e3, and g4).
Originally posted by Linden Lyons Not sure about 'C', but 'S' is for 'Springer', which is German for knight. Problem composers often use 'S' so that 'N' can be reserved for a popular unorthodox piece called the nightrider, which performs one or more knight-leaps in a straight line in a single move (e.g. on a clear board, a nightrider on a1 can move to b3, c5, d7, c2, e3, and g4).
^ I had to look that up. Didn't even know fairy chess existed until your post.
Originally posted by Linden Lyons Not sure about 'C', but 'S' is for 'Springer', which is German for knight. Problem composers often use 'S' so that 'N' can be reserved for a popular unorthodox piece called the nightrider, which performs one or more knight-leaps in a straight line in a single move (e.g. on a clear board, a nightrider on a1 can move to b3, c5, d7, c2, e3, and g4).
C = French for Knight (Cavalier or some such?)
The decision to use S instead of N in English-speaking publications is one of the silliest in the history of ever. Why should the orthodox Knight have to surrender his letter to a variant piece?!
If we're going to copy the Germans, we might as well use all their letters; D = Queen, T = Rook, L = Bishop, B = Pawn and K = King (well, at least one letter doesn't change!)