Let's invent some very weird pieces

The Coachman

Knights cannot jump over an opposite-coloured Coachman, nor can they jump over any piece adjacent to an opposite-coloured Coachman.

I created a new piece based in the sun god.

The "Cthulhu's Stelar Seed" is a piece that can move/capture two times like knight, but use this piece requires the sacrifice of another piece of the own colour (for do it more balanced, each movement of the two could require a sacrifice, that means that a double movement will require two sacrifices).

I like those graphics. One interesting way to "sacrifice" a piece is morphing or merging two pieces into one.

In Waterloo (like on this forum) an Elite-guard can merge with a knight to form a joker - the joker being a pretty powerful piece.

Two knights for example can morph to obtain one Cthulhu's Stelar Seed. This is a one-time sacrifice, rather than a sacrifice for each move. But it will probably cost a few tempo to make it happen, so could be a good element in the game.

In FIDE chess you win when you deliver mate to the King. But we could think of an extra piece that gives you - when you take it - the right to claim draw (but it is not mandatory if you have winning chances).

Or we could think of a piece that is very weak and slow, but you win the game by taking any enemy piece with that particular piece. A mirrored royal function so to say.

Dwarf: moves like a King, without royalty, but you can only capture a Dwarf if you're attacking it with two or more pieces. So immune for attack by single pieces and therefore perhaps quite strong!

I must be more precise here and give two scpecific scenarios:

This does not count as a twofold attack when considering the rule for the dwarf. The rear rook is not attacking the Dwarf directly, so the front rook is not allowed to take the Dwarf.

The Knight is pinned but that doesn't matter. A pinned piece can attack a Dwarf. Even if Nxc2 would be illegal, Bxc2 is allowed her.

The Harlot. Moves like a queen only makes its own rules (can jump over pieces).

Having a piece that moves like a king but pawns can not capture it--this would be very useful in some endgames!

I have an idea of this incredibly powerful piece that has the moves of a queen that can only move three squares in any direction and also can jump to any of the squares in a 5-by-5 square centered on itself. The thing is, it could do this three times in one turn. So basically a really good Chu Shogi Lion. I haven't thought up a name for it yet, though.

Wingsuit man: moves like a queen but can jump over pieces, takes like king. Lots of tactics, it's also very good at helping with a mate.

So what if the rear Rook had been a Xiangqi Cannon? Would both the Cannon and the Rook have been allowed to capture the Drawf?

Certainly. If both the Xiangqi Cannon and the front Rook are attacking the Dwarf directly, capture is allowed.

I think I am being very logical. You must attack with two pieces. The rear rook of two doubled rooks is not attacking if you look at the definition of attack. All I want is avoid confusion, because while discussing FIDE tactics this is often mistakenly described as twofold attack.

In this position, the Dwarf is attacked by two pieces, but cannot be captured because White's king would be put into check by a move of either knight.

Interesting dwarf trivia (for people speaking in English):

Dwarfs is the plural of dwarf. Dwarves is a newer variant popularized by author J.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings). The Tolkien spelling is OK for fantasy, but should not be used for real-life dwarfs.

My opinion as used in variant chess: Dwarfs is better because two of them in a game are on opposite sides, and aren't really friends with each other.

I have an idea! The Dragon: Movement: Queen(With 4 squares range)+Knight (Can jump over friendly pieces and same colour)

         Special abilities: Fire. Only available on a capture . Range is 2 squares. Kills every piece in range. You don't have to use fire when capturing

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess960-chess-variants/bulldog-chess-with-dwarf-supersam1-evert823

The Dwarf is very dominant. I wonder how it would do in these crazy large Shogi variants with Fire Demons and stuff

The nasty little Grey Men now appear on the chess board.

The Time Thieve:

Demonstrating Time Thieve vs Time Thieve:

 

Time thieve is a very interesting piece.

the hopalong cassidy. if you promote a 2nd pawn, this piece can jump all over the board like a knight using as many hops as you like in one move.

Gimping bishop - moves as an alfil and then may continue any number of squares diagonally outward in the same direction eg. from e4 a gimping bishop can leap to c6 and then continue to b7 and a8.

Gimping rook - moves as a dabbaba and then may continue any number of squares orthogonally outward in the same direction eg. from e4 a gimping rook can leap to e6 and then continue to e7 and e8

Gimping queen - gimped bishop + gimped rook.

Gimping chancellor - knight + gimped rook.

Gimping archbishop - knight + gimped bishop.

This is also known as a ski-Bishop (ski-Rook, ...) There is a piece in Tenjiku Shogi (the Heavenly Tetrarch) that has such moves (nearly a ski-Queen, except that sideway its range is limited to two steps after the jump). But in addition can can rifle-capture on the square it jumps over. Skipping the first square of a slide makes the piece weaker, even though it cannot be blocked there. But the rifle-capture more than makes up for this.

Tamerlane Chess features a lame ski-Bishop (the 'Picket'), i.e. one that cannot move to the first square, but can be blocked there.

BTW, I recently noticed that the piece referred to in this forum as 'Hawk' (leaps 2 or 3 in any direction) occurs in Jean-Louis Cazaux's variant TeraChess, under the name Antilope.