# Ferz

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Fairy chess piece

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 The ferz on d4, represented by an inverted bishop, may move to c3, e3, or e5, or capture the pawn on c5.

The **ferz** or **fers** is a [fairy chess piece](/source/Fairy_chess_piece) that may move one square diagonally.[1][2][3] It was used in [orthodox chess](/source/Chess) and in [shatranj](/source/Shatranj) before being replaced by the [queen](/source/Queen_(chess)).

## History and nomenclature

Illustration of a queen ([French](/source/French_language): *La Dame*) from the [Charlemagne chessmen](/source/Charlemagne_chessmen), when she had the move of a ferz

The ferz is a very old piece, appearing in [Chaturanga](/source/Chaturanga), the ancestor of all [chess variants](/source/Chess_variant); it also featured in games such as [Tamerlane chess](/source/Tamerlane_chess). The ferz was a standard chess piece until the modern moves of queen and [bishop](/source/Bishop_(chess)) were developed around the 15th century, with the ferz being replaced by the former.

The ferz also appears in some large historical [shogi variants](/source/Shogi_variant), such as in [dai shogi](/source/Dai_shogi) under the name *cat sword* ([Japanese](/source/Japanese_language): 猫刄, [romanized](/source/Romanization_of_Japanese): *myōjin*). The Thai variant of chess, [makruk](/source/Makruk), retains the ferz from shatranj as the "Met", both as a starting piece and as the only pawn promotion option. Thus, much of shatranj endgame theory is also valid for makruk.

The piece was originally called the *mantri* ([Sanskrit](/source/Sanskrit) for "minister" or "counsellor"), which was translated by the [Persians](/source/Persian_people) to *farzin* or *farzīn* (فرزین), which means "counsellor" or "wise man". This was shortened to *ferz*, and this became *firz* or *fers* in medieval Europe. Its name later changed to *[queen](/source/Queen_(chess))*, but when that name started being used for the modern chess queen, its former name *ferz* or *fers* began to be used in [chess problems](/source/Chess_problem). In modern [Eastern Slavic languages](/source/Eastern_Slavic_languages), however, *ferz* (ферзь) is the current name for the chess queen. The piece was also known as Vizir and is still called as such in Northern India.

## Value

The ferz by itself is worth about half a [knight](/source/Knight_(chess)). A [king](/source/King_(chess)) and three ferzes can force [checkmate](/source/Checkmate) on a [bare king](/source/Bare_king) if not all three ferzes are on the same square color; a king and two ferzes on opposite-colored squares can force [stalemate](/source/Stalemate) on a bare king,[4] but not easily, and they cannot force checkmate. The [endgame](/source/Chess_endgame) of [rook](/source/Rook_(chess)) versus ferz is a win for the rook. Despite being [colorbound](/source/Colorbound), the ferz is the strongest of the basic [leapers](/source/Fairy_chess_piece#Leapers) during the opening phase of the game, even stronger than the [wazir](/source/Wazir_(chess)), due to its larger mobility forward. A wazir and a ferz can force checkmate on a bare king only if the bare king is significantly close to a corner that is the same color square as that of the ferz. While a knight and wazir can usually force checkmate against a bare king, a knight and ferz can only do so if the bare king is significantly close to a corner that is the same color square as that of the ferz. The wazir is better than the ferz in most endgames because of the wazir's ability to restrict squares adjacent to the squares last restricted.

## Symbol

Both white and black symbols for the ferz have been accepted for [Unicode](/source/Unicode) 17.0, in the [Chess Symbols block](/source/Chess_Symbols_(Unicode_block)):[5][6]

- 🩔 U+1FA54 WHITE CHESS FERZ
- 🩖 U+1FA56 BLACK CHESS FERZ

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Duniho, Fergus; Bodlaender, Hans; Howe, David (15 December 2001) [4 September 1998]. ["Ferz"](http://www.chessvariants.org/piececlopedia.dir/ferz.html). Piececlopedia. *[The Chess Variant Pages](/source/The_Chess_Variant_Pages)*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Dickins (1971), p. 9.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** [Hooper, David](/source/David_Vincent_Hooper); [Whyld, Kenneth](/source/Kenneth_Whyld) (1996) [First pub. 1992]. "fers". *[The Oxford Companion to Chess](/source/The_Oxford_Companion_to_Chess)* (2nd ed.). [Oxford University Press](/source/Oxford_University_Press). pp. 132–33. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-19-280049-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-19-280049-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["King and Two Ferses Against King"](https://www.jsbeasley.co.uk/vchess/vc60.pdf) (PDF). *Variant Chess*. **8** (60). [British Chess Variants Society](/source/British_Chess_Variants_Society): 92–94. April 2009. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0958-8248](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0958-8248).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-shatranj_5-0)** Bala, Gavin Jared; Miller, Kirk (22 December 2023). ["Unicode request for *shatranj* symbols"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24020-shatranj-symbols.pdf) (PDF). *unicode.org*. Unicode. Retrieved 4 February 2024.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Unicode-1FA00_6-0)** ["Chess Symbols"](https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1FA00.pdf) (PDF). *unicode.org*. The Unicode Consortium. 2025. Retrieved 9 September 2025.

### Bibliography

- Dickins, Anthony (1971) [Corrected repub. of 1969 2nd ed., The Q Press, Richmond, Surrey, England]. *A Guide to Fairy Chess*. New York: [Dover Publications](/source/Dover_Publications) Inc. pp. 9, 30. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-486-22687-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-486-22687-5).

## External links

- [Endgame statistics with fantasy pieces](https://web.archive.org/web/20150923202809/http://www.chessvariants.org/misc.dir/endgames.html) at *[The Chess Variant Pages](/source/The_Chess_Variant_Pages)*

- [The Ferz](http://www.chessvariants.org/d.betza/chessvar/pieces/ferz.html) by [Ralph Betza](/source/Ralph_Betza), *[The Chess Variant Pages](/source/The_Chess_Variant_Pages)*

v t e Chess pieces Orthodox pieces Bishop King Knight Pawn Queen Rook Fairy pieces (List) Alfil Amazon Berolina pawn Camel Dabbaba Empress Ferz Giraffe Grasshopper Mann Nightrider Princess Wazir Zebra Related Chess set (Staunton) Hippogonal Piece point values

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ferz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferz) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferz?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.