Every piece on a classical chessboard has existed for centuries. The Bishop, the Knight, the Rook — their movements were fixed long before anyone reading this was born. So when we say Dynamo Chess introduces the first genuinely new chess piece of the modern era, that’s not marketing language. It’s simply true.

Meet the Dynamo — also called the Missile. Each player starts with two of them, placed beside the King and Queen. On every single turn, the player chooses how it moves: diagonally across the board like a Bishop, or in a sharp L-shaped leap like a Knight, jumping clean over other pieces. No other piece in the game — or in chess history — offers that choice.

At 7 points, the Dynamo sits just below the Queen (9) and above the Rook (5) in raw value. But numbers undersell it. In the right position, a Dynamo can be more dangerous than a Queen, because opponents can never be fully certain which way it will strike.

Its most remarkable trick, though, is this: a single Dynamo piece can checkmate a cornered King entirely on its own. In classical chess, no single piece can do that — you always need at least two in coordination. GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, India’s No.1 ranked player in 2011, first spotted this at the game’s 2015 public launch, and it’s remained one of the most talked-about facts about the game ever since.

“Judging by the opening moves, it seems the game will be more strategic.”

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly

The decision to give the Dynamo this dual identity wasn’t accidental — it came from GM Dibyendu Barua, who spent years testing movement patterns before landing on the final rule: Bishop or Knight, the player’s choice, every turn. It’s a small rule with enormous consequences, and it’s the single biggest reason Dynamo Chess feels genuinely new rather than just bigger.