Answers.Body: <p>I'd use the term you already mentioned, &quot;rambling rook&quot;, for this (at least when it's a rook). Tim Krabbé <a href="https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/gukal.html" rel="noreferrer">claims</a> to have invented it:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>If the term 'Rambling Rook' sounds unfamiliar, this could be because I invented it. In Russian it is beshenaya ladya, in Dutch dolle toren, both meaning 'crazy rook.' There is no English term, and I thought a little alliteration would be in its place.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p>Here are a couple of usages, showing that the term is quite widespread:</p>
  <p><a href="http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1014346" rel="noreferrer">Rambling Rooks, compiled by SwitchingQuylthulg on chessgames.com</a></p>
  <blockquote>
  <h3>Rambling Rooks</h3>
  <p>Witness rooks selflessly throw theirselves at the opponent's mercy again and again... until there is no choice but to take them and accept draw by stalemate.</p>
  </blockquote>
  <p><a href="https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/20764/11110">Can you stop the rambling rook?</a> by user Sleafar on our sister site Puzzling Stack Exchange:</p>
  <blockquote>
  <p>The rook can't be taken, because black couldn't move anymore which is a stalemate (= draw). If the king moves away the rook will continue to give checks.</p>
  <p>Can you stop the rambling rook and find a way for white to win the game anyway?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T21:25:49.137Z
Answers.Text: Russian "beshenaya" is not exactly "crazy", but rather "possessed". The semantics is formed by "bes", an unclean spirit. Very hard to translate.
Answers.UserDisplayName: user58697
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-29T14:34:13.833Z
Answers.Text: FWIW I have heard "crazy rook" before.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Brandon_J
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Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T12:44:52.383Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-05-28T12:44:52.383Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-06-17T09:59:59.497Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
Answers.Body: <p>Well, that's only possible with a rook or a queen (at least, in most realistic situations) and indeed it's a typical theme in rook endgames.</p>
  
  <p>In Spanish, we have a name for that: torre loca (meaning "crazy rook") I think "crazy rook" is also used in English, but I don't find so many links, so maybe there are other names for it or those I can find are a translation error</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T14:33:26.900Z
Answers.Text: In french we also use "tour folle" (crazy rook).
Answers.UserDisplayName: Evargalo
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Answers.UserDisplayName: David
Answers.Body: <p>Sometimes I hear it referred to as a "poison piece," because it kills you if you take (consume?) it.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T13:38:42.760Z
Answers.Text: Note that the term [poisoned pawn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_chess#Poisoned_pawn) usually has another meaning.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Glorfindel
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Answers.UserDisplayName: Marathon
Body: <p>What if any, is the term for a piece whose owner gets a draw by keeping up a relentless series of checks with it -- a paradox being that even if this player puts it <em>en prise</em>, the opponent daren't capture it because that would deliver stalemate?</p>
  
  <p>The piece is in many cases a rook, and I have come across the terms "rambling rook" and "roving rook", but they seem to mean something else.</p>
  
  <p>I've also come across the term "desperado", and that seems to mean something similar, but it is not the same. A desperado is a piece which might do some damage, e.g. delaying-checks, but they merely delay mate: those checks run out, and the other side captures the desperado without stalemating, and goes on to win.</p>
  
  <p>The tactic is an unusual form of perpetual check. In most perpetual checks, the checking piece switches back between two squares on neither of which is it <em>en prise</em>.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T05:22:31.960Z
Comments.Text: Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual uses the term "desparado" for such a piece.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Qudit
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T07:14:38.037Z
Comments.Text: Desperado has two meanings connected by the idea that in its death the piece causes some damage to the enemy. One usage is the above, but the other is not really as stated in the question. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(chess)
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ian Bush
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T09:03:21.997Z
Comments.Text: @IanBush Ah -- "desperado" is not as specific as I'd thought, given where I'd seen it used.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Rosie F
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-05-28T14:28:04.473Z
Comments.Text: sometimes in some languages it is called 'MAD' piece, usually 'MAD ROOK'
Comments.UserDisplayName: Drako
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2019-05-30T01:21:05.560Z
Comments.Text: @Ian Bush Desperado could also mean a piece that is inevitably going to be captured, so you use it to cause as much destruction as possible before this happens.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Inertial Ignorance
Tags: <terminology><stalemate><perpetual>
Title: Term for checking piece whose opponent daren't capture it
ThreadText: # Term for checking piece whose opponent daren't capture it
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2019-05-28)
  
  What if any, is the term for a piece whose owner gets a draw by keeping up a relentless series of checks with it -- a paradox being that even if this player puts it *en prise*, the opponent daren't capture it because that would deliver stalemate?
  
  The piece is in many cases a rook, and I have come across the terms "rambling rook" and "roving rook", but they seem to mean something else.
  
  I've also come across the term "desperado", and that seems to mean something similar, but it is not the same. A desperado is a piece which might do some damage, e.g. delaying-checks, but they merely delay mate: those checks run out, and the other side captures the desperado without stalemating, and goes on to win.
  
  The tactic is an unusual form of perpetual check. In most perpetual checks, the checking piece switches back between two squares on neither of which is it *en prise*.
  
  **Tags:** terminology, stalemate, perpetual
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual uses the term "desparado" for such a piece.  
  > **username_2**: Desperado has two meanings connected by the idea that in its death the piece causes some damage to the enemy. One usage is the above, but the other is not really as stated in the question. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_(chess)  
  > **username_0**: @username_2 Ah -- "desperado" is not as specific as I'd thought, given where I'd seen it used.  
  > **username_3**: sometimes in some languages it is called 'MAD' piece, usually 'MAD ROOK'  
  > **username_4**: @username_2 Desperado could also mean a piece that is inevitably going to be captured, so you use it to cause as much destruction as possible before this happens.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2019-05-28. Score: 14
  
  I'd use the term you already mentioned, "rambling rook", for this (at least when it's a rook). Tim Krabbé [claims](https://timkr.home.xs4all.nl/chess/gukal.html) to have invented it:
  
  > If the term 'Rambling Rook' sounds unfamiliar, this could be because I invented it. In Russian it is beshenaya ladya, in Dutch dolle toren, both meaning 'crazy rook.' There is no English term, and I thought a little alliteration would be in its place.
  
  Here are a couple of usages, showing that the term is quite widespread:
  
  [Rambling Rooks, compiled by SwitchingQuylthulg on chessgames.com](http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chesscollection?cid=1014346)
  
  > ### Rambling Rooks
  >
  > Witness rooks selflessly throw theirselves at the opponent's mercy again and again... until there is no choice but to take them and accept draw by stalemate.
  
  [Can you stop the rambling rook?](https://puzzling.stackexchange.com/q/20764/11110) by user Sleafar on our sister site Puzzling Stack Exchange:
  
  > The rook can't be taken, because black couldn't move anymore which is a stalemate (= draw). If the king moves away the rook will continue to give checks.
  >
  > Can you stop the rambling rook and find a way for white to win the game anyway?
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_6**: Russian "beshenaya" is not exactly "crazy", but rather "possessed". The semantics is formed by "bes", an unclean spirit. Very hard to translate.  
  > **username_7**: FWIW I have heard "crazy rook" before.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2019-05-28. Score: 5
  
  Well, that's only possible with a rook or a queen (at least, in most realistic situations) and indeed it's a typical theme in rook endgames.
  
  In Spanish, we have a name for that: torre loca (meaning "crazy rook") I think "crazy rook" is also used in English, but I don't find so many links, so maybe there are other names for it or those I can find are a translation error
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_9**: In french we also use "tour folle" (crazy rook).  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_10 on 2019-05-28. Score: 3
  
  Sometimes I hear it referred to as a "poison piece," because it kills you if you take (consume?) it.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: Note that the term [poisoned pawn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_chess#Poisoned_pawn) usually has another meaning.  
  
  ---
  
  