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Squirrel.

Jumps two orthogonally, two diagonally, or like a knight.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]

Boris Badenov wrote on Tue, Aug 19, 2003 02:21 PM EDT:

But where is Moose? I must have Moose <b>and</b> Squirrel.

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2004 05:10 AM EST:Good ★★★★

In reply to Boris Badenov (is this his real name or a self-deprecating
pun?), the Moose moves like a Grasshopper
(http://www.chessvariants.com/piececlopedia.dir/grasshopper.html) but
turns through 45º during the hop. A Squirrel and Moose would indeed be an
interesting combination of a strong short-range piece and a restricted
long-range one.

Doug Chatham wrote on Sun, Jan 11, 2004 10:36 AM EST:

Boris Badenov was a villian in an old American cartoon series called 'The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show'. The heroes were Bullwinkle, a talking moose, and Rocky, a talking flying squirrel.<p> So I doubt 'Badenov' gave his real name....

Charles Gilman wrote on Mon, Mar 22, 2004 12:43 PM EST:Good ★★★★

Here are some ideas for enlarged-move Squirrels. Some cover more ground over square cells, others use boards with different cells. <blockquote> Beaver (larger rodent of same sub-order): 3:0, 3:1, 3:2, and 3:3 combined leaper. </blockquote><blockquote> Hexirrel (Hex piece like Squirrel): Dabbaba combined with root 7 and root 12 leapers, on a hex board. </blockquote><blockquote> Cubirrel (Cubic extn. of Squirrel): Squirrel+Sexton(2:1:1)+Ninja(2:2:1)+Eunuch(2:2:2) on cubic-cell board. </blockquote><blockquote> Frairrel (Frame-only form of Cubirrel): Elephant+Ninja+Eunuch only on cubic-cell board. </blockquote>

David Paulowich wrote on Sat, Aug 21, 2004 10:04 PM EDT:Excellent ★★★★★

Eric Greenwood has used this piece in his 84-square variant 'TamerSpiel', calling it the Champion.

Steve wrote on Sat, May 28, 2005 02:57 PM EDT:Good ★★★★

A fun little position, if I may.

  White- Ka2 Pa3,b2,c3
  Black- SQb5 Rg2 Pa4
 1...SQxc3 mate.
featuring a nice pin.

David Lichtenstein wrote on Mon, Aug 1, 2005 11:34 AM EDT:Good ★★★★

In Ralph Betza's cspigs chess, this piece is worth six points.  I'm not
entirely sure that it is more powerful than a rook.  It can cut off large
swaths of board (effectively preventing a king from entering a collumn or
row), but I haven't played with it enough to be sure it is worth the six
points.

For instance, if the opponent's 'King' was a royal knight rather than
a
royal commoner, the Squirrel would be somewhat less effective than a rook
in the endgame, wouldn't it?

David Paulowich wrote on Fri, Nov 11, 2005 08:50 AM EST:

http://www.chessvariants.org/index/listcomments.php?subjectid=Rook-Level%20Chess

has some interesting comments on the relative values of Rooks and other pieces - with the usual Kings on an 8x8 board. Ralph Betza (gnohman) states that the Knight+Dabbabah piece can force mate when the only other pieces on the board are the two Kings. Back before Zillions existed I also studied this (very tricky) piece and concluded that a Knight+Dabbabah piece is indeed sufficient mating material. This piece is one of Betza's 'Augmented Knights' - intended to be equal in value to a Rook. Clearly the Squirrel, which can move anywhere the Knight+Dabbabah can, is a more valuable piece.

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Sun, Nov 13, 2005 11:02 PM EST:

thanks for that link, i've been looking at leapers lately, until now i havn't really 'noticed' the knight/dabbaba much, it is a pretty strong piece in itself. i'm not surprised you can force mate with it .. so yeah, the squirrel is a strong piece obviously with added alfil power.

George Duke wrote on Sat, May 3, 2008 04:41 PM EDT:

(Knight + Dabbabah + Alfil) goes back to 1683 under many names. For example, Quintessential's Centurion.

Dan Davis wrote on Mon, May 19, 2008 01:05 PM EDT:

Does anyone rate these pieces?? I was thinking a squirrel might be worth
6.5 to 7.0 points -- similar to Grand Chess's Cardinal.

Agree? Disagree?

H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, May 19, 2008 01:51 PM EDT:

I am currently engaged in a massive test effort to understand such short-range leapers. It is slow going, though: there are many possible combinations of moves, especially if you drop the requirement for 8-fold symmetry. And I need at least 400 games to get an acceptable accuracy for the empirical piece value of a ertain piece type. Even then, the statistical (random) error in the piece values is about 0.1 Pawn, if I test them in pairs (to double the effect of any value difference). Your estimate seems reasonable, from what I have learned so far. 8-fold-symmetric SR compound leapers with N moves seem to have a value close to (30+5/8*N)*N, in centiPawn. That would evaluate to 640 for the Squirrel. And I expect the Squirrel to be one of the stronger such compounds, with this number of moves, because of the 'front' of 5 contiguous forward moves.

Anonymous wrote on Fri, Mar 20, 2009 04:18 PM EDT:Good ★★★★

Did you guys know that another name for a Squirrel is the Bear .... in Bear Chess. It is popular in Russia.

Anonymous wrote on Mon, Apr 12, 2010 12:19 PM EDT:

Ineresting: in some medieval forms of chess (wich are closer to Shantraj)
king could leap like squirrel on it's first move (castling evolved from
this
move).
By the way, I am russian, but i did not knew that 'Bear chess' is
popular in Russia before :) .

Hasan Elias wrote on Thu, Mar 18, 2021 07:46 PM EDT:

In my variant, Supercharged Chess, I called this piece the "Supercharged Knight", but another name could be the "Chariot". Here is my variant: https://www.chess.com/blog/HasanElias/supercharged-chess-a-chess-variant

Greg Strong wrote on Thu, Mar 18, 2021 07:54 PM EDT in reply to Hasan Elias from 07:46 PM:

Wow, that is an obscene amount of power for an 8x8 board... I'd expect all tactics and no strategy.

Also, every piece can move like a knight except the king. Since that's the only piece not augmented, maybe give him a knight's move too so he doesn't get checkmated too easily.

Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Fri, Mar 19, 2021 02:56 AM EDT in reply to Hasan Elias from Thu Mar 18 07:46 PM:

Originally the Chariot is the sense of the Rook, it is still that sense in xiangqi (where the sinogram also means "car").

Bob Greenwade wrote on Fri, Jul 21, 2023 01:01 PM EDT:

Related question: If the King/Mann/Commoner covers the first perimeter, the Squirrel/Bear/Centurion covers the second, and the Cheetah covers the third, what covers the fourth and fifth perimeters?

Bn Em wrote on Fri, Jul 21, 2023 01:46 PM EDT in reply to Bob Greenwade from 01:01 PM:

Gilman (in Diverse Directions) names those pieces Mara and Capybara, the largest of the rodents (to go with the established Squirrel and his Beaver for Silverman's/Cazaux's Cheetah)

Bob Greenwade wrote on Fri, Jul 21, 2023 05:40 PM EDT in reply to Bn Em from 01:46 PM:

That's helpful (and you have my thanks, Bn Em), but not as helpful as I'd hoped. Are there any others? Anyone?

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