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Kangaroo. Moves on Queen lines to first square after second jumped over piece.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Charles Gilman wrote on Thu, Mar 4, 2004 08:36 AM UTC:
There is a different piece with this name which is used in a game: the Kangaroo of Outback Chess, which combines the moves of the leaping Elephant (Alfil) and the Knight. This is in keeping with beastly names for beastly compounds (cf Bison, Gazelle, Gnu) and the piece was introduced by Timothy Newton, who as an Australian might be more familiar with real-life kangaroos than Almay. On the other hand, Almay's Kangaroo is far older. So which piece has the better claim to the name in future variants?

Charles Gilman wrote on Sun, Mar 28, 2004 09:20 AM UTC:
Correction to my previous comment: Timothy Newton is not Australian, just
thorough enough in his research to give that impression. I also mistook
his stereotyped opening to Outback Chess for a sign of the self-mocking
irony that the Australians share with the British. I discovered my error
in the interview with him as 84-square winner. Apologies to him if he is
offended, but hopefully he will instead feel flattered for writing so
convincing a themed game. To sum up the remaining claims of the Almay and
Newton Kangaroos:
	Almay: age, very impressive leap.
	Newton: used in a game and a pzize-winning game at that, maintains
beast-name convention of Gnu/Gazelle/Bison.

Michael Nelson wrote on Sun, Mar 28, 2004 05:26 PM UTC:
As I've said before Chess problems aren't Chess and Fairy Chess problems aren't Chess Variants--problemists have there own language and very often their own piece names. In my book, Timothy Newton deserves the honors.

Bob Greenwade wrote on Mon, Oct 2, 2023 03:18 PM UTC:

While I personally prefer the Newton Kangaroo, the Almay Kangaroo does have a couple of other things in its favor:

  1. There's no other name for that particular move. The Newton Kangaroo is also called a Hospitaller (and occasionally Princess).
  2. The Hospitaller's rotary counterpart (ND to its NA) is the Templar. The Kangaroo's is the Carpenter (with other names including Scribe, Ouroboros, and Doughnut). In a game with both pieces, Hospitaller and Templar makes the most sense.

But... the Newton Kangaroo has an easy Betza notation (NA). The Almay Kangaroo's move is interesting, but I'm not even sure how it can be notated.

PS: Am I the only one who finds the picture of the tailless Kangaroo disturbing? It looks like some other animal trying to do what a bear does in the woods.


H. G. Muller wrote on Mon, Oct 2, 2023 06:49 PM UTC in reply to Bob Greenwade from 03:18 PM:

It looks like some other animal trying to do what a bear does in the woods.

:-)

The XBetza for this Kangaroo is easy enough: two sliding hop legs followed by a final step. So pafpyafQ, or [pQ-pQ-K] in bracket notation.


Jean-Louis Cazaux wrote on Mon, Oct 2, 2023 08:31 PM UTC in reply to Bob Greenwade from 03:18 PM:

PS: Am I the only one who finds the picture of the tailless Kangaroo disturbing? It looks like some other animal trying to do what a bear does in the woods.

You are not the only one.


Bob Greenwade wrote on Mon, Oct 2, 2023 08:57 PM UTC in reply to H. G. Muller from 06:49 PM:

The XBetza for this Kangaroo is easy enough: two sliding hop legs followed by a final step. So pafpyafQ, or [pQ-pQ-K] in bracket notation.

Easy for you, maybe.... :P


HaruN Y wrote on Tue, Oct 3, 2023 12:30 PM UTC:

pafgQ


H. G. Muller wrote on Tue, Oct 3, 2023 01:03 PM UTC in reply to HaruN Y from 12:30 PM:

True, that would work too. I try to avoid the legacy use of p in multi-leg moves, though. I think the bracket notation [pQ-pQ-K] is very intuitive: hop twice as Q, and then land as K for capturing or moving. By making continuation in as much the same direction as possible the default in this context, it hardly needs any modifiers.


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