Piececlopedia: Grasshopper

Historical notes

The grasshopper was invented in 1912 by the well known fairy chess problems composer T. R. Dawson from Britain. It is one of the two most used fairy chess pieces in problems; probably tens of thousands fairy chess problems have been composed using the grasshopper.

A chess variant featuring grasshoppers has also been invented: Grasshopper chess.

Movement

The grasshopper moves on the queens lines, but must jump and lands at the first square after the piece he jumps. To be precise: the grasshopper moves in horizontal, vertical or diagonal direction until it meets a piece (either friendly or unfriendly). It jumps over the piece and goes to the first square on the line after the piece that it jumped over. If that square is occupied by a piece from the opponent, that piece is taken, i.e., the grasshopper takes in the same way as it moves without taking.