Grasshopper (chess)

The grasshopper is a fairy chess piece that moves along ranks, files, and diagonals (like a queen) but only by hopping over another piece. The piece to be hopped may be of either color and any distance away, but the grasshopper must land on the square immediately beyond it in the same direction. If there is no piece to hop over, it cannot move. If the square beyond a piece is occupied by a piece of the opposite color, the grasshopper can capture that piece.^[1]

White grasshopper

Black grasshopper

Common icons used in diagrams

The grasshopper was introduced by T. R. Dawson in 1913 in problems published in the Cheltenham Examiner newspaper. It is one of the most popular fairy pieces used in chess problems.^[2]

In this article, the grasshopper is shown as an inverted queen and notated as G.

Movement

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

The grasshopper must hop over other pieces in order to move or capture. Here, it can move to any square marked "x", or it can capture the pawn on a7.

In the diagram to the right, the white grasshopper on d4 can move to the squares marked with crosses (b2, d1, d7, and h8) or capture the black pawn on a7. It cannot move to g4, as there are two pieces to hop over.

Example problem

V. Onitiu, N. Petrović, T. R. Dawson
& C. M. Fox (1930)

	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h
8									8
7									7
6									6
5									5
4									4
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h

White mates in 8 (with grasshoppers Ga8, f7, h2, and h1)

Solution:

1. Gh3 Gh4 2. Gh5 Gh6 3. Gh7 Gh8 4.Ge7 Gd7 5. Gc7 Gb7 6. Ga7+ Ga6 7. Ga5+ Ga4 8. Ga3#

Related pieces

Other related pieces in the problemist tradition are the eagle, hamster, moose, and sparrow, which move and capture like the grasshopper but are deflected (to either side) 90°, 180°, 45°, and 135°, respectively, upon passing the hurdle.

See also

• Grasshopper chess
• Xiangqi and janggi feature a cannon with similar abilities