Grasshopper (chess)

White grasshopper

Black grasshopper

Common icons used in diagrams

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]

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.

This article uses algebraic notation to describe chess moves.

^ Pritchard (1994), p. 227: "It moves and captures on Q-lines by hopping over a man of either colour to the next square beyond."
^ Dickins (1971), p. 8: "[...] the Grasshopper (G), (), which moves and captures on Queen lines by hopping over the first man of either colour standing on one of those lines to the square next beyond that man. This, the commonest and most familiar of the Fairy Pieces, was invented by T. R. Dawson at the end of 1912, the first G Problem being published in the Cheltenham Examiner, 3rd July 1913. [...] Some thousands of problems using Grasshoppers have been published."

[FOOTNOTEPritchard1994227-1] Pritchard (1994), p. 227: "It moves and captures on Q-lines by hopping over a man of either colour to the next square beyond."

[FOOTNOTEDickins19718-2] Dickins (1971), p. 8: "[...] the Grasshopper (G), (), which moves and captures on Queen lines by hopping over the first man of either colour standing on one of those lines to the square next beyond that man. This, the commonest and most familiar of the Fairy Pieces, was invented by T. R. Dawson at the end of 1912, the first G Problem being published in the Cheltenham Examiner, 3rd July 1913. [...] Some thousands of problems using Grasshoppers have been published."

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