Grasshopper — Fairy Chess Piece

Grasshopper

Definition

The Grasshopper is a fairy chess piece that moves along queen lines—rank, file, or diagonal—but only by leaping over exactly one occupied square and landing on the very next square beyond it. The intervening piece can belong to either side; the landing square must be empty. If an enemy piece occupies the landing square, the Grasshopper captures it. If the square is vacant, the move is non-capturing. The Grasshopper itself does not “hop” if no piece stands immediately in its line of travel.

Movement Pattern in Fairy Chess

Direction: Same eight directions as a queen (horizontal, vertical, diagonal).
Requirement: There must be exactly one piece—called the hurdle—on the path. The Grasshopper leaps over that hurdle.
Destination: The square immediately beyond the hurdle, which must be vacant or occupied by an enemy piece.
If no hurdle exists in the chosen direction, the Grasshopper may not move there.

Usage and Strategic Implications

Grasshoppers rarely appear in over-the-board play, but they are staples of fairy chess problems and retro-analysis. Because they rely on other pieces for mobility, their strength fluctuates with board density:

Early Game: Limited power—few hurdles exist.
Middle Game: Mobility peaks as the board crowds.
Endgame: Effectiveness wanes as material disappears.

Problem composers exploit these characteristics to craft paradoxical themes—e.g., sacrificing your own pieces to create hurdles that enable long mating runs by a single Grasshopper.

Historical Background

The piece was invented in 1913 by British problemist T. R. Dawson, often called “the father of fairy chess.” Dawson’s pioneering work introduced dozens of unorthodox pieces, but the Grasshopper became one of the most popular due to its elegant “follow-the-leader” mechanic.

The name evokes the insect’s ability to jump over obstacles and land lightly, mirroring the piece’s movement.

Examples

Basic capture illustration

Setup: White Grasshopper on c4, White bishop on c5, Black king on c6, all else empty. It is White to move.

The Grasshopper moves 1. Gc4xc6#:
- Hurdle: Bishop on c5.
- Landing square: c6, occupied by the Black king—thus a capture.
Black is checkmated because the Grasshopper now covers b6, c6, d6 and the bishop on c5 covers retreat squares.

A miniature problem by T. R. Dawson

In this one-move mate, the Grasshopper on d3 already has the Black king on d1 as a hurdle and simply hops to d1. The elegance lies in its apparent “short range”—the piece was poised exactly one square behind its quarry.

Interesting Facts & Anecdotes

The Grasshopper’s symbol in problem diagrams is usually an inverted queen (♕ upside down) or “G”.
Composers sometimes introduce multiple Grasshoppers, creating chain reactions: one Grasshopper leaps over another, which immediately becomes the hurdle for a third, and so on—producing spectacular “leapfrogging” mates.
The piece inspired variants such as the Nightrider-hopper and Bishop-hopper, which copy the Grasshopper’s hurdle mechanic but restrict direction to knight or bishop lines respectively.
Because its move depends on other pieces, a lonely Grasshopper against a bare king cannot deliver mate—echoing the insufficiency of a lone bishop or knight in orthodox chess.