Chess Variants/Grasshopper Chess

	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

Grasshopper chess starting position. The grasshoppers are represented by inverted queens.

Introduction

Grasshopper Chess is a variant named after its titular piece, the grasshopper.

History

Grasshopper chess was created in the 1950s by a Frenchman, J. Boyer. The grasshopper piece was inspired by the cannon from xiangqi (Chinese Chess), which must jump another piece when capturing.

Rules

Grasshopper chess is set up like the standard game, but the pawns are advanced one rank forward and grasshoppers are placed on the second and seventh ranks, eight per player.

The grasshopper moves like a queen, but it must jump over one piece (called the screen) during its move, and lands on the square immediately beyond that piece. The screen can be of either colour, but it must be there.

A grasshopper cannot move to a square if there is no screen for it to jump over, and it cannot jump two pieces in one turn.

	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 can move to any square marked with a dot, or it can capture the black rook on f7.

A pawn is allowed to promote to a grasshopper, if that player wishes.

Sub-variants

This chess variant does not not have any notable sub-variants.