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The Piececlopedia is intended as a scholarly reference concerning the history and naming conventions of pieces used in Chess variants. But it is not a set of standards concerning what you must call pieces in newly invented games.

Piececlopedia: Contragrasshopper

Historical notes

The contragrasshopper is a less well-known fairy chess piece. I know of no games that use it. Torsten Linss has a problem using the contrgrasshopper.
The contragrasshopper is, of course, derived from his more famous fairy cousin, the grasshopper.

Movement

The contragrasshopper moves and captures along queen lines (orthogonally or diagonally), but first it must leap over a piece, friendly or enemy, that is on a square adjacent to it in the direction it is moving. It can not jump over a second piece, but can move any distance past the piece it jumps over as long as its path is unobstructed.

Movement diagram

In the diagram below, the contragrasshopper can move to all the squares marked with a black circle. He can also capture the Black queen on h8.









This is an item in the Piececlopedia: an overview of different (fairy) chess pieces.
Written by Ben Good.
WWW page created: January 15, 1999.