What is the Grasshopper?
The Grasshopper is a chess piece that moves by jumping over other pieces and landing one square in the jumping direction from the piece you hopped over. They can move horizontally, vertically, or diagonally. Grasshopper moves are notated with the capital letter G. For example, if a Grasshopper moved to f7, then you would write Gf7. If it took a piece there, then you would write Gxf7. If there was another Grasshopper on the e-file and the one you were planning to move was on e6, and both Grasshoppers could move to f7, then you would write G6xf7, and so on. Here are some examples of Grasshoppers moving:
In this position (purposely made for your enjoyment) White has just fianchettoed his light-squared Bishop. Black just moved his Knight back, so it’s White’s turn. He can move his Grasshopper on a6 to f1, because it’s jumping over his e2 pawn. There’s another White Grasshopper move here. Can you find it?
It’s Grasshopper to a8, jumping over the a7 pawn and moving vertically.
I hope you enjoyed this explanation of how the Grasshopper moves!
