✗ WoF ︱ Grasshopper Chess

Here the grasshoppers enter the arena to fight in a standard chess board, the grasshoppers will draw eachother without outside influence, but upon promotion to camel you have the ability in an endgame to influence the grasshoppers. Unlike MK chess, the grasshoppers have a large influence in the board and will not wait to capitalize on mistakes, making the game harder on average. The principle is similar though, that the players must play well in order to secure their advantage.

This position is very interesting. The concept is simple but the gameplay and depth is rather deep.

Here gameplay in the beginning is extremely similar to regular chess. However, development of rooks is even more important as this allows grasshoppers to get out to fight in the battle. These grasshoppers will gobble anything that they can capture, which, although is usually blunderous, can often be abused with a tempo attack or check to win pieces over time.

As well, endgames can have extreme depth, as the promotion to camel and, over time, the lack of squares for grasshoppers to move to, as well as the ability to stalemate your opponent for a win can have major turnabouts.

Overall, this mode is extremely fun and interesting. In particular, the addition of grasshoppers to normal chess, as well as new rules, enhances a classical game into one that has very similar feels, but very different depth and gameplay.

+1

Very interesting 2pc variant. Have we thought about making the 'grasshoppers' real players as well, and both players on the team discuss the moves?

Personally I don't like to make 4 player variants due to length of queues requiring inviting players instead. In this position the grasshopper's job is very simple in fact, if a bit enigmatic to a human, switch them to futers and you will see this. They will begin to pace back and forth on the original squares and wait to be let into the board, as making it across to the other side to enter in your opponents side is impossible and allowing your opponent to do so by trying to enter on your side is a blunder. This is why they are munchers instead, they will rather eat the dead pieces and eventually find a way across.

One question for you: It looks like only the two grasshoppers situated on the corner of the outside board is able to make it into the game. Is this a bug or is this intentional? This also means the outside assistance is likely minimal.

no, all of them can get into the board, they need to travel some distance across the board to be able to get in, but they are limited by the other grasshoppers who pose threat to them stopping their advance. Yes this is intentional as with different setups you have more influence by the grasshoppers in the board, it turns it into less of a regular chess game at the start.

Q: Are grasshoppers able to jump over many consecutive transparent bricks and not just 1?

only one, there must be a space open behind the square they are trying to jump over