Hop Chess

0. Same as FIDE except:
1. On each turn, each player must do both the following actions:
   1.1. Move a friendly chess piece; then
   1.2. Move his hopper to any empty square
2. If a chess piece moves onto a hopper (of either color),
    it must move  again (it's invalid to return to the initial square).
   2.1. Kings cannot move onto a hopper, nor castle across one.
   2.2. If the piece cannot move after the hopper, the move is invalid.
   2.3. If a queen lands on a hopper, it continues with the same type of
    movement that it used to get there (ie, both orthogonal or
    both diagonal moves).
   2.4. En-passant is still possible, but not if either pawn moves twice
3. Initially, the hoppers start off-board.
   White's first move is restricted to a piece move only.
  
Notes
  
* When moving the hopper, the player may place it where it was.
  He does not have to change the place of his hopper every turn.
* Pieces may move over hoppers.
* A piece may execute two hops, if it moves from one hopper to another.
* A hopper extends the moving/capturing range of pieces,
  so a King may be under check via one or both hoppers.
* It is not possible to capture more than one piece per move,
  since hoppers are always on empty squares.
* A pawn may promote onto a hopper and then the player must move
  the promoted piece.

Example   (@ white hopper, # black hopper)

r . b q k b n r    Some valid moves:
p p . . p p p p     Bc8-f5-e4
. . n p . . . .     d2-d4:c5
. . p . . # . .     Nc6-d4-f5:g3
. . . @ . . . .
. . . . . . O .
O O O O O O B O
R N B Q K . N R

A game:

HOP-CHESS
=========
 1. e4         Nf6  d5
 2. d4   d3    e6   b4+  
 3. Nc3  g5    Be7  b4  
 4. B:f6 e5    e:d4 b4    
 5. Q:d4 e5    g:f6 b4    
 6. e:f6 e4    Na6  c5    
 7. f:e7 d5    c:d4 b4    
 8. e:Q+ f3    K:Q  e8+
 9. Nce2 f3    d3   b4    
10. c:d3 c1    Nd4+ e8    
11. Kd2  h3    N:b2 c4+
12. Kc2  a4    Na3+ e6
13. Kb3  c1    Re5  a5
14. Ne4  c6+   Ke8  e3+
15. N:e5 c6    a5   a4+
16. K:a3 b1    b5   b4+
17. B:b5 e1    resign

r . b . k . . .
. . . p . p . p
. . . . . . . .
p B . . N . . .
. # . . . . . .
K . . . . . . .
O . . . . O O O
R . . . @ . N R

Even though the existence of hoppers makes the opening and middle game much more attack-oriented, and also the distant endgame, it dies NOT seem to be the case for most K & P endgames, even with a minor piece or two.  The reason is, that the weaker side can use his hopper to stop the stronger king from ever making a breakthrough into the enemy area, as usually happens in endgames.  So there are SOME games at least that are harder to win in the hopper version. But not many.

Trabsact Sagme Diaries

The way to one's goal often lies in the opposite direction. [T.Sagme, Meditations]