The Lion is a "fairy" chess piece that appeared sometime after
Anthony Dickins introduced the "Grasshopper" in 1912. I have not
been able to find who first published a Lion composition. Both
were based on the Cannon, a Chinese Chess (Xiangqi) piece that
first appeared in the ninth century.

The Lion (L) moves on the lines a Queen moves, except that it
must first vault over a piece of either color to move on the
line just beyond. Unlike the Grasshopper, it may continue
on this line for as long as there are vacant squares, or until
it captures an opposing piece.

I have a WWW page ("Beatnik Chess") suggesting a chess
alternative in which,
basicly, players set up the pieces however they can agree,
or if they can't agree they set them up freely on the first
three ranks, or thereabouts. So no more castling or double
pawn moves (or en passant capture) is necessary. And while
at it, why not throw one or two new pieces in on the game.
The Lion seems the best candidate to introduce thematic
variety. To demonstrate this I have composed the miniature
endgame study below. This seems like a dandy Lion problem to
me, but maybe one of you can cook it.

White draws.
White (3): Kg8, Ld1, Pd7
Black (2): Ke7, Ph6.

"Beatnik Chess" is at:
http://www.silcom.com/~barnowl/beatnik-chess.htm

Thanks, Daniel VanArsdale, 10/11/03