Eric Angelini, 02 Aug 1995
I finally found the ref. of a fairy promotion which was later captured, leaving the board with no fairy pieces: i don't know if it is an example fitting in your (interesting :-)) discussion of the few last days. Bedrich Formanek - 3rd Prize - S V CSTV C - October 31, 1966
+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | |*B| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | P| | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | B| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | P|*K| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | P| | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | B| | | | K| +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | P| | P| | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ | | | | | | | | | +--+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ 8+2 Checkmate in 1#
Here is how the author of the book ('Jean Bertin' - 'Histoires extraordinaires sur 64 cases' - Grasset&Europe Echecs Editor - p.135/6), together with the author of the pb analyze:
What was last move by Black? BK h5 coming from g6; but in g6 the BK was in check - by WB d3 which could not give check by himself;
so a discovered check was given by ... either a Grasshopper S moving from f5 to h5, or a Camel (they move [1,4] like Knights move [1,2] - in french the name is 'Chameau' notated CH) moving from e4 to h5; in both cases the BK g6 took after the check the W piece on h5;
we come then to the diag.
so: a) if the last moves were n-1) Sf5-h5+ KxSh5 THEN W mates immediately with g7xBh8=S##; b) if ... n-1) CHe4-h5+ KxCHh5 THEN ... g7-g8=CH ##
Nice, is it not?
... and a few pages before, there is a 1962 (!) pb with a 3x promotion (in Grasshopper, Bishopper or Leo) but with a Maximum-Selfmate condition.
Thanks to Eric Angelini for Formanek's problem involving proving that a grasshopper or camel had previously existed. A camel is a (1,3)-leaper, not a (1,4)-leaper as Eric had said.
In English, we use G for grasshopper. S might mislead Germans (S = Springer, the German for Knight), and sometimes S is used for Knight in English, though I prefer N.
I'd append "2 solutions" to the stipulation, because the two possible RA arguments lead to different mating moves.