INDOOR AMUSEMENTS. 



rectified, if he discover it before playing his fourth 

 move, but not after. 



2. A move once made, by your having moved a piece 

 and left hold of it, cannot be retracted. 



3. If you touch a piece, you must play that piece ; 

 but as long as you retain your hold, you can play it 

 where you like. If you touch a piece that cannot move, 

 your opponent may compel you to play your king, 

 unless the king be unable to move. When you touch 

 your pieces for the mere purpose of adjusting them, you 

 are bound to say so. 



4. If you make a false move, your opponent may 

 either cause you to retract it and move your king, or 

 he may claim that the false move shall stand, or that 

 you shall make a legal move with the same piece, at his 

 pleasure. 



5- If you touch one of your opponent's men, he may 

 compel you to take that man ; or if that be impossible, 

 to move your king, provided he can move without going 

 into check. 



6. If, on the king being checked, due notice is not 

 given, the player whose king is attacked is not bound to 

 notice it. 



7- In every fresh game, except when one is drawn, 

 the players have the first move alternately. 



8. Drawn games counting as no games at all, the 

 player who had the first move in a drawn game is also 

 entitled to it in the next. (This absurd regulation is 

 fast becoming obsolete ; and it is now a common agree- 

 ment, in playing a series of games, that the move shall 

 invariably alternate.) 



9. A player who gives the odds of a piece, is entitled 

 to the first move. 



10. The time for consideration of a move is not 

 limited ; but a player leaving a game unfinished without 

 his opponent's permission, loses such game. 



1 1. When at the end of a game one player is left with 

 just sufficient superiority of force to win such as a king 

 and rook against king, king and two bishops, or king, 

 knight, and bishop against king he who has the 

 greater force must give checkmate within fifty moves 

 on each side, or else the game is adjudged to be drawn. 

 (This law is framed to prevent unskilful players from 

 wearying their opponents by persisting in the attempt 

 to accomplish what they are too untutored to effect ; 

 and it is perfectly just, since the allotted number of 

 moves is amply large enough and to spare). 



12. In case of any dispute about the laws, both 

 players are to agree as to an umpire, whose decision is 

 to be considered final. 



DRAUGHTS. 



Draughts is a game played with a checkered 

 board and men, of much less antiquity than chess, 

 of which perhaps it may be considered a degener- 

 ate descendant. In France it is called les dames, 

 from having been a favourite game with ladies ; 

 and in Scotland this signification is preserved in 

 the term dam-brod, the name universally applied 

 by the common people to the draught-board. 



Draughts is played on a chess-board, or a board 

 checkered precisely in the same manner, with 

 thirty-two white and thirty-two black squares. 

 The board, however, is placed before the players 

 differently : in chess there must be a white square 

 in the right-hand corner, but in draughts the 

 right-hand corner must be black that is, sup- 

 posing you to play on the white squares. The 

 following figure is a representation of a draught- 

 board, numbered for the sake of illustration, and 

 placed as it should be in playing. 



The game is played by two persons, who sit 

 opposite to each other. Each has a set of twelve 

 men, the two sets being of different colours, for 



the sake of distinction. The men are generally 

 round and flat pieces of wood ; one set white, and 

 the other black ; v those of the neatest kind are 

 turned out of boxwood and ebony. 



The men may be placed either on the white or 

 black squares, but the whole must be put on one 

 colour only. It is customary in England to place 

 all upon the white, and to have, as above, a black 

 square on the right. In Scotland the black are 

 played upon, when there is consequently a white 

 square to the right. We go upon the supposition 

 that the play is on the white squares, and have 

 numbered them in the above figure accordingly. 



The movements in draughts are very simple : 

 a man can move only one square at a time, and 

 diagonally, never straight forward or sidewise. If 

 an enemy's man stand in the way, no move can 

 take place, unless there be a vacant square beyond 

 into which the piece can be lifted. In this case, 



Fig. 3- 



the man leaped over is taken ; he is removed from 

 the board. 



The grand object of the game is to clear the 

 board of the enemy's men, or to hem them in so 

 that they cannot move ; and whichever party does 

 so first gains the victory. As no piece can move 

 more than one step diagonally at a time, there 

 can be no taking till the two antagonists come to 

 close quarters ; and the pushing them cautiously 

 into each other's neighbourhood is the principal 

 art in the game. 



When the men on either side have cleared 

 their way by taking, or found an open path to the 

 opposite side of the board, they become invested 

 with a new power of movement : on reaching the 

 first row of squares on the opposite side, the piece 

 is entitled to be crowned, which is done by placing 

 a man on the top of it, and then the man may 

 move backward or forward, but always diago- 

 nally, and one square at a time, as before. This 

 power of moving and taking either forward or 

 backward, renders it of consequence to get men 

 crowned. When two or three on either side have 

 been crowned, the game becomes more interesting, 

 and may speedily be determined. 



Immediately after crowning, great art is shewn 

 in blocking up one or more of your adversary's 

 men, by the aid of which to accomplish a series 

 of decisive moves. For instance, supposing you 

 have detained your adversary's piece at 4, while 

 he has others situated on 25 and 26 and 



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