817 



CHESS. 



CHESS. 



818 



K. R. sixth. In this simple manner all the squares on the board are 

 appropriately named, both for the player of the white pieces and for 

 those of the black. 



The Moves. Place a white rook on K. R. square, and observe that this 

 piece can move in any direction parallel to the sides of the board, pro- 

 vided he be not obstructed by the men on either side. Standing 

 alone on the board as he now does he may move to K. R. eighth, from 

 K. R. eighth he may move to Q. R. eighth, thence to Q. R., thence 

 to K. R. home again. We have thus described the longest range 

 of the rook, his shortest range is to K. R. second, or to K. Kt. ; 

 but the rook is not compelled to make either his longest or his shortest 

 move ; he may move one, two, three, or more squares as occasion may 

 require. Next, place the white king's bishop on his square, and the 

 white queen's bishop also on his square, and observe that they stand 

 on different,"colours ; the move of the bishop is on the diagonals, thus 

 king's bishop can move to K. R. third, thence to Q. B. eighth, thence 

 to Q. R. sixth, and so back again to his own square. So also the 

 queen's bishop can move to K. R. sixth, thence to K. B. eighth, thence 

 to Q. R. third, and so back to his own square. Or he may move one, 

 or two, or three, or more squares according to circumstances. Observe 

 that the king's bishop always moves en the white diagonals, and that 

 the queen's bishop always keeps to the black, so that the two bishops 

 never interfere with each other's actions. But the white king's bishop 

 moves on the same colour as the black queen's bishop, and the white 

 queen's bishop moves on the same diagonals as the black king's bishop, 

 and consequently can be attacked or captured the one by the other. 

 Next place the queen on her own square : her move combines the 

 moves of the rook and the bishop respectively : this tremendous power is 

 supposed to have been conferred during the chivalrous age, as a tribute 

 to the fair sex, and it was not uncommon to call the Persian Farzin, or 

 counsellor, Fearce or Fierije, which by an easy change passed into 

 Viirye, or the " Virgin ; " but the gallantry which conferred on this 

 piece the title of queen, introduced an anomaly into the game, for not 

 only is it unnatural to make a woman the most destructive of warriors ; 

 but it is still more so to promote a pawn or foot soldier to the rank of 

 queen, as a reward for having penetrated the enemy's ranks and got to 

 the eighth square. It is not necessary to give any directions respecting 

 the moves of the queen, since we know those of the rook and of the 

 bishop. Place the king on the K. square : his move consists of the 

 shortest move of the queen ; that is, he can from his own square move 

 to K. second square, or to Q. second square, or to Q. square, or to K. B. 

 square, or to K. B. second square. At any part of the board where he 

 may happen to be he can thus move one square forwards or backwards 

 to the right or to the left, or upon any one of the four diagonals which 

 surround him ; subject, however, to this remarkable condition, that he 

 never approach the opposite king, but always be separated from him 

 by at least one square. The reason for this depends on the funda- 

 mental principle of chess, namely, that the person of the king is sacred, 

 and as he can never be captured, so he can never put himself under 

 attack, or " in check " as it is called, which he would do if he occupied 

 the next square to his royal adversary. As the kings cannot attack 

 each other, or remain under attack from any of the pieces or pawns, it 

 is customary to warn your adversary when you attack his king, by 

 calling out " check," and should he be unable to escape the attack, or 

 " get out of check," as it is called, the game is at an end. We now come 

 to describe the knight's move. Place king's knight on his square, and 

 queen's knight also on his square. The move of the knight is curious, 

 it consists of the shortest move of the rook and the shortest move of 

 the bishop, both together ; thus, if we play the knight to Kt. second, 

 he can then be moved forward either to K. R. third, or K. B. third ; so 

 also the queen's knight taking the shortest move of the bishop can be 

 moved to Q. R. second, and then the shortest move of the rook for- 

 wards will take it to Q. R. third. The knight of course gains power 

 when removed from the sides of the board ; when king's knight stands 

 at home he can be played to three squares only, namely, to K. R. 

 third, to K. second, or to K. B. third ; but when the knight is on 

 K. B. third, or on any other square away from the sides, it will be 

 seen that he can be played to any one of eight squares, so that he is 

 said to " command " these eight squares, and can capture one of the 

 enemy's pieces or pawns placed thereon. The Knight possesses the 

 peculiar privilege of leaping over the other pieces. The pawns have 

 the power of moving one or two steps forwards at pleasure at the first 

 more, thus the king's pawn which stands at K. second, can be moved 

 either to K. third, or to K: fourth, after which it moves one step at a 

 time along its own file, except when it captures, when it moves one 

 step diagonally forwards either to the right or to the left ; for example, 

 suppose black have a pawn at his K. fourth, another at his Q. fourth, 

 and a third at his K. B. fourth, and that you have a pawn at your K. 

 fourth ; if you have to move you cannot advance the pawn forwards on 

 the king's file, because the path is obstructed by the black pawn at 

 your adversary's K. fourth, but you can capture either his queen's 

 pawn or his king's bishop's pawn, by removing it from the board and 

 placing your own pawn there in its stead : thus the pawns may change 

 their files in advancing forwards, in capturing, but unlike the pieces 

 they have no power to move backwards. 



There is a curious condition attached to the privilege of moving the 

 pawn two gteps forward at the first move, namely, the power of cap- 

 turing such pawn by your adversary, provided he have a pawn advanced 



ARTS AJTO SCI. DIV. VOL. II. 



to his fifth square on one of the adjacent files ; for example, suppose 

 black to have a pawn on his Q. fifth square, and your king's pawn has 

 not yet been moved, if you move the pawn one square, namely, to K. 

 third, it is obvious that the black pawn can capture it. If you play 

 the pawn two steps instead of one, the black pawn can equally capture 

 it, by taking the pawn from the board and playing to K. sixth just 

 as if the white pawn had only moved one step. This is called taking a 

 pawn en passant. It is quite optional on the part of the player whose 

 pawn is passed ; but if he does not take the pawn, en passant, at his 

 next move, he forfeits the privilege, and the two steps taken by the 

 pawn are allowed. 



Such are the moves or powers of the pieces. Attempts have been 

 made to express them numerically ; taking the pawn as unity, or I'OO, 

 the knight is equal to 3'05, the bishop 3'50, the rook 5'4S, the queen 

 9'94. These numbers must of course vary at different parts of the 

 game. When the board is prepared for play, as in diagram 2, the 

 knights alone, from their leaping power, have value ; all the other 

 pieces are blocked in by the pawns, and it is the function of good chess 

 play so to move the pawns as to develop gradually the powers of the 

 pieces. Tables of the respective values of the pieces have been calcu- 

 lated at different points of the game, as in moving over the open board, 

 in moving over the board when about half cleared by play, &c. Other 

 calculations refer to their values in keeping off the antagonist from a 

 particular set of squares, or in making an attack on two or more 

 different squares, or in dislodging an antagonist from a particular 

 square, or in giving mate without the aid of other pieces, &c. These 

 various tables being collected together, and the mean taken for each 

 piece, we get the average numbers as above. As the king can never 

 be exchanged or captured, he is excluded from the list. It will thus 

 be seen that the knight is worth about three pawns ; and that a rook 

 is worth a bishop and two pawns, or five pawns and a half. There 

 appears to be a difference of nearly half a pawn between a bishop and 

 a knight, although iu practice a player will exchange one for the other ; 

 but in an average state of the board, the bishop can attack the knight 

 in a smaller number of moves than the knight can attack the bishop, 

 and this gives an increased value to the bishop. The bishop and 

 knight are called minor pieces, and when a player wins these two for 

 one of his rooks, he is said to " win the exchange." 



Before concluding this part of our subject we will give the reader 

 an exercise on the knight's move. It is onS of the numerous solutions 

 of the celebrated problem, " to name two different squares on the 

 chess-board of different colours, and placing a knight on one of them, 

 to require him to leap on every square of the board, and to finish 

 his leaps on the other square without stepping twice upon any one 

 square ; or, as it is more consisely expressed, " to cover the board with 

 the Kt. in sixty-four moves." This problem has engaged the attention 

 of many distinguished mathematicians, such as Euler, Bernoulli, Mairan, 

 Demoivre, Willis, and Dr. Roget. The last gentleman has discovered a 

 general solution of the problem. (' Philosophical Magazine,' 1840.) An 

 abstract of it, together with other particulars respecting the problem, 

 is given in Mr. Tomlinson's ' Amusements in Chess.' 



Diagram 3. 



Tlit Game. We will now play over one of Greco's games, in order to 

 exercise the reader in the moves of the pieces, and in the nomenclature 

 of chess. We shall continue to give instructions to the player of the 

 white pieces, so that the reader will have the board before him, with 

 the men arranged as hi diagram 2. 



WHITE. BLACK. 



1. P. to K. fourth square.' 1. P. to K. fourth square. 



This is the best move on both sides, since it liberates two pieces : 

 namely, the Queen, who has a range of a diagonal of four squares : and 

 K. B., who has a range of one of five ; since it is generally found that 

 the player who commands the largest number of squares has the 

 greatest" power. After this preliminary move on both sides, you have 

 various methods of opening the game, but we will select what is 

 called the King's Knight's game. 



2. K. Kt. to K. B. third. 



In this position your knight attacks the black K. P., and black has 

 various modes of defending it ; he may do so by playing K. B. to Q. third, 



3 u 



