every Square of the Chess-hoard alternately. 499 



passant ; ray object being only to give a method by which 

 the cavalier could be guided mechanically through the la- 

 byrinth of the sixty-four squares, without the director's seeing 

 the board, but ordering the move from memory alone ; and 

 the means furnished by me seem fully to meet the end in 

 view. Dr. Roget's solution of the problem is highly inge- 

 nious, and it has given me much pleasure to follow his knight 

 over the field. The subject having been once broached in 

 your scientific Journal, it is my present aim to add in some 

 degree to the materials already contributed by the learned se- 

 cretary of the Royal Society. 



Those who have not gone deeply into chess are hardly 

 aware that a whole library has been written upon the knight's 

 move, and ten thousand modes are printed in which the feat 

 may be performed. Many of these methods are coupled 

 with the most curious conditions, and must have taken long 

 years to perfect. In addition to the authorities quoted by 

 Dr. Roget, I append a list of works and writers, exclusively 

 devoted to the problem in question. That so much time has 

 been well spent, I am not prepared to admit; although the 

 matter is as fair a hobby to ride as any other species of solitary 

 calculation : but attached enthusiastically as I am to the prac- 

 tice of chess as a game, I cannot but regret the same energies 

 have not been applied to illustrate points more immediately 

 connected with the conduct of our scientific sport. Many 

 parts of chess, particularly the openings and endings of the 

 game, are capable of mathematical demonstration; and to 

 name one, the celebrated study of what should be the legiti- 

 mate termination of the strife by King, Rook, and Bishop, 

 against King and Rook only, has been an ope7i question from 

 earliest time. Philidor, at the head of a strong body of chess 

 scribes, considers the Rook and Bishop ought to win by force ; 

 while an equal number of writers entitled to authority dis- 

 miss this quantum of conflicting strength as a drawn game. 

 To him who shall first give a printed solution of this highly 

 difficult problem, the thanks of the European chess circle 

 would be eagerly and gratefully tendered ; and we should 

 be proud to enrol him in the St. George's Chess Club, as the 

 man who had achieved a task, compared with which the la- 

 bours of Hercules were but as typical. 



To lay down a general principle by which the march of 

 the knight may be unhesitatingly guided over the 64 squares 

 alternately is, however difficult, possible to be done ; and this 

 without burdening the memory with letters, words, figures, 

 or other cumbersome elements of similar machinery. The 

 following is the best, because the most simple, of the nume- 



2 L2 



