Chapter I: =Elementary Institutes= (1)

The board on which this game is played, like that used at _Draughts_, is a square, divided into sixty-four lesser squares, and checquered black and white. At _Chess_ these squares have the technical name of _houses_, and are all made use of in play.

In placing the board, care must be taken that one of the two white corner squares be at the right hand of each player. _Note_—That when the board is in this position, the several ranges of houses running in a strait line from left to right, are called _ranks_; those perpendicular to them, running from one player to the other, take the name of _files_, and the two ranges, sloping from one corner of the board to the opposite, (one of white, the other of black squares, touching at the corner), are _diagonals_; so are the lesser ranges which run in a parallel direction.

THE PIECES

Allotted to each competitor are sixteen, viz. a king, a queen, two bishops, two knights, two rooks, and eight pawns. As a necessary distinction, each set is coloured in a different way; one is commonly white, the other red or black.

THE DISPOSITION OF THE PIECES ON THE BOARD

Is as follows: The white king is to be seated on the first or nearest rank, on the fourth house (a black one) from that corner of the board which is to the right of the player to whom he belongs; his queen close to him on his left, on a house of her own colour—on one side of each of these, a bishop—adjoining each of the bishops, a knight—and last of all, at the corners of the board, the two rooks. Having thus arranged the first line, let the whole of the second rank be occupied by the pawns, one before each of the dignified pieces. As to the counter set, the black king is to be placed on the farther side of the board, exactly opposite the white one—his queen opposite the white queen—and so on; placing all the pieces opposite those of corresponding denominations—the pawns on the second rank as before.

To illustrate what has been said, and to prevent any misunderstanding respecting it, as well as to shew the forms of the pieces, the plate forming the frontispiece is given; which see.

THEIR POWERS AND MODE OF ACTION.

The gradation in rising from the lowest, to the higher pieces, will shew the _comparative worth of each kind_.

I. Of the PAWN. When one of the pawns is moved, it must be along the file in which he has been first placed, in a strait line towards the adverse party. The first move may be either _one_ or _two_ squares, at the option of the player: after which, no one of them, while he remains a pawn, can advance more than _one_ house at a time. When once brought out, a pawn, more restrained than any other piece, cannot retreat or move back again. He is prohibited too from quitting his own file for that of another, except in the single case of making a capture; on which occasion he moves obliquely into the next file, to the right or left (as the case may happen) one house forward; _placing himself on the square of the piece taken_,[11] which is removed from the board; after which he is confined to moving directly forwards as before, and cannot leave his new file for another, but on a similar occasion to that which led him into it.

A pawn, like every other agent on the board, takes any piece that comes within his reach, indiscriminately from one of his own quality to the queen.

[11] This is the custom of all the pieces on a capture.

II. The KNIGHT. The move of the knight is peculiar to himself, and difficult to explain. It is two squares at once (three, including his own) in a direction partly diagonal and partly strait. The house he goes into, is always of a _different colour_ from that which he leaves. It may likewise be said to be uniformly _next but one_ to the latter; although in his passage to it he passes transversely over the corners of _two_.

The knight’s power of capture reaches to any square that his move will take him into.

Note—That this is the only piece that has a _vaulting motion_; or that is not precluded from going to a square, between which and his own other pieces intervene: just to shew what is meant, if good play permitted it, any one of the knights could move out before a pawn had stirred, alighting on the third square of either the bishop or the rook; without waiting, as the other superior pieces are obliged, till an opening be made.

III. The BISHOP. By observing the plate it will be seen, that the bishops of the same set are placed on squares of a different colour; the white king’s bishop, for instance, being seated on a white, and the white queen’s bishop on a black square. What makes it necessary to remark this, which is common to the knight and rook, is, that the bishop, unlike all the other pieces, is obliged to walk, throughout the game, on that colour of the exchequer[12] that he was placed on at the commencement of it; which is a necessary consequence of his motion being purely _diagonal_. His step is in other respects very unlimited, as he may, at a single effort, go any length of squares from one to eight. The bishop, if the road be open for him, takes at any distance.

[12] A technical name for the board.

IV. The ROOK. The rook moves in _strait lines_, forwards or sideways. He can, at one step, pass along a whole rank, or a whole file, or stop short at the first, second, third, or any other square of a rank or file, as occasion may require. Like the bishop, and on the same condition, he takes at any distance[13].

[13] Having gotten through the last of the pieces of which there are more than one of a sort, in order to confirm the reader in what he might suppose, and to leave him no question to make, we turn aside to observe to him, that the difference in the worth of pieces of the same kind, is indeed _next to nothing_; that the little odds there is, between superior pieces of the same description, is in favour of that on the king’s side; and that of the four centre commoners, which are reckoned rather the best, the king’s bishop’s commoner is the most esteemed.

V. The QUEEN—unites the moves of the _bishop_ and _rook_; and, like them, when the road is open, takes at any distance.

VI. The KING—_except_ when he avails himself of the privilege of _castling_, can move only _one square_ at a time; of course he can take at no greater distance: he may, however, both move and take either forwards, backwards, sideways, or aslant. When policy shall invite the player to the expedient, and the previous unarbitrary removal of the bishop and knight on his right, or of the bishop, rook and queen on his left, has rendered it effectible without any violence to propriety, the king may _castle_ with either of his rooks; which is done by placing the king on that knight’s square that is next to the rook with whom he castles, and by placing the rook at the other side of the king, on the bishop’s square adjoining. This _ambidextral_ manœuvre of changing the situation of two pieces at one time, the player is allowed to employ but once; and not at all if the king has previously moved. It is impracticable and unnecessary at the beginning of the game. The only prerogative of the king, is a great one; that of _never being taken_.

OF PROMOTING A PAWN TO BE A QUEEN, ROOK, &c.

When a pawn has penetrated to the farthest rank on the adverse side of the board, he is rewarded with promotion to the _highest vacant dignity_[14]; that is to say, if the person playing him there has lost his queen, he succeeds to the honor. If instead of his queen one or both of the rooks be lost, he is made a rook. If the queen and rooks have escaped capture, he is made a bishop. If the bishops have likewise been preserved, he is made a knight. The ceremony of transformation taking place in either case, and which is necessary to distinguish him, is very short: A sort of exchange: The pawn is removed from the board, and put among those taken by the adversary; and a captured piece, of the denomination he is advanced to, is taken from thence, and substituted in his room. It can hardly be necessary to say, that his powers and mode of action alter with his quality.

[14] Under the scheme that advances the pawn to the _rank of the piece whose square he gets into_, it happens that when his player has not lost a piece of that identical quality, the only reward of the pawn is to stand exposed to incessant attacks, without the power of retreating in any direction:—To have _both the bishops of a set moving on the same colour_, an anomaly which will seldom occur, and which the other is just as liable to induce, is the only one that can result from this scheme.

OF GIVING CHECK, AND CHECK-MATE.

Upon this the game hinges. As the king is never taken, whenever an adversary is advanced upon him in such a manner, as that, remaining where he is, if he were _any other piece_ he would be captured; the person advancing it is to salute him with the word “_Check_,” warning him of his situation; upon which it is absolutely necessary for him to alter it in one of the following ways: either, _relatively_, by taking the threatening piece, or interposing[15] one of his own between that and himself; or, _positively_, by removing to a square where neither that nor any other of the adversary’s pieces reach. If he cannot do one of these, the game is lost. This inextricable _contact_ with an _adverse piece_ is technically termed CHECK-MATE.

[15] _Note_—This second mode of defending himself cannot be practised when he is checked by the knight, owing to the vaulting motion of that piece; he must then have recourse to either the first, or the third: and should he be checked by any two pieces at once, which is called _double check_, the third only will avail.

OF GIVING A STALE.

The game may be lost too in quite an _opposite_ manner. By the constitution of Chess, the king is on no account to move into check; and, therefore, when, as it not unfrequently happens, one party has crowded up the king of the other with so many pieces, that the only move left him would take him into check; if the person to whom the king so circumstanced belongs has no other piece, or no other that can be moved, the contest must necessarily stagnate. Come to an end before the arrival of the regular result, it can be proceeded in no further. It is not, however, _undecided_. The player giving the other the _stale_, (so, in the language of Chess, the _dilemma_ which the king is in is called) is, by a rule immemorially acquiesced in, adjudged to have _defeated himself_.

REASONS FOR ASSIGNING, IN THE CASE OF A STALE-MATE, THE VICTORY TO THE PARTY SUFFERING IT.

A little reflection will shew that this rule is not incapable of the justification which at first sight it may seem to want. It would be an intolerable defect in the game to have it perpetually liable to an accident that would render it undecisive. The only way of avoiding this defect, is the instituting an artificial rule, awarding the victory, whenever a stale happens, to one party or the other.

The necessity of making some kind of decision being arrived at, the propriety of placing the bias where it is may be easily evinced.

It is to be recollected that the rule under discussion is an arbitrary one. The expediency of an arbitrary rule, however great, cannot entirely divest it of the dissatisfactory; and therefore the seldomer there is occasion for it the better: now the making him to lose by a stale, who may always avoid it by caution, is an effective bar to its happening very often.

Other properties of this rule do not merely justify—they highly recommend it. The bias which it has adopted serves to balance the advantages of the game, as it is entirely in favour of the weaker party. Owing to this very bias, whenever the critical case, to which it is applied, is likely to occur, _a greater exertion of intellect in conducting the approach is incited_; than which nothing can be more agreeable to the genius of the game, as the professed object of Chess is to call out the powers of the mind.

Thus a defect inherent in the structure of the game, and from which it were impossible to free it, is overruled so as to give it a higher degree of interest. Upon the whole, the necessity for this rule is not to be deplored.

OF A DRAW GAME.

If it be not superfluous to put it any where, it must be added here, that whenever from the greatness of the loss on each side, (the more potent pieces, and those capable of becoming so, being gone), or from any other cause, it becomes certain that neither party can give the other Check-mate; the game is to be discontinued as insipid and useless, the players consenting to draw their pieces, and begin afresh.

CHAP. II.

=_General Maxims_=.

These questions occur at every evolution—_What piece is to be moved? Where is it to be moved to?_ After the first time, for a very obvious reason to the practical player, (the abstraction from any particular situation, which from the latitude of moves in the power of the adversary, the mind of the theorist is forced to make), we can only give helps for the reader himself to decide them.

The game cannot be better opened than by advancing the _king’s pawn two squares_. If the first adventurer be threatened, the queen’s or bishop’s pawn may lend him support. Which of the others should succeed will depend greatly on the moves of the opposite party. The pawns must not be so placed as to interrupt the freedom of the other pieces. Where the pawns are not equal to the defence of each other, the other pieces must be brought out to support them:[16]—in this business the bishops are in general the preferable agents, as they are not so liable as the knights to be clogged by the obstructions which this early stage of the game from its crouded stage is sure to present[17].

[16] One piece to guard another, at Chess, must be placed so that if the piece he is designed to guard were an opponent he could take him. The protection results from the adversary’s being deterred from a capture by the certainty of a reprisal. The king alone is to be guarded in a different mode, and that mode will be explained in its place.

[17] It may seem strange that the knight, which overleaps every other piece, should be more liable to obstruction than the bishop: the reason of the fact is, that the knight cannot stop short of, any more than exceed, a very limited extent.

_Prudence_ requires that the superior pieces be not over forward in acting offensively; because by every one that is driven back you lose a move: but when a few pieces have been[18] changed, and the game is somewhat advanced, and there is no danger of their stopping the progress of such of the pawns as you wish to push on, you need not be shy of using the _knights_, any more than the _bishops_, in occasional attacks on the most unguarded of the adversaries.

[18] To change our exchange pieces is to lose one or two of your own for the sake of taking one or two of the adversary’s. It serves to clear the board, and enlarge the scene of action; and, when you get a piece of greater value than that lost, it encreases your comparative strength. Nevertheless it is only to be done with caution, and of those pieces for which you have the least occasion.

The _queen_ must not be moved hastily;—for offence in particular, not till some kind of method pervades the rest of your pieces—and you can guess what aspect the game is likely to assume. To put this piece in motion before you had digested a set of measures, and had a probable certainty of succeeding in them, would be entirely to misemploy her great powers.

As the _rooks_, while the game is thronged, can effect nothing worthy their attempting; generally speaking, it is advisable to keep them in reserve till towards the conclusion of the game. The usefulness of the rook, gradually increasing as the crisis approaches, is then very little inferior to that of the queen[19].

[19] To the adversary’s king stript of his attendants, the rook, with the sole assistance of his own king, is capable of giving check-mate beyond the possibility of illusion; a degree of prowess which, besides the queen, no other piece than the rook can boast.

The _king_ is not to act offensively. He is to be put where he will be least open to attack; and, while a fatal one is possible, neither move nor take but with a view to his own defence. _The two points_ to which every thing else is to subserve, are, _the giving check-mate to the adversary’s king_, and _the preservation of your own_.

To make you as much acquainted with the right way of endeavouring at these, as _bare Theory_ is able to do; it will be necessary to be a little more particular.

§ 1. On that side of the board, whether right or left, on which you mean to castle the king—neither the bishop’s, the knight’s, nor the rook’s pawn must stir from its place; because the principal inducement to the measure, is, the protection he will receive by retiring behind them.

2. The other pawns must be kept together and well supported; and not suffered to straggle forwards alone. A party of these, managed with address, may, in a future part of the game, repair the loss of a capital piece, or do some other signal service.

3. At the same time that you are concerting the attack of the adversary, endeavour (but not so as to interfere with any thing of more importance) to have your own king so circumstanced that he may castle when he pleases. Should this convenience be effected, if his not being castled be no obstruction to your other operations, let him remain at his own square till there is a necessity for his going to the retreat secured for him. The advantage to be gained by this procedure is, that the adversary will be obliged to form two distinct systems of attack.

4. As soon as the adversary has castled, if it be on a different side of the board from that on which you have castled, or intend to castle, let your pawns opposite bear down upon his king. The queen and what other pieces you can spare, in particular the rook to whom their removal opens a field, must support them in this onset[20].

[20] If the adversary castles on the same side with you, an adherence to what is contained in the first section will lead you to attack him with the superior pieces only.

5. Where a direct attack upon the adversary’s king is impolitic or impracticable, you must endeavour to take those of his pieces that most contribute to render it so.

6. Ineffectual checks, or checks that the adversary can easily elude, are in general to be refrained from; as they are very apt to lead to loss of move, loss of the checking-piece, and so on. Experience, however, will furnish a few cases, in which there is a propriety in giving such a check—where it will force the adversary’s king into a more exposed situation—where the movement, necessary to avert it, will leave a capital piece unguarded—where, the adversary’s king not having castled, nor being in a condition to do so, it will force him by moving to forfeit that privilege—and where, having a piece of your own attacked, that you are not able otherwise to save, it will cause the removal of some piece that impedes his escape.

7. In defending your own king when closely attacked—where it will either cause the adversary to lose a move, or increase your comparative strength; and at the same time, be a successful means of parrying the check—you should offer to make an exchange of pieces.

8. If the king be castled, the pawns forming a cordon before, or round him, should be guarded as much as possible from the brunts of the adversary.

9. Whenever, from being either reduced in number, or obliged to quit their stations, the defence afforded the king by these becomes precarious—or whenever the king is not castled at all—some of the superior pieces should be kept in readiness to contribute actively to his safety; being posted so, that where they cannot prevent, they may at least cover him from check. Their number and quality circumstances must decide. Those that operate at a distance, will not on this service be out of their province; nor will it often be found of them, as it will of the knights, that they are thereby rendered the less prepared to act offensively. The keeping, too, such pieces as the rook, the bishop, or the queen, near your own king, may sometimes cause the adversary to relax in his caution where it does not add to his security.

10. Of the queen, it is however to be noted, that she must never stand in such a way before the king, as that were an adverse rook or bishop to attack her, her moving aside would leave the king in check; because were she to be so attacked, should the rook or bishop be well guarded, and you had no piece to interpose, as it would not do to expose the king, you could no how avoid losing the queen for a less valuable piece.

11. Great advantages are often gained by an _ambuscade_; which is the having one piece, a pawn, for instance, so placed before another, we will say the queen, that though the adversary, on a cursory view, might seem to be safe; yet by simply playing the piece in front, whose intervention alone keeps him from it, check, single or double[21], will be discovered to his king.

[21] A rook and a bishop may be placed so that the adversary’s king is in check with neither; and yet by moving that nearest him forwards or sideways, he will be in check with both; and so with respect to others.

12. While intent on projects of offence, take care that you are not surprised yourself. Indeed every detail of a stratagem to be practised on the adversary, carries with it a tacit admonition to beware of the like from him; as to caution against any evolution, is saying, “look out for an opportunity to practise it.”

13. Take care that an adverse pawn does not advance upon two superior pieces, which is called forking them; knights and rooks are particularly liable to be attacked in this way, the pawns not requiring to be guarded, because the moves of those pieces do not comprehend the moves of the pawn. Thus where there is not a reciprocity in the mode of action between a smaller and a larger piece, the approach of the smaller may be very dangerous.

14. Hence it is, that unremitting vigilance must be exerted throughout the game, to prevent either of the adverse knights from checking the king and queen at the same time; because as the king can only save himself from the knight by a positive removal, the sacrifice of the queen is rendered inevitable.

15. Nor must the adversary be suffered to direct the insidious power of the knight, on any other two pieces of more importance than himself; as the loss of one of them for the knight, or for nothing, will be sure to follow.

16. When two pieces are attacked in such a way, that one of them at least must be lost; in deciding which to give up, you must not think so much on the difference in their worth, which may be more than counterbalanced by other circumstances, as on the particular effects which the capture of this or that is likely to have.

17. Whenever you are so well prepared for the worst, as to have two or three pawns so near the adversary’s farthest rank, and so well posted, that you are almost certain of reaching it with one of them when you please; you may be the bolder with your capital pieces—and, where you would be otherwise in doubt which to surrender, the less tenacious of retaining one of them in preference to another that is less capital.

18. Without there should be no other way of saving the king, or no other but what would be attended with a greater disadvantage, never cover him from check by placing a superior piece in that manner, that a pawn of the adversary, by being advanced a move, could take him; lest the adversary, availing himself of the opportunity, oblige you to a losing exchange.

19. In order to have as powerful pieces as you can in play, let those that are stationed to guard some other stationary ones, be of no greater force than is necessary; that is, where the motives for employing one of several pieces on this service are in other respects equal, take the lowest.

20. Where two of the adversaries are so circumstanced that you take either, similar considerations to those in the 16th section will determine you.

21. Where an adversary is so exposed that you can take him when you please, be in no haste about it: but see whether there be not some danger to avert, or advantage to seize, in another quarter, and let him alone till it be effected. It may at length be in your power to combine the piece that shall move into his square in some extensive scheme, as he may be supposed to move merely to take this piece.

22. Where an adverse pawn has advanced to the square immediately before your king, do not take him, unless some consideration superior to his worth impels his removal from the board; as an adverse pawn before the king is generally found to be a safeguard.

23. Whenever you can anticipate by calculation that the sacrifice of such and such a piece, though it can yield no immediate requital, will yet lead to such an arrangement, as will enable you in the end to give the adversary check-mate, true policy requires that you make it.

24. Never let an over-eagerness of the victory which a superiority may promise you, lead you to endanger its forfeiture by giving a stale: on the contrary, till you can give check-mate without a risk of miscarriage, always leave the adversary ample room to move.

25. Whenever you have clearly the disadvantage of the game in other respects, and yet happen to be in a position that by good management, may be turned into a stale; you must, as your only resource, endeavour to avail yourself of it. To do this, the following case will serve as a general clue. Your king is close pressed on all sides, and you have only the queen and an inferior piece left in play—take the first opportunity of playing the inferior piece so, that by its being either blocked up or lost, the king would be in a stale already if you had not the queen.—This done, with the queen keep giving incessant[22] check to the adversary’s king, till at length, to avoid a check-mate, the adversary is forced to capture him. Your object will then be attained.

_Note_—Sometimes a check-mate or a stale will speedily terminate the game; sometimes it will happen that the pieces are nearly played away, without either taking place. To the latter case, the six sections that next follow are exclusively adapted.

[22] The kings, in the course of play, may happen to be circumstanced so nearly alike, as for the adversary’s to be liable to a stale at the same time with yours. This will be a very nice point indeed, and require your utmost skill and caution in checking—and now and then a temporary forbearance.

26. When the adversary’s force is so much diminished, that your king, if in any, is in no immediate danger—and your own force is so much diminished likewise, that you can make no effective attack without him—the necessity and policy of confining the king to defence only will be superseded.

27. Among other uses to which he may then be devoted,—you must take every opportunity of putting him in motion, where your doing so, will be the only or the best way of either gaining or preserving the move, which it is of such importance to have, that if the contest has been otherwise equally conducted, your getting the game will depend upon nothing else.

28. He may then, too, as circumstances vary, occasionally be of service, either in protecting some pawn of your own which may be more advanced than the rest, and which you want to raise to queen; or in taking or harrassing any pawns of the adversary on the like expedition.

29. The note at the bottom of page 37, respecting the rook, is a sufficient intimation that the king may, in this stage of the game, be employed in combination with another piece in giving check to his antagonist.

From the same note it is to be inferred, that if one party
has only a king, and the other in addition to the king
has but one piece, and that piece be a knight or a
bishop, it must be a draw game; and therefore that, next
to a queen or a rook, it is best for that piece to be a
pawn, from the possibility of making him a piece of the
first power. This serves to introduce the two following

PARTICULAR CASES.

30. The adversary has the king and a pawn, and you have only the king. You will naturally endeavour to intercept that pawn—his king, if he be in any danger, will as naturally go to his assistance—this, if the king is time enough to save him, will bring them together. Though you will then have failed in taking the pawn; yet, if you can get before either to the square towards which the pawn is moving; by manœuvering on the first square of that file, and the second of that and the adjoining files, you will either make a draw game, or win by a stale.

31. Upon certain contingencies, the adversary may have the king, a bishop, and a pawn, when you have only the king, without being able to beat you: which contingencies are these:—If the pawn be on a rook’s file—if you can get into the square at your end of that file—if this square be of a color different from that on which the bishop moves—all these concurring, it is even possible for you to win by a stale.

32. To conclude; if you would have something more than a mere exemption from defeat, depending on chances, to hope for, let this rule, in connection with the others, be specially regarded. From first to last, the changes and declensions, successively taking place in the number, value, and situation of the pieces must be noted with exactness; and no movement at any time made till the consequences are considered. This, among other good effects, will the better enable you to conjecture what the adversary may mean to do, and to take measures accordingly. If closely pursued, it will at once prevent you from giving any advantage to the adversary, and from overlooking any which he may give to you.

The initiate reader, having arrived thus far, will perhaps be impatient to make a practical essay. From that, though it may originate in a mistake, we would not withhold him. As what we design, is his progressive improvement, we do not care how soon he is convinced that he cannot make himself master of the whole at once. After he has made the experiment, we would, for his next essays, direct his attention to two or three games which we mean to detail as examples, move by move. By studying these, and noting the foregoing directions, one at a time, as the advantages of pursuing, or the effects of deviating from them are laid open, he will soon imprint the spirit of them on his memory; and practice, either by himself, or with a friend, will imperceptibly confer on him a habit of adopting them with promptness.

If he is a genius, practice will do more; it will lead him to form maxims of his own for indescribable cases.

After setting down the laws of the game, which will end this chapter; we give the examples promised, chiefly as vehicles for rules for particular situations, which can only be imparted with clearness, when particular situations are exhibited on the board.

THE LAWS OF THE GAME,

_Reduced to their most simple Construction, are_,

I. If a player touches a piece, he must play it somewhere; and when he has quitted it, he cannot change its place.

II. If one party, by mistake or otherwise, makes a false move, and it is not discovered till after the other has played in his turn, it cannot be revised or rectified by either.

III. If a player misplaces the pieces, and, before he finds it out, plays two moves, it is at the choice of his opponent to permit him to begin the game afresh or not.

IV. If one party plays or discovers check to the king of the other, and neglects to notify it, the other may let him remain in open check till he does.

V. After the king has moved, or if both the rooks have moved, he cannot be castled.

Where the object is mutual improvement, and not decision
of skill—or where the superiority of one party is
admitted, and the object is the improvement of the
other—the first four of these may be dispensed with.

CHAP. III.

=_Progressive Examples_=.

APOLOGETIC INTRODUCTION.

As it is not the habit of every reader to wade patiently through a preface, the author begs leave to condense here the substance of an apology, which, from the influx of topics, could not there be presented in a disentangled form.

Whoever has marked the experiments of a novitiate in Chess, must have observed a propensity to a variety of moves, which while they appear to open a field teeming with advantage, really lead to results that are disastrous. Some of these are interspersed in the following examples, and the adverse consequences with which they are pregnant traced to their source. Thus by the publication of games with notes, a plan to which Philidor led the way, the student steps by a short route on the high ground, to which the guides who framed the artificial passage, only reached by repeated labor and experience. But a gigantic genius, it would seem, cannot conceive exactly what are the desiderata of a mind of less compass; and Philidor left a trying distance between the level from which the inexperienced would rise, and the steps at the bottom of his ascending ladder. A professor, who is not incapacitated by extraordinary powers from imagining where interposition is wanted, may supply acceptable remedies for these vacuities.

Let us now attend the pupil at the board, and conduct him through such evolutions as may fit him to appreciate and enjoy the enterprise and spirit of Cunningham, the brilliant promptness at resource of Salvio, and the comprehension and foresight of Philidor.

=_First Essay_=.

EXAMPLE I.

FIRST COUPLET OF MOVES.

White. The king’s pawn 2 squares.
Black. The same.

2.
W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.(a)
B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.

3.
W. King’s knight at king’s bishop’s 3d square.(b)
B. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(c)

4.
W. The king’s pawn takes the black[23] pawn.
B. The king’s knight’s pawn takes the white pawn.

(a) Unless necessity call for it, no one of the other six pawns should be moved until you have ascertained on which side to castle. The queen’s pawn advances but one square, not so much because the black one prevents his going farther as to support that of his own king.

(b): This move is partly accounted for by the remark on the last.

(c) The same remark will shew, that the whites are played with more propriety than the blacks.

[23] Note. When there is but one piece that can move, or take, or be taken, in the manner described; as it would be unnecessary, we shall never circumstantially name it.

5.
W. The king’s knight takes the black pawn.
B. The queen’s pawn 1 square.(d)

6.
W. King’s knight at the king’s bishop’s 3d square.
B. Queen’s bishop at queen’s 2d square.(e)

7.
W. Queen’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.(f)
B. Queen’s knight at queen’s bishop’s 3d square.

8.
W. Queen’s bishop at queen’s knight’s 2d square.(g)
B. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square.

(d) If this move had been made before, the king’s pawn of this party might have been preserved; the snatching away of which, has rendered them in situation and comparative strength, much inferior to their adversaries.

(e) The chief object of this, and some subsequent moves, is the having the king in readiness to castle.

(f) Finding that his adversary means to castle with the queen’s rook, the player of the whites begins to get his opposite pawns ready to advance.

(g) This attack on the black rook is not a good move; for the bringing out of the black knight, which it incites as the only, though an easy mode of parrying it—a movement which his player might not otherwise have meditated—or if he had, must have lost a move in effecting—gives the rook an opportunity to be very troublesome to the opposite pawns.

9.

W. The queen’s rook’s pawn 1 square.(h)
B. Queen at the king’s 2d square, giving the white king check.(i)

10.
W. King’s bishop at king’s 2d square, covering the check.
B. King’s rook at his knight’s square.

11.
W. The king castles with his rook.(k)
B. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(l)

(h) This is to protect the knight’s pawn from the black knight.

(i) There is no impropriety in the queen’s standing thus before her king, so long as no guarded rook of the counter set can be brought to attack her; and while her player has several pieces that he could interpose.

(k) If he did not castle now, he could not preserve his knight’s pawn in it’s place, without forfeiting the privilege. To have advanced him a square, would, however, have been better.

(l) To make way for the following move. If the white queen’s bishop had not quitted his house, the command he would have had of the diagonal into which this move is made, would have prevented it; which it will be presently seen it was the interest of that player to have done.

12.
W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(m)
B. The queen’s bishop at the white king’s knight’s 4th square.(n)

13.
W. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
B. Queen’s knight at his king’s 4th square.(o)

(m) Any move that is properly made, and which preceding remarks, or a subsequent move will shew the reason of, we shall not observe on. It may, however, be of use to review the situations of the two sets of pawns; those of the white party to the left of the king, are advanced so as to derive from themselves all the support they want: whereas the pawns to the left of the other player must depend entirely on the superior pieces for protection. When pawns are seated, like these, on files that do not adjoin, they are, considered by themselves, as insecure as they can be.

(n) But if the pawns are played worse, the bishops and knights of this party are played better than those of the other.

(o) The move of the white pawn, which was necessary to the prosecution of the white queen’s scheme, gave the black knight an opportunity of coming here without suspicion, as he seems to remove merely for his own safety.

14.
W. Queen at her rook’s 4th square.
B. Queen’s bishop takes the white knight.

15.
W. King’s bishop takes the black bishop.(p)
B. The queen’s knight takes the white bishop, and gives check.(q)

16.
W. The king retires to his rook’s square.
B. The knight at the 4th square of the same rook.(r)

17.
W. The queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square, discovering check.
B. The king castles.

(p) From the cramped situation in which the player of the white’s too eager attention to projects of offence, had left this bishop, whether he takes the black one or not, he must be lost.

(q) Though the player of the blacks is a knight, and the difference there is between a king’s bishop and a queen’s bishop, the better for these exchanges; he might have conducted them in a way by which he would have profited more essentially; as the third example will shew.

(r) To avoid being taken by the knight’s pawn.

18.
W. The queen takes the black pawn, and gives check.(s)

B. As the king, if he takes the queen, will be in check
with the pawn, he is _check-mated_.(t)

(s) Had the white pawn made this capture, the black king, instead of receiving the defeat which the present move has given him, by retiring to his rook’s square, would have been a long while secure from any further attack.

(t): But as he was made to castle when he did, merely to shew that it is not _always_ a measure of safety; we shall, in the next example, point out how he might have acted better.

⁂ When the student is conscious of having done wrong, and yet at a loss to know what rule he has broke, he may conclude it to be the last, that contained in section xxxii.: this is indeed so comprehensive, that all the others might be resolved into it.

EXAMPLE II.

THE PRECEDING GAME CONTINUED FROM THE SIXTEENTH COUPLET.

_Note—Games which, like this, are taken up from others, are called Back-Games._

COUPLET 17.

W. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square, discovering check.
B. The knight covers the check.

18.
W. The pawn takes the bishop’s pawn.(a)
B. The king’s rook takes the opposite pawn.(b)

19.
W. Queen at black queen’s knight’s 4th square.(c)
B. Queen at her king’s 3d square.

(a) He is thus ready to be converted into a capital piece, and as long as he remains there, will prevent the black king from moving into any square on the queen’s part of the file.

(b) If the rook’s only object was to snatch this pawn and retire, it was worth the effort; he has, however, something else in view.

(c) Intending at the next move, by taking the opposite pawn, to secure making a bishop of his own.

20.
W. Queen takes the black pawn.

B. Queen at the white king’s rook’s 3d square.(d)

21.
W. Queen takes the black rook, and gives check.
B. The king at his bishop’s 2d square.(e)

22.
W. Queen at the black queen’s 4th square, giving check.(f)
B. The king at his knight’s 3d square.(g)

(d) To seize this advantageous post, he has left a rook to be taken and his king to be checked. The bold kind of play which each pursues, can only be justified by a conviction that the result will be favourable. Both, however, cannot have this conviction. The event will shew which is right.

(e) He prefers this to his own second square, that he may not be checked by the white rook.

(f) As the black queen, who cannot be dislodged, will, at her next move, by taking the pawn, give the king check-mate—the player of the whites has no other resource than constantly checking the black king—if he cannot mate him, and can be stopped from checking, the moment he is, he will lose the game.

(g) He takes care to move on white, that he may not be checked by the bishop.

23.
W. The queen at the black king’s 3d square, still giving check.(h)
B. The king at his rook’s 4th square.

24.
W. Queen at her own king’s 2d square, still giving check.
B. The king’s bishop’s pawn 1 square, covering the check.

25.
W. The queen at the black king’s square, still giving check.
B. The knight covers the check.

26.
W. Queen’s bishop at the black king’s 4th square.(i)
B. The pawn takes the bishop.

(h) If this player could give perpetual check, it would be a draw game—fifty moves in this way would make it so—or a less number, if a course of moves was begun that had before been made.

(i) As the queen can no longer check the king without being taken, the bishop is placed here to prevent the black queen from taking the pawn; which, however, he can do but for a moment.

27.
W. The queen takes the pawn, and gives check.
B. One of the knights takes the queen.(k)

28.
W. The pawn is made a queen.

B. Queen takes the rook’s pawn, and gives _check-mate_.

(k) If the player of the whites could in this way have lost all his pieces, he would have won by being in a _stale_; this, however, from their number, was never possible; or it would not have been prudent in the adversary to have made the 20th move—a move which has won him the game.

EXAMPLE III.

A SECOND BACK-GAME.

_Continued from the Thirteenth Couplet of_ EXAMPLE I.

COUPLET 14.
W. Queen at her rook’s 4th square.
B. The knight takes the white knight, and gives check.

15.
W. The king’s bishop takes the knight.(a)
B. The bishop takes the bishop.

16.
W. The rook’s pawn 1 square.(b)
B. The rook takes the opposite pawn, and gives check.

(a) If, instead of the bishop, the pawn had taken the knight; the black bishop, by taking that pawn, would have given check-mate instantly.

(b) The object of this and the future moves of the white player, is to prevent check-mate, which he now perceives the other thus early to meditate. When the tyro has seen what these moves are, it will edify him to try whether better ones might not have been adopted. On this, however, and similar experiments, he must not hastily conclude; because was he to move the whites not so well, and the blacks more than proportionally worse, the necessary consequence might lead him to think that he had moved the former better.

17.
W. The king at his rook’s square.
B. The rook takes the pawn, and discovers check from the bishop.

18.
W. The king at his knight’s square.
B. The queen at her king’s knight’s 2d square, giving check.

19.
W. The king takes the rook.
B. The queen advances to the white knight’s 3d square, and gives
_check-mate_.(c)

(c) Without the co-operation of the black pawn, this could not have been done. The player of the whites should have taken this straggler before he proceeded to detach the queen.

EXAMPLE IV.

VARIATION TO THE FIRST BACK-GAME.

_Beginning from the Nineteenth Couplet of_ EXAMPLE II.

COUPLET 20.
W. The rook at his knight’s square.(a)
B. Queen at her king’s knight’s 3d square.(b)

21.
W. The rook at the king’s square, checking.(c)
B. The bishop covers the check.

22.
W. The queen takes the pawn.
B. The queen takes the pawn.

23.
W. Queen takes the rook, and gives check.(d)
B. The king at his bishop’s 2d square.

(a) He offers to change rooks, that such a dangerous neighbour as the black one may be either taken or driven away.

(b) This, however, not only prevents either, but keeps the white queen from going to the black king’s rook’s 4th square; by which the black knight, whose vicinity is as incompatible as the rook’s with the safety of the white king, would have been obliged to remove to cover the check.

(c) To remain, or to remove without checking the adversary, would have been equally dangerous.

(d) As the player of the whites cannot remove either of the pieces menacing his king, he has now, as he had in Example II. no other way of defending him than attacking the black one.

24.
W. The pawn becomes a bishop.
B. The queen’s pawn 1 square.

25.
W. The bishop takes the knight.
B. The rook at the black knight’s square giving check.

26.
W. The rook takes the rook.(e)

B. The queen at the white king’s 4th square,
giving check-mate.

(e) If the king had taken the rook, the game would have lasted one move longer. In that case the black queen must have gone to her king’s knight 3d square, and then to the black knight’s 2d square; so she should have done, if, at the 24th move, instead of that set down, the white knight had gone to his queen’s bishop’s 3d square.

_Remarks._

⁂ Of two different modes of playing, both of which end in a defeat, that is the best which protracts the game the longest.

†§† No game can end so soon as the longest form of that we have already given, that is played throughout well on both sides.

=_Second Essay_=.

EXAMPLE V.

_Exhibiting Situations rendered critical by Enterprise, and the Resources of Play in those Situations._

COUPLET 1.
White. KING’s pawn 2 squares.
Black. The same.

2.
W. King’s bishop at queen’s bishop’s 4th square.(a)
B. The same.

3.
W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(b)
B. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square.

(a) Not for any purpose that it will immediately answer, but that he may escape the obstruction, which, if it should be necessary to advance the queen’s pawn a square, would be opposed by his moving directly out. We have seen in Example III. that by a pawn on one side, and a knight on the other, this bishop was so embarrassed, as not to be able to move even for his own preservation.

(b) The having two pawns a-breast of each other, at houses 4. of the king and queen, secured by the changes which brought them there from capture by pieces of their own quality, and therefore, in their further progress to the promotion line, easily protected— is a great step towards making one of them a queen. To have them in this position, is the object of the present and several succeeding moves: of the corresponding moves of the blacks, the object is to prevent it.

4.
W. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.(c)
B. The same.(d)

5.
W. The bishop takes the pawn.
B. The pawn takes the pawn.

6.
W. The pawn takes the pawn.
B. The knight takes the pawn.(e)

7.
W. Queen’s bishop at the king’s 3d square.
B. The knight at the king’s 3d square.(f)

(c) To provoke the black pawn to capture him, on the presumption that his player would prefer doing that to retiring with his bishop—The player of the whites intending afterwards to supply his place by a reprisal.

(d) The player of the blacks, willing neither to take the pawn nor to retire with his bishop, plays this pawn here, in order that if the white one takes his bishop, he may retaliate in kind.

(e) The plan of having two pawns in the middle of the exchequer is thus rendered abortive. The bringing this knight out was the principal mean of defeating it.

(f) This leaves the king’s bishop liable to be changed for the bishop of the adversary’s queen. If, however, the knight had not moved at all, or moved otherwise, his player might have been obliged to an exchange, in which the difference against him would have been of real moment.

8.
W. The bishop takes the bishop.(g)
B. The knight takes the bishop.

9.
W. King’s pawn 1 square.(h)
B. Queen at king’s 2d square.

(g) Between equal players the minutest advantage should be seized on. It may be observed here, that the superestimation of the king’s bishop over the bishop of the queen, rests on his not being prevented by the colour of his field, from checking the adversary at his original square. The white player having had the first move, the other could not well have foiled him, with regard to the pawns, at a less expence.

(h) That he may not be taken by the knight if the bishop should remove.

_Variation._