=_Elementary Institutes_=.

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._

To protect him from the knight, instead of pushing him a square, the queen’s knight is moved to the 3d house of the queen’s bishop. This would be ineffective—the adversary, by placing his king’s knight at his king’s bishop’s 3d square, might counteract it so completely as to make the bishop retreat at the same time that he secured taking the pawn—at least, secured an exchange, by which he would get the pawn to boot.

16. W. The rook at the same knight’s 1st square.(p) B. The rook at his king’s square.(q)

17. W. King’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.(r) B. Queen at the white queen’s 2d square.(s)

18. W. Bishop takes the bishop’s pawn. B. Rook at the white king’s square, giving check.(t)

19. W. The rook takes the rook. B. Queen takes the rook, and checks.

(p) The comment on the next is a comment on this.

(q) If the black queen had moved aside into one of the three squares to which her sphere of action is at present reduced, the white rook, by taking the pawn opposite, might have ensured check-mate in another move.

(r) Had the queen’s rook taken the black queen, the black king’s rook, by crossing to the white king’s square, would have won the game; by the present move, that way of receiving check-mate is rendered impossible. In advancing a pawn to the adverse party, let it always be as far as is consistent with security.

(s) In order to extricate herself.

(t) He does this, which will cause him to be exchanged for the white rook, to save his own king from the check-mate which is still impending, and which, had the white queen been suffered to take his king’s knight’s pawn, would by now have been inflicted.

25. W. Queen takes the queen. B. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square.(u)

26. W. Queen at the black king’s 4th square.(v1) B. Knight at his bishop’s 3d square.(v2)

27. W. Queen at the black king’s 2d square. B. Rook at his knight’s square.

(u) That the liability of check-mate by the white minister’s stepping into their first rank may at once be quashed. An instance similar has before occurred. Of the moves in general now, but a few, we imagine, will require to be observed on.

(v2) To preserve his pawn (v1) (v2). The subsequent moves will for some time be conducted on the plan of these. Of the player of the whites, inferior in numbers, though not in force, the object is, either to take, or keep in inaction, these pieces of the adversary preparatory to advancing his own pawns on this side. The pawns of the adversary on the other side, which are so disposed that he could make no impression on them, he is not concerned at present to obstruct any otherwise than his movements in this quarter virtually will. The object of the player of the blacks will declare itself.

28. W. Queen at the black king’s bishop’s 2d square. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(w)

29. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square. B. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square.

30. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. Rook at the queen’s square.(x)

31. W. Queen takes the knight’s pawn. B. Rook at the queen’s 3d square.(y)

(w) Of the rook, the knight, and the knight’s pawn on the other side, no one can move without one of them being taken; this player has, therefore, no better alternative than urging to promotion the pawns on this.

(x) The advancing a white pawn on the black knight, a step that is in readiness, would have enabled the white queen to make great havoc among the pieces she hovers over, had this rook remained where he was. The present movement, and timely sacrifice of a pawn will prevent any further uncompensated loss.

(y) The knight protects the pawn, the rook protects the knight.

32. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.(z) B. Rook at the white queen’s 2d, giving check.(a)

33. W. The king at his rook’s 3d.(b) B. The knight at the queen’s 4th.

34. W. The queen takes the pawn. B. The rook takes the pawn.

35. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

(z) The opportunity of giving check, which the white queen neglects, is one of those cases in which it ought to be avoided. The black king, by removing to his queen’s bishop’s 2d, would have covered both himself and the rook; and the whites (including the loss of one to themselves and the gain of one to their adversaries) would have sustained a difference against them of two moves.

(a) This secures an equivalent for the pawn which the knight will be forced to desert.

(b) The king, when his pieces are advancing to the adversary’s side, should keep as near to them as possible.

36. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. King at his queen’s knight’s 2d.(c)

37. W. The pawn becomes a rook and discovers check. B. The king at his queen’s knight’s 3d.

38. W. Rook at black queen’s knight’s square, giving check.(d) B. King at his queen’s bishop’s 4th.(e)

(c) If the king did not remove now, the white pawn, on becoming a rook, would check-mate him.

(d) Though it is not to be presumed that the player of the whites, with his present force, will check-mate the other, yet he is now acting rightly; for were he to refrain any longer from offence, his adversary would make a queen before he could make an additional rook, and perhaps turn the tables on him. What he aims at present, is not a mate, nor primarily a capture; but to bring about such a change in the position of the blacks, that the foremost of his pawns may wrest the move from the foremost of theirs.

(e) Any where else he would, probably, either soon lose his rook, or suffer a worse disaster.

39. W. Rook at the black queen’s bishop’s square, still checking. B. The king at the white queen’s 4th square.(f)

40. W. The queen at her king’s 4th giving check. B. The king at the white queen’s bishop’s 3d.

41. W. The queen takes the knight. B. Queen’s rook’s pawn 1 square.

42. W. The king’s rook’s pawn 1 square.(g) B. The king at the white queen’s knight’s 2d.(h)

43 and 44. W. The king’s rook’s pawn 2 squares. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.

(f) Had he gone to the white queen’s knight’s 4th square—and had the white queen then moved to the 1st square of that knight—the loss of the black rook would have been inevitable.

(g) The remaining black pieces are posited so, that an attempt at this time to make any further capture, or to give check-mate, might only bring their pawns nearer to promotion. As this piece has now the start, this is the moment to push him on.

(h) He thus makes way for the black pawn without exposing either himself or the rook.

24. W. The bishop at the black queen’s 4th.(b) B. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square.(c)

25. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(d) B. Queen’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.

(a) His standing before the pawns on this side is of no consequence, as their only use will be to obstruct the white ones: those on the other side are what this player must expect to promote. The only other way of preserving this knight, moving the black queen to the 1st rank, would have been a bad step.

(b) He would have been safe before the black queen; but by thus threatening check-mate he gains a move, and is in a better position.

(c) The king must not only not move into check himself, but no piece must move so as to expose him to it; therefore, if, instead of this, the bishop’s pawn had moved a square, the white bishop might have taken his assailant with security.

(d) To keep the black knight from checking the king. Had this pawn been moved further, the black knight, at the white knight’s 4th house, supported by the black queen and rook’s pawn, would have totally obstructed him and his companions.

26. W. Queen’s rook’s pawn 2 squares. B. Rook at his king’s bishop’s square.(e)

27. W. The king at his rook’s 3d square.(f) B. Knight at his bishop’s 2d square.(g)

28. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. Knight at his king’s 4th square.

(e) As, from the impendence of the white queen and bishop, the protection of both the knight and the rook is necessary to the pawns on the other side, moving forward with safety, this player is about to transfer them there.

(f) To sustain the rook’s pawn when that of the knight advances.

(g) He could not get to the square he is going to without first coming here: to protect him in this first stage of his gambit[24], was the chief reason of placing the rook where he is.

[24] A gambit is an indirect and circuitous movement, by several intermediate steps, to a particular square. In a larger sense, a gambit is a game mostly made up of such movements; it, perhaps, includes the idea of one player being quickly circumvented.

29. W. Knight at the black king’s knight’s 4th square.(h) B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.

30. W. Knight at the black king’s 3d square. B. Rook at the queen’s bishop’s 1st square.

31. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(i) B. Knight at his queen’s 2d square.

(h) He moved to save the king’s bishop’s pawn, now amply protected. The pieces are so arranged, you see, that if the black player was to begin exchanging, the white one would have the last capture. At the time of observing (g) the reverse was the case.

(i) Pawns, as they are pushed on, increase in value. Of a set of pawns, one at least of which you are striving to promote, neither should, if possible, be moved without having a piece as guardian, should no enemy at the moment be at hand; for a sudden occurrence, the same which may prevent you from providing for his safety, may bring an adversary in a position to command him. But though this pawn, as thus moved, is in the predicament of having no support, it would have been still worse to have stirred any other; if the rook’s pawn had advanced a square, the knight’s pawn of the blacks, by advancing two squares, might have completely blockaded all three. A circumspect resiler from enterprise, instead of moving either, would have placed the king behind the knight’s pawn.

38. The white knight takes the pawn. The black queen at the white king’s 3d square, giving check.

39. The white king removes. The black queen takes the knight.

40. The white queen takes the pawn—and so on.

The result is, as it will be of the present way of moving, that the black king is check-mated.

(n) Nothing better could be done than to offer this. Paradoxical as it may seem to the unpractised reader, if the three pawns on the queen’s side of the board were entirely away, the player of the blacks would be better off. By moving his king to intercept the white ones, and by judiciously managing his own, he might then, and the other could not help it, so exchange one for one, that to the white king and single pawn left, his own would at length stand opposed in the manner described at the end of Section xxx; the consequence of which would be, that the adversary, to avoid a stale, would resign his pawn, content neither to beat nor be beaten. But, circumstanced as he now is, the player of the blacks would be soonest check-mated on the interception plan. We will suppose him to have gone upon it, and to have arrived at the point just mentioned. The white king instead of surrendering his pawn, closely supports him, leaving the black king without a move, and, but for having other pieces, in a stale. Then follows the move at which we are pausing. The white pawn takes the pawn, and leaves the black queen’s rook’s a free passage. The white pawn gets to the promotion line a move before his rival, and at the moment of doing so, gives check-mate.

41. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.(o) B. The queen’s knight’s pawn takes the pawn.

(o) It is better now to lose a pawn than a move. If the queen’s rook’s pawn were to take the black one, the other player would make a queen first; for the black queen’s rook’s pawn having then nothing to interrupt him, would be virtually a move before either of the other white ones; and as to the capturing pawn, then in the knight’s file, the black king need not lose the time of one step to keep him from promotion.

48. W. The queen takes the pawn. B. The king moves to support his remaining pawn.

49. W. The queen at her rook’s 3d. B. The king where he can support the pawn without being checked.

50, &c.

When the queen made the last capture, the game was virtually ended. If, however, the player of the blacks is obstinate enough still to continue it, the following is the most summary way of mating him.

From 50 to 54, the white king crosses toward his queen, the black king in the mean time regrading in the same two squares, so as to prevent the queen, who remains inactive, from taking his pawn: 55, (the white king being at his queen’s bishop’s 3d square) the queen gives check; the king removes: 56 to the end, the queen takes the pawn, and in concert with her king, effects the check-mate.

EXAMPLE VII.

A SECOND BACK-GAME TO EXAMPLE V. TAKEN UP AFTER THE 24th COUPLET OF EXAMPLE VI. pa. 85.

COUPLET 25. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square. B. The knight at the bishop’s 4th square.

26. W. The king at his rook’s 3d square.(a) B. The knight at the white queen’s 4th.(b)

27. W. Queen at her own 3d square.(c) B. Queen at her king’s 4th square.(d)

28. W. Knight at his queen’s bishop’s 3d.(e) B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

(a) Combining with his knight’s, in support of his rook’s pawn.

(b) Instead of supporting his right hand pawns from behind, as he did in the last game, in order to advance them against the white queen and bishop—a plan that was found unsuccessful—this player is now endeavouring to remove the white queen and bishop in the first instance.

(c) To save herself and the pawn.

(d) Chiefly to preserve her knight.

(e) To protect the bishop.

34. W. Queen at her king’s knight’s 4th.(i) B. Queen’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.

35. W. Queen at the black king’s rook’s 4th square. B. Queen’s rook’s pawn 1 square.

36. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. The king at his queen’s rook’s 4th.

37. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. The same.(k)

(i) The white pawns are very critically situated, for they can hardly move without committing themselves. Had the knight’s advanced a square, and his immediate opponent two squares, an uncompensated loss would have been inevitable; so that this move of the queen, though not the most obvious, is, perhaps, the best that could be made.

(k) This is far better than moving the queen away. When one is sure of promoting a pawn before the adversary—if an occasion of exchanging queen for queen does not offer, it ought to be sought—that the preponderance which the promoted pawn will give, may be as great as possible.

43. W. Knight at the black king’s bishop’s 3d. B. Queen’s rook’s pawn 1 square.

44. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. Rook takes the pawn of the white rook, and gives check.(o)

45. W. The king at his knight’s 3d square. B. The pawn becomes a queen.

46. W. The pawn becomes a queen. B. The queen at the white king’s knight’s square, giving check-mate.

(o) The rook’s forbearing this capture thus long, is an exemplication of rule 21. If it had been material to prevent the white player from having a queen, this player would have detached the rook along his own rank to a square out of the knight’s reach; and on the white pawn’s becoming a queen, would have exchanged the rook for the queen.

=_The Scholar’s-Mate_=.

EXAMPLE VIII.

_Meditating and evading that Stratagem._

COUPLET 1. W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop at the queen’s bishop’s 4th square. B. The same.

3. W. The queen at the black king’s rook’s 4th square.(a) B. The queen at her king’s 2d.(b)

(a) In this example, and the rest that make up the section, which after the 2d move are very different from those that go before, it is rather the movements of the blacks than of the whites that are proposed for imitation. The mode to be pursued by one player, depends in a great measure on that pursued by the other: we have therefore given these, that the tyro might not be surprised into a defeat, or uncompensated loss, if an opponent, having the first move, should at the 3d couplet take the same step that the whites have done here—a step of that fundamental kind, that the future aspect of the game is influenced materially by it.

(b) She thus prevents the white queen, as well from taking the king’s, as from giving check-mate by taking the bishop’s pawn.

4. W. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

5. W. Knight at the black king’s knight’s 4th.(c) B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.

6. W. The bishop takes the pawn and gives check. B. The king at his queen’s square.

7. W. The queen at her king’s rook’s 4th.(d) B. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.

(c) The object of the white player now is, either to snatch a piece and retire, or, by the sacrifice of a knight or a bishop, make a practicable breach in the black pawns.

(d) The remaining moves, declare their object.

The reader will observe, that the game might be finished at the 4th couplet; which is the earliest termination it can well be made to receive, and is called the _scholar’s-mate_.

The game may be finished in two couplets, the fatal stroke being given by the second move of the second player: but there requires so much fatuity to permit this, that it has the name of the _fools-mate_.

11. W. The bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th. B. The knight at the white knight’s 4th.

12. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(a) B. The knight takes the rook’s pawn.

13. W. The king at his queen’s square.(b) B. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.(c)

(a) The white player _must_ lose one of the pawns without a recompense, and had he suffered this to be taken, he would have lost two—because the knight would then have attacked the king’s pawn and rook, and both could not have been saved.

(b) If the king had not removed, the black knight would have taken the bishop’s pawn and given check; the consequence would have been, that the rook as well as the pawn, would have been lost for the mere knight. Now the knight cannot remove without exposing his own rook.

(c) Of his gambit, which he may not have occasion to finish, the object is, to support the black rook when the other knight removes.

11. W. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares. B. The king at his bishop’s 3d.

12. W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 4th. B. The bishop takes the bishop(a), &c.

(a) Had the black player suffered the white bishop to take his bishop, moving out his knight in order to capture him with his rook, he would be unable to break the white pawns.

14. W. The pawn takes the knight. B. King’s rook at his bishop’s square.

15. W. Queen’s pawn 1 square. B. The rook takes the pawn.

16. W. King’s rook at his bishop’s square, &c. &c.

EXAMPLE XII.

_Beginning after the Seventh Couplet of_ EXAMPLE IX.

COUPLET 8. W. The knight at the black king’s 3d square, giving check. B. The bishop takes the knight.

9. W. Knight’s pawn 1 square.(b) B. The queen takes the knight.

10. W. The queen takes the queen.(c) B. The rook takes the queen, &c. &c.

(a) If, instead of this, the black knight had moved, as in the 8th move of the last Example, the white knight would have taken him.

(b) If the white player had neglected this move to take the pawn in his queen’s power, the black queen, would have captured, in addition to the bishop’s pawn, by afterwards successively checking the king, two or three other pawns, without ultimately suffering the white knight to escape.

(c) It was not a matter of indifference whether or not be exchanged the queen: if he had not, he must have lost the king’s pawn uncompensated.

GENERAL REMARKS.

On the part of the blacks it is to be observed, that the result of the two last ways of moving, though something more in their favour than the result of any of the others, is not so decidedly superior as at the first view it may seem. The white player’s having preserved all his pawns entire is a circumstance that almost counter-balances his disadvantages; for to prevent one of the three white pawns on the king’s side from becoming a queen, the other player must exchange for them, at least two knights and the pawn opposite: Suppose these changes to have taken place, and the difference in favour of the blacks will be very inconsiderable.

With respect to the propriety of the reader’s opening the game in this way, when his having the first move puts it in his power, we know but one case in which there would be any.—When there is any reason to think, that, from the antagonist’s estrangement to it, notwithstanding his having had some practice, the triumph of beating him in four moves might be attained[26]. In such a case, as there is a probability of snatching a piece on its failure, and as no decisive loss is to be apprehended if one be defeated even in that, it cannot be very imprudent to try it. Another consideration which, in such a case, lessens the impropriety, is, that if you meet with success, either complete or partial, the adversary, at his turn of moving first, may be induced to adopt the same mode, which most probably, from its novelty, will to him be disastrous. As soon as this stratagem ceases to profit, or if it fails in the first instance, it will of course be instinctively resigned.

[26] If he is inexperienced, it will be no triumph.

A deviation on this plan, from the maxim, “Never count on the mistakes of your adversary, or act as if you expected him to adopt measures different from those which you would adopt in his situation,” is, perhaps, the only kind of one not very reprehensible.

EXAMPLE XV.

=_Game of Involved Combinations_=,

A STUDY.

COUPLET 1. W. King’s pawn 2 squares.(a) B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop at the queen’s bishop’s 4th. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(b)

(a) That this move should precede all the others, is right in theory as well as in practice. We add the following, which is more definite, to the reasons directly or indirectly already dropt for it. The rooks are useless at the beginning of the game,—the knights, to step out, require no pawn to be moved,—the bishops cannot render their immediate service without an opening;—the advancement of the king’s pawns 2 squares, which leaves the king’s bishop and queen at liberty to act, without exposing the king, either in front or obliquely, is therefore dictated by propriety, as the preliminary movement. And there are other reasons, if it would not divide the attention to give them here.

(b) This move, in these circumstances, may now and then be used with advantage as a change, instead of that which places the king’s bishop at the same square; it will, though the adversary has the first move, prevent him from getting two pawns a-breast in the centre—and if he be unused to it, rather confine and disconcert his other operations: at the same time, your own king’s bishop will, in some degree, be cramped by it.

16. W. Queen at her king’s bishop’s 3d.(f) B. Queen’s bishop at his king’s 3d. †(g)

17. W. Queen’s rook’s pawn 1 square. ⸸(h) B. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square.

18. W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn takes the pawn. B. Knight at the white queen’s bishop’s 4th. †

19. W. Queen at the black queen’s bishop’s 3d, giving check. ‡ B. The king at his bishop’s 2d.

(f) This player’s object now will be to promote the pawns on his queen’s side as soon as he can.

(g) This player having no pawns which he has any prospect of promoting, at least while those on the adverse king’s side remain unbroken, cannot do better than, availing himself of his superiority in other pieces, endeavour to snatch some of the pawns of the adversary; attacking him first on one wing, then on the other, and bringing two or three pieces to bear upon one.

(h) If the knight’s pawn, with a view to save this, had moved a square, the black bishop would have taken the knight’s pawn.

_Remarks._

‡ The moves with this mark, will be found not directly to parry a menaced blow; but merely, by making a counter attack, to suspend its execution.

1.

W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. The king’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th square. B. The same.

3. W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square. B. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square.

4. W. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.(a) B. The pawn takes the pawn.

(a) This pawn, is pushed two steps, for two reasons: the first, to hinder the adversary’s king’s bishop from attacking your king’s bishop’s pawn; the second, to bring the strength of your pawns into the centre of the chess-board.

5. W. The pawn takes the pawn.(b) B. The bishop at his queen’s knight’s 3d.(c)

6. W. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square. B. The king castles.

7. W. King’s knight at his king’s 2d.(d) B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

(b) When you find your game in the present situation, _viz._ two pawns in a front line, you must take care not to push either of them, before your adversary proposes to change one for the other: which you will then avoid, by pushing forwards the attacked pawn.

(c) If, instead of being withdrawn, this bishop gives check, you are to cover the check with the bishop; and, in case he takes your bishop, you must take his bishop with your knight, who will then defend your king’s pawn.

(d) Before the bishop’s pawn has been pushed two squares, avoid playing the knight at the bishop’s 3d, when it will answer the purpose to play him any where else; for the obstruction which the knight gives to the motion of the pawn, is sometimes inconvenient in its consequences.

8. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s 3d.(e) B. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.

9. W. King’s pawn 1 square. B. King’s knight at his king’s square.

10. W. Queen’s bishop at his king’s 3d. B. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(f)

11. W. The queen at her 2d square.(g) B. The pawn takes the pawn.(h)

(e) The bishop retires, to avoid being attacked by the adversary’s queen’s pawn, because that would force you to take his pawn with yours, and separate your pawns.

(f) He plays this pawn to give an opening to the rook; and this cannot be hindered, whether he or you take.

(g) You should not take the pawn which is offered you, because your king’s pawn would then lose its file; whereas, leaving yours to be taken, you supply its place by the pawn of your queen, and sustain it afterwards with your king’s bishop’s pawn. These two pawns united will undoubtedly win the game.

(h) He takes the pawn to pursue his design of giving an opening to his rook.

12. W. The pawn takes the pawn. B. Queen’s bishop at his king’s 3d square.(i)

13. W. King’s knight at his king’s bishop’s 4th.(k) B. The queen at her king’s 2d square.

14. W. Queen’s bishop takes the black bishop.(l) B. The pawn takes the bishop.

(i) He plays this bishop to add to the security of his queen’s pawn, and to enable him to push afterwards his queen’s bishop’s pawn: you could, it is true, oblige him to double a pawn in the knight’s file, by taking his king’s bishop with your queen’s bishop, but this would make an opening to his king’s rook: besides a doubled pawn, when connected with others, as his would be, is by no means disadvantageous; however, the present attitude of the pieces will be the subject of a back game, making him take your queen’s bishop with that of his king.

(k) Your king’s pawn being as yet in no danger, your knight attacks his bishop, in order to take him, or have him removed.

(l) It is always dangerous to let the adversary’s king’s bishop command the diagonal of your king’s bishop’s pawn; and therefore when your queen’s pawn cannot form a bar to his action, it is necessary to oppose him with your queen’s bishop, and to exchange him for that piece, if you cannot procure him for a smaller.

20. W. The knight at his king’s 4th square. B. The king’s rook’s pawn 1 square.(p)

21. W. The queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square. B. The 1st of the double pawns 1 square.

22. W. The king’s knight’s pawn 2 squares. B. King’s knight at his queen’s 4th square.

23. W. The knight at his king’s knight’s 3d square.(q) B. King’s knight at the white king’s 3d square.(r)

(p) He plays this pawn to hinder your knight entering his game, and forcing his queen to remove, which would immediately make an opening for your pawns.

(q) You play this knight to enable yourself to push your king’s bishop’s pawn next, which will be then supported by three pieces, the rook, the bishop, and the knight.

(r) He plays this knight, in order to cut off the communication between your pieces, and break the strength of your pawns; which he would undoubtedly do, by pushing his king’s knight’s pawn; but you prevent his design, by sacrificing your rook.

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

31. W. The bishop takes the pawn in his way. B. The knight at his 3d square.

32. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(x) B. Queen’s rook at the white queen’s knight’s 2d square.

33. W. The bishop at the queen’s 3d square. B. The king at his bishop’s 2d square.

(x) You are to observe, that when your bishop runs upon the white squares, you must put your pawns upon the black ones; or, if your bishop runs upon the black, you must have your pawns upon the white; by which course the bishop prevents the adversary’s pieces from intruding between your pawns. This rule is hardly ever to be dispensed with, in case you attack, and have some pawns advanced; but, in case of a defence, the rule must be reversed, and the pawns set upon the bishop’s colour.

1. W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

3. W. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.(a) B. The pawn takes the pawn.(b)

4. W. The queen takes the pawn. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

(a) It is absolutely necessary to advance this pawn two squares to prevent your adversary from bringing his pawns into the centre of the board; and this he certainly could effect, by pushing his queen’s pawn two squares against your bishop, which would give him the move and attack.

(b) Had he pushed his queen’s pawn two squares instead of taking, it would have materially altered the game, so we will make it the subject of a back game.

5. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. B. Queen’s bishop at his king’s 3d.(c)

6. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s 3d square. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

7. W. King’s pawn 1 square. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

8. W. The queen at her king’s bishop’s 2d. B. Queen’s knight at his queen’s bishop’s 3d.(d)

(c) He has two reasons for playing this bishop: the first is, to push his queen’s pawn, in order to make room for his king’s bishop; the second, to oppose it to your king’s bishop, and take him from the field in time, according to the rule prescribed in the first game.

(d) If, instead of getting out his superior pieces, by playing his knight, he should continue to advance his pawns, he might with ease be made to lose the game. It must be observed, that one or two pawns, too far advanced, may be reckoned as lost, except when there is an open field for other pieces to protect them, or when the same pawns may be sustained or supplied by others. By a back game it will convincingly appear, that two pawns in a front line, situated upon the chess-board’s fourth square, are better than upon the sixth square.

1. B. The king’s pawn 2 squares. W. The same.

2. B. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square. W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

3. B. King’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(a)

4. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square. W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

(a) It is always advantageous to change your king’s bishop’s pawn for the adversary’s king’s pawn, because, by that means, your king’s and queen’s pawns may place themselves in the centre of the chess-board; besides, in castling on the right wing, your rook is at liberty to act, at the beginning of the game, as will be shewn by a back game on the same play.

5. B. The pawn takes the pawn.(b) W. The bishop takes the pawn.

6. B. Queen’s bishop at the white king’s knight’s 4th square. W. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square.

7.

B. Queen’s knight at his queen’s 2d square.(c) W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

8. B. The bishop retires. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s 3d square.(d)

(b) If your adversary should refuse taking your bishop’s pawn, you are still to leave it exposed, and not move it forward until he has castled; when the pawns of your right wing, must form an attack upon the pawns which cover his king, as is explained in a back game on that move. You are, in general, to decline shewing hastily whether you have determined to push the pawns on your right or left wing before your adversary’s king has castled, because he will otherways retire on the side where your pawns are less advanced, and consequently less able to hurt him.

(c) Should he take your knight with his bishop, you must take the bishop with your pawn, in order to concentre your pawns.

(d) This is the best square your king’s bishop can chuse, except the fourth of your queen’s bishop: in that place he may be of use in forming your attack upon the adverse king’s rook’s pawn, in case he castles on his left side.

9. B. The queen at her king’s 2d square. W. The same.

10. B. The king castles with his rook.(e) W. Queen’s knight at his queen’s 2d square.

11. B. King’s knight at his rook’s 4th.(f) W. The queen at her king’s 3d square.

(e) If he had castled on his queen’s side, it would then have been your game to castle on your king’s side, in order to assail him with all the pawns on your left. It should be observed, that as it is dangerous to attack the adversary too soon, you should forbear engaging him closely, until your pawns are previously sustained by one another, and the supporting pawns by your superior pieces. The unsuccessful result of a premature assault is exhibited in a back game.

(f) He plays the knight to make room for his king’s bishop’s pawn, with a design next to advance it two squares, to endeavour to break your cordon of pawns.

12. B. King’s knight takes the bishop.(g) W. The queen takes the knight.

13. B. Queen’s bishop takes the knight.(h) W. The pawn takes the bishop.

14. B. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. W. The queen at her king’s knight’s 3d.

15. B. The pawn takes the pawn. W. The pawn takes the pawn.

(g) If he had pushed his king’s bishop’s pawn two squares, instead of taking your bishop, you should in the first place have attacked his queen with your queen’s bishop, and then have pushed your king’s rook’s pawn upon his bishop, to force him to take your knight; then his bishop must be taken with your pawn, in order the better to support your king’s pawn, and replace it if lost.

(h) If he did not take this knight, the bishop would remain imprisoned by your pawns; or his player would lose three moves, which would ruin his situation.

16. B. King’s rook at his king’s bishop’s 3d.(i) W. King’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.(k)

17. B. Queen’s rook at his king’s bishop’s square. W. The king’s castles with his queen’s rook.

18. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. W. King’s pawn 1 square.(l)

(i) With the design either to attack and remove your queen, or to double it, if necessary, with the other rook.

(k) To give room to your queen, in case your adversary attacks her with his king’s rook.

(l) The refined motives which produced this move make it difficult to comprehend and explain. Preparatory to analysing it, let it be observed, that when you have a range of pawns extending diagonally, the pawn which is the leader must take his successive stations cautiously, not protruding without necessity more than a square before the second in the range, so as to want support. One project of the adversary, was to force you to commit your pawns. Seeing your king’s pawn out of the oblique line formed by your other pawns, and unprepared for any useful co-operation; he proposed, by pushing his queen’s bishop’s pawn, either to induce your queen’s pawn to advance a square, that its progress might be blocked by his pawn, while your king’s pawn was left behind, or to cause your king’s pawn to move to its support, one effect of which would be, that your own pawn would shield his king’s rook’s pawn from the menacing action of your bishop. Both these designs you defeat by impelling the king’s pawn against his rook, and it is eligible to sacrifice it, rather than accomplish his views. Should he take your king’s pawn, a free passage is obtained for the pawn of your queen, which you are to advance immediately, and sustain in case of need, with your others, in order to move it to queen, or engage it in some exertion that may conduce to the game. It is true that his queen’s pawn, passing, at the capture, into the king’s file, appears to have the same advantage of having no opposition from your pawns to make a queen; however there is a difference, because his pawn being separated, and incapable of support from the other pawns, will be in danger, all along its passage, of seizure by your pieces. This move, as I observed before, is difficult to comprehend in all its bearings, and it requires a proficiency in play, to see the propriety of it.

19. B. The pawn takes the pawn. W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

20. B. The bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 2d. W. The knight at his king’s 4th.(m)

(m) It was expedient to play this knight, to stop his king’s pawn: it concerned you the more to stop this pawn, because in its present state, it blocks the passage of its own bishop, and even of its knight.

21. B. King’s rook at the adverse king’s bishop’s 3d square. W. The queen at her king’s knight’s 2d.

22. B. The queen at her king’s bishop’s 2d.(n) W. The knight at the adverse king’s knight’s 4th.

23. B. The queen gives check. W. The king at his queen’s knight’s square.

24. B. The rook takes the bishop.(o) W. The rook takes the rook.

(n) He plays his queen, in order afterwards to give check, but if, instead of playing her, he had pushed his king’s rook’s pawn, to hinder the attack of your knight, you must have pushed your queen’s pawn one square, which would have insured you the game.

(o) He takes the bishop to save his king’s rook’s pawn; besides, the bishop proves more incommodious to him than all your other pieces, and by this play he keeps your queen’s rook from moving, after capturing yours, as it would discover check to the king.

31. B. The rook at his king’s bishop’s 3d. W. King’s rook at his queen’s square.(q)

32. B. The rook takes the pawn. W. The king’s rook at the adverse queen’s 2d—wins the game.

(q) You must seize the open files, to bring the rooks into play, especially at the latter end of the game.

FIRST BACK GAME,

TO THE THIRD PARTY,

_On the Third Move of the Black_.

1. B. King’s pawn 2 squares. W. The same.

2. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(a) W. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.

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

4. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.(b) W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.

(a) Ill play of the adversary in these circumstances; because by pushing your queen’s pawn two squares, you regain the advantage of the move.

(b) If, instead of moving the pawn here, he had moved the king’s knight to the king’s second square, you should have pushed your king’s pawn an additional square; sustaining it afterwards with your king’s bishop’s pawn.

5. B. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.(c) W. King’s pawn 1 square.(d)

6. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.(e) W. The queen at her king’s bishop’s 2d.

(c) If, instead of pushing this pawn, he had moved his queen’s bishop to the king’s third, you must have moved your king’s bishop to the queen’s third, and then the situation of the game would have been exactly as it is at the sixth move of the Second Party: but if he had attacked your queen with his queen’s bishop’s pawn, he would have played very ill, because his queen’s pawn would have been left behind. _Vide note_ (l) pa. 161.

(d) It is policy to decline changing your king’s pawn for your adversary’s king’s bishop’s pawn, or your queen’s pawn for his queen’s bishop’s pawn; on account of the paramount utility of the royal pawns; occupying the centre, they preclude the adversary from the most advantageous posts.

(e) If, instead of pushing his queen’s pawn, he had taken your king’s, you should have taken his queen; his pawn would have been in your power afterwards; and by preventing him from castling, you would have kept the attack in your hands; but as he could seat his queen at her bishop’s second square, that alternative is traced through a second back game.

14. B. The queen at her bishop’s 2d square.(g) W. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.

15. B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square. W. The same.(h)

16. B. Queen’s knight’s pawn 1 square. W. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d square.

17. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square. W. The king castles with his queen’s rook.(i)

(g) Having no object for the power of his queen as she stood, he removes her to make room for his pawns, with an intent to push them upon you.

(h) The pushing of this pawn, it is confessed, obstructs the game, by lessening the facility of exchanging; but the power to make an opening with your king’s rook’s pawn, is still reserved, and it will be expedient to use it, as soon as your pieces are ready to form and sustain the attack.

(i) You castle on your queen’s side to acquire more freedom in attacking on your right. If, instead of castling, you had taken the pawn exposed, the result would have united in the centre the adversary’s pawns, and impeded the operation of your pieces.

28. B. The bishop takes the bishop.(a) W. The queen takes the bishop.

(a) When the king is impeded by his own pieces, it is termed a _smothered-mate_. As the mate in the back game was partly smothered, the object of this variation is to prevent a repetition of that, by timely removes and exchanges.

1. W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. B. The king’s pawn takes the pawn.

3. W. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d. B. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.

4. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th.(a) B. King’s bishop at his knight’s 2d.(b)

(a): Instead of that move, you might have pushed your king’s rook’s pawn two squares. This will be the subject of a back game.

(b) Instead of playing this bishop, he might have moved his king’s knight’s pawn one square. A subject for another back game.

5. W. King’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.(c) B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.(d) ☜

6. W. The queen’s pawn 2 squares. B. The queen’s pawn 1 square.(e) ☜

(c) By playing this pawn you force him to defend his king’s knight’s pawn with that of his rook; by drawing out his rook’s pawn, you keep his king’s knight confined; nor can he then sally without exposing his pawns to be taken.

(d) He had two other ways of playing; he might push his king’s bishop’s pawn a square, in which case you sacrifice your knight, in order afterwards to give check with your queen, which insures you the game; or, he might push his king’s knight’s pawn a square upon your knight. The latter is made the subject of a third back game.

(e) If, instead, he had advanced his queen’s bishop’s pawn a square, you must have played that of your king, in order afterwards to take his queen’s pawn in passing, in case he was to push it two moves, with a design to obstruct your king’s bishop. Another subject for a back game.

N. B. You are to observe, that in the attack of Gambits, the king’s bishop is the best superior piece, and the king’s pawn the best pawn.

7. W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square. ☜ B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(f) ☜

8. W. The queen at her king’s 2d square. B. Queen’s bishop at the adverse king’s knight’s 4th.(g) ☜

9. W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.(h) B. The king’s pawn takes the pawn.

(f) If, instead of moving this pawn, he had played his queen’s bishop either to his king’s third square, or to your king’s knight’s fourth square, he might have been made to lose two different ways. Both experiments are traced to their consequences, in two back games, beginning at this seventh move.

(g) He may now without danger play his bishop on this square, as your queen can no more double with your king’s bishop by attacking two of his pawns; but if, instead of moving this bishop so, he had moved him to his king’s third square, he would have lost the game. The result of such play is seen in the last back game.

(h) It is very material in the attack of Gambits, not to spare your pawns on the king’s side, and even to sacrifice them all, if it be requisite, though merely for the sake of the adversary’s king’s pawn, because that pawn hinders your queen’s bishop from coming into play, and co-operating with the pieces that form your attack.

25. W. The bishop at the adverse king’s rook’s 4th. B. The rook takes the rook.

26. W. The bishop takes the rook.(l)

(l) From the manner in which the two parties are balanced, as to position, and the number of pieces, it is evident that it is become a draw game, unless some very great error is committed. This game shews, that a Gambit equally well attacked and defended, will not be decisive on either side; it is true that he who gives the pawn has the pleasure of uniformly attacking, and a prospect of winning, which would be realized, if he on the defensive did not maintain the most undeviating good play for the first ten or twelve moves.

STRICTURE BY THE EDITOR.

At the 17th move, there is an oversight in each player, one giving, and one overlooking a material advantage. Though one white knight, at the first view, seems protected by the other, the king’s knight is exposed to the bishop, on account of the ambuscaded action of the queen upon the king. Were the bishop to take, as he should, a train of involved movements might arise. The plain course, suggested by the position, would be best for the white player, though it leave the rival party the majority of a knight.

FIRST BACK GAME,

TO THE FIRST GAMBIT,

_On the Fourth Move of the White_.

1. W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. B. The pawn takes the pawn.

3. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th. B. The queen gives check.(a) ☜

4. W. The king at his bishop’s square. B. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.(b) ☜

(a) A better way of playing at this move, would be to advance your king’s bishop’s pawn two squares; as you will see by a back game.

(b) There are two other ways of playing in this place; the one, playing the king’s bishop to the queen’s bishop’s fourth square; the other, pushing the pawn of the queen a square; which will make the subject of two back games.

5. W. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d. B. The queen at her king’s rook’s 4th.(c)

6. W. Queen’s pawn 2 squares. B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.

7. W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(d ☜) B. Queen’s bishop at the adverse king’s knight’s 4th.

(c) He might have removed his queen to one of two other squares, but this is the best; for had he made her retire to your king’s knight’s fourth, you might have taken his king’s bishop’s pawn, by first attacking her, and then giving check, and perhaps afterwards have forced his queen; and if he had carried her to his king’s rook’s third square, you could have attacked his king’s bishop’s pawn with your king’s knight, which would entirely have decided the game in your favour.

(d) It is essential in the gambits to play this pawn, that you may afterwards be able to place your queen at her knight’s third square, by so doing you strengthen your position and perplex your adversary, especially if he has played his queen’s bishop, without attacking one of your pieces. See, respecting this, the fifth and sixth back games of the first gambit.

29. W. The king’s rook at the adverse queen’s knight’s 2d square. B. The queen’s rook at his queen’s square.(p)

30. W. The bishop takes the adverse queen’s knight, and wins the game.

(p) If he had played his king instead of his queen’s rook, you might have given check with your queen’s rook, and taken that of his king. It must be observed here, that what has decided the game in favour of the white, is, that the king, having been in a situation, to enter the field with safety, which rarely happens, has been as instrumental to victory, as the best of his pieces. CHARLES XII. of Sweden was observed, very characteristically, to move the king more than any other piece; but this conduct is seldom to be imitated, on account of the ruin which involves the whole community of pieces, if the king meet with a disaster.

VARIATION.

At the 28th move, let the bishop check, instead of the rook; and the check-mate will be effected, almost at the instant, without circumevolution, or difficulty.

FIRST BACK GAME,

TO THE SECOND GAMBIT,

_On the Third Move of the Black_.

3. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th. B. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.

4. W. The pawn takes the pawn.(a) B. The queen gives check.

5. W. The king at his bishop’s square. B. King’s pawn 1 square.(b)

6. W. The bishop takes the knight. B. The king’s pawn takes the pawn and gives check.(c)

(a) I make the white pawn take that pawn, to shew that it must cause the loss of the game; the best move in this puzzling situation, would have been to play your queen to your king’s second square.

(b) He exposes your king’s bishop to be taken by his queen.

(c) So situated he cannot chuse but win.

7. W. The king takes the pawn. B. The king’s rook takes the bishop and wins the game.

PHILIDOR does not seem to think this worth pursuing.

SECOND BACK GAME,

TO THE SECOND GAMBIT,

_On the Fourth Move of the Black_.

1. W. The king’s pawn 2 squares. B. The same.

2. W. King’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares. B. Queen’s pawn 2 squares.(a) ☜

3. W. The king’s pawn takes the pawn. B. The queen takes the pawn.(b) ☜

(a) If he had pushed this pawn but one square, it would have entirely changed the game; therefore, I make it the subject of a back game.

N. B. It is the best way of playing it, in order to avoid the snares of your adversary in the Gambit, when you receive the advantage of a piece.

(b) He might take your king’s bishop’s pawn with his king’s pawn; the basis of a material change, and the subject of a back game.

11. W. King’s bishop at his queen’s 3d. B. The king castles with his rook.(d) ☜

12. W. Queen’s bishop at the adverse king’s knight’s 4th.(e) B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.

13. W. Queen’s bishop at his king’s rook’s 4th. B. The queen at her own square.

14. W. Queen’s knight at his king’s 4th.(f) B. King’s bishop at his king’s 2d.

(d) It was indifferent to him whether he castled on the king’s or on the queen’s side. After the manœuvre of castling, I have already given a general rule for impelling your pawns, against his covering pawns; however, for illustration, I shall give a back game on that duplicate move.

(e) This would have been wrong had he not castled on his king’s side, because by pushing his king’s rook’s pawn, he had forced your bishop to retire; but, at present, it is your interest to excite him to push the pawns that cover his king, to prepare a breach for the attack.

(f) If he had not removed his queen, to replace her with the king’s bishop, the play of this knight would have perplexed his game.

20. W. The pawn takes the bishop. B. Queen’s rook at his queen’s square.(i)

21. W. King’s rook at the adverse king’s bishop’s 3d. B. The queen at her 2d square.(k)

22. W. The king’s rook takes the king’s knight’s pawn, and gives check. B. The pawn takes the rook.

23. W. The queen takes the pawn, and gives check. B. The king at his rook’s square.(l)

(i) If he had attacked your queen with his bishop, instead of playing his rook, you would have taken his bishop with your king’s rook; this, by making an opening upon his king, would have given you an easier attack.

(k) If he had not played his queen to this square, you must have taken his bishop with your rook, and that would have secured the game.

(l) If, instead of withdrawing his king, he had covered him with his queen, you must have taken his bishop, giving him check; and you would have been left on the right wing with two pawns and a bishop against a rook only, added to a good attack, which, improved, would be sufficient to win the game; but, as he has played his king instead of his queen, you cannot do better than make an end of the party by a drawn game, with a perpetual check.

11. W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.(c) ☜ B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.(d)

12. W. Queen’s bishop at his king’s bishop’s 4th. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 2 squares.

13. W. The queen’s bishop takes the pawn close to his king. B. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.

14. W. Queen’s knight at his queen’s 2d. B. King’s knight at the adverse king’s knight’s 4th.(e)

(c) By pushing this pawn two squares you had given his knight a free entry into your game, which would have lost you the party. The subject of a back game.

(d) This move is of great consequence to him for ensuring the party, because it hinders you from attacking his king’s knight with your queen’s bishop, to effect afterwards a separation of his pawns, by sacrificing a rook for one of his knights, and this would have turned the game in your favour.

(e) He plays this knight to take your queen’s bishop, who would be troublesome to him, were he to castle on his queen’s side. Here we may observe, as a general rule, that when a player has advanced pawns, it becomes policy to commence a distinct hostility against the bishops, because they can menace the pawns, and block their way, more effectually than any other piece.

15. W. The queen at her king’s 2d.(f) B. The knight takes the bishop.

16. W. The queen takes the knight. B. The queen at her knight’s square.(g)

17. W. The queen takes the queen.(h) B. The rook takes the queen.

18. W. Queen’s rook at his king’s square. B. The king at his queen’s 2d.

(f) Knowing no expedient way to save your bishop, you play your queen to replace him; for if you had seated him at your king’s bishop’s fourth, to hinder the check of his knight, he would have pushed his king’s knight’s pawn upon the bishop, and made you lose the game immediately.

(g) He offers to exchange queens to break the direction of yours, so that he may place his queen at her third square, in case you refuse to take her.

(h) If you did not take the queen, your situation would be still worse.

10. W. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d. B. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.

11. W. Queen’s knight at his king’s 4th. The whites have the advantage of position, and must win.

END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

_Printed by W. Smith, King Street, Seven Dials._

STUDIES OF CHESS; CONTAINING CAÏSSA, A POEM,

BY SIR WILLIAM JONES;

_A Systematic Introduction to the Game_;

AND THE WHOLE ANALYSIS OF CHESS,

COMPOSED BY MR. A. D. PHILIDOR: WITH Original Critical Remarks.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

"_Ludimus effigiem belli._"