Part 61
Chess is generally believed to have originated in India, and in its primitive form was called Chaturanga. It is mentioned in the Hindoo Puranas, at least 3000 years B. C. The game seems to have spread eastward long before it came West, going through Burmah to Thibet, Siam, China, Malacca, Java, and Borneo. Owing to the better preservation of historical records in China, many persons have been led to credit that country with the invention of chess, but recent investigations have shown that the Chinese got it from India. At some remote period of the world’s history the game was taken from China to Japan, and there are to-day many points in common between the games played in these two countries, especially in the arrangement of the pieces, although the Japanese board has eighty-one squares.
Chess came westward through Constantinople, it having passed through Persia sometime during the sixth century. The Arabs seem to have learned the game, and taken it to Mecca and Medina, afterward passing it along to Syria and the Byzantines, sometime during the seventh century. Disbanded body-guards of the Byzantine emperors carried it to Scandinavia and the North, while it was gradually spreading over Europe by way of the Bosphoros and the Danube.
_=Draughts=_, or _=Checkers=_, is sometimes claimed to be an older game than Chess: but it is much more probable that both are developments of some still older game, all trace of which is lost. In Egypt and Nubia there are illustrations of persons playing at draughts twenty centuries before the Christian era. During recent explorations in Egypt quite a variety of draughtmen have been found, some of which were used during the reign of Rameses III. The usual form seems to have been circular, about an inch in diameter, and surmounted by a round knob, something like a chess pawn, so that the men could be easily picked up. From the manner in which the men are shown mixed upon the board, it is evident that they could not move or take backwards, as in Polish draughts, but whether they advanced diagonally, as at the present day, there is no evidence to show. The Japanese game of draughts has lately been revived in England and America under the name of Go-Bang, but as it requires a special board of 324 squares, it has never been popular.
_=Backgammon=_ cannot be traced to its origin. Several authorities have fallen into the error of ascribing the game to a certain country because the name is derived from a certain language, forgetting that in ancient times every country invented its own names for games. Chess is called Choke-choo-hong-ki in China, and Shogi in Japan; but that does not make it either a Chinese or a Japanese game. Either of these names might be used for Backgammon, as they have exactly the same meaning. The Welsh words, bach, and cammen; or the Saxon bac, and gamen, signify “a little battle;” while the Chinese and Japanese names for Chess signify “mimic warfare.”
The Welsh and Saxons undoubtedly got Backgammon from the Romans, who played it under the name of Scripta Duodecimo. They seemed to have got it from the Greeks, who are known to have used a table called Abacus, very much like a backgammon board in form, with lines drawn upon it, and the men were moved from one line to another according to the throws of the dice.
There is no trace of Backgammon among the games of the Egyptians or the Hebrews, although the chief factors in the game, the dice, have been known to all nations, and are probably the oldest gaming instruments in the world.
As to the respective merits of these table games, there is little to be said. Curiously enough they are played by entirely different classes of people. Backgammon has always been highly respectable, and seems likely to retain its position as the fashionable game. Draughts is peculiarly the game of the middle classes, popular at the workman’s dinner hour, in the sitting-rooms of cheap hotels, in country clubs, and in fire engine stations; the latter being a favourite training ground for our checker champions. Chess is probably the most universal game of all, and its general character is understood by almost every educated person in the world.
CHESS.
Chess is played upon a square board, divided into sixty-four smaller squares of equal size. These small squares are usually of different colours, alternately light and dark, and the board must be so placed that each player shall have a light square at his right, on the side nearer him.
Each player is provided with sixteen men, eight of which are called _=pieces=_, and eight _=pawns=_. The men on one side are red or black, and those on the other side are white or yellow, and they are usually of a standard pattern, which is known as the Staunton model.
The eight pieces are:
The King, ♚ The Queen, ♛ Two Rooks or Castles, ♜ Two Bishops, ♝ and two Knights, ♞
These eight pieces are arranged on the side of the board nearer the player, and immediately in front of them stand the eight Pawns, ♟. Diagram No. 1 will show the proper arrangement of the men at the beginning of a game:--
It will be observed that the two Queens are opposite each other, and that each Queen stands upon a square of the same colour as herself. For irregularities in setting up the men, see the Laws of Chess.
The _=players=_ are designated by the colour of the men with which they play, Black or White, and White always has the first move. In a series of games each player alternately takes the white men with the first move. It is usual to draw for the first game, one player concealing in each hand a pawn of a different colour, and offering the choice of hands to his adversary. Whichever colour the chosen hand contains is the one the chooser must take for the first game.
The duplicate pieces of each colour are distinguished by their position with regard to the King or Queen; those on the King’s side being called the King’s Bishop, the King’s Knight, and the King’s Rook. Those on the Queen’s side are the Queen’s Bishop, Queen’s Knight, and Queen’s Rook. The pawns are designated by the pieces in front of which they stand; King’s Pawn; Queen’s Knight’s Pawn, etc.
The comparative _=value of the pieces=_ changes a little in the course of play, the Rooks especially not being so valuable early in the game. Authorities differ a little as to the exact value of the pieces, but if we take the Pawn as a unit, the fighting value of the others will be about as follows:--
A Knight is worth 3½ Pawns. A Bishop is worth 5¼ Pawns. A Rook is worth 9½ Pawns. A Queen is worth 15 Pawns. A King is worth 4½ Pawns.
_=THE MOVES.=_ Each piece has a movement peculiar to itself, and, with the exception of the Pawns, any piece can capture and remove from the board any opposing piece which it finds in its line of movement. The captured piece is not jumped over, but the capturing piece simply occupies the square on which the captured piece stood. The movement of each piece should be studied separately.
♟ _=The Pawns=_ move straight forward, one square at a time, except on the first move, when they have the privilege of moving either one or two squares, at the option of the player. In capturing, the Pawn does not take the piece directly in its path, but the one diagonally in front of it on either side. Such a capture of course takes the Pawn from the file it originally occupied, and it must then continue to advance in a straight line on its new file. In Diagram No. 2, the white Pawns could not capture either of the black Bishops or Rooks, but the Pawn on the left could take either of the black Knights:--
After a Pawn has crossed the middle line of the board into the adversary’s territory, it is called a _=passed Pawn=_. If an adverse Pawn attempts to pass this Pawn by availing itself of the privilege of moving two squares the first time, that would not prevent the passed Pawn from capturing it _=en passant=_. In the position shown in Diagram No. 3, for instance, if the black Queen’s Pawn were to advance two squares, the white Pawn could capture it en passant, lifting it from the board, and taking the position that the black Pawn would have occupied if it had moved only one square the first time; that is, the first black square in front of the Queen. A Pawn can be taken en passant only by another pawn, never by any other piece.
♜ _=The Rook=_ can be moved any number of squares at a time, forward or backward, but only in vertical or horizontal lines, never diagonally. The Rook’s movement is of course limited by pieces obstructing its path, for it cannot jump over anything. At the beginning of the game, for instance, the Rook cannot move at all.
♝ _=The Bishop=_ can be moved any number of squares at a time, forward or backward, but only in diagonal lines, never horizontally or vertically. For this reason the Bishop never leaves the squares of the same colour as that on which it originally stood. A Bishop is often spoken of as a white Bishop or a black Bishop, which does not mean that it is one of White’s Bishops, or one of Black’s; but that it stands upon a white or black square. Like the Rook, the Bishop cannot jump over other pieces, and cannot be moved at all until one or other of the two Pawns diagonally in front of it have opened the way.
♛ _=The Queen=_ combines the movements of the Rook and Bishop, and can be moved horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, any number of squares at a time, provided that the path is clear. Like the Rook and Bishop, she cannot move at all until some of the adjoining pieces have made a way for her.
♚ _=The King=_ has the same movement as the Queen, but is limited to one square at a time. The King is not allowed to move to a square which would expose him to capture by adverse pieces, for reasons which will presently be explained.
♞ _=The Knight=_ has a very peculiar movement, which is L shaped, and necessitates his changing the colour of the square he stands on, every time he moves. The simplest way for the beginner to learn the Knight’s move is to observe that he must go two squares, neither more nor less, in a vertical or a horizontal direction, and must then change the colour of the square he stands on by going one square either to the right or left, which will complete the L shaped movement. Diagram No. 4 will show that when the Knight is away from the side of the board, he may go to any one of eight different squares; but when he is in a corner he can go to two only. For that reason Knights are much more powerful when placed near the centre of the board.
The peculiarity of the Knight’s move is that it is not retarded by other pieces, because the Knight can jump over them, a privilege which is not given to any other piece on the board. In Diagram No. 5, for instance, the Knights have been legitimately moved, but no other piece could be moved until the Pawns had made way for it.
There are one or two peculiar movements which are allowed only under certain conditions. One of these is _=Castling=_. If there are no pieces between the King and the Rook, and neither piece has been moved, the King may be moved two squares toward the Rook, and at the same time the Rook may be brought round to the other side of the King. The movement must be made with both hands, each manipulating a piece. In the position shown in Diagram No. 6, for instance, the King could castle on either side, with the King’s Rook, or with the Queen’s Rook:--
If an adverse piece commands the square that would be passed over by the King in castling, the move is not allowed; because a King must not move into check, nor cross a square that is checked by an adverse piece nor castle out of check.
In Diagram No. 7 the position that would result from castling with the Queen’s Rook is shown by the black men.
_=Queening Pawns.=_ If a passed Pawn succeeds in reaching the last or eighth square on any file, the player to whom the Pawn belongs may call it anything he chooses, from a Queen to a Knight. If the piece he chooses has already been captured, it must be replaced on the board, and on the square occupied by the Pawn, which is then removed. If not, some other piece must be put upon the board as a marker; a Rook upside down, or a Pawn with a ring on it, may represent a second Queen.
_=OBJECT OF THE GAME.=_ If all the pieces could be captured, the object of the game might be to clear the board of the adversary’s men, as in Checkers; but the peculiarity of Chess is that one piece, the King, cannot be captured, and the object is to get the adverse King in such a position that he could not escape capture if he were a capturable piece. When that is accomplished the King is said to be _=mated=_, and the player who first succeeds in giving mate to the adversary’s King wins the game, regardless of the number or value of the pieces either side may have on the board at the time the mate is accomplished.
When an adverse piece is moved so that it could capture the King on the next move, due notice must be given to the threatened King by announcing “_=Check=_,” and the player must immediately move his King out of check, interpose a piece or a Pawn, or capture the piece that gives the check. If he cannot do one of these three things he is mated, and loses the game. A very simple example of a mate is given in Diagram No. 8.
The white Rook has just been moved down to the edge of the board, giving “check.” As the black King can move only one square at a time, he cannot get out of check by moving, because the only squares to which he could go would still leave him in check from the Rook. Neither the Knight nor the Bishop can interpose to shut out the Rook’s attack; neither of those pieces can capture the Rook; and the Pawns cannot move backward; so the black King is mated, and White wins the game.
A mate may take place in the middle of the board, as shown in Diagram No. 9.
If the black Queen moves diagonally four squares, placing herself in front of the white King, and on the same horizontal file as the black Rook, it will be check-mate, because the white King cannot get out of one check into another by taking the Queen, which is protected by the Rook. For the same reason he cannot move, as the only squares open to him would leave him in check from the Queen, or move him into check from the black King.
_=Stalemate.=_ If the King is not in check, but cannot move without going into check, and there is no other piece for the player to move, it is called a stale-mate, and the game is drawn. In Diagram No. 10, for instance,
The only way out of the check is to interpose the Queen, whereupon the white Queen will move diagonally to the edge of the board and check again, forcing the black Queen back where she came from, and drawing the game by perpetual check. If the black Queen moves away from the King, she will be captured, and White will give check-mate at the same time.
_=NOTATION.=_ The various moves which take place in the course of a game are recorded by a system of chess notation, the number of the move being given first, and then the pieces moved and the direction of their movement. The names of the pieces themselves are used to distinguish the various files of squares running vertically from the piece itself to the opposite side of the board, and the seven squares in front of each piece are numbered from 2 to 8. No matter how much the pieces may be moved, the various vertical files still retain the name of the pieces which stood at the bottom of them when the men were first set up. In chess notation, only the initials of the pieces are used, K standing for King, and Kt for Knight. Although the files bear the same names, the numbers count from the side on which the men are placed, so that each square has a double name, depending on the colour of the man placed upon it.
In Diagram No. 12, for instance, both the Pawns that have been moved would be spoken of as on K 4. The Knight that has been moved is on K B 3, because it is a white Knight. If it was a black Knight it would be on K B 6, reckoning from the black side of the board for the black pieces. In order to test your understanding of this system of notation, which is very important in following published games or problems, take the board and men, white side next you, and set up the following position, remembering that when no number is given, the piece stands upon the square originally occupied by the piece which gives its name to the file:--
Black men;--King on Q R’s; Queen on Q Kt’s; Pawns on Q R 2, and Q Kt, 3; Rook on Q R 3.
White men;--King on Q Kt 5; Queen on Q B 6.
Now look at Diagram No 11, and see if you have it right.
In addition to the notation of position, there is that of action. If a dash is placed between the initials of the piece and the definition of the square, it shows first the piece moved, and then the square to which it is moved. In Diagram No 11, for instance, Black’s only move to cover the check would be given: Q-Q Kt 2; and White’s continuation would be given; Q-K 8.
The first of these might be abbreviated by saying, Q-Kt 2, because there is only one Kt 2 to which the Queen could be moved.
The moves of the white pieces are always given first, either in the left hand of two vertical columns, which are headed “White,” and “Black” respectively; or above a line which divides the white move from the black, the latter form being used in text-books, the former in newspapers. The moves in Diagram No. 11 would be as follows, supposing the white Queen to arrive from K8 in the first place:--