Chess Generalship, Vol. I. Grand Reconnaissance — John Shaqi
Chess Generalship, Vol. I. Grand ReconnaissanceYoung, Franklin K. (Franklin Knowles)
History
Chess Generalship, Vol. I. Grand Reconnaissance
Young, Franklin K. (Franklin Knowles)
Chess
“_The King of Castling should deploy in one move to that
point where, as the Base of Operations, it mathematically
harmonizes with that Strategic Front, which is, or must become,
established._”
The change in the present form of Castling, herein suggested, should be
made in the true interests of the Royal Game.
The instant effect of such change will be:
1. Largely to increase the defensive resources both of White and
Black;
2. To minimize the handicap on the second player, due to White’s
advantage of first move;
3. To permit open play on the Queen’s side of the board and thus
provide a broader and more resplendent field for Strategetic
genius.
* * * * *
In all our modern-day mis-interpretations of the ethics of Chess and
our characteristic Twentieth Century looseness of practice as applied
to Chess-play, perhaps there exists no greater absurdity, than that
subversion of ordinary intelligence, daily evinced by permitting a piece
which cannot move, to give check.
It is a well known and in many ways a deserved reproach, cast by the
German erudite, that the mind of the Anglo-Saxon is not properly
developed, that it is able to act correctly only when dealing with known
quantities, and is inadequate for the elucidation of indeterminate things.
In consequence, they say, the argumentative attempts of the Anglo-Saxon
are puerile; the natural result of a mental limitation which differs from
that of monkeys and parrots, merely in ability to count beyond two.
Surely it would seem that a very young child readily would sense that:
A Chess-piece, which by law is debarred from movement, is, by the same
law, necessarily debarred from capturing adverse material; inasmuch as in
order to capture, a piece must move.
Nevertheless consensus of opinion today among children of every growth
and whether Anglo-Saxon or German, universally countenance the paradox
that:
A piece which is pinned on its own King, can give check _i.e._, threaten
to move and capture the adverse King.
To argue this question correctly and to deduce the logical solution, it
is necessary to revert to first principles and to note that:
It is a fundamental of Chess mathematics that the King cannot be exposed
to capture.
Furthermore, it is to be noted as equally fundamental, that:
1. A piece exerts no force against that point upon which it is
posted;
2. That whatever power a piece exerts, always is exerted against
some other point than the point upon which it stands; and that;
3. In order to exert such power, it is an all-essential that the
piece move from the point which it occupies to the point at which
its power is to be exerted.
Hence, it is obvious and may be mathematically demonstrated, that,
1. A piece which cannot move, cannot capture.
2. A piece which cannot capture, does not exercise any threat of
capture; and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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