Chess and Checkers: The Way to Mastership | Page 4

country. There are innumerable Chess Clubs spread all over the globe and the knowledge of the game is the only introduction a man needs to be hospitably received and to form desirable social and business connections.
It would be going beyond the limit of this summary of the history of Chess if I tried to give even an outline of the extremely interesting part Chess has played in French, English and German literature from the Middle Ages up to the present time. Suffice it to mention that Chess literature by far exceeds that of all other games combined. More than five thousand volumes on Chess have been written, and weekly or monthly magazines solely devoted to Chess are published in all countries, so that Chess has, so to speak, become an international, universal language.
The History of Checkers
The literature on the game of Checkers (English: Draughts) is very limited and there are no certain references to prove that the game was known before the Sixteenth Century. Two theories are current as to its origin; one of them claiming it to be a simplified Chess, the other explaining it as the result of transferring the Spanish game Alquerque de doze to the Chess board.
H. J. R. Murray, the greatest authority on the history of games, considers it most likely that the game has been evolved from both Chess and Alquerque. The method of capturing men and the rule concerning the huffing of a man unquestionably point to the Spanish game, while the board, the diagonal move of the men and the idea of crowning a man are taken from Chess.
In France, Germany, Italy and Spain the name of the game is still that of the Queen of Chess (Dame, Dama) whose move in the Middle Ages was identical with the move of the Checkermen.
Checkers has never been able to attain more than national uniformity, and it is played with different rules in different countries. In the United States it is more popular than in any other country and a number of players have obtained national fame. The best players at present are considered to be Newell Banks and Alfred Jordan.





PART I: THE GAME OF CHESS

I

THE RULES OF THE GAME

BOARD AND MEN
The game of Chess is played by two armies who oppose each other on a square board or battlefield of sixty-four alternate white and black squares. Each army has sixteen men; one King, one Queen, two Rooks (or Castles), two Bishops, two Knights and eight Pawns. The Generals of the two armies are the two players themselves. The men of one side are of light color and are called White, those of the other side are of dark color and are called Black.
The object of the game is to capture the opposing King. When this is done the battle is ended, the side losing whose King is captured. To understand what is meant by the capture of the King it is first necessary to become acquainted with the laws according to which the different men move on the board.
To start with, the board must be placed so that the players have a white square at their right. Then the men take the positions shown in Diagram 1.
The Rooks occupy the corner squares; next to them stand the Knights; then the Bishops and in the center the King and the Queen.
+---------------------------------------+ 8 | #R | #Kt| #B | #Q | #K | #B | #K | #R | |---------------------------------------| 7 | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | #P | |---------------------------------------| 6 | | | | | | | | | |---------------------------------------| 5 | | | | | | | | | |---------------------------------------| 4 | | | | | | | | | |---------------------------------------| 3 | | | | | | | | | |---------------------------------------| 2 | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | ^P | |---------------------------------------| 1 | ^R | ^Kt| ^B | ^Q | ^K | ^B | ^Kt| ^R | +---------------------------------------+ a b c d e f g h
DIAGRAM 1
The white Queen must be on the white square and the black Queen on the black square. These eight, men are commonly known as "pieces" in distinction from the Pawns. The latter occupy the line of squares immediately in front of the Pieces.
The lines of squares now occupied by the men and the other four vacant horizontal lines between them are called RANKS. The vertical lines of squares running perpendicularly to the ranks are called FILES. The oblique lines of squares, that is, lines which connect squares of the same color, are called DIAGONALS.
To describe the moves of the men on the board in a simple way it is necessary to indicate every square and every man by