Edward Lasker

“ Thus, Chess serves a good purpose for young and old. The boy will find it a fascinating pastime and, unconsciously sharpening his wits in playing the game, will acquire a fine preparation for his calling in life, no matter what it may be. For the man, and the woman too, Chess is well worth learning, as it will prove the best companion in hours of leisure. ”

“ A position which has more than one key move is not considered a problem, because the main point at issue in a problem is not the NUMBER of moves in which the mate is accomplished but the METHOD in which it is accomplished, and of two possible solutions one will always be prettier so that the existence of the other must necessarily appear a blemish.
A very important law is that the first move of White (who by general consent has always the attack) must not deprive the black King of a flight square, as this would be too brutal, too obvious a procedure. ”

“ The beginner who makes this great principle of development quite clear to himself has made the most difficult step on the way to mastership. The grasp of the far reaching influence of the mobility of the pieces in the opening upon the further development of the whole game is really what distinguishes the master from the average player. ”

“ In as much as a position can only be considered superior if it enables the mating of the opposing King or the obtaining of an advantage in material which will secure a win in the ending, it is evident that in sacrificing a player really never intends to give up more than he gets, but that on the contrary he expects to gain more than he loses. In other words, a sacrifice, if correct, is a sacrifice only TEMPORARILY, and very soon yields either the same, if not more material, or an attack on the King to which the latter falls victim. ”

“ HOW THE DIFFERENT MEN COOPERATE There are two kinds of elementary attack. One when a single man attacks two or more hostile men at the same time; the other when more men are brought up to attack an opposing man than can be mustered for defense. The beginner, as a rule, makes attacks with the sole aim of driving away a hostile piece; it is clear that these attempts will in most cases be futile as they generally allow the attacked piece to move to another square just as or perhaps more favorable. ”

“ Whether the move with the King's Pawn or the Queen's Pawn is better when beginning the game is impossible to say. In neither case can it be proved that White can obtain an advantage which is sufficient to win the game. With correct play on both sides it can be only White who gains an advantage, for he has the first move and so he is one move ahead of Black in the development as long as he does not waste any time on maneuvers which do not increase the mobility of his pieces. ”

“ The King, like the Queen, moves and captures in any direction, but he is much less powerful because he may move only one square at a time. Nevertheless, he is the most important man, for, as said at the beginning, the object of each side is the capture of the opposing King. ”

“ Frederick the Great, Napoleon and Moltke, the great scientists of war, had a decided liking for the game of Chess and owed to it many an inspiration which helped them in laying out their military plans. Indeed, no other game exists which offers such complete analogies to war. ”

“ Of course, if a player makes bad moves in the opening, that is, moves which do not aim at a speedy mobilization of all pieces, then the opponent may soon have a chance to win the game with moves which are not in accordance with those common sense rules either but which force an immediate issue in a maneuver of a kind that ordinarily does not occur in an opening but is characteristic of the middle game. This is a point which the majority of Chess players overlook. ”

“ The thoughtful playing of the game not only cultivates the logical quality and imaginative power of the mind but also tends to develop strength of character. It teaches us not to be hasty in our decisions, but to exercise foresight at all times as we must abide by all consequences of our actions. ”

“ Problems in which no definite number of moves are stipulated for the mate are usually called STUDIES or ENDINGS. They are nothing but game positions in which a maneuver forces the win that is so well hidden that it would probably not be found by a player in an actual game. The following two positions are examples of this class of compositions.
The first move is evident. White must play (1) P-c7, as otherwise Black retreats with the Rook in the d-file and occupies the c- file so that he can be sacrificed at any time for White's dangerous Pawn. ”

“ In the course of time, when the dominance of the nobility declined and the inhabitants of the cities assumed the leading role in the life of people, the game of Chess spread to all classes of society and soon reached a popularity which no other game has ever equaled. ”

“ The fact that a Pawn move opens an outlet for a piece is not sufficient. If possible Pawn moves will have to be found which enable the development of more than one piece for they will lead to an advantage in the mobilization unless the opponent, too, hastens the development of his pieces by equally good Pawn moves.
The only Pawn moves which fit this description are moves with the King's or Queen's Pawns as they open lines for Queen and Bishop— apart from an additional square for the Knight—while the other Pawns cannot free the way for more than one piece. ”

“ Of course, it would be too difficult for the beginner to find out for himself what squares are the most favorable for the different pieces; at any rate, it would take him a long time to gain that knowledge by experience. Fortunately, the experience of the masters of several generations is accessible to us and so it is possible to expedite considerably the process by which the mind of the student is adapted to the tactics required in every game of Chess to carry out the principle of speedy development. ”

“ An exchange always alters the move if the capturing piece is recaptured in turn. If a different piece is recaptured, it depends upon the relative position of the captured pieces, whether the move has remained with the same player or gone over to his opponent. For the purpose of calculating the move and its changes it is useful to imagine the Checker board as being composed of two "systems of squares"—the Black system containing the ranks starting with the squares 1, 9, 17 and 25, and the White system containing the other four ranks. ”

“ Black cannot help the loss of a man.
The reader, who has thoroughly acquainted himself with the fundamental endings, will have no difficulty in playing a good game of checkers, if he follows at every move the general principles discussed in this chapter. When playing over the countless variations, which are offered in the majority of checker books, he would find that they are merely illustrations of the application of those principles to the various openings. ”

“ The Queen is apparently the strongest piece. On account of her superior mobility she can confine the hostile King with a few moves and force him into a mating net. Of the other pieces the Rook is no doubt the strongest for he is sufficient to force a mate in conjunction with his own King, while Bishop or Knight cannot do so. Two Bishops apparently are stronger than two Knights, while it is not possible yet to say anything about the relative value of one Bishop and one Knight. ”

“ Up to the time of the outbreak of the war the leading Chess Clubs of the different countries arranged, as an annual feature, national and international tournaments, thus bringing the Chess players of all nationalities into close contact.
This internationalism of Chess is of great advantage to the Chess player who happens to be traveling in a foreign 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. ”

“ Although a Chess game differs from a battle in that the material strength of the opponents is equal, the order of events is the same in Chess as in war. The troops are first mobilized and made ready for action with utmost speed, then important positions are occupied which give the troops freedom of action and insure safe lines of retreat and, finally, when the formation of the enemy is known, the strategic plan is made which the generals try to carry out by means of different tactical maneuvers. ”

“ The different conditions of the battle ground in war which make some positions more easily accessible to infantry than to artillery and vice versa have their equivalent on the Chess board in the different ways in which the men move and which make certain squares accessible to some of them which others cannot reach.
The first thing, then, for the beginner to do is to acquaint himself thoroughly with the characteristic features of each man so that he may know exactly how much work to expect from him. ”

“ If a player overlooks the possibility of a capture his opponent has the right to remove the man who should have made the capture, from the board. This procedure is called "huffing" and does not constitute a play. Instead of huffing a player may ask the opponent to retract his move and to make the capture.
When neither player can force a win the game is considered a draw. When one side appears to be stronger and refuses to accept a draw offered the player of the weaker side can require the win to be demonstrated within 40 moves ”

“ In those cases the player does not face the question as to whether the position attained after the sacrifice will be strong enough to insure a gain of material at least equivalent to the amount of material sacrificed, a question which to answer correctly sometimes requires a good deal of instinct trained by experience; all that is necessary if to ascertain whether the opponent can be mated in a definite number of moves or not. If the mate cannot be clearly foreseen, the sacrifice must not be made. ”

“ The reason for the general rule that the Queen should not come out too soon is that she is liable to be attacked by the minor pieces of the opponent so that she has to move again and again and time is lost which could be used for the development of other pieces. Of course, if the opponent does not develop his pieces, the Queen may often come out without danger and she may do a lot of harm before she can be driven away. ”

“ CHESS LAWS If a player having the move touches one of his men he is compelled to move him; if he touches a hostile man he must capture him. This law is void, however, if the man so touched cannot be legally moved or captured.
A man may be moved to any square accessible to him as long as the hand of the player has not left him. If an illegal move has been made it must be retracted and if possible another move must be made with the same man. If a player has castled illegally, King and Rook must be moved back and the King must make another move, if there is a legal one. ”

“ Considering this similarity of Chess and war it is not surprising that Chess has gained greatly in popularity among all those whose work or thought is more than superficially influenced by the present war. ”

“ The advantage of center squares over side squares is not so marked in Checkers as it is in Chess. There is no doubt that a piece has more mobility in the center, where there are two or four moves to choose from, than on the side where only one or two moves are possible; but a man on the side has an advantage in so far as he is backed up by the edge of the board so that he is safe from being captured until he moves. ”

“ It is less apparent why a Pawn move should create a weakness if a center-Pawn or a Pawn on the Queen's wing is concerned. In the latter case, the possibility of deriving an advantage during the middle-game is rare, indeed; but the weakness produced by the Pawn moves invariably shows itself in the ending. In the position of Diagram 58 for instance, White wins on account of the weakness of the squares a6, c6, d5 and b5 from which his King can attack the Black Pawns as soon as the Queen and the Rook are exchanged. ”

“ To understand the attacking and defensive maneuvers involved it is necessary first to become acquainted with the different ways in which the various pieces can be made to do some useful work, where their strength lies and where their weakness, and how they are able to cooperate. Not before all this is clear to the beginner—in the outlines at least—will he be in a position to play a sensible game or even to understand the most elementary strategic principles. ”

“ It is the mobility alone which decides the value of a man, and positions often occur in which a Knight is more valuable than a Rook or in which a Pawn might be preferable to a Bishop and so on. The reason is that sometimes the weaker man occupies a commanding square while the stronger man is obstructed somehow or other so that he cannot be made to work. ”

“ The game of Chess in the form in which it is played to-day is usually assumed to be of a much older date than can be proved with certainty by documents in our possession. The earliest reference to the game is contained in a Persian romance written about 600 A.D., which ascribes the origin of Chess to India. Many of the European Chess terms used in the Middle Ages which can be traced back to the Indian language also tend to prove that India is the mother country of the game. ”

“ For the beginner, of course, the opposition maneuvers are rather difficult to grasp and it is fortunate for him that the vast majority of pawn endings are of a much simpler form. The winning maneuver in these endings into which most Chess games resolve themselves, is easily explained and after understanding it the beginner can readily see the fundamental principle underlying every game. ”

“ To save the King from untimely death there is a rule that the King may not move into any square which is in the direct range of any man of his enemy. Thus, in Diagram 2 the black King may move to f2, g2, h2, f3 and h3, but he may not move to f4 or g4 nor may he capture the Pawn on h4, for on any of these squares he could be captured by the white Rook.
The white King in Diagram 2 has only three squares to which he may go, namely, b1, b2 and c2, as the squares d1 and d2, though being in his range, are commanded by the black Queen. ”

“ There is one peculiar rule to be remembered in connection with the move of the Pawn. If a Pawn uses his privilege of making a double step to avoid capture by a hostile Pawn he can be put back one square and captured just the same. For instance, in Diagram 2, if the white Pawn stood on h5 and Black moved his Pawn to g5, White could put Black's Pawn back to g6 and capture him with his Pawn. ”