The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-01-11
CHESS GOSSIP.

although of course the most important parsonage
in Che realm is still abe to effect little nothing
without the assistance and support OF his sub
jects. The Indian sage who thus undertook
the duties of reiormer of royalty and professor
of chess, improved the occasion both TO convey
ether truths and render access to the presence
easier.
II chess at the outset served as lesson and
also rs an opportunity Of communication be-
tween great personages and those below them,
il has subsequently not less frequently answered
the same purposes of introduction. When noble
Ebbeson went to Bohemia to seek a wife for his
master, King Valdemar, of Denmark, they
dressed the Princess in blue silk, and led her
into the great hall. They then brought the
chess-board and the table of massive gold, that
the NOBLE Ebbeson might play with the Princess
and converse with her alone At the third
move they we're agreed noble Ebbeson had won
a good wife for his King.
Ferdinand and Miranda's game, in the Tenapest.
had much the same sort of character, with the
peasant difference, however of love making in
person instead of by proxy
Miranda. Sweet lord you play me ialse
Ferdinand No, my dearest love,
/ would not for the world.
MI1anda. Yes, a score Of kingdoms you should
And would coll it fair play.
similar desire for semi-official teieG-tetes with
gentlemen attached to her Court might be one
reason OF our Queen EliZabeths fondness for
chess. She even hTted by means of Chcssmen:
as when she sent Sir Charles BlOunt, afterwards
Duke of Deyonshire a golden chessman, and
that the queen, which he wore with red favor,
and VIII Ch caused the Earl of Essex to remark,
with affected contempt 81 perceive now that
every fool will have his favor" The consequence
was that Sir Charles challenged him. They
fought in Marybon Park where Essex was Gls.
armed and wounded in the thigh.
In Western Europe the game of chess is played
by two adversarles only, and never, like domi-
noes, cribbage, and some other games, by one
against one or by two partners against two, at
pleasure But the Russians have chessboard
Tor four players at once, who play two against
two. The men for this chessboard are also more
numerous than ours.
Chess is supposed to be an imitation of war.
Phrenologsts tell us that the faculty denoted by
the organ of Locality gives what is called coup
G6it, and judgment of the capabilities of ground.
1t is necessary to the military draughtsman, and
is of great Importance to a general. DR.. Gall
mentions that he had observed the organ large
in distinguished chess-players; and he conceived
their talent to consist in the faculty OF clearly
mastering great number of possible positions
of the men.
The squares of the chessboard, amounting to
sixtytour, constitute a very remarkable num-
ber. 1t is not diyisible in any way by any odd
numbers, but is dlvisible by multiples of two,
and by two ITSELF until unity is reached at last.
1t is both square number and a cube number;
1t is also both the square of cube number, and
the cube OF square number. For it is the cube
OF four, which Is the square of two; and it is the
square OF eight which is the cube of two;
twice two are four, and twice four are eight, and
four times four are sixteen, and four times SIX
teen, siXty-four.
Chess has been played on regal scale, with
living men, in appropriate costume, on natural
hghting-ground-a lawn converted into q chess
board by pairing the grass for the squares of
white, or on floor prepared for the purpose.
Don Juan, of Austria, used one of the halls in
his palace as chessboard, the different squares
being represented by pavements of black and
white marble, while disguised soldiers acted as
the men.
At chess each player has sixteen men, occu.
pying at the outset the two rows of squares
nearest to each player, and onsequently leav-
ing the four intermediate rows consisting alto
gether OF thirty-tWo squares) vacant and open
for the conflict. The chessmen are of two
classes. Eight pawns, plonS, pioneers. or COM
mon soldiers, alike in form, occupy the second
row from the player; while eight principal
pieces, OF different name, shape, and power, are
ranged behind them. The positions OF the
pieces on the board are noteworthy, because
they are not exactly the same for both players.
1t makes some difference, in the earliest moves,
whether you are in the habit Of playing black or
white.
The chessboard is placed between the PLAYERS
in such way that each has white corner
square to his right. The castles occupy the cor
ner squares The name and signihcation OF the
castle have curiously varied. In the middle ages
IL was rOh, from the name of the fabulous
Arab bird which fetched Sinbad the sailor his
diamonds. The Italians converted this into
rOccd, signityng also rock, or a fortress
whence the French naturally called it a tour.
But the operation known as Casting, ," in which
the rokh passes over the king Is evidently a
much more appropriate act TO be performed by
bird than by fortress. On the Chinese chess
board the castles are called tche, or chariots Of
war. The Icelanders replace the castles by little
captains, which the schoolboys name centurions.
They have swords by their Sides and their
cheeks are swollen, as il they blew in the horn
which they hold in both hands. The castle
moves perpendcularly and horizontally up or
down, to the right or to the left. Its value is
estimated as equal to five pawns Next to the
castles, on the same row, stand the two knights
and after them, in the same way, the two
bishops.
OF all the pieces on the cbessboard the knight
is the only one whose movements have never
been modified; they are also the most singular
and original, resembling those of none OF the
Others. He goes from his own square to the
second from him of an opposite color passing the
square directly before, behind, or on either side
OF him. to the one diagonally situated either to
the right or the left of It. In doing this, he only
is at Liberty to leap over either his own pieces
or his adversary's. The sole condition re-
qulsite is that the square to which he moves be
vacant or occupied by an enemy's piece.
The popularity of the knights move has given
rise TO curious problem, whose origin Is lost in
that convenient hiding place, the night of ages
The knights problem consists in making him
move to every one of the squares of the chess
board without allghting on the same square
twice. Two thousand years ago the Brahmins
had way of doing it, which they seem to have
kept secret known only 10 their own caste
transmitting it from generation to generation
seen the feat performed by priests, who refused
to communicate the clue to their method About