The only answer to a double check is a move of the attacked

king.

So here the hapless black king

must go back to his comer. If he were to move out to the only other square unobstructed by his own pieces, the white square in front of his rook, he would still be in check from both the queen and the knight.

Now White plays his queen onto the square the king has just vacated. Check again, and this time a check to which there is only one reply. There is no room for interposition. The king cannot capture the queen, for the square on which she stands is still com­ manded by the knight; nor can he move anywhere else. So the rook must capture the queen.

Now comes the climax. The knight moves so as to give mate, as depicted in Diagram 41.

Diagram

The black king is in check from the knight, which cannot be

captured; and all the three squares to which he might move are blocked by his own pieces. This is aptly termed a 'smothered

mate', the king being smothered by his own men, which block his

escape.

If you study this little line of play carefully, you will set the seal on your knowledge of the moves of the pieces; you will have made acquaintance with two special kinds of check and ob­ tained a glimpse of the beauty of chess. Noteworthy is the manner in which, just before the end, White deliberately gives up his

queen for nothing, because he

sees that he can force mate and thus win the game.

Now have a game with some­ body! Preferably another learner. It won't be great chess but you'll enjoy it. On the other hand if you

prefer to read on, you'll find the

next chapter very instructive at this stage, for it deals with an in­ teresting topic, the relative values of the various pieces and the pawns.

3 Values of the Men

Diagram

TIlls diagram shows a ridiculous but not impossible position, which teaches an important les­ son. White has lost all but two of the men with which he started; Black has not lost one. Yet the game is over, and White has won because the black king is mated!

We look on a queen as far more powerful than a rook, and a rook as far more powerful than a

pawn and are justified in doing so in the vast majority of instances; but here Black has a queen, two rooks, two bishops, two knights and seven pawns more than his opponent yet has lost the game! The one white pawn is superior to

all of them. Why? Because it is supremely well placed, whereas all Black's men are very badly placed. Nothing could show more vividly that any estimate of rela­ tive strengths of the pieces must take the factor of position into account. Rarely indeed is the dis­ parity so great as here, though often a player gives two or three pieces to give mate with the re­ mainder of his force. In case you should regard the above position as too fantastic, however, here is the actual conclusion to a game between two leading Polish play­ ers some time ago:

Diagram

White have? Four! Yet he has lost because his king is mated!

Although such violently para­ doxical positions are rare, it is safe to say that the relative values of the pieces are influenced by their situations at every stage of every game. Here we may fmd a knight so well posted that it is as useful as a queen; there we may fmd a queen so badly placed that

it is weaker than a bishop. An

easily understandable case is that of a pawn, which can be pro­ moted to a queen if it reaches the furthermost rank. With every square it advances, its chances of becoming a queen increase; and

as these chances increase, so does

its value to its possessor though to an extent sometimes difficult to gauge. If it is two squares from the 'queening' square and com­ pletely held up by enemy pieces, it may still be worth little more than when it started on its jour­ ney. If it has only one square to go and can hardly be hindered from advancing, it may be - for all practical purposes - worth a queen already.

It is thus quite misleading to calculate as if every piece re­ tained the same unaitering value from the first move to the last, and to assume that the 'equations' I am going to give you are as re­ liable as 'twice five are ten'. Each represents a rough average of something which is constantly varying.

You will fmd the following lit-

tie table very useful if you

never

forget this, and take the values as

approximate and variable

aver­

ages

Taking the value of a pawn as

1

a bishop or knight is worth

3

units

a rook is worth 4112 units

a queen is worth

9

To elaborate:

A rook is worth a bishop-and­ a-half, or a knight-and-a-half; or

a pawn-and-a-half more than ei­

ther a knight or a bishop.