Page:The chess-player's text book.djvu/53
Observe, there are six squares—an even number—between your King and the opponent's. Now either party having to play can gain the opposition by moving so as to have an odd number of squares between the Kings. If you are to play, you take the opposition immediately by moving the K. to his 2nd, and by this step you are enabled to cross over to the other side of the board in any part ; while your adversary is compelled, if you choose, to remain a comparative prisoner; in his own territory. Two or three moves on either side will make this plain ; suppose, then, we begin :—
| WHITE. | BLACK. |
| 1. K. to 2nd. | 1. K. to his 2nd.
(If Black play K. to his B.'s 2nd, or to Q.'s 2nd, you confront his King with yours, by playing on the next move K. to his B.'s 3rd, or K. to Q.'s 3rd.)
|
| 2. K. to his 3rd. | 2. K. to his 3rd. |
| 3. K to his 4th. |
The two Kings are as near to each other as the laws of the game permit, and Black, it is obvious, must recede, or by moving on one side leave a passage for your King. The same thing occurs if the Kings are opposed diagonally, as you will find on placing your King at his Rook's sq., and the adversary's at his Q. R.'s sq., and then begin by moving your King to K. Kt.'s 2nd, his to Q. Kt.'s 2nd, &c., on the same diagonal until they face each other with one square betwixt them. No advantage, of course, could accrue to you by gaining the opposition when the Kings only are left, as in these cases, because a King cannot Check-mate a King ; but when it is a contest between King and Pawns, the fate of the game oftentimes depends upon the relative position of the two Kings.
For example take the following end game (Diagram No. 11) :—