Chess is a well-known game of great antiquity and of eastern origin, having probably arisen in India, and thence spread through Persia and Arabia to Europe. The name itself as well as many of the terms used in the game are clearly of eastern origin, the word chess being formed from the old French eschecs, from Persian shah, a king; rook is from the Sanskrit roka, meaning a ship or chariot; checkmate from Persian shah mat, the king is dead.
The game is played by two persons on a board which consists of sixty-four squares arranged in eight rows of eight squares each, alternately black and white. Each player has sixteen men, eight of which, known as pawns, are of the lowest grade; the other eight, called pieces, are of various grades. They are, on each side, king and queen; two bishops, two knights, and two rooks or castles. The board must be placed so that each player shall have a white square to his right hand. The men are then set upon the two rows of squares next to the players; the pieces on the first, the pawns on the second row, leaving between each side four unoccupied rows. The king and queen occupy the central squares facing the corresponding pieces on the opposite side. The queen always occupies her own colour, white queen on white square, black on black. The two bishops occupy the squares next the king and queen; the two knights the squares next the bishops; the rooks the last or corner squares. The pawns fill indiscriminately the squares of the second or front row.
The men standing on the king's or queen's side of the board. are named respectively king's and queen's men. Thus king's bishop or knight is the bishop or knight on the side of the king. The pawns are named from the pieces in front of which they stand; king's pawn, king's knight's pawn, queen's rook's pawn, etc. The names of the men are contracted as follows:-King, K.; King's Bishop, K.B.; King's Knight, K.Kt.; King's Rook, K.R.; Queen, Q.; Queen's Bishop, Q.B.; Queen's Knight, Q. Kt.; Queen's Rook, Q.R. The pawns are contracted: K.P., Q.P., K.B.P., Q.Kt.P., etc.
The board is divided, inversely from the position of each player, into eight rows and eight files. Counting from White's right hand to his left, or from Black's left to his right, each file is named from the piece which occupies its first square, and counting inversely from the position of each player to that of the other, the rows are numbered from 1 to 8. At White's right-hand corner we have thus K.R. square;
immediately above this K.R. 2; and so on to K.R. 8, which completes the file; the second file begins with K.Kt. square on the first row, and ends with K.Kt. 8 on the eighth. White's K.R. 8 and K.Kt. 8 are thus black's K.R. square and K.Kt. square, and the moves of each player are described throughout from his own position, in inverse order to the moves of his opponent.
In chess all the men capture by occupying the position of the captured man, which is removed from the board. The ordinary move of the Pawn is straight forward in the same file; a pawn never moves backward. The first time a Pawn is moved it may be played forward one square or two; afterwards only one square at a time. But in capturing an adverse piece the Pawn moves diagonally to occupy the position of thy captured man. Thus if White open a game by playing P. to K. 4 and Black answers P. to K. 4, the pawns are immovable; but if White now plays P. to K.B. 4 or P. to Q. 4, Black may capture the Pawn last advanced. Pawns have another mode of capture peculiar to themselves, and only available against pawns. If Black's Pawn, instead of occupying K. 4, stood on K. 5, and White played P. to Q. 4, Black could not capture it by placing his Pawn on the square it occupies, which would be a false move; but he is at liberty to make the capture by placing his own Pawn on the square passed over by White's (Q. 6). This is called taking enpassant.
When a Pawn, by moving or capturing, reaches the eighth square of any file it can no longer remain a Pawn, but must at once be exchanged for a piece. The player may choose any piece except the king, but the queen, the most valuable piece, is generally the piece chosen. This is called queening a pawn, and a player may thus have several queens on the board.
The moves of the Rook are not, like those of the pawns, limited to a single direction. The Rook moves in any direction and for any distance that is open along either the particular row or the file on which it happens to stand. It can, of course, capture any obstructing man and occupy its place.
The Bishops, like the Rooks, are unlimited in range, and move either backward or forward, but their direction is diagonal, and they can never change the colour of their square.
The Queen combines the moves of the Rook and Bishop. She is the most powerful piece on the board, and can move to, or capture at, any distance or direction in a straight line.
The King is at once the weakest and the most valuable piece on the board. In point of direction he is as free as the queen, but for distance he is limited to the adjacent squares. Standing on any central square he commands the eight squares around him and no more. Besides his ordinary move the King. has another by special privilege, in which the Rook participates. Once in the game, if the squares between King and Rook are clear, if neither King nor Rook has moved, if the King is not attacked by any hostile man, and if no hostile man commands the square over which King has to pass, the King may move two squares towards either K.R. or Q.R., and the Rook in the same move must occupy the square over which the King has passed. This is called castling.
The Knight, unlike the other pieces, never moves in a straight line. His move is limited to two squares at a time, one forwards or backwards, and one diagonally, and he can leap over any man occupying a square intermediate to that to which he intends to go. The Knight, like the King, when on a central square commands eight squares, but they are at two squares' distance, and all in an oblique direction. All captures in chess are optional.
The definite aim in chess is the reduction to surrender of the opposing king. The King in chess is supposed to be inviolable, that is, he cannot be taken, he can only be in such a position that if it were any other piece it would be taken. Notice of every direct attack upon him must be given by the adversary saying check and when the King is attached all other plans must be abandoned, and all other men sacrificed, if necessary, to remove him from danger, cover the attack, or capture the assailant. It is also a fundamental rule of the game that the King cannot be moved into check. When the King can no longer be defended on being checked by the adversary, either by moving him out of danger, or by interposing, or by capture, the game is lost, and the adversary announces this by saying checkmate. When, by inadvertence or want of skill, the player having the superior force blocks up his opponent's King so that he cannot move without going into check, and no other man can be moved without exposing him, the player, reduced to this extremity, cannot, without violating the fundamental rule referred to, play at all. In such a case, the one player being unable to play and the other out of turn, the game is considered drawn, that is, concluded without advantage to either player. Research Chess
Heraldry is the science of a herald's duties, or more commonly the knowledge of the forms, terms and laws which pertain to the use of armorial bearings or coats of arms.
Badges and emblems on shields, helms, banners, etc., naturally occurred in the earliest times, and the symbols were sometimes hereditary.
The origin of heraldic arms, properly so called, is, however, to be attributed to the necessity which arose during the Crusades of distinguishing the leaders of the numerous and motley bands of warriors which constituted the Christian armies. One of the oldest specimens of heraldic bearings extant is the shield at Mana of Geoffrey Plantagenet, who died in 1150. Rolls of arms in England are extant from the reigns of Henry III, Edward I, and Edward II.
The use of arms on the Great Seal of England was introduced by Richard I. The bearing of coat- armour by private persons was prohibited by proclamation in the reign of Henry V. The chief courts of jurisdiction in questions of heraldry are the Heralds' College in England, and the LyonCourt in Scotland. The rules of heraldry now practised at the Heralds' College are comparatively modern, and differ in some respects from those of other European courts.
A coat of arms consists of the figure of a shield marked and coloured in a vast variety of ways, so as to be distinctive of an individual, a family, or a community. The shield or escutcheon represents the original shield used in war, and on which arms were anciently borne.
The surface of the escutcheon is termed the field, and the several parts or points of it have particular names, so that the figures which the field contains may be precisely located. The top part of the shield is called the chief and is the most honourable part of the shield. The upper right corner (when viewed by the bearer) is the dexter chief; the top middle of the shield is called the middle chief; and the upper left-hand corner is called the sinister chief; the centre is called the fesse point; and the lower part of the shield is called the base.
Colour is given in the coat of arms by means of tinctures, two of which are metals - 'or' and argent, that is, gold and silver - the rest colours proper. These colours are, in heraldic terminology: azure, blue; gules, red; sable, black; vert, green; purpure, purple; tenney, orange; sanguine, blood-colour. The two last are comparatively uncommon. An object represented in its natural colours is said to be proper. When not given in colours or by actual gilding the tinctures are represented by points and lines in black and white. 'Or' is distinguished by small dots covering the part; argent is represented by leaving the space blank; azure is shown by horizontal lines; gules, by perpendicular lines; sable, by perpendicular and horizontal lines crossing each other; vert, by diagonal lines running from the darter chief to the sinister base; purpure, by diagonal lines running from the sinister chief to the dezter base. Another class of tinctures are the furs, of which the two principal are ermine and vair, and which have also their special method of representation.
The figures borne on the shield may be either purely artificial and conventional, or may represent real objects, animals, plants, etc. Of the former the most common are known as ordinaries, and have the following names: Chief, Pale, Bend, Fesse, Bar, Chevron, Cross, and Saltire. The chief is a portion of the shield at the top marked off by a horizontal line, and covers the upper third part of the field. The pale occupies the middle third part of the field perpendicularly. The bend is drawn diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base in the form of a belt, and also occupies the third of the field. A diminutive of the bend is the bandlet. The fesse occupies the middle third of the field horizontally. The bar is formed after the manner of a fesse, but occupies only a fifth of the field, and is not confined to any particular part of it, except when there is only one bar, when it is put in the place of a fesse. Bars are mostly two in a field, sometimes three or more. A diminutive is the barrulet. The chevron may be regarded as made of a bend darter and sinister issuing from the right and left base points of the escutcheon and meeting like two rafters. The cross is the ordinary cross of St. George. The saltire is the equally well-known cross of St. Andrew. The shield is often divided by lines running similarly to the ordinaries; hence when divided by a perpendicular line it is said to be party per pale, when by a horizontal line party per fesse, when by diagonal line party per bend. Similarly, when it seems to bear several pales or bends or bars, it is said to be paly, bendy, or barry of so many pieces, 'paly of six argent and gules' for instance.
Charges are the figures of natural and artificial things, and include animals and plants, implements and objects of all sorts, and various imaginary monsters, being drawn either on the field or on one of the ordinaries.
It is a rule in heraldry that metal must not be put on metal nor colour on colour; hence, if the field, say, is 'argent', it cannot have a charge or an ordinary tinctured 'or'directly upon it.
Various technical terms describe the position of animals; thus, a lion is rampant when he is erect standings on one of his hind legs; sejant, when sitting; couchant, when lying at rest, with the head erect; passant, in a walking position; gardant, looking full- faced; rampant gardant, erect and looking full-faced; salient, in a leaping posture. So trippant is said of the stag when trotting; lodged, of the stag when at rest on the ground; volant, of birds in general in a flying posture; rising, of a bird that is preparing to fly; displayed, of birds seen frontwise with outspread wings; naiant, of fishes when swimming; and so on.
The teeth and claws of lions and other ravenous beasts are called their arms; and when these have a special tincture the animal is said to be armed of such a tincture; similarly if their tongue be of a special tincture, they are said to be langued of this tincture.
Often two or more coats of arms are united together on one shield, so that the whole may be a very complicated affair. The art of arranging arms in this way is known as marshalling, and when the shield is divided up into squares for the reception of different coats, it is said to be Quartered.
There are also certain exterior ornaments of the shield or escutcheon, namely, the helmet, mantlingcrest, wreath, motto, and supporters. The helmet, which is placed on the top of the escutcheon, varies both in form and materials. Those of sovereign princes are of gold, those of the nobility of silver, and those of gentlemen of polished steel. The full faced helmet, with six bars, is for the king and princes of the blood; the sidelong helmet, with five bars, is for dukes and marquises, etc.; the full-faced helmet of steel, with its beaver or vizor open, is for knights; and the sidelong helmet, with the vizor shut, for the esquire. The mantling or mantle was anciently fixed to the helmet, to which it served as a covering. Mantlings are now used like cloaks, to cover the whole achievement. The crest is placed above the helmet with the wreaths serving as a kind of support; the latter is composed of two colours wreathed or twisted together.
The motto consists of the word or phrase carried in a scroll under or above the arms. Supporters were originally only ancient devices or badges, which by custom came to embellish armorial designs. They are called supporters because they hold the shield, as the lion and the unicorn in the royal arms of England. Research Heraldry More pictures of Heraldry
In heraldry, repassant is a term applied when two lions or other animals are borne going contrary ways, one of which is passant, by walking towards the dexter side of the shield in the usual way, and the other repassant by going towards the sinister. Research Repassant
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