OBSERVATIONS
Reading edition
ON THE ENDS OF PARTIES,
AND
ON THE POWERS OF PIECES VARIOUSLY COMBINED.
A single pawn cannot win, if the adverse king be placed in opposition to it.
A single pawn may win, if the king be placed in the van of his pawn.
Two pawns against one must win, almost in all cases: but he that has the two pawns, must avoid changing one of them with the adversary’s pawn.
A pawn, and any piece whatsoever, must win in all cases; a pawn on a rook’s file, co-operating with a bishop, whose diagonal is of a different colour from the square at which the pawn must make a queen, only excepted.
Two knights alone cannot mate.
Two bishops alone may mate.
A knight and a bishop may mate.
A rook, against a knight, makes a drawn game.
A rook, against a bishop, makes a drawn game.
A rook and a knight, against a rook, make a drawn game.
A rook and a bishop, against a rook, win.
A rook and a bishop, against a queen, make a drawn game.
A rook and a knight, against a queen, make a drawn game.
A queen, against a bishop and a knight, may win.
A rook, against a bishop and two pawns, makes a drawn game.
A rook, against one knight and two pawns, makes a drawn game, because in this, as in the last case, he who has the single potent piece, cannot be hindered from sacrificing it for the two pawns.
A queen, against one rook and two pawns, makes a drawn game.