The Scholar’s-Mate.
Reading edition
EXAMPLE VIII.
Meditating and evading that Stratagem.
COUPLET 1.
W. The king’s pawn 2 squares.
B. The same.
2.
W. King’s bishop at the queen’s bishop’s 4th square.
B. The same.
3.
W. The queen at the black king’s rook’s 4th square.(a)
B. The queen at her king’s 2d.(b)
(a) In this example, and the rest that make up the section, which after the 2d move are very different from those that go before, it is rather the movements of the blacks than of the whites that are proposed for imitation. The mode to be pursued by one player, depends in a great measure on that pursued by the other: we have therefore given these, that the tyro might not be surprised into a defeat, or uncompensated loss, if an opponent, having the first move, should at the 3d couplet take the same step that the whites have done here—a step of that fundamental kind, that the future aspect of the game is influenced materially by it.
(b) She thus prevents the white queen, as well from taking the king’s, as from giving check-mate by taking the bishop’s pawn.
4.
W. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.
B. Queen’s pawn 1 square.
5.
W. Knight at the black king’s knight’s 4th.(c)
B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
6.
W. The bishop takes the pawn and gives check.
B. The king at his queen’s square.
7.
W. The queen at her king’s rook’s 4th.(d)
B. King’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.
(c) The object of the white player now is, either to snatch a piece and retire, or, by the sacrifice of a knight or a bishop, make a practicable breach in the black pawns.
(d) The remaining moves, declare their object.
The reader will observe, that the game might be finished at the 4th couplet; which is the earliest termination it can well be made to receive, and is called the scholar’s-mate.
The game may be finished in two couplets, the fatal stroke being given by the second move of the second player: but there requires so much fatuity to permit this, that it has the name of the fools-mate.
8.
W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.
B. The knight takes the king’s pawn.
9.
W. The pawn takes the knight.
B. King’s rook at his bishop’s square.
10.
W. The bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th.
B. King’s bishop at the white king’s bishop’s 2d square,
giving check.
11.
W. The queen takes the bishop.
B. The rook takes the queen.
12.
W. The king takes the rook.
B. The queen takes the knight, &c. &c.(e)
(e) As the forces of both are at par, or nearly so, and the intricacies consequent on the 3d, 4th, and 5th steps gotten over, it is not essential to our purpose to proceed any further. If the reader likes to pursue the subject, the economy of the pawns and other pieces during the rest of the game, is not very different from the finishings in the second essay. In the mean time we submit to him some variations, all of which, however, as soon as the blacks are equal or superior to the whites, and the future moves of both, independent of those that have preceded, will, like this, be discontinued.
EXAMPLE IX.
MOVES CONSEQUENT ON THE ATTEMPT TO GIVE THE SCHOLAR’S-MATE.
Beginning after the Sixth Couplet of Example VIII.
COUPLET 7.
W. The queen at her king’s rook’s 4th.
B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.
8.
W. The bishop takes the knight’s pawn.
B. The queen takes the knight.
9.
W. The queen takes the queen.
B. The pawn takes the queen.
10.
W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.
B. King’s knight at his king’s 2d.
11.
W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 2d.
B. King’s rook at his bishop’s square.
12.
W. The bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th.
B. Queen’s bishop takes the pawn, and checks.
13.
W. The king at his 2d square.
B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
14.
W. King’s rook at his bishop’s square.(a)
B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
15.
W. The pawn takes the pawn.
B. Queen’s bishop at the white king’s knight’s 4th, checking.
16.
W. King at his queen’s 2d.
B. King at his 1st square.
17.
W. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.
B. The bishop takes the pawn.
18.
W. The rook takes the rook.
B. The king takes the rook.
19.
W. The knight at his king’s 2d.
B. The bishop at the white rook’s 4th.
20.
W. Queen’s bishop’s pawn 1 square, &c.
(a) Owing to this, the black bishop cannot move without exposing the rook. To save his bishop, and the knight’s pawn, or to lose neither without a recompense, will require the black player’s utmost skill.
EXAMPLE X.
Beginning after the Ninth Couplet of Example IX.
COUPLET 10.
W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 2d.
B. King’s knight at his rook’s 3d.
11.
W. The bishop at his queen’s bishop’s 4th.
B. The knight at the white knight’s 4th.
12.
W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.(a)
B. The knight takes the rook’s pawn.
13.
W. The king at his queen’s square.(b)
B. Queen’s knight at his bishop’s 3d.(c)
(a) The white player must lose one of the pawns without a recompense, and had he suffered this to be taken, he would have lost two—because the knight would then have attacked the king’s pawn and rook, and both could not have been saved.
(b) If the king had not removed, the black knight would have taken the bishop’s pawn and given check; the consequence would have been, that the rook as well as the pawn, would have been lost for the mere knight. Now the knight cannot remove without exposing his own rook.
(c) Of his gambit, which he may not have occasion to finish, the object is, to support the black rook when the other knight removes.
14.
W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.
B. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
15.
W. Queen’s bishop at the black king’s knight’s 4th, giving check.
B. The knight covers the check.
16.
W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 3d.
B. The pawn takes the pawn.
17.
W. The bishop takes the rook.
B. The pawn 1 square.
18.
W. The king at his 2d square.
B. Queen’s bishop gives check.
19.
W. The king at his queen’s 2d.
B. The pawn becomes a queen.
20.
W. The rook takes the queen.
B. The knight takes the rook and gives check.
21.
W. The king at his 1st square.
B. The king castles.
22.
W. Bishop at black king’s bishop’s 3d, &c.
EXAMPLE XI.
Beginning, like the last, after the 9th Couplet of Example IX.
COUPLET 10.
W. King’s bishop’s pawn 1 square.
B. The king at his 2d square.
11.
W. The bishop at the black king’s bishop’s 4th.
B. The bishop takes the bishop.(a)
12.
W. The pawn takes the bishop.
B. King’s knight at his rook’s 3d.
13.
W. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.
B. The knight takes the 1st pawn in the king’s bishop’s file.
———————————————————————
Variation.
11.
W. King’s knight’s pawn 2 squares.
B. The king at his bishop’s 3d.
12.
W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 4th.
B. The bishop takes the bishop(a), &c.
———————————————————————
(a) Had the black player suffered the white bishop to take his bishop, moving out his knight in order to capture him with his rook, he would be unable to break the white pawns.
14.
W. The pawn takes the knight.
B. King’s rook at his bishop’s square.
15.
W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.
B. The rook takes the pawn.
16.
W. King’s rook at his bishop’s square, &c. &c.
EXAMPLE XII.
Beginning after the Seventh Couplet of Example IX.
COUPLET 8.
W. The knight at the black king’s 3d square, giving check.
B. The bishop takes the knight.
9.
W. The queen takes the queen.
B. The king takes the queen.
10.
W. The bishop takes the pawn.
B. King’s rook’s pawn 1 square.
11.
W. The bishop at the black bishop’s 4th.
B. The bishop takes the bishop.
12.
W. The pawn takes the bishop.
B. The king’s knight at his rook’s 3d.
13.
W. Queen’s pawn 1 square.
B. The knight takes the pawn, &c. &c.
A better mode to be pursued by the blacks than any yet exhibited, is the following.
EXAMPLE XIII.
Beginning at the Fifth Couplet of Example VIII.
COUPLET 5.
W. Knight at the black king’s knight’s 4th.
B. King’s knight at his rook’s 3d.
6.
W. The bishop takes the pawn, and gives check.
B. The knight takes the bishop.
7.
W. The knight takes the rook’s pawn.
B. Queen’s knight at the queen’s 2d.
8.
W. King’s rook’s pawn 2 squares.
B. Queen’s knight at the king’s bishop’s square.(a)
9.
W. King’s knight’s pawn 1 square.
B. The rook takes the knight.
10.
W. The queen at her home, &c. &c.
(a) The player of the white knight, feeling his insecurity, would be glad to exchange him; therefore had this knight gone to the bishop’s 3d square instead of the 1st, the white one would have taken him. The white knight, by giving check, would have afforded his queen time to remove from the rook.
EXAMPLE XIV.
Beginning after the Seventh Couplet of Example XIII.
COUPLET 8.
W. Queen at the black king’s knight’s 3d.
B. Queen at the white king’s rook’s 4th.(a)
9.
W. Knight’s pawn 1 square.(b)
B. The queen takes the knight.
10.
W. The queen takes the queen.(c)
B. The rook takes the queen, &c. &c.
(a) If, instead of this, the black knight had moved, as in the 8th move of the last Example, the white knight would have taken him.
(b) If the white player had neglected this move to take the pawn in his queen’s power, the black queen, would have captured, in addition to the bishop’s pawn, by afterwards successively checking the king, two or three other pawns, without ultimately suffering the white knight to escape.
(c) It was not a matter of indifference whether or not be exchanged the queen: if he had not, he must have lost the king’s pawn uncompensated.
GENERAL REMARKS.
On the part of the blacks it is to be observed, that the result of the two last ways of moving, though something more in their favour than the result of any of the others, is not so decidedly superior as at the first view it may seem. The white player’s having preserved all his pawns entire is a circumstance that almost counter-balances his disadvantages; for to prevent one of the three white pawns on the king’s side from becoming a queen, the other player must exchange for them, at least two knights and the pawn opposite: Suppose these changes to have taken place, and the difference in favour of the blacks will be very inconsiderable.
With respect to the propriety of the reader’s opening the game in this way, when his having the first move puts it in his power, we know but one case in which there would be any.—When there is any reason to think, that, from the antagonist’s estrangement to it, notwithstanding his having had some practice, the triumph of beating him in four moves might be attained[26]. In such a case, as there is a probability of snatching a piece on its failure, and as no decisive loss is to be apprehended if one be defeated even in that, it cannot be very imprudent to try it. Another consideration which, in such a case, lessens the impropriety, is, that if you meet with success, either complete or partial, the adversary, at his turn of moving first, may be induced to adopt the same mode, which most probably, from its novelty, will to him be disastrous. As soon as this stratagem ceases to profit, or if it fails in the first instance, it will of course be instinctively resigned.
A deviation on this plan, from the maxim, “Never count on the mistakes of your adversary, or act as if you expected him to adopt measures different from those which you would adopt in his situation,” is, perhaps, the only kind of one not very reprehensible.