_Advantage in Organization determines the choice of a prospective
battlefield; and the latter always should be composed of those tactical
areas which permit of the fullest exercise of the powers peculiar to
kindred corps d’armee._
Every corps d’armee thus especially equipped should be constantly and
energetically employed in the prospective battle; and usually it will
eventuate as the Prime Tactical Factor in the decisive Major Tactical
evolution.
* * * * *
Notions most mistaken prevail in regard to the Pawns and Pieces of the
Chessboard.
To suppose that the Chessmen _per se_ may be utilized to typify the
different arms of the military service is a fallacy.
Many unfamiliar with the technicalities of Strategetic Science delude
themselves that the Pawns, on account of their slow and limited
movements properly are to be regarded as Infantry; that the Knights
because topped by horses’ heads thereby qualify as light Cavalry; the
Bishops, for reasons unknown, often are held to represent Artillery; the
Rooks, because of their swift, direct and far-reaching movements are
thought to duplicate heavy Cavalry; while the Queen, in most of these
unsophisticated philosophies, is supposed to constitute a Reserve.
Nothing can be further from the truth than such assumptions.
As a fundamental of military organization applied to Chessplay, each
Chesspiece typifies in itself a complete Corps d’armee. Each of these
Chessic corps d’armee is equal to every other in strength, but all
differ, more or less, in construction and in facilities, essential to the
performance of diverse and particular duties.
Thus it is that while every Chesspiece represents a perfectly appointed
and equally powerful body of troops, these corps d’armee in Chessplay as
in scientific warfare are not duplicates, except to others of their own
class. Each of these corps d’armee is made up of Infantry, Cavalry and
Artillery in correct proportion to the service they are to perform and
such proportions are determined not by simple arithmetic, but by those
deployments, developments, evolutions, and manoeuvres, which such corps
d’armee is constructed promptly and efficiently to execute.
The Chessmen, therefore, do not as individuals represent either infantry,
cavalry or artillery.
But in the same manner as the movements of troops over the surface of
the earth, exemplify the attributes of the three kindred grand columns
in the greater logistics of a campaign; so do those peculiarities which
appertain to the moves of the different Chesspieces exemplify the action
of the three chief arms of the military service; either singly or in
combination against given points in given times, in the evolutions of the
battlefield, viz.: