with the points which the EDITOR invites to be considered,
distinguished by Italics. "The king cannot castle _when in check_,
nor after having been moved, _nor if in passing he was exposed to a
check_, nor with a rook which has been moved: and he that castles
when he should not, must play his rook touched, or his king, at his
own choice." Is not the prohibition upon the king from castling, when
in check, as extraordinary as if a general were prevented from flying
under the guns of a fort, when the efforts of a numerous enemy were
concentrated on him? If this disability be essential to a tactical
conduct of the game, let it be continued. It seems, however, to have
been transmitted from player to player, after the reasons which
occasioned it ceased to exist. In past eras of Chess, the king and
rook had such a latitude in castling, that the assailant might be
defied to conjecture to what part they would be transported. The most
expedient qualification of this license, that then presented itself,
was to restrict the king from castling when in check, in order that an
elaborate attack might not be entirely eluded. Succeeding legislators
of Chess have defined the place of castling, and the distance to
be passed; and the original argument, for the prohibition under
discussion, has vanished. Reason will not oppose a repeal of one of
the restrictions on the chief piece on the board, at the multiplicity
of which every person, on a first introduction to the game, feels
surprise. It is to be added, that very interesting situations occur,
by allowing the king to castle when in check; and that trains of
operation parallel, cannot be induced under a contrary practice.
With respect to the prohibition from castling, _if the king in passing
would be exposed to a check_, it rests precisely on the same grounds
as the disability imposed on the pawn; and a restriction from passing
a square on which an adverse piece acts, should be imposed on all the
pieces, or on none; now if it were general, it would be impossible to
pursue the game, from the wearying and minute examination of every
square, in all possible tracks, which would be incumbent on the player;
and the consequent paralysis of the leading pieces, which it would
occasion. If this excessive refinement controlled all the movements
on the board, chess would have a constitution most ingeniously
impracticable.
FINIS.
_Printed by W. Smith,
King Street, Seven Dials._
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