How to describe the knight
The following pages are taken from Donner’s The King (New In Chess 2006). For those who don’t know Donner is a great writer with a style all his own, of which the following passage is typical in many respects.
Diagram from Rowson’s very good book ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’ (Gambit 2000), pg. 122. Question, if the knight is on the edge of a board, does it still move in a circle?
More on Donner here, http://mccreadyandchess.com/2014/02/24/the-love-of-wood
How not to describe the knight
William Ward (more on him to come soon) once wrote a much maligned Laws of Chess, here is his account of the knight:
‘The Knight may be moved in any direction from the square on which it stands to the next square but one of a different colour, passing over the intermediate square, whether such square be occupied or not.’ (http://www.chessarbitersassociation.co.uk/Laws1912.pdf) more information can be found in Edward Winter’s good site here (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/laws1.html).
We experienced players can probably guess what Ward wants to say but would someone new to chess understand Ward’s concept of the ‘intermediate square’?
Donner
Oops, that’s Donner.
McCreadyandChess 