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October 27, 2005
Favorite Chess Dish: The "Smorgasboard" Deluxe
One often wonders if all we chess players think about is food....
Consider the many inventions, conventions and concoctions that have been cooked up through the centuries. These are "special" moves that require culinary preparation and intuitiveness.
For example, a "fork" is a utensil used for eating or serving food. In chess, however, it is a delectable tactic that uses one piece to attack two of the opponent's pieces simultaneously — a maneuver that usually involves the valiant knight.
As we all know, a "skewer" is a long metal or wooden "pin" used by your dad to secure or suspend food during summer cookouts. A skewer happens to be another appetizing chess tactic that attacks two pieces in a line and is similar to a pin.
A "pin," the opposite of a skewer, is a situation in which a piece is forced to stay put because moving it would expose a more valuable piece to be captured. There are two types of pin: relative and Absolut. A relative pin involves any piece besides the monarch; an Absolut pin involves the king, to abstain from Vodka, and the piece blocking the pin cannot move, because that would cause the king to wobble in drunken stupor, or self-check, which is illegal in chess.
The jury's still out on whether grandmasters, the ultimate chess cooks, should really be called chefmasters instead.
Now, that's a palatable idea!
Posted by rene on October 27, 2005 9:20 AM
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