The Elements of Chess: Force, Space, and Time

Force, space, and time — the three elements every chess game is built from. An interactive reissue of Chapter 1 of Znosko-Borovsky's 1922 classic.

CHESS, the most profound of all existing games, develops in accordance with rigid laws, admitting of no exception, like those of mathematics or mechanics. If we do not perceive the operation of these laws in every game, it is because chess is played by people who introduce into it their own creative ideas as well as their weaknesses and mistakes. But the very mistakes are the occasion for the greater triumph of the laws, since their action is never so clear as when they are broken or forgotten by one of the players. Then they sternly avenge themselves for a momentary forgetfulness and punish the player with inevitable loss. Where, on the contrary, the laws of the game are followed logically and unerringly, we have before us the finest examples of the art of chess.

Chess derives its laws and its qualities from its own component parts, which manifest its character and dictate its laws. The elements of chess are:

1. Force , which is displayed in the chessmen, or pieces, and acts in 2. Space , represented by the chessboard, and 3. Time , developing with the moves.

The whole game is a combination of these three elements, and without a previous study of them it is impossible to know the game.

[[bookdiagram figure="I" mode="empty" caption="Diagram I — the arena. Sixty-four equal squares, an ideal geometrical figure."]]

The space in which a game of chess takes place is bounded by the board, an equilateral rectangle divided into 64 equal small squares. This ideal geometrical figure makes possible the operation of laws not merely logical but mechanical. All the squares are alike; there is no special property in one or another of them. The variation of colour is without significance and does not influence the game.

The Endgame Journal collects our writing on openings, tactics, endgames, and the habits that separate players who improve from players who plateau. Every article is written by people who teach chess, not by a content farm.

The Elements of Chess — The Middle Game in Chess, Ch. 1 | Endgame Society