Chess Flint?

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19228

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., catherine at c... wrote:
>  re the chess.  Seeing as this has come up, there is another line 
> I noticed which doesn't make sense:
> 
> Ron:  "I take one step forward, and she'll take me - "
> 
> and then: "He stepped forward and the white queen pounced."
> 
> I know this is probably just figure of speech, but it has always 
> annoyed me - Ron is a Knight, and they don't move forward one step at 
> a time - they move 3 forward, 1 across.  So another flint, or 
> imprecise language?  Or am I just being too nitpicky?

One step forward and two sideways?  Or one big step which happens
to be 2 squares forwards and 1 sideways?  (Not touching intervening
squares, of course.)  Or the queen jumped the gun, hit Ron as soon
as it was clear what move he was making?

I don't know chess contest rules, never learned to play at all well,
so I don't know whether the move is official as soon as Ron leaves
his home square.

As to the arrangement of pieces, at the start of the Christmas holidays JKR unfortunately says wizard chess is "exactly like
Muggle chess except that the figures were alive."

As to rooks, Hogwarts _is_ a castle and it's got owls instead.

Hang on.  What does a castle that's alive look like?  So perhaps
wizard chess sets include large black or white birds which are
called castles, whereas Muggles use small castles which are
called rooks?

We may have to wait for the Hogwarts collectors' chess set to
resolve that one.  I presume it's a matter of time...imagine
32 smaller Furbys with one AAA penlight battery each...no, more
likely they just talk to you with each move (cheer, boo, say ouch),
but actually it's electronics in the board making the voice...

Or it's on PC, perhaps.  There's been at least one animated character
chess game, but I forget the name.

Robert Carnegie
Glasgow, Scotland

"I read them all when I was seven and I hated them" - unnamed American
office worker on the Harry Potter books (www.dilbert.com, List of
Stupid Things Overheard)