Chess Flint?

[rja.carnegie at excite.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19384

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Chris Dosset" <dosser at b...> wrote:
> Robert Carnegie wrote the following:
> 
> "But how does Ron have only one legal move?  From any square, a
> knight has at least two moves.
> 
> Robert Carnegie, exposing ignorance
> Glasgow, Scotland"
> 
> Not true, I am afraid.  A knight may have anything from eight to zero legal moves, depending on the position of yours and your opponents pieces.  If, for example, a knight stands on a square in the corner of the board and the two possible squares it could move to are occupied by your own pieces, then it has zero legal moves.  Sorry if this is pedantic.

No - just what I was looking for.

Thanks also to Craig.  I'm trying to figure how the "in check"
rule would fit Ron's case.  Check - that is, proofread me?

Recap: we're inferring that Ron has just one legal move on
the grounds that the white queen clobbers him on his first step.

(1) If Ron is in line between an attacking piece (a piece in
position to capture on next move) and the king, Ron can't move
legally at all without allowing the attack - knights's moves
and straight-line attacks don't work like that.  No fit.

(2) If the king _is_ in check and Ron has just one move that
places him between the attacking piece and the king, that
works - except we're told that the white queen then captures
Ron.  I think the queen must now have Ron's king in check.
Then Harry's move must either capture the queen or block
her attack, _and_ checkmate the white king - and if he blocks
the queen rather than capturing, can't she capture Harry as well?
so 
...     Ron x ?
Q x N   Harry x Q


(3) If the black king is in check from a white knight and
Ron's one legal move is to capture it.  The white queen captures
Ron, but does _not_ put black in check.

The problem with both (2) and (3) is that neither Ron nor Harry
are described capturing another piece.

I'll be embarrassed if I've overlooked someone mentioning the
last problem with the game - Harry's last, winning move (in my
copy) is "three spaces to the left", but Harry's a bishop and
can't do that?

Do you suppose the point of the exercise is that JKR wants
_not_ to be invited to solve chess puzzles?

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)