Chess Flint?

[rcraigharman at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19389

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., rja.carnegie at e... wrote:
> 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?

My point was that someone had said if a player touches a piece and
he has one valid move, he must complete the move.  Obviously, a move
where the piece moved exposes the king to check would not be a
valid move, but I wanted to point out that even with spaces to
move in, there are occasions when a player cannot move a given
piece.

The comment was more of a sidebar, not particularly relevant to
Ron's move.


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

Not I.  I infer that his one Ron-sized step was to his appropriate
destination square, probably checking the other king, and that the
queen clobbered him, because he made an appropriate sacrifice.  I
don't think the queen's brusqueness can be used to infer whether
this was Ron's sole possible move.

As for Harry's move, I again simply think that the "three spaces
to the left" should be read as "spaces to the left diagonally",
again, what is stated does not contradict what's omitted.


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

Quite probably.  I'll set it up at home tonight and see what I
derive from it - if anything.

....Craig