Ron's chess-playing skills

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 85860

Geoff:
After I posted message 85777, Oliver contacted me off-group and we 
discussed the matter privately. Since the topic has continued to 
produce interest, I thought it might be of interest to post our email 
exchanges, slightly edited for the whole group.

Oliver:
Hi Geoff,
I was the one that made the statement about Ron and the Chess set not 
being good players. I must say I do not have PS under my eyes now, 
but this is what I remember from the analysis I conducted. I seem 
toremember the opening is a classical king's pawn game. And now the 
crucial piece of information : iirc, the very first capture is 
the white queen taking the black knight. This means that at this very 
moment, black (ie Ron) is down a piece. In order to keep things even, 
black must now recapture a minor piece. Now I have thought hard about 
opening theory, and could not think of any opening where it was 
simply likely that the very first capture was done by the Queen 
taking a minor piece. When you come to think of it, this means that 
the previous move, Ron left his knight under threat (we know Black 
did not take the Queen since Ron's knight perishes under her hand). 

In answer to my post, it has been suggested that Ron plays with the 
further limitation that none of his friends can be taken, so maybe he 
was forced to sacrifice a knight without compensation. But even in 
that case, one can at least deduce that the Chess set is not a very 
strong player (or that Ron is truly brilliant) in order to loose a 
game with a minor piece up from the very beginning.

If I made any mistakes in the above, blame it on the absence of PS, I 
can assure you that I did conduct quite an extensive search this 
summer.

I hope I did not bother you too much with this personal mail.

Geoff:
By no means. However, if I can quote canon:
"'White always plays first in chess,' said Ron.....'Yes, look...'
A white pawn had moved forward two squares.Ron started to direct the 
black pieces. They moved silently wherever he sent them. Harry's 
knees were trembling. What of they lost?
'Harry - move diagonally four squares to the right.'
Their first real shock came when their other knight was taken. the 
white queen smashed him to the floor and dragged him off the board 
where he lay quite still, face down.
'Had to let that happen,' said Ron, looking shaken. 'Leaves you free 
to take that bishop, Hermione, go on.'
Every time one of their men was lost, the white pieces showed no 
mercy. Soon there was a huddle of limp black players slumped along 
the wall. Twice, Ron only just noticed in time that Harry and 
Hermione were in danger. He himself darted around the board taking 
almost as many white pieces as they had lost black ones.
'We're nearly there,' he muttered suddenly. 'Let me think - let me 
think...'
The white queen turned her blank face towards him.
'Yes...' said Ron softly, 'it's the only way... I've got to be taken.'
'NO!' Harry and Hermione shouted.
'That's chess!' snapped Ron. 'You've got to make some sacrifices! I 
take one step forward and she'll take me - that leaves you free to 
checkmate the king, Harry!'
'But -'
'Do you want to stop Snape or not?'
'Ron -'
'Look, if you don't hurry up, he'll already have the Stone!'
There was nothing else for it.
'Ready?' Ron called, his face pale but determined. 'Here I go - now, 
don't hang around once you've won.'
He stepped forward and the white queen pounced. She struck Ron hard 
around the head...... Shaking, Harry moved three places to the left.
The white king took off his crown and threw it at Harry's feet. They 
had won."
(PS pp.205/6 UK edition)

I see no evidence to deduce that the opening moves P-K4. There are 
other possibilities. I do not accept that the capture of the black 
knight was necesarily the /first/ capture. It was a shock but there 
may well have been exchanges of other pieces which are not 
catalogued. Perhaps it was a shock as it was an unexpected response 
but Ron seems to have had an answer in the capture of the white 
bishop. It seems to suggest that there may then have been a bad run 
of play in that several black pieces were lost but that Ron then 
seems to have got the game in hand and levelled the game more. As I 
said in my group post, I feel that the game description is far too 
vague to really deduce anything about Ron's skill or lack of it.

However, it is an interesting point for discussion.

Oliver:
I stand corrected !

Indeed the first shock does not necessarily mean the first capture, 
as I had assumed. I had read "real shock" in the sense "the first 
actual confrontation" but you made me see it is more natural to see 
it as "the first thing that really shocked the trio." And I had 
mistakenly remembered the opening (I must confess that I am still 
inclined to believe it is a King's pawn opening though, considering 
Harry's first move). As I said in my group post, I feel that the game 
description is far too vague to really deduce anything about Ron's 
skill or lack of it.

Let me be clear : I firmly believe JKR's intent was to show the 
bravery and sense of sacrifice of Ron, not to mention his chess 
skills. I do not think for a second that JKR even tried to describe 
an actual game but HP obsessed as I am I tried to see if something 
could be deduced from the little we know.

(By the way, when you come to think of it, the move order leading to 
checkmate is a highly unusual one too, because if the chess set plays 
correctly, then the queen was forced to take Ron, so it means that 
Ron was checking the King and that the King could not move or that  
the king could move but that all his moves also lead to a mate in one 
move. Now we know the king has at least one free square nearby, since 
Harry checkmated him afterward. It is not possible that the queen was 
occupying this square when Ron moved, since in this case she could 
have interposed when Harry moved. So there was at least one free 
square diagonal to the king. Since we already know white was forced 
to take the knight, this square is under attack by a white piece. 
Trying to construct a position satisfying these conditions and taking 
into account the fact many pieces have already been taken, al I can 
find is a very cramped white king position, for example white king in 
g1, two white pawns in g2 and h2, white something in h1, white 
something nor rook nor queen and probably bishop because a knight 
should be able to interpose Harry's move in f1, black queen or rook 
on the g column Ron checks on h3 queen takes knight and harry 
checkmates on say d4. Of course there are many other possibilities, 
but it is just to show you what I in mind when I said I thought 
highly unlikely that both Ron and the Chess set play normally).

I would be happy to continue this discussion, but really need to 
fetch a copy of PS to check what pieces exactly are played by the 
trio (and maybe also a chessboard). Sorry for this long mail.

Geoff:
I must admit that, with reference to the checkmate, I have always 
been a little surprised because it appears that Harry was playing as 
a bishop. It seems that the king was in a position where he was 
unchecked but, once the queen had moved to take the knight and Harry 
moved, he was then trapped which suggests that, unless the 
queen /had/ to take the knight, it was poor game analysis by the 
magic set - if you see my drift.

Thanks for the exchange of views. I play very little chess nowadays 
and my tactics are a  bit rusty!

Geoff