King jump
The king jump was the forerunner of castling in chess.
In the old Arabic and Indian variants there was no special train for the king. Around 1200 it was introduced in Europe that the king - in order not to stand in the way of the other pieces - could jump to any square in his own half on his first move, of course without capturing. This jump was later limited to the area c1-c3-g3-g1 for white (analogous to c8-c6-g6-g8 for black).
The jump rule still existed in 1561, as an opening variation by Ruy López de Segura shows:
a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H | ||
8th | 8th | ||||||||
7th | 7th | ||||||||
6th | 6th | ||||||||
5 | 5 | ||||||||
4th | 4th | ||||||||
3 | 3 | ||||||||
2 | 2 | ||||||||
1 | 1 | ||||||||
a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H |
In this position followed: 11.… Ke8 – g6 12. Bc1 – e3 Rh8 – e8 etc.
The development from royal leap to castling is demonstrated by an opening of the Göttingen manuscript around 1500:
a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H | ||
8th | 8th | ||||||||
7th | 7th | ||||||||
6th | 6th | ||||||||
5 | 5 | ||||||||
4th | 4th | ||||||||
3 | 3 | ||||||||
2 | 2 | ||||||||
1 | 1 | ||||||||
a | b | c | d | e | f | G | H |
The continuation followed: 10.… Rh8 – f8 11. Rh1 – f1 Ke8 – g8 12. Ke1 – g1 etc.
This procedure had such obvious advantages that it was later carried out in one move and replaced the royal leap: modern castling was born.
literature
- David Hooper and Ken Whyld: The Oxford Companion to Chess . Oxford University Press, 2nd edition 1992, ISBN 0-19-866164-9 , p. 71.