Chess Moves

Accumulation of advantages is my game,

The delight of asymmetry,of annihilation,

With bayonet attacks,blockades and breakthroughs,

Zugzwang and zwischenzug,

The unseen mate and the vanished centre.

What will it be? The Berlin defence

Or the Calabrian counter-gambit?

The Dragon variation or the Lasker trap?

Perhaps I shall introduce the Java theme,

Practise decoys and distant opposition,

Or proffer Greek gifts and poisoned pawns.

Do not be surprised to face the Fegatello attack

Orthe cunning use of outposts and holes;

See-saws,star checks,staircase movements,

All can be brought to bear.

One revels in trebuchets,mirror mates,excelsiors,

The timely use of bad bishops and bare kings,

Passar battaglia and the pendulum draw.


At the siege of Sebastopol,Prince Sergei Urusov,

One of Europe’s finest players,proposed

To settle possession of a long-contested trench

By a game of chess against a worthy opponent,

The best player in the English army.

His general,alas,dismissed the idea

And ordered the next costly attack.


Alexandre Deschapelles joined Napoleon’s army,

Was left for dead at the siege of Mainz,

Fought again at Fleurus,was captured at Baylen,

Made a clever escape from Cadiz,

Lost his right hand and earned a sabre scar

From brow to chin.One of the first men

To be awarded the Cross of Honour.

He tore it off in disgust when Napoleon

Had himself crowned Emperor.

After Waterloo he earned a living

Playing chess at the Cafe de la Regence,

Boasting he had learned all the secrets of the game

In just three days.Delicate and irritable,

A slow meticulous player,he took on Bourdonnais

As pupil,his opposite,hale and cheerful

And a swift decisive master at the board.

Once he had lost to his talented disciple,

Deschapelles gave up chess altogether

And made his fortune at whist instead.

He retired to a pleasant villa

And,when not tending the orchards,

Frequently fought one-armed duels,

His prickly self-regard all too easily provoked.

His last years he spent writing bizarre constitutions

For various South American republics.

Saint Amant said of him:”The only way

To remain on good terms with him

Without meanness or flattery

Is to see him seldom,never to be in his debt,

And to maintain a dignified reserve.”


Now for some sly triangulation,

The accelerated dragon and the use of desperados,

Sitzfleisch or Santasiere’s Folly.

Let us commence with the Orang Utan opening...

Very soon I shall hold you in perpetual check.