Great care must be exercised in her movements. Calculate well, ere you place her in position, that you cannot be checked in two moves, or you lose her to a certainty.
We place the relative value of the pieces in Double Chess in the following scale:--
Queen = 10 Castles = 6 Red Bishop = 5 White „ = 4 Knights at beginning of game = 3 „ „ the end = 2 Pawns = 1
although practically the last are of little value; certainly not half so valuable as in Single Chess.
Other players may place a slightly different value on the pieces, but this will in a great measure depend on their play. While some work the queen to death, others rely more on their other pieces--in our opinion the wisest play in the long run.
We have found a board of two-inch squares suit our purpose, and those which fold in the centre, leaving a blank in each corner, seem to us the handiest.
If bone black and white and red and green men cannot be obtained easily, the ordinary wooden black and yellow, and bone red and white, will answer the purpose just as well, but any turner will turn a double set for about two pounds.
Captain George Hope Verney says, in his _Four-Handed Chess_:--
‘I use two sets of Staunton men. One set is of black and yellow wood, and the other is of red and white bone.
‘The latter was made to order for me at the Civil Service Store in the Haymarket, at a cost of about eighteen shillings.’
The base of the king measures one and five-eighths of an inch, and is three and a half inches high.
First round--Black king’s pawn to king’s third; green ditto; white ditto; red ditto.
Second round--Black bishop takes red bishop; green queen takes black queen; white queen takes red queen; red king takes white queen.
Third round--Black king takes green queen; green moves queen’s pawn one, white king’s knight’s pawn one, red king’s knight to royal square.
Fourth round--Bishop takes knight’s pawn.
Thus at the beginning of the fourth round red and green find themselves obliged to put up with the loss of a bishop and pawn, and a strong attack, to be followed up by the knights, will be directed against red, who is severely crippled. Should green check black king, it will do him no good, as black king’s bishop is protected by white.