History of The Rule
The original idea was that a foot soldier that advanced all the way through the enemy lines was promoted to the lowest officer. In medieval ages, the queen was much weaker than now, and its only move was one square diagonally and not at all in any other direction. (It was earlier called farzin or ferz (from the Persian for "vizier"). When the queen and bishop got their new moves, chess was radically altered. When the fers became the queen, there were objections that a king should not have more than one queen (Davidson 1981:59–60).
At different times, the pawn could only promote to the piece of the file on which it promoted, or on which it started (queen if on the king's file). In Italy in the 18th and early 19th century, the pawn could only be promoted to a piece that had already been captured. Likewise, Philidor did not like the possibility of having two queens, and in all editions of his book (1749 to 1790) he stated that a promotion could only be to a piece previously captured. Lambe also stated this rule in a 1765 book (Davidson 1981:60–61). If none of the promoting player's pieces had yet been captured, the pawn remained inactive until one of the player's pieces was captured, whereupon the pawn immediately assumed that role (Staunton 1848:7). A player could thus never have two queens, three knights, three rooks, or three bishops (Staunton 1848:7). One old set of chess rules said that "a promoted pawn became a ferz, with the move of the queen".
The restricted promotion rule was used unevenly. Arthur Saul published a book in 1814 which gave the unrestricted promotion rule, as did Jacob Sarratt in an 1828 book. By Sarratt's time, the unrestricted promotion was popular, and according to Davidson it was universal by the mid-19th century (Davidson 1981:61). However, Howard Staunton wrote in The Chess-Player's Handbook, originally published in 1847, that according to Carl Jaenisch the restricted promotion rule then remained in force in northern Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, and Germany (Staunton 1848:7).
Read more about this topic: Promotion (chess)
Famous quotes containing the words history of the, history of, history and/or rule:
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)
“The history of a soldier’s wound beguiles the pain of it.”
—Laurence Sterne (1713–1768)
“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)
“If all political power be derived only from Adam, and be to descend only to his successive heirs, by the ordinance of God and divine institution, this is a right antecedent and paramount to all government; and therefore the positive laws of men cannot determine that, which is itself the foundation of all law and government, and is to receive its rule only from the law of God and nature.”
—John Locke (1632–1704)