Guard A

As a young child, I learned to play chess at school.  I remember picking the game up quickly with some of my classmates, and the best thing about it was that we enjoyed it without such tedious tasks as memorizing openings and which king moves won and lost in a pawn endgame.  It was just fun.

One thing I did memorize, however, was a rule (etiquette or obscure standard, I'm not sure) that I can't seen to find any mention of as I research it today.  As I was taught, it was of course required that one say 'Check' when one's move attacked the enemy King.  It was also required, though, to say 'Guard A' when one's move attacked the enemy Queen.  Unlike 'Check', the warning of 'Guard A' could be ignored, but it did ensure that we learned ways of ensnaring and capturing the enemy queen, and not just winning her on an oversight.

Today, even 'Check' is commonly dispensed with in OTB games, some people thinking that it is mildly insulting that such an obvious position would even need to be pointed out.  The warning of 'Guard A' I have not heard in over 25 years.  Still, it always struck me as somewhat chivalrous to afford your enemy the opportunity to avoid disaster and to win through strong play rather than an opponent's tactical blunder.

My question is this:  Does anyone else ever remember being taught about this particular etiquette, or was it simply something dreamed up by an author or teacher as an interesting learning tool that I in my impressionable youth interpreted as law?

Guard A, anyone? 

Never heard of it. Very interesting.

I wonder if the term was originally not English, and just became interpreted as such . . .

Perhaps 'guardet', or 'gardet', or something else?

I doubt it was ever a chessrule, but it does however, sound as a good way to teach chess to young people.

I think it is French "guarde", we used to use it sometimes, but it was never a rule. 

Thank you, Eddie.  Using that spelling, I did some more research and found this:

En garde is a French phrase meaning 'on guard'. Used to warn a fencer to assume the position preparatory to a duel, or to warn an opponent in chess that their queen is threatened.

So I'm not crazy; the definition exists.  Now, the question is does anyone still use this term, and if not, why did it stop?

I don't use garde. Neither do I use check. It is only occasionally I feel the need to triumphly exclaim checkmate. None of these are rules... and in my opinion, if you can't see your queen is threatened, then you don't deserve to beat me.

I think it's rather from the old French : "gardez-vous", meaning : "be careful" but I'm not sure

I heard it used about 40 years ago, by a woman from a very genteel background. She pronounced it as if it were French, but whether it was 'gardez' or 'gardee' (with an acute accent on the first e) I don't know and didn't think to ask. She assured me that it was the correct thing to say, and implied that my not having heard of it was yet another sign that I'd not been properly brought up. The whole thing was a bit like Estella and Pip in Great Expectations, 'He calls the knaves jacks, this boy!'

At this point I'd like to shift from Dickens to D.H. Lawrence, and say that she was so impressed by my rough male power over the chessboard that after the game she ...

But she didn't.

Another posting, this from Wikipedia (which we all know is never wrong ):

In friendly games, the checking player customarily says "check" when making a checking move. Announcing "check" is not required under the rules of chess and it is usually not done in formal games. Less commonly (and obsolete), the warning garde can be said when a player directly attacks the opponent's queen in a similar way. This was mostly abandoned in the 19th century (Hooper & Whyld 1992:74). The same move can be both check and garde simultaneously.

So, apparently garde is dead for the last hundred years and check is dying.  What say you all; is this a good or a bad thing?  Do you put the onus on your opponent to notice his precarious position and claim unconditional victory if he fails to do so?  Or do you warn your opponent about his potential blunders and then feel even better when you beat him anyway, winning because you've given him no chance to escape your snare, warned or otherwise?

Personally, I like the idea of garde.  To me, it's the equivalent of allowing your opponent to pick up his weapon if he drops it during a duel.  To be sure, your victory is much more assured if you simply chuckle at his plight as you stab him through the heart, but I just couldn't take the same satisfaction from striking someone who is unarmed, especially if I had nothing to do with disarming him.

Thoughts?

You pronounce both words the same way in French

I learned chess as a child from my grandpa, in the 1980s

He taught me the "chess" and the "gardez"...

i learned it differently altogethe

in a friendly game

time? 

no clock

you take a piece with your queen

before your opponent takes it (and all they see is points their favor AND îm dating myself)

BEFORE they remove your queen

in a you touch it you move it game; let us say (or type actually)

AND you say, « yes! I’m gifting you my queen »

bECAUSE you do not see it but i am going to mate you, hence best your opponent do nothing.

till they prevent your forced mate or realize the piece they move to take your queen leads to the same

it is chess

it is a game

there are rules

there are friends

AND actually people that think the hand is quicker than the eye=they cheat @ chess

if you cheat at anything

you cheat yourself

may ALL have a joyous and most mellifluously miraculous experience of Easter this Sunday and ALL WAYS

das All. German~l’univers OR thé universe

caroe diem

SDG