your King's Bishop, and prevents the adversary from placing his Queen
on your King Rook's 4th sq., where she would often be a source of
restraint and danger to your King. Many persons prefer playing the
K. Kt. to _K's 2d_ at the second move, from the mistaken notion that the
K. B's P. should be moved before the Knight is played to B's 3d; this is
an error, and generally leads to a very bad game.

When you have brought out your _Q. Kt._ to _B's 3d_, it is frequently
advisable, at a proper opportunity, to get him round by K's 2d sq. to
the _K. Kt's 3d_, where he exercises a very important influence, by
threatening, whenever the square is left unguarded, to post himself on
_K. B's 5th_.

A Knight with three or four Pawns, at the end of a game, has an
advantage over a Bishop with an equal number of Pawns, because he can
leap from white to black, and thus attack the Pawns on either colored
squares, whereas the Bishop can attack them only when they move on
squares of the color of his diagonals. In similar circumstances,
however, he is not so useful in defending as a Bishop or a Rook, since
if forced to remove he ceases to defend, while the Rook or Bishop may
retreat and still protect.

_Concerning the Pawns._--Struck by the scope and power of the higher
Pieces, young players commonly overlook the homely Pawns, or deem them
scarcely worthy of regard, and are amazed to learn that the combinations
of these simple elements are among the most refined and arduous studies
of the science. Yet such is the fact, and without a thorough
comprehension of their quiet but remarkable predominance in almost every
circumstance of the game, it is impossible for any one to attain a high
degree of excellence.