translation of 2 chess references

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Krystyna and Nory Steiger wrote:

Sorry, can't address your first question except to say that a pawn that 
reaches the opposite end of the board may be replaced with any piece of 
the owner's choice (except of course a king; there can only be one 
king). Under normal circumstances, the queen being the most powerful 
piece, the player chooses a queen. But very rarely, if his position 
would be aided more by a different choice, such as a knight, he's 
entitled to make that choice.

It generally wouldn't make sense to sell it short for a bishop or rook 
because neither of these offers anything that the queen does not also 
offer. However, I could construct a position where queening a pawn would 
create a stalemate but choosing a rook or bishop would not, and a player 
with such an overwhelming advantage would not want to settle for a draw.

> A little later, Fonderviakin shows Dushkin to be a cheat, not at
> chess, though he uses an example from chess to expose him to the
> tenants:  "То-то я гляжу, товарищи, что у него давеча пешка с b4
> сразу перепрыгнула на b6!"  In other words: "Aha, Comrades, I can see
> his pawn's just jumped from b4 right over to b6!" ?  Shaky
> translations, but am I on the right track?

A pawn is allowed to advance two rows on its first move (a White pawn 
from row 2 to 4, a Black pawn from row 7 to 5), but under all other 
circumstances it can never advance more than one row at a time. So the 
move described would be illegal, and a player who attempted it would 
either be cheating or making a mistake.

I probably would avoid the word "over" because it often denotes a 
horizontal (L/R) movement; I would prefer "all the way."

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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