Lore[]
However, chess was ultimately different from true warfare. Both sides rarely started evenly matched and, most importantly, each piece was unique. Through the objective in both was the capture the "king", Elhazard was far stronger than any other pawn on the battlefield. No matter how great his losses were, he saw to it that he himself would never be defeated.
Acquisition[]
See Grandmaster Elhazard.
Name origin[]
Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain; one of the top chess players of a particular country.
In chess, the king is the most important piece. The object of the game is to trap the opponent's king so that its escape is not possible - checkmate. If a player's king is threatened with capture, it is said to be in check, and the player must remove the threat of capture on the next move. If this cannot be done, the king is said to be in checkmate. Although the king is the most important piece, it is usually the weakest piece in the game until a later phase, the endgame.
The term "checkmate" is an alteration of the Persian phrase "shāh māt" which means, literally, "the King is helpless". Shāh means "monarch" and "māt" is an adjective for "at a loss", "helpless", or "defeated". In modern parlance, the term checkmate is a metaphor for an irrefutable and strategic victory.
Additional Info[]
Artwork by Thitipon Dicruen.