Dream 77: In Check, but Still Able to Answer—A Prayer to Durga Maa

A small chess position shows why a threat is not yet checkmate. Ask Durga Maa for courage to face the legal responses still available.

“Check.” The word is serious, but it does not always mean the game has ended. For a Dream 77 reader learning chess, the next task is to examine the threat rather than silently add “mate” to it.

Put White's king on a1 and rook on b2. Put Black's king on h8 and rook on a8. Leave every other square empty. White is to move. The black rook attacks the white king along the a-file.

There is a real attack

White cannot ignore the check. Moving the rook from b2 to c2, for example, leaves the same open a-file and does not solve it. Courage is not a reason to call an illegal response legal.

But look at b1. That square is not attacked by the black rook or the distant black king. White can move the king from a1 to b1 and escape the check.

The king is not the only possible responder

White can also move the rook from b2 to a2. It then stands between the attacking rook and the king. The check is blocked. Black may capture that rook on a later move, but a possible future reply does not make the present blocking move illegal.

The FIDE Laws of Chess, articles 3.9 and 5.1.1, distinguish an attacked king from checkmate, which requires that the attack cannot be answered legally. This position has at least two answers, so it is not checkmate.

Bring the remaining task before Maa

At Durga Maa's offering area, take darshan and offer the displayed red flowers, fruits, coconut, bhog and deepak together.

Durga Maa, protect me from giving up before I have understood the challenge. Grant me the courage to look directly at the threat and the steadiness to carry out a response that is truly available.

Maa's protection is invoked at the point of facing the board. The prayer does not need a story of an impossible escape: a real task already remains.

For Dream 77 readers, the useful sentence is precise: “My king is attacked, and I must respond.” It acknowledges danger without declaring a result the position does not support. Only after identifying the legal responses does it make sense to compare them.