“Daddy, can we play chess?” the Girl asks almost daily now. She’s learning — slow steps — but her enjoyment of the game is most gratifying. Today: knight study.

“Put a pawn at each square this knight is attacking,” I say. She forms the circular pattern around the knight.

“Notice,” I continue, “that the knight is on a white square but is attacking all black squares.” I hope this will help her complete the exercise, but we end up getting pawns on random black squares in a few moments.

I suppose the next lesson — moving the knight to the edge of the board to show how its power is effectively halved in doing so, proving the old adage, “A knight on the rim is grim” — will have to wait.