I’m not talking about the technical rules of legal moves when your king is checked. I’m talking about when there’s checkmate and the victor and the loser are set in stone. Why can’t I capture the king at that point? I can understand why you can’t do so with a resignation because your pieces likely aren’t near the king.
One THEORY I’ve heard from some college professor I had back in the day, chess originates from ancient Iran and in that place and time, the “King” was often more a symbolic figure and who was really in charge was whatever clan controlled him. Basically some powerful tribe would hold the king as a gilded hostage who they could “politely ask” him to issue royal decrees on their behalf. So really when you win in chess you’re taking the king hostage.
Again this was a theory a kinda quack professor of mine had. Don’t take it as fact.
ehhh i dont think sasanian iran was particularly “figurehead-y”, at least any more than the ‘normal’ amount you get in monarchies.
unless prof was talking about abbassids and beyond, they did get freaky with it in medieval times between caliphs, sultans, shahs, and atabegs
Yeah like I said the dude was a bit of a quack. Interesting quack but a quack.