1. Joined
    21 Aug '15
    Moves
    928
    12 Oct '16 00:401 edit
    I have settled for having mine face to the left as Kasparov and Carlsen do. It could bring me good luck to follow their example.

    A guy at work was critical of this and said they should face forwards to show them moving forward. I should have mentioned to him that they have a crooked move. and don't move directly forward but to the side forward.

    Another guy asked me what direction the slit in the bishop's miter should face. I had never thought of that.

    By the way, I always have to resist orienting my opponent's knights the way I want them to face. If his are facing forward I get the urge to make them face to the side the same way mine do.
  2. Standard memberbyedidia
    Mister Why
    San Carlos, CA
    Joined
    21 Feb '12
    Moves
    6039
    12 Oct '16 01:42
    Sometimes to annoy my opponent I will face them diagonally off the sides of the board. Right hand knight facing my right elbow, left hand knight facing my left elbow. When I'm feeling less psychotic, I face them to the left like a diagram. Something else that is fun to do to annoy your opponent is rotate them 90 degrees clockwise after every time you move them.

    I only started having them face not straight forward less than a year ago. I know of one player who faces his knights backwards and uses the nose as a handle.
  3. e4
    Joined
    06 May '08
    Moves
    42492
    12 Oct '16 10:03
    I noticed this years ago.

    Players tend to have them facing the same way they are in books. side on.

    I use to, if I could remember, place them facing me so to my opponent they lost their shape.

    The theory being in a 4-5 move combo or series of moves they would miss the
    Knight shape and the Knight would undo them.

    (the trouble being you yourself may miss the Knight shape and balls the whole thing up.)
  4. Subscribermoonbus
    Über-Nerd
    Joined
    31 May '12
    Moves
    8144
    12 Oct '16 14:05
    I turn them so that KN faces towards the k-side and the QN faces towards the q-side.
  5. Scotton Lincolnshire
    Joined
    05 Aug '05
    Moves
    58770
    12 Oct '16 19:25
    Pedantic but what the hell. It is "Which direction..." as it is a closed list.
  6. Standard memberbyedidia
    Mister Why
    San Carlos, CA
    Joined
    21 Feb '12
    Moves
    6039
    12 Oct '16 20:071 edit
    Originally posted by Forest9
    Pedantic but what the hell. It is "Which direction..." as it is a closed list.
    Not a closed list. I might want to face my knight at c3 or 60 degrees to the right, and so on. But now I'm the pedant.
  7. SubscriberPaul Leggett
    Chess Librarian
    The Stacks
    Joined
    21 Aug '09
    Moves
    113497
    12 Oct '16 20:38
    My knights tend to be directionless. Rather more unruly than the bishops, truth be told, and certainly less straightforward than my rooks.
  8. Subscribermoonbus
    Über-Nerd
    Joined
    31 May '12
    Moves
    8144
    12 Oct '16 21:09
    Originally posted by Forest9
    Pedantic but what the hell. It is "Which direction..." as it is a closed list.
    I learned English descriptive notation first and algebraic later. In descriptive notation, it is sometimes helpful to know which is the KN and which is the QN, if both can move to the same square. I have an elegant wooden chess set from the 1940s in which the KN and KR are both marked with a little crown symbol, so I'm not the only one who wants to know which one is the KN or the KR.
  9. Subscribersonhouse
    Fast and Curious
    slatington, pa, usa
    Joined
    28 Dec '04
    Moves
    53223
    12 Oct '16 21:12
    Originally posted by moonbus
    I learned English descriptive notation first and algebraic later. In descriptive notation, it is sometimes helpful to know which is the KN and which is the QN, if both can move to the same square. I have an elegant wooden chess set from the 1940s in which the KN and KR are both marked with a little crown symbol, so I'm not the only one who wants to know which one is the KN or the KR.
    Just don't try to place the knights upside down, they don't balance so well. True fact.
  10. Subscribermoonbus
    Über-Nerd
    Joined
    31 May '12
    Moves
    8144
    13 Oct '16 10:24
    Ooooh, I love true facts. Tell me another !
  11. Standard memberpdunne
    Badmaster
    freeshell.de/~dunne
    Joined
    04 May '10
    Moves
    73405
    14 Oct '16 09:49
    In the initial position, Queen's Knight faces towards the Queen, King's Knight faces towards the King. That way later on you always know which is which -- helpful sometimes in following old books in Descriptive notation, as someone else said.
  12. Joined
    12 Jul '08
    Moves
    13814
    15 Oct '16 18:34
    Originally posted by greenpawn34
    I noticed this years ago.

    Players tend to have them facing the same way they are in books. side on.

    I use to, if I could remember, place them facing me so to my opponent they lost their shape.

    The theory being in a 4-5 move combo or series of moves they would miss the
    Knight shape and the Knight would undo them.

    (the trouble being you yourself may miss the Knight shape and balls the whole thing up.)
    You said that backward facing knight looked amazingly like a bishop.
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