Through the Looking-Glass! Theme of Chess

Whereas the first book – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – has the pack of cards as a theme, the book – Through the Looking-Glass – is based on a game of chess, played on a giant chessboard with fields for squares. Most main characters met in the story are represented by a chess piece, with Alice herself being a pawn. However, the moves described in the ‘chess problem’ cannot be carried out legally due to a move where white does not move out of check (a list of moves is included – note that a young child might make this error due to inexperience).

The looking-glass world is divided into sections by brooks, with the crossing of each brook usually signifying a notable change in the scene and action of the story: the brooks represent the divisions between squares on the chessboard, and Alice’s crossing of them signifies advancing of her piece one square. The sequence of moves (white and red) is not always followed, which goes along with the book’s mirror image reversal theme as noted by mathematician and author Martin Gardner. wiki
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