Although Through the Looking-Glass is structured around a game of chess, within the text, the game is not played in a conventional manner and does not always conform to the established rules of chess. Alice takes her place as the White Queen’s Pawn in Chapter Two, replacing Lily, after the game has already been in progress for some time. Alice then travels across the board, until she reaches the far side, becoming Queen in Chapter Nine. As the story prgresses, Alice and other characters make a number of moves which represent valid chess moves ultimately culminating in Alice’ “taking” the Red Queen and checkmating the Red King.

Between the half-title and title pages of the book, Carroll provides two pages of supplementary information. The first of these, the “DRAMATIS PERSONÆ”, shows which characters in the story take part in the game and the pieces they represent, as arranged before the commencement of the game. The following page shows the position of play from the point at which Alice takes part and lists the moves that she and other characters make thereafter.

 

A number of curious points may be made: (1) The two sides, White and Red, do not always alternate in their play; (2) Several moves, whilst legitimate, are unlikely to be made in a normal game; (3) Carroll twice refers to the “castle” move, which cannot be legimately performed and does not represent any move of the pieces in the game; (4) Whilst all the moves can be identified in the text, there is not always a corresponding Tenniel illustration; (5) Although this part of the game only involves eight pieces, many other characters appear in the text during the episodes that represent these moves.

In spite of these curiosities, the game can be followed, as Carroll explained in the 1887 Preface to the People’s Edition of the book.

Click on "Looking-Glass: The Game" above to proceed to our animated demonstrator for the game.