Bishop v. State

This case is remarkable, if at all, not so much for the law involved as for the prominence of its actors, who include a Bishop (John Owen), two pawns and a knave. At play, the bishop is a miter-shaped chessman that is empowered to make diagonal movements across any number of unoccupied spaces on a chessboard — and takes whatever lies in its path. Although a very dangerous piece, because of its directional limitations it is more effective when working with others, and, because its distance movements are unrestricted, it is more effective when obscured in the background, letting other pieces…