You may have heard the phrase “Watch Your Six” if you been in the military or even watched military movies or TV. You are even more likely to have heard something like “incoming twelve o’clock”. Of course that mean whatever is coming is directly ahead. Because on the clock face twelve O’clock is straight ahead or directly above.
Now this is very important in chess especially for very new players and very old players. They often time get tunnel vision and forget to watch that back line or anything else outside of their tunnel vision. Many players forget, So it would be very appropriate to say to any player "Watch your SIX."
There is a very good rational for using the clock face for direction. The most prevalent one is that almost everybody knows the positions of the numbers on a clock face. You can probably ask any six year old where twelve O’clock on the clock face is or where is six o’clock on the clock face. You will probably get an answer immediately. Now compare that to if you ask a six years old which direction is zero degrees are better yet which direction is 180 degrees. For the most part it just an easy way to point out directions quickly. Just remember that back line is your Six.
I have a kind of trick question for everyone. Imagine three guys sitting at a table in a restaurant eating dinner and drinking beers then one guy say; guys three O’clock. What did he just see, What happen or what does he mean? Please answer in the replies below.
Final Test: Which Direction is Checkmate?
@rodrook