Question 1

Wait, where is the word for 'if'? Why does the sentence start with De haber?

Accepted Answer

At this level, you probably expected to see Si él hubiera movido (If he had moved). Using De followed by an infinitive is an alternative way to set up a condition. Because this is an unreal situation in the past, it uses the compound infinitive haber movido (to have moved). It means the exact same thing as a standard 'if' clause but sounds a bit more polished and concise.

Question 2

Why is the pronoun él explicitly included before habría ganado?

Accepted Answer

The conditional perfect verb habría can apply to yo, él, ella, or usted. Because the first part of the sentence uses an infinitive (haber movido) which does not conjugate to show a specific person, adding él here is necessary to make it perfectly clear who would have won the game.

Question 3

Does el alfil mean 'bishop' in a religious sense too?

Accepted Answer

No, el alfil is used exclusively for the chess piece. If you want to talk about a bishop in a church, you must use the word el obispo. Like many Spanish words starting with 'al-', alfil comes from Arabic, specifically meaning 'the elephant', which was the original piece in the early versions of chess.

Question 4

Could I say hubiera ganado instead of habría ganado at the end of this sentence?

Accepted Answer

Yes! In conversational Latin American Spanish, it is extremely common to hear the past perfect subjunctive (hubiera ganado) used in the result half of the sentence instead of the conditional perfect (habría ganado). Both options are completely acceptable and native speakers will understand you perfectly either way.

De haber movido el alfil a esa diagonal, él habría ganado.

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