bite on granite

Popularly attributed to Frederick the Great of Prussia in the papers of Bernhard von Bülow, who was Chancellor of the German Empire from 1900 - 1909. Bülow's citation was in a speech to the Reichstag in late 1902 in response to a public speech by the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain (father of WWII Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain) that criticized the German army's conduct during the Franco-Prussian War. Bülow was trying to gently end the discussion in the Reichstag, so he said of Chamberlain: "Let the man alone, he's biting on granite!" [orig. "Lasst den Mann laufen, er beisst auf Granit!"] meaning that Chamberlain's criticism required no response because it would have no effect. Regarding the chess-related usage of the phrase, it occurs repeatedly in Siegbert Tarrasch's The Game of Chess, which was first published in German in 1931 and in English in 1935.

bite on granite (third-person singular simple present bites on granite, present participle biting on granite, simple past bit on granite, past participle bitten on granite)

1. To waste energy on a pointless task.

   To press a miser for donaton is like biting on granite.

2. (chess) Of a bishop or queen: to face a diagonal occupied by two or more opposing pawns.