Chess Forum
chesscomputer.net << online chess - < chess - chess > - chess online >>
| From | Message | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by garos chesscomputer.net 7/30/2008 01:01:14 Play online chess |  Subject: Medieval ChessMessage: One interesting point I have noticed so far is that in paintings of chess games of the period, the board is usually set up with a black square at each players' right-hand corner. Is this a mistake on the part of the artist? Did it matter during this period which way the board was oriented? Did it change at some stage? When did it become usual (or the 'rule') to set up with a white square on the right? I would also appreciate any information about the 'mad queen', so called when the rules were changed so the queen could move around the board freely, as she does now. If anyone has an interest in this chess from this era I would be pleased to hear your views. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by maca chesscomputer.net 7/30/2008 09:09:55 Play online chess | Very interesting Message: Regarding the "mirrored board", I believe this is fairly widespread mistake that is sometimes made even today. For some reason, H8 is often set up as white, not black. I never knew this went that back in the past, though. I wouldn't be surprised if the way the board was set up had changed in the past, and I'd expect the could even be local variation in this. With no written rules, this seemingly insignificant detail could have easily been not taken into by the carpenters who made the chess boards, but could have had very little information about the game itself. In arts, it would seem plausible that artists would use each others' paintings as models, which could partially explain why the "mistake" is so wide-spread. As for the Vizor-Queen transition, I believe Queen was already a well-established piece when the written history of chess began. Therefore, I would guess it happened at the range of 15th-16th century, but a quick search at the books or Internet could easily beat my estimate in here. Here are some ideas you might look into. Mostly speculation from my part, though: - In Middle-Ages, chess was an integral part of the training of knights and other nobility in some countries. You could search the cultural effects of chess starting from this. - The Oriental trade strongly influenced the culture in Europe, and chess is not an exception. Chess was a very popular game around India, and I think they crafted a lot high-quality chess sets. - Chess is a special game in that it was rarely banned by church, due to the fact that it was considered excellent training for warfare. You could look into the relationship of chess and religion. Regards, MaCa. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Posted by chessnovice chesscomputer.net 7/31/2008 15:59:57 Play online chess | some suggestions Message: I'd also recommend Henry Bird's "Chess History & Reminiscences" for some basic insight. You can find the full text online, here:  www.chessvariants.org
This is just me musing out loud, but I think the reason you find diagrams with the wrong colored square in the right corner is due to the same reason that you'll have trouble finding documentation on chess history before the 17th century. The Renaissance, among many things, brought about a lot of organization to the game. Design of the chess board probably depended on the locale. Or there's the possibility that artists (which I believe were commissioned by authors at the time) didn't know enough about the rules of chess to keep the "white on right" rule in mind. With regards to when the queen became mad: "Chess as now played with the Queen of present powers, imported into the game dates back about four centuries, to near the time when the works of the Spanish writers, Vicenz and Lucena, appeared in 1495, and shortly before that of Damiano the Portuguese in 1512." -- Bird ——— Matthew Sadler makes remarkable comeback and sets sights on Istanbul — The recent impressive comeback by Matthew Sadler, England's No3 in the 1990s, is a major boost for England's prospects in the 150-nation biennial chess Olympiad whose next edition is at Istanbul in 2012. Sadler, now 37, won an individual gold medal at the 1996 Chess Olympiad where England finished fourth, and was the top scorer in the gold medal squad at the 1997 European teams. Then he gave up the game for an IT career with Hewlett Packard, and hardly played at all for a decade. But this year he has won first prizes at Barcelona in August and Oslo in October, going through both chess tournaments unbeaten and restoring his world ranking to around No80, not far short of his ... Posted by wschmidt | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 12:49:21 Play online chess Check out...Message: Birth of the Chess Queen: A History by Marilyn Yalom, a relatively recent full-length analysis of that aspect of your question. Here are a couple of descriptions of it culled from Amazon: From Publishers Weekly A senior scholar at Stanford's Institute for Women and Gender who has written extensively on women's history, Yalom (A History of the Wife; etc.) sees the rise of female power throughout the centuries reflected in the history of the chess queen: "She has entered the academy of gendered icons, alongside the Earth Mother, the Amazon, and the Virgin Mary." For 500 years, chess was played in India, Persia and the Arab world minus a queen; she finally made her entrance in southern Europe around A.D. 1000. Drawing parallels between "symbolic queens on the chessboard and living queens at numerous royal courts," Yalom introduces readers to significant queens, empresses and countesses as she traces the spread of chess across Europe. With anecdotes, art, legends and literature, she shows how the chess queen became "the quintessential metaphor for female power in the Western world." Yalom offers an outstanding glimpse at chess as a courting ritual: "The chess queen and the cult of love grew up together and formed a symbiotic relationship, each feeding on the other." She also addresses the current status of female chess players—only 5% of the world's chess players are women—and wonders if "the best female players [will] ever be able to beat the best male players." Combining exhaustive research with a deep knowledge of women's history, Yalom presents an entertaining and enlightening survey that offers a new perspective on an ancient game. B&w illus. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From The New Yorker Chess was invented in India in the fifth century and was spread by Islamic conquests to Europe, where the piece known as the vizier became the queen—the only female in the all-male club of chess pieces. Yalom makes a credible, though circumstantial, case that this rise reflects the power intermittently accorded to, or seized by, female European monarchs. It was in the late tenth century, during the regency of Empress Adelaide, that the vizier underwent his sex change. Five hundred years later, in Queen Isabella's Spain, the queen was transformed from a timid lady mincing one diagonal step at a time into what one shocked Italian bishop called a "bellicose virago." But there's a sting at the end of this feminist historical fable: the queen's supremacy made the game so much faster and more competitive that it was considered unsuitable for upper-class women. ——— Chess: Elite Players Struggle After Taking Break From Play — Tournament play after a long layoff is not easy, even for elite chess players. They can forget what they know about openings or fail to stay up to date. A larger obstacle is the crucible of competition: the pressure can be intense, and the mind and body have to be reconditioned. Gata Kamsky learned that lesson in 2004 when he returned after an eight-year layoff and his world ranking fell. Several top chess players have followed a similar course in recent months. One of them, Yasser Seirawan, 51, a former United States chess champion, had not competed on an elite level for eight years until he entered the national chess championship in April. He struggled then, but his results have improved. At ... Posted by thunker | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 15:11:29 Play online chess Chessmen by A.E.J. Mackett-BeesonMessage: While most of the book is dedicated to various ornamental chess pieces, the first chapter is a good history of the game. It actually traces the origins of the game that would evolve into chess back to the Chinese game of Chaturanga as around 2500 BC en.wikipedia.org
evolving to The Chinese Game (Chong-Ki or Choke-Choo-Hong-Ki) in 105 BC. Then to the Burmese game (Chit-Ta-Reen) 600 AD. Next Shogi, 1200 AD and then Shatranj from 500 AD to the 8th Century and beyond. The game of Chaturanga, in its earliest form, was actually played by 4 persons, each of whom controlled eight chess pieces: a king, a rook, and knight and a bishop, toghether with four pawns. The chessboard still had 64 squares. ——— On Chess: Being hunter better than being prey — Aggressiveness pays in chess and other games, as well as in life itself. Bobby Fischer’s relentless will to win and engage the opponent until only naked kings were left is legendary. Few opponents were able to keep from flinching or ultimately collapsing under the pressure of his fierce and predatory intent. Mikhail Tal attacked, attacked and attacked. Playing him was like facing a brigade of octopuses, each of whose tentacles were firing a Gatling gun. Of course, he wasn’t merely aggressive. He also played with extraordinary artfulness and creative flair. In his bible for athletes and coaches, Coaching the Mental Game, sports psychologist Harvey Dorfman recalls that his father had advised him at ... Posted by ionadowman | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 16:42:16 Play online chess Possibly ...Message: But then, why did "rook" survive unstead of "castle"? Well "castle", as "tour" did replace the chariot ("rook") in many languages... ——— The 2011 SPICE Cup — This week I am in Lubbock, Texas, for the annual SPICE Cup Chess Tournament. SPICE stands for Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence, an organization devoted to the promotion of chess education and outreach headquartered at Texas Tech University. Susan is a former Women's World Chess Champion who works alongside her husband, Paul Truong, (a strong chess master in his own right) to organize all sorts of tournaments, chess classes and chess camps. The SPICE Cup is, by far, the strongest chess tournament they organize, and it is one of the strongest tournaments held annually in the U.S. each year. This year there are three different sections, each with several grandmasters. The strongest ... Posted by ionadowman | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 16:49:53 Play online chess it has occurred to me... Message: Cheers, Ion ——— Chess: the bishop sacrifice — RB: My second nomination for chess book of the year is Sacking the Citadel: The History, Theory and Practice of the Classic Bishop Sacrifice by Jon Edwards (Russell Enterprises). It always looks so tempting: the enemy knight chased from the key defensive square at f6, our bishop unobstructed on the b1-h7 diagonal, knight on f3, queen on its starting square ready to race to h5 or d3. Most of us have tried Bxh7+ at one time or other, and most of us probably have experience of messing it up. When is the sacrifice sound? What forces does White need to press home the attack? What defensive resources can Black conjure up to frustrate us? These are the questions Edwards addresses. Divided into ... Posted by garos | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 21:35:06 Play online chess ThanksMessage: www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca
The 'Mad Queen' was also variously know as 'alla rabiosa' and 'de la dame enragée', both terms fairly self-explanatory. Posted by ionadowman | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 22:12:39 Play online chess I was intrigued by ...Message: I can't get over what a clod-hopping piece the elephant was - there were just 8 squares on the board any given elephant could visit, and the move ExE was never possible. It must have made for some weird strategy... Cheers, Ion Posted by garos | chesscomputer.net 8/01/2008 23:38:49 Play online chess I wonder Message: Posted by wulebgr | chesscomputer.net 8/04/2008 08:20:20 Play online chess Two booksMessage: Second, H.J.R. Murray, _History of Chess_ (1913) remains the standard work on the full run of the history of chess from its misty beginnings in India (or possibly China). its spread through the Muslim world (by which it entered Europe probably via three routes (Spain, Italy, and the Caucasus), up through the nineteenth century. Beware of what you will find on the internet. Especially with respect to the medieval period, misinformation abounds. Most of the information I've seen on the internet in either unsubstantiated, or flat wrong. The rest comes mostly from Murray. Posted by kinderboy | chesscomputer.net 9/01/2008 15:26:21 Play online chess Message: Posted by heinzkat | chesscomputer.net 9/01/2008 15:48:42 Play online chess Rook - from the Persian word...Message: Posted by wuzzie | chesscomputer.net 9/26/2008 05:53:33 Play online chess here are some picsMessage: www.jmrw.com |