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| Posted by garos diddyonline.com 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 diddyonline.com 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 diddyonline.com 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 ——— Chess: Nakamura and Robson Show Off Their Promise — Two recent exhibition matches in St. Louis could help pave the way for an American to have a shot at the world title after the next chess championship match in 2012. One pitted Hikaru Nakamura of the United States against Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, the other was a face-off between Ray Robson and Ben Finegold, both Americans. The contests were intended to give Nakamura, 23, and Robson, 16, valuable experience. (Robson was supposed to play Viktor Korchnoi, the octogenarian grandmaster. But Korchnoi dropped out at the last minute, and Finegold, 41, who lives in St. Louis, replaced him.) The chess matches were six slow games followed by four rapid games. Robson was ... Posted by wschmidt | diddyonline.com 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. ——— On Chess: Royal game is outlet for confined minds — As a teenager, I found something special in chess. Unlike with school, little had to be memorized. Instead, I was presented with a never-ending frontier in which I could discover new ideas and moves in response to the exigencies of chess combat. There are so many paths to take in a typical chess position that one might play a lifetime of games, each different from the other. Every game was an adventure in which I could prevail if I were clever and brave enough. One could make mistakes, but the embarrassment of losing seemed small compared with the excitement of engagement and the windfall of discovery. The chess experience contrasts with formal education, which, regrettably, is often ... Posted by thunker | diddyonline.com 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. ——— Simon Williams provides moment to savour with brilliant 20-mover — England's top chess trio Michael Adams, Nigel Short and Luke McShane have all beaten 2700-rated elite grandmasters, the world top 30-40, twice or more in the same chess event. But for other English chess players, a single win against a 2700 is a mountain to climb. So it was a rare moment to savour last weekend at the French teams in Mulhouse for Simon Williams, 31, the England No14, who defeated two 2700s in three days. Even better, one game was a 20-move sacrificial brilliancy and both were impressive practical lessons. Williams's elegant 20-mover against Poland's European silver medallist showed the value of a specialist opening. The Surrey GM has written a book and ... Posted by ionadowman | diddyonline.com 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... ——— Chess: Back to basics — Chess has been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, and one of the reasons the game has maintained its popularity for so long is the seemingly endless level of depth and complexity involved. It seems no matter how much you play, there is always something else to learn or a new puzzle to challenge your brain. So how does one improve at the grand old game of chess? Have you been playing for years, decades, scores, and yet you still seem to be losing to the same people? One of the questions I am often asked at chess competitions is, "How come Grandmaster so-and-so is better than you? How can you achieve his level?" My answer is always, "If I knew, I would ... Posted by ionadowman | diddyonline.com 8/01/2008 16:49:53 Play online chess it has occurred to me... Message: Cheers, Ion ——— Chess: Berbatov's long shot — Football fans will recognise the name. This is the Manchester United striker's 15-year-old cousin, Kiprian, a rising star in Bulgarian chess. He has just played his pawn to b4 – and set an evil trap. How should Black reply? RB: I had the wild notion of responding with 1…axb4. No one likes tripled pawns, but then I realised that with three pawns to clear on the b-file, White would have his hands full while Black could make merry on the opposite wing. But that's precisely the problem – what can Black do on the kingside? Not much that I can see. So, to be sensible, it's either 1…a4 or 1…b6. I prefer 1…a4, locking the queenside and giving Black a chance to improve his position on ... Posted by garos | diddyonline.com 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 | diddyonline.com 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 | diddyonline.com 8/01/2008 23:38:49 Play online chess I wonder Message: Posted by wulebgr | diddyonline.com 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 | diddyonline.com 9/01/2008 15:26:21 Play online chess Message: Posted by heinzkat | diddyonline.com 9/01/2008 15:48:42 Play online chess Rook - from the Persian word...Message: Posted by wuzzie | diddyonline.com 9/26/2008 05:53:33 Play online chess here are some picsMessage: www.jmrw.com |