Posted on 07/28/2002 7:08:20 AM PDT by blam
Saturday, 27 July, 2002, 16:22 GMT 17:22 UK
Ancient chess history unearthed
The chess piece was found in the ancient city of Butrint
A team of British archaeologists have unearthed evidence suggesting that Europeans were playing chess as early as the sixth century. An ivory chess piece, excavated at a Byzantine palace in what is now southern Albania, is more than 500 years older than any previously discovered.
Leaders of the University of Anglia expedition said it proves the game has a much longer history in Europe than was previously thought.
Until now chess historians had agreed that the game only became popular with the European elite during the 12th century, 700 years after it was invented in China, India or ancient Persia.
Walrus ivory
The chess piece, which is only lightly damaged, was unearthed in the ancient city of Butrint.
Professor Richard Hodges said: "We are wondering if it is the king or queen because it has a little cross but we are not sure."
The chess piece was found in Butrint, Albania
The team is now trying to find out exactly which piece they have found.
He said historians believed chess became popular in the early 12th century, because of walrus ivory chessmen found in Scotland's Outer Hebrides.
Other pieces were found as far afield as southern Italy.
"However, it now looks as though it was already being played in the central Mediterranean over 500 years earlier," Professor Hodges said.
The excavation team, which works with local archaeologists, also discovered coins.
So many missing pieces and I am not referring to the chess set.
a.cricket
Good point. Today we have an explosion of boardgames. I wonder what great games from the past have been lost to us?
My capsule analogy of History is that it resembles the body of a comet: The head represents the present which glows brightly and appears large. The tail is lumimous near the head, but becomes incresingly indistinct at lows further and further away from the head. The future is the trajectory of the comet, which cannot be accurately determined by simply by looking at the tail.
He let someone else take credit for it so that he could spend more time on the printing press, indoor flush toilets and the internet.
Without the exodus of Byzantium's priests, theologians, scholars, artisans, etc. during the Renaissance the West would have remained a fractured, agrarian feudal region. Imo many FRrs realize this.
The cross did becomes a symbol of Christianity until well into the third century. It is possible this is just an icon rather than a chess piece? It seems like a short time to go from a holy symbol to an ornament on a chess piece.
But I don't know much about the history of chess so maybe I'm clueless.
It, including the crucifix, was already a symbol in pre-Christian religions around the Mediterranean.
And thanks for the links, Sunsong.
Melbourne Herald Sun
1 April 1998
Robert Cowley claims he would have won a state chess championship - if his opponent's breasts had not got in the way.
Mr. Cowley, 50, claims he was unable to keep his eyes off Ngan Koshnitsky's cleavage.
Part-way through the six-round South Australian state contest he complained to organizers about the 24-year-old reigning Australian women's champion's penchant for revealing tops.
The bare flesh - plus the fact that she played "very well" - had cost him the title and prevented him from concentrating on the game, he claimed yesterday. Miss Koshnitsky beat Mr. Cowley 4-2 in last month's competition.
She said yesterday that unlike most of her chess-playing counterparts she liked wearing sexy clothes, but said "it shouldn't be an issue at all".
His complaint against her manner of dress was nothing more than a stupid excuse for losing. "It makes me angry that he didn't think I was good enough to win," she said. "I believe that most men can't accept losing a game against a woman."
Mr. Cowley, the 1978 and 1992 SA chess champion, said Miss Koshnitsky's clothes were more suited to a disco than a chess game. He had tried to avert his eyes "but it was very hard not to see it (her cleavage)".
I put my hands across my forehead but that didn't work very well, so now I may consider wearing a wide-brimmed hat," he said. The skimpy top was "a real distraction for me," he said, adding chess was "difficult enough as it is without extra problems".
Mr. Cowley, who plays for "mental exercise, social interaction, discipline and prestige", said he liked "to be able to think of the game and not be distracted by other things".
But he would not say whether he thought Miss Koshnitsky's mode of dress was a deliberate move.
Under the laws of chess, it is forbidden to distract or annoy one's opponent.
Miss Koshnitsky said she had no intention to make Mr. Cowley uncomfortable. She dressed the way she did "because I'm young, I want to wear nice cloths and be happy - and that's it".
She accused him of making a cheap excuse for losing to a woman.
Miss Koshnitsky, a professional chess player who migrated to Australia four years ago, flies to Malaysia next week to contest the Asian women's championship.
The vice-president of the SA Chess Association, Evelyn Koshnitsky, 82, said her former daughter-in-law won the title of state champion on her own merits.
It was Mr. Cowley's problem and not Miss Koshnitsky's if he was distracted by his opponent's dress.
"She's just a modern girl," she said.
Back in the mid'60's it got me a trip to the doctor.
Bangkok, Oriental setting
And the city don't know that the city is getting
The creme de la creme of the chess world in a
Show with everything but Yul Brynner
Time flies - doesn't seem a minute
Since the Tirolean spa had the chess boys in it
All change - don't you know that when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venue
It's Iceland... or the Philippines... or Hastings... or... or this place!
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
And if you're lucky then the god's a she
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One town's very like another
When your head's down over your pieces, brother
It's a drag, it's a bore, it's really such a pity
To be looking at the board, not looking at the city
Whaddya mean? Ya seen one crowded, polluted, stinking town...
Tea, girls, warm, sweet, sweet
Some are set up in the Somerset Maugham suite
Get Thai'd! You're talking to a tourist
Whose every move's among the purest
I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Siam's gonna be the witness
To the ultimate test of cerebral fitness
This grips me more than would a
Muddy old river or reclining Buddha
And thank God I'm only watching the game,
controlling it I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
So you better go back to your bars, your temples, your massage parlours
One night in Bangkok and the world's your oyster
The bars are temples but the pearls ain't free
You'll find a god in every golden cloister
A little flesh, a little history
I can feel an angel sliding up to me
One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble
Not much between despair and ecstasy
One night in Bangkok and the tough guys tumble
Can't be too careful with your company
I can feel the devil walking next to me
Murray Head/ABBA
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