Ancient Chess History Unearthed

BBC ^ | 7-27-2002

[another cricket]

The amazing this is that this was not all that long ago and in a very well known area. And we don't know a simple thing like when they started to play chess.

So many missing pieces and I am not referring to the chess set.

a.cricket

[BradyLS]

If they don't know what it is, how can they tell it's a chess piece?

Good point. Today we have an explosion of boardgames. I wonder what great games from the past have been lost to us?

[BradyLS]

The amazing this is that this was not all that long ago and in a very well known area. And we don't know a simple thing like when they started to play chess.

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.

[Born to Conserve]

"We are wondering if it is the king or queen because it has a little cross but we are not sure."


Just watch it move, if in moves all over the place, straight and diagonally, then it is a queen, if it moves only one square at a time, it is a king.

These scholars are morons.

[reg45]

Al Gore invented chess.

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.

[Justa]

"The Byzantine Empire was quite civilized and by the 10th century...90% of the population in Constantinople could read and write...unlike Western Europe which was in the throes of the dark ages."

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.

[RightWhale]

Rome, Greece, Troy, and Carthage were in contact with Persia and India from the beginning, even 700 BC. Whether chess originated farther east is not clear, but it did get to India and to Persia and to Rome. Everything else did. Were they playing chess by 600 AD in Macedonia and Greece? Probably even Goths did, but Saxons and other northerners preferred card games.

[Fzob]

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 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.

[RightWhale]

The cross did becomes a symbol of Christianity until well into the third century.

It, including the crucifix, was already a symbol in pre-Christian religions around the Mediterranean.

[Fzob]

did becomes = did not become

[Victoria Delsoul]

Thanks for the info, Saber.

And thanks for the links, Sunsong.

[tictoc]

1. ...Nf6 bump

[Royce]

Helen Thomas lost it when she was a little girl!

and , SHE WANTS IT BACK RIGHT NOW!

[tictoc]

I'll hop over there later and check out the chess discussion board.

Keep in mind that there is no one crazier in the world than your typical chess player, so this should be fun.

"One night in Bangkok makes the heart grow humble..."

[tictoc]

I wonder if male chess players had similar problems then as today?

Chess player cites foul over revealing rival

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.

[blam]

"One night in Bangkok makes the heart grow humble..."

Back in the mid'60's it got me a trip to the doctor.

[tictoc]

I posted one message to the discussion board, using a top-secret pseudonym.

Also went to look at the Games section. LOL it's correspondence chess only!

One move per day! To me a ten-minute game is glacially slow...

[fnord]

to paraphrase ...

Alekhine, you magnificent bastard! I read your book!!

[dread78645]

"One night in Bangkok makes the heart grow humble..."

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