Centaur Chess

Archive for the ‘Chess Books’ Category

Legends portray these mythical monsters which are characteristic of a snake or reptile and having huge wings. They are typically a frightening site with a crest on its head, long talons, typically bearing razor sharp teeth and flames or poison shooting from its gigantic mouth. Their bodies are covered in scales, with fear provoking eyes that burn in a red or yellow glow. It’s been used in many venues in the media, TV and movies to define one’s ‘mother-in-law’ however that’s not the context we are referring too right now.

The media has used the winged reptile image in movies such as Harry Potter as a threat and challenge to the young wizard. Then there are the simple happy dragons that will show up in children’s movies and television. These are non-threatening looking but have similar characteristic to the creatures from mythology. Is anyone old enough to remember ‘Puff the Magic Dragon?’

The themed dragon chess set has the bright mythical dragons, some with swords on the pedestals of fire going to battle with the evil, fearsome looking skeletal dragons, some carrying sickles like the grim reaper would and blue flames as if they are spewing ice. Both sides having animated features and great details will make this match up a colorful battle. This dragon themed chess set is a fun and unique way to engage in a serious game of thought and strategy, and a work of art that will certainly be a conversation piece in your home.

Themed chess sets are the perfect gift idea for chess fans who are history & fantasy buffs.

A few years ago there was an unusual painting of a chess game in a museum. In the painting, a young boy sat on one side of the board and the devil sat on the other side. The boy had a defeated look on his face. The devil had a smile on his. On the chess board, the pieces were arranged in such a way that it looked as if the devil had the boy in checkmate. One day along came a famous chess master who was intrigued by the painting. He studied the chess board. After a while, he ordered someone to bring him a chess board and to set it up just like it was in the painting. Then he said, “I think I can save that boy.”

That is where we are now in Genesis 4. The devil checkmated Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Or so it appeared. The Lord made a promise to Satan in which He said, “I will save that man and woman.” The promise had been made. A Redeemer would come from Eve to avenge her and Adam and crush Satan’s head. Satan heard those words. In fact, the promise was made to him. Right then Satan knew that his life was in danger and that he had one of two options. He either had to prevent the Seed from being born, or he had to kill it once it had been born.

The paragraph above is the basic story of the rest of the Bible. No matter what you read, beginning with Genesis 4 you are always reading something related to the story line above. One could say the main story of the Bible is God’s promise to bring His Redeemer. The sub-plot would be Satan doing all in his power to stop Him. To put it another way, human events of every kind take place in the Bible. That is the action taking place on the stage in FRONT of the curtain. But BEHIND the curtain, directing all the visible action and giving it meaning, is the paragraph above. This is the part that is usually missing in most Bible teaching and preaching. This is why one can go to church all of his life and almost have no idea what the stories in the Bible are all about or how they are tied together.

But the second paragraph above can also be reduced to just ONE word: JESUS. The whole Bible is about Jesus Christ. Every event, every story, every person is about Jesus Christ. The Bible is not about moralisms or how to live your life or be a better person. It is PRIMARILY about Jesus. Application to one’s life certainly comes from the Bible in many ways, but the Bible is about Jesus and the second paragraph above. Therefore, Jesus must always be presented as the primary subject when teaching or preaching Scripture. If He is not, then the teacher missed the real point of the Bible’s purpose and message.

To put this another way, Revelation 12:1-5 gives a summary of the entire Old Testament and the four Gospels. The rest of the verses in Revelation 12 summarize the rest of the New Testament. In verses 1-5, a glorious woman appears in the heavens. She stands on the moon with a crown of 12 stars on her head. She is decked with radiant light from the sun. Her most noticeable feature is that she is pregnant with child and is about to give birth. Standing directly in front of her is a hideous, mutated crimson dragon with seven diademed heads and ten horns.  His huge tail sweeps down through the universe. No matter where she turns, the dragon always positions himself directly in front of her because he wants to devour that child as soon as He is born.

To interpret, the woman was originally Eve and the Redeemer child she would bear. But the picture now is clearly figurative and Eve has become the church of the Old Testament. In the womb of the church in the Old Testament was “a male child, One who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.” (Revelation 12:5) That was Jesus, that Seed from Eve who was not born directly to her but was passed along from generation to generation through a chosen line in her family. The repulsive creature is Satan (Revelation 12:9). As the ages and events of Scripture passed, Satan watched and waited for the woman’s Seed to appear. Many times he moved his king or queen directly into the path of the Redeemer in the Old Testament and attempted to end the game. But Revelation 12: 5 summarizes the Gospels like this: “…but her child was caught up to God and to his home.” Satan attempted to kill Him. It appeared that Satan’s queen landed right on top of the Redeemer at the cross, but the child escaped Satan’s clutches by rising from the dead and ascending back to heaven. The rest of Revelation 12 is about the war that Satan is waging on the Child’s seed in revenge since  he had missed killing the Seed Himself.

As you read Genesis 4 and 5, you see the devil’s strategy evolve as time passes. It speaks of the nature and the intelligence of this creature God made. Such affront and audacity before the Creator by one of His creations should have been unimaginable. But these ploys are masterpieces. They were effective then, and they are still effective today. Satan uses them over and over even until now as he wars against the church. It is amazing that a creature could devise and employ such bold, courageous, and defiant moves against his Creator. But here they are. There are four of them. He pulled out every stop to insure that his head was never crushed.

First, Satan Brought Direct Frontal Attack Against the Redeemer

As both Satan and Eve heard God’s promise about the woman’s Seed in the Garden of Eden, it would have been logical for both of them to assume that the first immediate offspring of Eve would be the Redeemer. The woman and the devil both probably concluded that since God’s judgments in Chapter 3 were immediate, so would be His deliverance. So when Eve became pregnant by Adam, she must have deduced that the one-man cavalry who would avenge her was on His way. She thought that she had acquired the man promised to her. Thus she gave her first born son, Cain, his name, which means “Acquired”, or, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” The devil may have thought the same thing when he heard Cain’s name and must have assumed that Cain was the Redeemer too. However, just as everyone was concentrating on Cain, another son named Abel, meaning “breath, vapor, or vanity” (indicating that both parents were already feeling the results of the curse on them), was born. Now there were two potential avengers. This was getting confusing. It is interesting to note that both Cain and Abel worshipped the Lord. So there must have been some revelation we do not know about to indicate the proper way to worship the Creator after Eden. One of the brothers conformed to that standard of worship, and one did not. Cain offered to God labor from his ground. Abel offered a sacricial animal, indicating atonement for sin by blood. The latter was accepted; the former was not. Since Cain had not made a move against the devil and the Lord also rejected Cain’s offering, Satan realized that God was using misdirection to divert him from the Conqueror. He concluded the righteous son of Eve, Abel, was the Redeemer instead. Therefore, Satan moved swiftly in the heart of Cain with jealousy and hatred and with Cain’s hands killed the woman’s supposed Seed, Abel, just as surely as if he had employed his own hands. This method of a straightforward, personal assault to kill the Seed by directing someone else’s hands would also be used by Satan as his very last act against the Redeemer in the New Testament. To make an analogy, Satan’s most powerful tool was himself. He thought he saw the Lord’s King on the board and decided to make a straight path to him. So with his queen, he swept all the way across the board down an unblocked lane and knocked Him off the board for an instant defeat. How simple that must have seemed to the Tempter to have dispatched The Promise with such ease. He had dishonored God in the Garden, and now he had dispatched his great Champion as well. The devil was no fool. He was a Grandmaster too. He could think ahead, and he could act instantly through another with abrupt counter-moves to the Promise when opportunites like that presented themselves. But Satan soon discovered that Abel was not the Seed either. The King wasn’t even on the playing surface yet. It was only a decoy. If Satan thought he was confused now, there were going to be complications of mathematical proportions for him to decipher as time progressed.

Second, Satan Used His Own Pawns Against the Redeemer

Genesis 4 and 5 gives the history of two family lines – Adam’s line through his son Cain and Adam’s line through his son Seth. Genesis 4 is the development of Cain’s family line. Through Cain’s family can be seen man’s efforts at carrying out part of the Cultural Mandate in Genesis 1:28 of increasing in number and filling the earth, as civilization and cities (4:17) were built. The latter part of the chapter shows man’s progress in subduing the earth as from the ground he learns to make tents, study animal husbandry, raise livestock, invent music and make musical instruments, and explore mining and forge tools. All these events imply a long passage of time and the development of society on the earth. But Cain’s line also shows the evolution and maturity of sin, corruption, and violence in the human family through murder, revenge, and polygamy. Satan was at work in God’s world so that when and if another possible Conqueror should mysteriously appear again, there were going to be powerful and creative forces of resistance under his command surrounding the Redeemer on every hand, forces so full of brutality and bloodshed that killing the Seed would require little effort from a world under the devil’s control. If the devil’s queen did not take Him out, then his rooks, bishops, knights, and pawns would be at his disposal if any other bounties appeared on the devil’s head. When one reads Genesis 4 and 6, there is one word that best describes the known world before the Flood. Violence (Genesis 6:11). The seed of the serpent predicted in Genesis 3:15 thrived and increased with newly born disciples bred on violence and steeped in progressive decay to do Satan’s will. There would be many people and a world system capable of eliminating any Conqueror.

In Genesis 4:25, God finally makes His first move against Satan. Whereas the devil thought the King had been eliminated, God put His King into play. He gave Adam another son, Seth. This is the second family line highlighted in these chapters. God is not hasty. He had a plan. Unknown to all concerned, there were centuries and millennia to go for Him to carry out His plan. God was going to take His time and set it all up just like He wanted so He would get the devil to do just what He wanted him to do. In the end, the diabolical Grandmaster would be a mere pawn in God’s own hand, and the Lord would play him like a symphony. So Eve is given another son, Seth, which means “Appointed”. She said that God had appointed another son in the place of her murdered son Abel. By faith, she indicated in this name she gave him that God’s Promise had not been killed after all. The effect of this move was that the godly line rejoiced and expressed sure hope in the Lord through Seth by not only Seth’s birth but his son’s birth, Enosh, too. They began to give praise to God and call upon Him when they realized Seth’s line was secure and continued on. If Seth was not the Promised Seed, then he was the father of Him. God was making good on His promise in Genesis 3. All of this commotion and the name given to Seth aroused the devil’s interest afresh. So he swerved directly in front of the pregnant woman of Revelation 12 and focused keenly on this man.

Genesis 5 is almost like a shell game. In a shell game, a pea is hidden beneath one of three walnut shells. The Operator quickly shuffles the shells around while the mark tries to keep his eye on the one with the pea. Satan watched Seth and his children in Genesis 5 while God’s hands flew like lightning on the board. Satan’s eyes dazzled. It was very difficult for Satan to keep track of who was who and where everyone was. For example, Adam lived another 800 years after Seth’s birth and “had other sons and daughters.” (Genesis 5:4) Was Seth another example of God’s slight of hand? Was Seth just another fake King? Was the real King in those other children of Adam’s? In addition to this, Seth and his wife were very fruitful. Seth lived another 807 years after the birth of Enosh and “had other sons and daughters.” (Genesis 5:7) Thus God’s promise shrouded itself somewhere in the midst of Seth’s line. But where? Though the devil lurked closely, the Promise dived beneath the visible surface like a German U-boat sliding beneath the dark depths of the Atlantic and hid Himself from the sight of the dragon as he slipped along silently from person to person over thousands of years without making a peep or move. “Which one is the Avenger?” the devil must have asked. Of the thousands, maybe millions, of children born up until the Flood, which one was the Promise? Quietly through the bedrooms of the ancient world and the boredom of normal family life, the Promise passed along through a few chosen men and women who unknowingly carried with them the Creator of the universe who would someday be man.

The New Testament lists two genealogies of Jesus Christ. One is in Matthew 1. It traces Jesus from Joseph back to Abraham through David to establish His kingly descent. The other traces Him from Mary to David to Abraham to Adam in Luke 3 to establish his kingly descent and humanity as a qualified man who was the Seed of the woman and the son of Adam and the son of Seth. The Jews kept strict records of the family line of the Redeemer in their genealogies for thousands of years that most people find boring to read. But these genealogies possess the proof needed for Jesus to one day make the claim that He was the Messiah and King over Israel. An imposter and fraud could be rooted out by the Redeemer’s family tree contained in the sacred scrolls. All the names mentioned in Genesis 5 are listed in Luke 3:36, 37 because they are the men who carried the Promise in their loins back to Seth and to Adam and Eve.

As the Seed progressed through Seth’s family, sin washed over the human race and strengthened its grip on every man. One notices that the long years of life men possessed at the beginning of Genesis 5 slowly diminish as he reads what happens after Genesis 6. All of Adam’s children met the end that God promised in Genesis 2:17. The curse fell upon everyone. There is a sad refrain at the end of nearly every paragraph in Chapter 5, “and he died…and he died…and he died.” Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”

Third, Satan Flipped the Enemy’s Pieces To His Side

The Promise finally passed to the last man mentioned in Genesis 5 – Noah and one of those three sons, Shem, Ham, or Japheth. We don’t know how long the events of Genesis 4 and 5 took before the Flood. But we do know that it was at least thousands of years because of the long lives of the pre-flood people. The pre-flood world was a developed civilization. But it became a notoriously wicked world. While the Promise sailed under the radar of the dragon in Genesis 4 and 5, the Prince of Darkness worked in God’s human creation through those chapters. What he did and what happened is all explained in Genesis 6:1-13. The earth had become full of vile and exceedingly sinful humans. His next ploy fused together the godly seed of the woman in Genesis 5 with the immoral and violent seeds of the serpent in Genesis 4. They melded together in intermarriage, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” (Genesis 6:2) They had not stayed separate as they apparently should have, no more than they do today. Their blending had been so thorough that the rotten ingredients of Genesis 4 completely tainted and disintegrated the whole line in Genesis 5 so that Genesis 6:11,12 says, “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence…all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.” In Genesis 6:5 the state of the human race is described as “…EVERY inclination of the thoughts of man’s heart was ONLY evil ALL THE TIME.” Most likely even the godly line was infected to the core and became like everyone else. If the Lord’s King was to have any moral sense and purpose at all, that moral sense would surely be dissolved and weakened by the parentage that brought Him forth. The termites of spoiled human nature in the godly line would eat His resolve and goal. The devil had moved powerfully against the Promise by establishing his own kingdom as dominant on the earth and was ready to crush the Seed.

Fourth, Satan Put God In the Position To Checkmate Himself

From every appearance, Satan controlled the board, and checkmate was his next move. But Satan wasn’t going to make the checkmate move. God was. Genesis 6:3,13 says that God’s wrath boiled against the people He had created. He so rued the day He had made them that He vowed that in 120 years His fury was going to wipe the floor of the earth with them and their wicked ways. It looked as if the devil had been so effective that God was going to turn His own queen against the line that carried His own King. Satan could not believe his fortune. Neither he nor his seed would have to eliminate the Promise. God was going to do it Himself. With His coming wrath against the world, God was going to hammer His entire creation to oblivion, including the person who secretly hid the Redeemer in his loins. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are sordid chapters on the history of man before the Flood and after God’s Covenant of Redemption with Adam. Satan had turned the tables and forced God to back down and destroy His creation and their Redeemer.

However long chapters 4 and 5 took, there was still only one small piece of God’s revelation known about his covenant Redeemer. He would come from Eve and her line, crush Satan’s head, and the Redeemer’s victory would, by implication, be even more extensive. Nothing else. There was only a seed about a Seed. There was no name given, when He would come, how He would come, and not even any wide-spread knowledge about his ancestors. There was (or had been) a godly line that believed in Him, anticipated Him, and carried Him. But everything now looked bleak and in jeopardy. All hope appeared to be lost.

If you want to know how to play chess, you’re not alone.

A lot of people want to learn how to play, but they get very scared.

See, once you learn the rules and how each piece moves (which are fairly straightforward, by the way, and can be mastered by children) – there’s a bit more to work on. There’s nothing too hard, but for the sake of being thorough, here’s everything you’ll need to learn:

First off, it might take you a little bit of time to learn the pieces. There are a lot of them, and each of them have different roles.

Once you get that down, you need to figure out how to think a number of moves ahead of your opponent. That requires extreme focus and patience.

You also need to exhibit patience while waiting for your opponent to figure out his next move. Some people get very impatient at sitting and waiting for people to figure out what they think their best move is.

Beyond that, master chess masters have to learn detailed strategy and how to force checkmates or stalemates starts with medium difficulty and up.

(If this terminology is confusing you, don’t worry – once you learn how to play chess, it’ll be fine. And I assure you – it really isn’t hard.)

The other thing is, there are thousands upon thousands of different moves and ways in which any chess game can go. It’s not a game in which you can master a few moves and then effortlessly win every time.

There is great news, though. Like I said before, a lot of people want to learn how to play chess, so there are a lot of ways in which you can learn.

There are books, you can get a mentor, play chess online, get chess video games, and play through trial and error.

And once you do play often, you’ll really improve not only your game, but your mind. Chess will help open up your mind and make you more intelligent. It’s also one of the games in which you get a lot of respect if you’re a good player.

So, although it may look difficult on the onset, there is a lot of value to come from it once you push through and persevere.

Chad Chesterson finally became a Chess master about four long years, and he’s now passionate about teaching people how to play chess

Visit his site at HowToWinChess.com

Chess, this exciting game of strategy and skills and originated in India, spans some 1500 years back in history. The nature of chess is in its very essence no more than a game. As such it has generally been associated with people of above average learning, and education. In essence, chess is an elite game, and it is only the very smartest that can claim dominance over this mental sport.

Things you should do include reading up on the game. Get a good book on the subject – preferably by an expert. The most important keys to your understanding are possibly check and checkmate. Also, just as important, is how to move without error.

Strategy is of paramount importance to playing chess. In general, the best way to use your rooks is to align them vertically. One move can have different functions and consequences. Make highly effective use of your pawns. Always attempt to set things up so that your opponent will pay a price for capturing one of your pieces. As an unwritten rule, the best piece to use to attempt to capture the opponent’s queen is a knight. Never leave your king vulnerable. Always be aware of the opponent pieces that could leap into play and checkmate your King. Perhaps the pieces that present the most danger are the Queen and the Knight.

Chess is a game of the wise; it is a game that embraces free will and intelligence. It’s also a great game that teaches life lessons that can very well change the out come of your future. Have lots of joy and fun in playing chess.

When most people think about chess, they envision two people sitting opposite one another while squaring off in an epic dual of thought. While that is the most common form of this game of strategy, there is no denying that it has come a long way since its inception. A great example of this is computerized chess boards. These boards certainly offer a different experience than the one that most players are accustomed to. There are many reasons to own one of these computerized chess boards, but to truly appreciate them it helps to understand some of the reasoning that they were brought to life in the first place.

Surprisingly enough, the idea behind computerized chess has been around long before an actual computer was ever built. While the idea was there, the concept never came to life until the advent of the digital computer. Since then, there have been many different forms of computerized chess and for numerous different reasons. Some want the ultimate challenge and feel that an artificially intelligent player would provide that. Others just want to play a game of chess by themselves to practice, or simply want to play when other opponents may not be available. Then there are those that want to take the game with them when they travel, but don’t want to be hassled by dragging the traditional sized board and pieces around.

Whatever your reasoning may be for wanting one of these computerized chess boards, you are sure to find a great deal of enjoyment out of them. They also offer a way to play the game in ways you may have not thought possible. For instance, you can choose to play with or without actual game pieces. Also, the computer can keep tabs of your record and even evaluate your performance. These types of options make this a great purchase for newer players and players who simply want to improve their overall game. Having the computer show you your weaknesses will only help you to become a much stronger player in the long run. You will learn many new tactics that will have you looking forward to the next time you play a real life opponent.

It’s apparent that the game of chess will continue to evolve, and if the result of that evolution brings such welcomed advancements to the game that computerized chess boards have, then every player should be excited about the future of this awesome game.

 Anciently China had 4 traditional arts: music, painting, calligraphy, and strategy games.  The second syllable of  Xiangqi, “qi” is the Chinese word for strategy games.  The first syllable, “xiang” is the word for elephant.  This spelling is Mandarin, in Cantonese the game is called Jeuhng Keih.
  Like Western chess, Chinese chess descends from the game of Chaturanga, from India.  From India it spread throughout Asia and also to Medieval Euroupe.  In China, the game reached its current form during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).

The Board
The Chinese chess board is made up of 10 horizontal lines (ranks) and 9 vertical lines (files).  The pieces are placed on the lines rather than in the squares as in Western chess.  The lines are broken by the blank space that runs horizontally through the middle of the board.  The blank space is the river.  At each end there is a square with intersecting diagonals.  These are the palaces, one for red, and one for black.  The other markings are for aids in placement of the pieces at the beginning of the game.

If you want to learn more about Chinese chess,check out http://www.chesssoul.com/index.html . You can have a try and download on it.
The Pieces
The Pieces are round disks made of plastic, wood, etc.  Usually the colors are red and black, and the pieces are identified by the Chinese character written on them. 

Image

Name (Western Equivalant) Pronuciation (Mandarin)

Number  On Each Side

Abbreviation

? or ?

General (King)  jiang1/ shuai

1

K

?or ?

Mandarin or Assistant (Queen)  shi4

2

M or A

? or ?

Elephant (Bishop) xiang4

2

E

?

Horse (Knight) ma3

2

H or N

?

Chariot (Rook) che1

2

R

?

Cannon  pao4

2

C

? or ?

Soldier (Pawn) zu2/bing1

5

P

Movement of Pieces

Except the cannon, all pieces capture in the same manner that they move.

? or ?    General (King)
Any 1 point on the grid in an orthogonal (non-diagonal) direction within the palace.  It cannot leave the palace except in a theoretical move when it moves along a file from its own palace to the enemy’s palace thus capturing the enemy’s general.  Therefore it is illegal to make any move that leaves your own general in an open file opposite the enemy’s general because it places your general in check.

?or ?    Mandarin or Assistant (Queen)
1 point diagonally within the palace, i.e. it cannot leave the palace. 

? or ?    Elephant (Bishop)
2 points in any diagonal direction.  Cannot leap over any piece.  Also it cannot cross the river.

?    Horse (Knight)
1 point in an orthogonal (non-diagonal) direction followed by one point in a diagonal point thus ending two points away from starting position.  It may not leap over other pieces (i.e. if there is a piece of either color at the elbow point then it cannot move in that direction).

?    Chariot (Rook)
Moves any number of points either horizontally or vertically but not diagonally; it cannot leap other pieces (same as a rook).

?    Cannon
When not capturing a piece it moves exactly as a chariot.  In order to capture a piece it must leap another piece of either color before landing on the point of the captured piece.  It cannot leap over more than one piece but it can leap the river when capturing.
  
? or ?   Soldier (Pawn)
1 point forward. After it crosses the river it can move 1 point forward or 1 point sideways.  It never moves backwards or diagonally.  Unlike Western chess it captures the same as it moves, either forward or after crossing the river sideways, never diagonally.  Pawns do not promote; when they reach the end of the board they can then either move right or left (sideways).

Rules
1. Red moves first.
2. The game is won by either checkmating or stalemating the enemy General.
3. You cannot perpetual check. For example you cannot check the opponent more than 3 times in a row with the same piece or the same board position.
4. You cannot force an enemy piece to move perpetually between two points to avoid capture.  If this occurs then the person attacking must withdraw the attack.
5. The game is a draw when neither side can force either checkmate or stalemate.

If you want to learn more about Chinese chess,check out http://www.chesssoul.com/index.html . You can have a try and download on it.

Chess is famously known as the game of minds, the comprehension of opponents’ strategies, and mathematical thinking. History would also be a manifestation of how Persia used chess to change the world even up to now. In the past, chess was only played by the high classes of the society. But in our contemporary time now, chess is now played not only by rich people but also by the masses which comprise mostly of our society right now. This is now a game for those with overwhelming passion and this is now played transcending the barriers brought about by educational pedigree and social standings. This is also the way of how golf and tennis used to remove the sigma that societal whims imposed in playing a game.

Unlike other sports and games that we know, chess can be played over long periods of time. Others would also say that we can actually play chess with different partners while staying at home and at the same time ensuring that the other board of chess that they are playing is till safe with other opponents. There was also a time in the past that would show that you can play chess without your partner or opponent being actually present in the scene by playing while both players are actually on both sides of the phone. With this in mind, there came a lot of technological innovations that would make chess transcend different barriers so that it can be played anytime and anywhere without actually thinking of how your partner would play with you because of time and distance.

Because of the proliferation of internet chess online, we are able to find competitors for us to be able to play against them and at the same time make new friends and learn new ideas with them. In the past, these things can only happen during chess meetings and conventions. But with the use of the internet as an immediate tool, we can now play with people all over the world without moving a mile. Because of the fact that we can play chess online, there is no more need for other requirements of playing it especially physical interaction.

Indeed, internet made all things possible for us. The once so impossible things now become so reachable because of the benefits that internet gives us. With this in mind, we can actually say that indeed, chess has proven itself as the king of all games in the world. What more could we ask for?

The olden Europe may be long gone, but one of its remnants still enjoys immense popularity today. That remnant is a familiar board game. The game doesn’t have boundaries. The youthful and elderly alike can play it. It’s a social magnet in local and national tournaments. The elite love it, and so does the common man. The game..? You guessed it. Chess!

Chess is indeed a cross-disciplinary sensation. It is well liked in the music and literary fields. It’s one of media’s favourites, literature has featured it and it enjoys prominence in just about all books, newspapers and articles (just like this one!) that you can care to mention. So powerful that its signature is now a figure of speech in the English language…checkmate.

The Media:

A vast media collection on chess exists. Authors of “who dunnits” feature the game, using the mind game strategies, and sharp analysis used by chess gurus as a basis for story plots. In fact, “chess” is a buzz word which marketers are fond of using. You see, the term has become quite as attractive as the term “free” that you see in advertisement postings everywhere.  

Many concur. There’s something about “chess” that sounds really adorable. We find it used even in religion to portray the “God versus Devil – Good versus Evil” concepts. If hard rock concerts have their fans, chess has its mob of die-hard aficionados too!

Performing Arts:

The dramatic game play in chess has helped create an impressive following of enthusiasts; the players make a move, first one, and then the other. There is the nothing but sheer intensity for those involved in this dramatic show. The king’s downfall makes or breaks the game – depending on whose piece it is. So you’ll see that his subjects crowd close to him, to protect him from the feared checkmate.

In free-form dancing as well as ballet dancing and even musicals, chess is also a often used theme. With music in the background, the dancers portray common game plans in actual chess games.

Art:

Through all the arts, and also in printed and virtual media, as mentioned, we see references to this amazing game. The most common images you’d find are these: the queen and her men – knights, bishops and pawns – in human form, the chess set standing out against a medieval-themed background, or a well-dressed audience crowding over a chess match.

In the British Museum in London, there is a wonderful display of finely carved and beautifully artistic chess pieces made of ivory. These old-fashioned, priceless pieces are all rich in detail and impressive in workmanship. It is said that the pieces were carved by artisans of the 7th century, from an area of Turkey.

At present, chess sets carved from ivory are a rarity, but there was actually a period when ivory was as abundant as wood! In case yours is stashed somewhere in the attic, don’t lose a second. Have the valuable pieces insured pronto!