SA Footy

I found this elsewhere on the net and found it interesting as I'd never thought about it:

I have heard it explained that, within chess, the movement of the pieces represents how their loyalty is split between the Church and the Crown. Orthogonal movement represents political (Crown) affiliation, and diagonal movement represents religious (Church) affiliation.

So, Bishops are exclusively loyal to the Church, while Rooks are exclusively loyal to the Crown. The King and Queen serve both, but not at the same time. Pawns move at the command of the Crown, but fight for their Church. Knights, with their code of chivalry, are sworn to serve both equally. So the Knights' L-Shaped movement is actually a political action combined with a religious action.

It may be utter hokum, but it makes a surprisingly good explanation.

Yep, that is an interesting theory. Difficult to give it real credence, though...

Sploosh wrote:Yep, that is an interesting theory. Difficult to give it real credence, though...

Especally since I think it originated in China, although the Romans had a related game called something like Latrunculi, from memory.

Check this out for a brief explanation:
http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_chess

basically it says the earliest game bearing the two distinctive properties of chess (ie pieces having different abilities, the fate of the game dependant on the survival of one piece, usually the king) was a game played in India in the 7th Century. Chess developed as it spread through the Persian Empire and really took shape once it hit Europe.
I like this quote from the above link "Two separate incidents in 13th century London involving men of Essex resorting to violence resulting in death as an outcome of playing chess further caused sensation and alarm."
I think Wedgie's quote is possibly correct, but it is the first time I have heard it also.

I love the game myself. If anybody wants a game I play at:
http://www.chesscorner.net

My user name is "thunderwing".

I just bookmarked that site Theri might have a crack one day

I haven't played for ages now - used to have a PC version a few years back and was slowly improving

It's a great game - how you start is all important if your opponent gets control of the centre of the Board its hard to come back

Sploosh wrote:Yep, that is an interesting theory. Difficult to give it real credence, though...

i'd say it's difficult to not give it credence...

On the subject of chess, i heard there is a move that pawn can attack forward on last move or something like that. What is it?
At work we play chess all day long now that our internet is hard to get on (though I am at work now!! )

TroyGFC wrote:On the subject of chess, i heard there is a move that pawn can attack forward on last move or something like that. What is it?
At work we play chess all day long now that our internet is hard to get on (though I am at work now!! )

En Passant ? (sp?)

This means that if a pawn's first move puts it ending up next to an opponents pawn, the opponents pawn can move behind the other one and take it.

Thanks for that Hondo. I look forward to a game with you.
The site is set up so that both players don't need to be on line at the same time for a game to be played. One player can make a move and then log off, you then check in whenever is convenient to see if your opponent has taken his turn. It is good like that because you don't need to set aside a block of time to see out a game. You just log off and the game will still be there the next day, or week depending on how long you have specified for the maximum interval between moves.

Never played chess in my life, its a game for SMRT people...

I have heard it explained that, within chess, the movement of the pieces represents how their loyalty is split between the Church and the Crown. Orthogonal movement represents political (Crown) affiliation, and diagonal movement represents religious (Church) affiliation.

So, Bishops are exclusively loyal to the Church, while Rooks are exclusively loyal to the Crown. The King and Queen serve both, but not at the same time. Pawns move at the command of the Crown, but fight for their Church. Knights, with their code of chivalry, are sworn to serve both equally. So the Knights' L-Shaped movement is actually a political action combined with a religious action.

It may be utter hokum, but it makes a surprisingly good explanation.

Bearing that in mind, I propose the following new pieces:

the nihilist. Doesn't move in any direction, diagonal or straight.

the swinging voter. Moves straight along the north-south axis on its first move. Must move along the east-west axis on its next move. Then N-S, then E-W, etc...

the John Howard. Can move only backwards. In addition, the white one must refuse to be sorry whenever it takes a black piece.

the Peter Garrett. A pawn with a shiny dome. Can move only one space at a time but is never sure of the direction.

the Nicole Cornes. This piece is not permitted to take any other pieces. As such it is used only as part of a sacrifice.

the crusader. Is able to move diagonally as far as the edge of the board, taking all pieces in its path, regardless of colour.

the fundamentalist suicide bomber. moves diagonally forward one square at a time. May instead "explode", taking out all pieces within a two-square radius, including itself.

I thought it was the game you progressed to when draughts became booring when a child....

Learn this game after the age of 9 and it's too late.....