goddesschess preview : : Hangover Edition - Updated

January 4 , 2009
Ring in the New!

Archives of previous Access Mundae updates

Chessays
The Literary World of 15th Century Valencia: The Scachs d'amour Manuscript and its Three Authors by M.C. Romeo. A wonderful about the Spanish literary circle that made modern chess what it is today. PDF (740 kb.)

"Socius, Civis et Alii" by Franco Pratesi. Goddesschess is pleased and privileged to present M.C Romeo's special forward about the European literary traditions of chess. PDF (1.4M) Also, an additional "printer friendly" series of individual PDF page files. Merry Christmas Carmen!

Chess Femme News
Penned by our own Ace Reporter, Jan Newton - here is a round up of recent chess events from around the world. Jan writes a monthly column for Chessville.

Vegas Showgirls 2008!
EXTRA! Showgirls cover Vishy and Vlady! The World Chess Championship match between GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Vladimir Kramnik draws Bambi and Candi into the spotlight! Shocking Expose!

Archives of previous Random Roundup editions

Rounding up this week's universe ...

Post New Years Nostrum

1) Rules of Shot Glass Chess

1. Select your favorite alcoholic beverage and pour it into your opponent's 16 glasses. The following quantities are our recommendations, discovered after extensive research and development:

Pawn: 0.5 parts
Bishop: 1 part
Knight: 1 part
Rook: 2 parts
Queen: 3 parts
King: 2 parts

2. Begin the game of chess as normal. Whenever a player makes a capture he must drink the contents of that piece.

3. Illegal moves are permissible as long as neither player notices.

4. The losing player must drink his own king as the final ignominy of defeat.

2) Beer Chess same basic rules as Shot Glass Chess - with beer as the pieces

Combinations of the above two games lead quite reasonably to...

100 Fascinating Facts You Never Knew About the Human Brain - By Alisa Miller - "The human brain has amazed and baffled people throughout the ages. Some scientists and researchers have devoted their entire lives to learning how the brain works. It is no wonder that people enjoy learning facts about this incredible organ in the human body."

and possibly also..

Lady Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace (1815-1852), daughter of Lord Byron (the poet who spent some time in a Swiss jail -- in Chillon, not too far from Lausanne...). She was the assistant and patron of Charles Babbage; she wrote programs for his "Analytical Engine."

Too many shots of chess and you may find your ear pressed firmly against a table of some sort.

Counting Boards - Approximately

Is it my imagination or do some of the following sites seem to need reminding of a few possible ludic and divination foundations? Why? Perhaps the need to appear utterly rational overwrites some of the earlier wisdom ...

A History of Counting Machines TIMELINE From the Salamis Tablet to the first PC

An Ancient Base-60 Calculator? by Stephen K. Stephenson How did the Babylonians actually do their base-60 numeric calculations?

A Brief History of the Abacus Abacus is a Latin word that has its origins in the Greek words abax or abakon (meaning "table" or "tablet") which in turn, possibly originated from the Semitic word abq,meaning "sand".

A Brief History of Zero Kristen McQuillin, July 1997 (revised January 2004)

The following represent antedotes to rote historical approaches listed above ...

Chinese numerals Thousands of bones and tortoise shells ... inscribed with ancient Chinese characters. The importance of these finds, as far as learning about the ancient Chinese number system, was that many of the inscriptions contained numerical information about men lost in battle, prisoners taken in battle, the number of sacrifices made, the number of animals killed on hunts, the number of days or months, etc.

Mathematical Treasures by Frank J. Swetz and Victor J. Katz "During the first half of the twentieth century, David Eugene Smith (1860-1944) ... led the way in teaching reforms attuned to the Progressive Education Movement. He firmly believed that the teaching of mathematics should be closely associated with the history of the subject." (Ed. Note: Scroll down this site for an informative illustrated essay.)

Sungka - a mancala based "calculus", board game and divination medium from the Phillipines.

Manansala, Paul. Sungka mathematics of the Philippines. Indian J. Hist. Sci. 30 (1995), no. 1, 13--29. (Reviewer: J. S. Joel.) SC: 01A29 (01A13), MR: 96g:01009.

The author discusses the Sungka Board, which may once have been used as a kind of abacus. The word sungka is from the Philippines, but the author tells us that a similar board is "known over a wide area of the Malayo-Polynesian world from Madagascar to Polynesia, and also through Southeast Asia, India, and even mainland Africa."

Wikimanqala ?! and more Sungka basics

Dakon and Sungka

"The question of origin and spread of the 16-sign geomancy is quite a matter of controversy. Often it is tied together with similar theories on games/gambling of the type described under the general terms mancala or sungka.

H.J.R. Murray: "...the game was common ... in the Philippine Islands, where a boat-shape board with sixteen holes is also used the game being called Chungcajon ..."