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The
Weave Posts
POSTS
1151- 1199
Scroll to bottom of page for a special collection of posts on
The Anatomy of a Chess Coronation
Jan Newton - 10:26am Jul 27, 1999 MST (#1151 of 1163)
All this talk about war and apocalypse, super novae and pole shifts and magnetic fields, has given me a headache. Make love, not war! Ha! Black Queen mates White King in two.
Georgia Albert - 06:54pm Jul 27, 1999 MST (#1152 of 1163)Hi Glen,
I have been reading your posts and thinking, we have an astronomer within our Weave now, this is wonderful. The ancients had their astronomers and we now have ours.
LOVE
G
May Manna Always be with You.
Ron Adams - 11:26pm Jul 27, 1999 MST (#1153 of 1163)
"I'm the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life."Well Jan one way to look at this war, black holes, white holes, peace is to just have sex. That is the greatest power that the Goddess has given us, using Sex Magick to transcend it all. I take my black queen back and checkmate your white queen. He, he, he.
G. David Bock - 12:33am Jul 28, 1999 MST (#1154 of 1163)I had intended to post on the topic of Marduk and his followers campaign to vanquish Inanna and the Goddess religions/temples following their victory in the "Great War of Gods and Men", C.2024-2023 B.C., however some distractions came up, so will cover that one at a future time. With the interest in numerology, symbolism, and portents of trends under occassional consideration here, this item I stumbled across earlier this evening may be of interest. It is a bit lengthy, thought provoking, and you may want to get your glode or atlas handy; King-Kill/33degrees Symbolisms in this article concerning; King, Queen, horse, water, ley, and sacrifice amoung other references seemed highly synchronistic with the current thread of topics.
Mark Borcherding - 05:36am Jul 28, 1999 MST (#1155 of 1163)
dare to dream upon your own starRelating to G. David post 1154
Here is some more astronomy and 33 connections: Website Link
Jan Newton - 07:30am Jul 28, 1999 MST (#1156 of 1163)So much food for thought, it will take days to sort through the various excellent threads presented here of late! Dave, Isis and Don, as you know, given the recent tragic deaths in the Kennedy and Bessette families, I've been giving the idea of king sacrifice a bit of a closer look, so I will be sure to scruitinize Dave's link most carefully. Ron, you are such a tease! Mating my White Queen, indeed! Ha! Actually, I had in mind the great mysterious Dragon Lady, China, as the Black Queen, and our good ol' naive and dumb USofA as the White King. Lots afoot lately with yon Dragon Lady. Not only sabre-rattling over issues of Taiwan (do they REALLY want to get into a possible shooting match with us over Taiwan?), but just yesterday two noteworthy articles involving our granting "normal trade relations" (formerly known as "most favored nation" status) to China on the one hand while Dragon Lady fakes hemming and hawing about joining the World Trade Organization on the other. And today there was a little article about the US and Dragon Lady sitting down to discuss "reparations" for the recent bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Serbia. Outmatched and outplayed. I had predicted yesterday, Mate in Two. It's now Mate and Game. We are clueless. Aren't there any chessplayers in the U.S. diplomatic corps?
Don McLean - 06:45am Jul 29, 1999 MST (#1157 of 1163)Hi Georgia -
Yep - I catch the drift. The law or the ritual existed BEFORE Moses. Unless we are Jewish though, we may never know for sure what is contained in the Torah, "Act Two"... Any clues?
You seem to regard the mystery it conceals as having a particular "Goddess" context. Given that we have the Song of Soloman and other lights to guide this perception - it may be a hunch that is on the money.
When it comes to history, and other inexact sciences, at times "99 & 1/2" has to do... even though the other .5% might just be the most important part of the puzzle.
We see through the glass but darkly. Could this be because our vision of the past is no less occulded?
Dave - given what the Masons seem to be fooling around with - all this circumstantial stuff - (article you posted) might have its merits. The method - a kind of historical alchemy - could possibly be the only way to catch the culprit.
There are so many confusing takes on the Masons - we know exactly WHO they are, but not WHAT or WHY or HOW they are makes it tough coming to terms with the whole shooting match. Hard to believe that any single organization would go to such great pains to focus the cross hairs of history in such a way.
While Goddess "magik" is assumably involved, its a real shocker to know that no reasonable powers of manipulating "reality" stand in the way of such a progressive re-enactment of King/Queen sacrifice. Its all the more difficult to know how to judge the "good" or the "evil" inherent in these acts, or the character of the people who seemingly cause them. Even so much as imputing the possibilty brings on a landslide of assumptions about historical events such as JFK's assasination. So, as conspiracies swell to include or accomodate these perceptual avenues - so too does my beleaguered brain...
Although I do come to the question(s):
Why does the Goddess require/extoll so much subterfuge? Is that subterfuge a result of the "magik" attributable to her various personnae - or is the hidden character the result of her imprisonment by the Sherriffs of Notingham - so to speak?
Are events like JFK's demise a true representation of Goddess "magik" - her "real" face, so to speak - or - has she somehow been subsumed beneath the antinomian undertow of an equally shady cabal?
Shady is the word. Pick 'em: "The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane"... "Witchcraft"... - or - "Angel Eyes", "Heaven must be Missing an Angel", "Volare" (as Ron suggests with that ol' sex magik) and of course, Venus.
Could this essential sense of never being able to distinguish the Goddess as clearly one thing or another - "devil or an angel?" - be the underlying recipe that caused upheaval and rebellion - a revolt INTO patriarchy - at a particular time in history, some many millennia ago?
"Oh I wonder, wonder, wonder, wonder - WHO! - Who wrote the book of love?..."
Jan Newton - 11:44am Jul 29, 1999 MST (#1158 of 1163)I read the "King Kill-33" article linked in Dave's post. I found some aspects intriguing: (1) Downard's statement linking masonic ritual to archetypes of fertility and death symbolism, together with his continual references to the "King" or "Sun King" and his depiction as a scapegoat; (2) his statement that masonry is obsessed with earth-as-gameboard (tessellation) and the ancillary alignments necessary to facilitate the "game".
Don, you asked two questions - why does the Goddess require/extoll so much subterfuge? And do events like those claimed in the article represent the true face of the Goddess? I think the answers to those questions lie in the original cultural acceptance of king sacrifice and the devolution through time that finally culminated in king sacrifice, and later substitute king sacrifice, being deemed unacceptable. At one time it was evidently considered "normal" to have ritual killings twice a year; men even volunteered for the role of sacrificial king. The cultures in which such practices were routine understood the purposes and meaning of the ritual. To paraphrase Spock's famous line from "The Wrath of Khan", the sacrifice of the one benefited the many. Therefore, the practice was, at the very least, condoned as a necessary adjunct to maintaining life as the culture knew it. While today we consider such practices abhorrent, if there is a group or groups of people still "practicing" such sacrificial rituals, their outlook needs must be different from the accepted cultural norm; thus, the secrecy, for we would otherwise hunt them down as madmen and cold-blooded killers.
As to what we now think of as the "bloodthirsty" aspects of the Goddess, from the point of view of the original purposes of king sacrifice, my guess is that she was viewed by the cultures who revered her as "neutral" - at least in the beginnings of the practice. Admittedly I haven't read any sources other than Graves and the article you pointed me to about Jeanne d'Arc on the subject, but that seems to be the general slant. It would only have been later, perhaps as part of the "war of the God against the Goddess" that a propaganda campaign might have been started that invoked a questioning of the Goddess's "right" to "demand" sacrifice of a human life. I suspect that, at least in part, the "war" that resulted in the successful ousting of the Goddess from her primary position may have been precipitated by mankind losing its perception of the primal connection among Goddess/life/soul/eternal life. When the Goddess was deposed, the God tried to appropriate the connection, with only limited success. The result is that while at one time, man routinely faced situations that might result in death with a calmness we can but imagine, confident that he would not, in fact, lose his "eternal life", now we have a culture obssessed with the fear of death, because while people in general may pay lip service to a belief in God and the concept of eternal life after death, whether in Heaven, Paradise, or through some other sort of premise (reincarnation, soul transmigration), they really don't believe it.
Lee Kyer - 06:18pm Jul 29, 1999 MST (#1159 of 1181)For anybody that likes to play chess; try this site. www.itsyourturn.com
Mark Borcherding - 06:18pm Jul 29, 1999 MST (#1160 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starTHE GOLD CHESS GAME
this link does not start out with the chess part but leads into itInteresting link: http://www.cbjd.net/orbit/graphics/goldbrick.html
Jan Newton - 10:12pm Jul 29, 1999 MST (#1161 of 1181)Lee! Mark! You two have been busy!
Lee, I checked out the website! Mondo cool! I have become a member, and now await my first game (at totally clueless and no time limit level! LOL!) Do you play, by the by? If you want a game with the merest rookie, email me.
Mark, as always, my hat is off to you, darling! What an interesting site! I was hooked the moment I spied the interlinking dragons forming a vesica pisces - a triad (Chinese Triad?)- two Monads intersecting and forming a third "life form".
And Red Dragon, Black Dragon, Gold Chess Game, oh my! Shades of Enochian Chess! And I caught the allusion to something mentioned in the link G. David posted: "once the grand deception is exposed...". EEK! This sounds very much like an echo from the K/K 33 site which advocates as the third step in the alleged Mason Magik the manifesting and exposing of all (I don't have the exact terminology down, but that is the general sentiment). Enough for tonight!
G. David Bock - 12:15am Jul 30, 1999 MST (#1162 of 1181)Synchronicity, not only in my life and those of a few close to me, but in the world at large seems to have accellerated a bit as of late, so saga of Marduk/Inanna, et al. will have to remain on hold till next week. Partly because of the following and also because I'll be out of cybertouch for a few days. When I get to them, I'm pulling from the writtings of Z. Sitchin who details this from the chronociles of Sumer/Babylon, with Marduk/Inanna (=Ishtar=Isis=Aphrodite=Venus) and related characters predating and being the origin of the Egyptian saga of Osirius/Isis/Set/Horus.
After a through reading of King-Kill/33degrees weave into it's symbolisms, clues, and "factoids" the contents of this (just published today) Liberty Bell 7 "Resurrected"- Symbollically. Then weave in the contents of this article that Mark gave us earlier; A Table of "Coincidence", A Guide to the Improbable at NASA and in History. These have hit me as a 1-2-3-Whammy! A long playing "saga" would seem to have begun it's final act. More in a few days.
Mark Borcherding - 06:18am Jul 30, 1999 MST (#1163 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starG. David ... I took some of the names you gave in post 1162 and they made me think of the
following:" Isis - Horus - Osiris" = 85
"Venus - Earth - Mars" = 58
Interesting, the 85 and 58 are mirrors of each other and they are composed of the numbers 5 and 8 which we have seen alot of in our weave. 8+5=13 which is 5 + 3 + 5
The 5 represents the center the Heart chakra a place the Goddess might reside and the 8
is the infinite the 6 and 9 mirrors merged as One.Kin 58 in the mayan tzolkin was the date that Pacal Votan died on 6-Eztnab "White Mirror"
and kin 85 the mirror is 7-Chiccan "Red Serpent" notice the tones 6 & 7 sum to 13 The energy of these two glyphs Etznab "Endlessness" and Chiccan "Life Force Sex" so combined they give us the power of Endless Sex. Hmmmm... seems like something most people would like or could relate to : )"Endless Sex" = 36 = (18 + 18) = ("Love" + "Love")
Now if we use our 10 (alpha/omega) also symbolic of the 10 planetary orbits of our solar system to be fruitful and multiply then we get this:
36 x 10 = 360 = (18+18) x 10
-or-
18 x 20 = 360 = 18 x (10+10)
360 .... the circle is complete!
"Love" = 18 and there are 20 mayan solar glyphs with 2 glyphs per planet and when we add
the 18 and 20 we get 38 the planets in the 3rd and 8th orbits are Earth and Uranus also known as the Timeships of Excaliber and Camelot. The Goddess of the Wind awaits in the tower of Camelot for Excaliber to sing the song of Heart Magick.
Ron Adams - 04:16pm Jul 30, 1999 MST (#1164 of 1181)
"I'm the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life."Crowley says that the Goddess, or age of the Matriarchy was a time of intuition and mysticism. This was usually agrarian culture. Then along came the hunter/gatherers, and the Age of the God became an age of war and sacrifice. Intelligence and rationality was valued. Men could go off to sea with other men, and conquer and take what they wished. Now we have the age of the Crowned & Conquering Child, the Oligarchy, which is ruled by strong passions, chaos, punkish attitudes, and ruled by a few. It is this age that will bring us to the brink of destruction, before humanity has its quickening and wakes up to the rule of no-rule, or true will. Chess points this out perfectly and sublimely, with great repose.
Mark Borcherding - 05:49pm Jul 30, 1999 MST (#1165 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starRon, great to have you with us and I agree about the ages and Crowley seemed
like a really neat Kid."Do what thou will" = 65 and this reflects the 56 number that Crowley spoke of
and of course 5+6 = 11 ... the11th mayan glyph is Chuen with power of Magick.
The 5th and 6th orbits of our solar system are Asteriod Belt and Jupiter. The Serpent
glyph mentioned in my post 1163 is the female glyph of the Asteriod Belt planet some
call Maldek. It is this glyph that holds the power of Sexual energy. Something that
alot of religions have a problem with ... why? The other glyph for this planet is the
Wizard with the power of Timelessness. With these powers that planet has held its orbit
even in while broken apart with great beauty and majesty. Note that it holds the 5th orbit
... and we have seen this number of 5 come up. It is also encoded in the orbit of our planet
Earth with the circle.360 + 5 = 365 days in a year
360 + 6 = 366 days in a leap year ... our 5 & 6 are with us.
Michael Peck - 10:27am Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1166 of 1181)Reference the basic question of this discussion. Chess is thought by some to have originated in ancient India several hundred years before the birth of Christ. From India it spread to other parts of the world. The descriptions I've read of the ancient Indian game do not appear to offer any direct support for an affirmative answer to the discussion question. However, the ancient game apparently simulated war in a crude sort of way and probably involved gambling -- something which is not entirely unknown to occur with chess games today.
Of course, as the ancient game spread to new places, the characters and rules of the game were sometimes changed a bit to suit the local cultures. By the time chess reached Europe, rajas had become kings, elephants had become knights on horseback, and so forth.
I think that the original game of chess was simply a simulation of war and conquest; and, as a game, it's essential purpose was probably the enjoyment of the passage of time -- and, in some cases, it was a vehicle for the redistribution of disposable income through the process of betting on the outcomes of the games.
I would not expend a great deal of effort looking for some much deeper mystical meaning to the game.
Jan Newton - 01:55pm Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1167 of 1181)Michael, oh ye of little faith! Come now, a man who can suppose that betting on games of chess might have been a possible methodology for redistribution of income needs must have some adventurous bones in his body! So, I propose that you join us and try to prove us wrong. Are you up to the challenge?
Jan Newton - 02:27pm Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1168 of 1181)Blythely continuing along, tra la, tra la, here is more of Pavlev Bidev's wonderful article, picking up from post 1134, and p. 71:
"The Horse has always stood on the chessboard on its known places, and has been moved in its original manner. In two springs it can draw a half-moon, the Indian symbol of water. The Brahmanic symbol of water is a half-moon, and the Buddhistic one is a circle. The Horse is able to describe the [sic] both pictures. In eight springs it can describe a closed circled line around the King." Unfortunately I cannot reproduce the diagrams here, but picture the King sitting on d5; place a Knightess on f7, and then follow the progression of moves counter-clockwise thus: d8, b7, a5, b3, d2, f3, g5, and home again to f7. The course describes a circle around the King. The "half-moon" Bidev describes is drawn as follows: take the Knightess on f7, move her thence to d8, thence to b7; and then draw a straight line across b7, c7, d7, e7, and f7. Ta da! A "half-moon". Actually, I think Bidev cut himself short here. Logic would seem to dictate that a "half-moon" would be one-half of the complete circle described by the Knightess's complete circuit around the King sitting on d5, n'est ce pas? However, the underlying concept of the connection to the Indian symbol for "water" remains, whether one connects the squares after two Knightess's moves, or four.
Intrepid goddess that I am (all right now, don't you all choke at once), I undertook some research first under "symbols" and then more brazenly under "water horses" and hit pay dirt! I found several interesting websites dealing with various legends of horses that would rise out of the waters (the briny deep, fresh water rivers and lakes, and even wells and springs)- apparently this "mythical" creature is known worldwide. Which leads me to suspect that perhaps at one point there may have been a life-form (long since extinct - or?)- that either bore a striking resemblance to "ekhos" or was an aquatic species of "ehkos" - or perhaps even a gigantic form of what we today still call a "seahorse".
In any event, check out the following website veritable encyclopedia of all related to horses/water horses in myth and legend: http://www.jps.net/xephyr/rich/fantasy/Pegopedia.html. And be prepared to be blown sheer away!
Don McLean - 04:53pm Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1169 of 1181)Just came back from the track. Lotsa purty ponies with funny names - like "Sea Biscuit"! Well they look innocent and all, but... they tricked me! Yes! They took my money! Just goes to show that men and boizes of all ages will bet on anything - even the impossible.
"Its i-m-p-o-s-s-i-b-l-e, to shove a Cadillac up your nose - its just..." - Steve Martin. Moi, I look down my nose at impossible things and say - "That hurts! Make it stop!" Braver men most likely say, the impossible is what we live each day.
If we look at some of the finds in archeology over the past hundred years we uncover a number of dramatic upsets. While traditional evidence DOES support the theory of an Indian origin for the game of chess - there is growing speculation - that its origins may predate the approx. 650 A.D. typically assigned.
It is difficult to accept that the game emerged from the ether - fully intact - like Egyptian hieroglyphics - and yet, like hieroglypics, a particular wisdom can be affixed to chess - not entirely to the classical representation of the game, as it is commonly viewed - but to the underlying mathematical and geometrical proportions which can be ascribed to the board and its pieces. In other words, we surmise that there is a game within the game - or two games really.
As such, the ascription of geometry, symbol, myth, meaning, math - even complex mathematics - point towards numerous "oddities" - examples that lie scattered all over this BBS.
In fact, the opinion is widely held that many common ancestors of chess have also served a dual function as a system of divination. Whether this was done with bones or dice is irrelevant seeming, when one considers that games such as Senet, Chinese Chess, early Indian variations of chess, as well as Go, Wei Qi, Shogi and Ma Jongg have all, in their own way, served similar purpose. This leaves room open for additional historical speculation - possible reintegration into a wider paradigm.
Of all the games ever invented that "SHOULD" actually "SEEM" considerably "MORE" than what it is commonly cracked up to be - chess is hard to beat. There's a reason for the timer in modern competition. My hunch is that it's there to keep players from "levitating" or accessing the Bardos...:-)
Anyway, the door is wide open. Each of the four main centers of post-ice-age civilization demonstrated ample means to recapitulate a complex system of numbers, astronomy, architecture etc. etc. and showed some early predilections towards set theory, or information theory - perhaps much, much more than we have heretofore given them credit. Given these basic conditions, then chess, or something very much LIKE chess, is a distinct possibilty in any of these early groundswells.
Babylonian, Chaldean, Egyptian, Mayan, Chinese and Indian civilizations were already well on their way to inventing complex languages, tablatures and "systems" some 4000 + years ago - many of which bear certain astounding similarities, I might add. Perhaps we are not so much interested in when the game originated as we are in the mythical and ideational origins - for, no doubt, the game passed through many hands. How many hands and whose hands will no doubt determine the stature of the horse - er - the game.
Mark Borcherding - 05:55pm Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1170 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starJan perhaps the horse you are looking for is a sea horse or a
Knight in the Ocean. The Dogon tribe in africa has drawings
of beings coming in a ship landing in the water and jumping
into the water. They look like Dolphins (ocean knight?) and
they were drawn sort of like a "vesica pices". The original
symbol of Christ is perhaps more related to a Dolphin
than a fish. The Dogons had some knowledge of our solar
system and of Sirius pulsar relationship that we did not know until
very recently. How did they know? The Dogons called these
beings "Nommo"."Dogon 28 + Nommo 25" = 53
5+3 = 8
"Dolphin" = 42 (4 x 2 = 8)
In the Mayan glyphs there is one glyph that has 42 written in their
numbering system and it is the Lamat star glyph and it is the 8th
glyph and Jesus Christ was born in the 8th baktun in the mayan
cycle of the current 13 baktuns. The Lamat star glyph symbolizes the
planet Venus "Goddess of Love" and Venus is called the "Morning Star"
which is relates to Christ.
L a m a t
|
---+---
|
O | O
8th mayan glyph
Jan Newton - 08:11pm Jul 31, 1999 MST (#1171 of 1181)"It's impossible, to shove a Cadillac up your nose...". Steve Martin. LOL! Well, deLion! Liked your explanation for a 'timer' in chess; after all, we would not want the players to drift off into the realms of the "Ether" (or otherwise!!!) Most especially at the FIDE "Slam" World Championship in LV whilst I am vacationing; during my temporary tenure (8/13-8/21) the semi-final games will be played, oh my! I so look forward to world class chessplay and world class psychodrama.
As I sit here typing in transcendental mode whilst listening to Rachmaninov's Prelude Op. 33, No. 6, et addenda, seems to moi that Marcus Arelieus's numerical explanation of a dolpin (4x2) or (4 +2 = 6, ah, the number of domesticity and love! Amore'! Now I can dig that...) hits the goddess/god/combination of all of the foregoing, squarely on the nose (snout?). Was the "water horse" none other than the "dolphin"? If that be so then, obviously, yon water horse is still very much with us today. (There are both salt sea and fresh water species of same wonderful mammal; one of the few species thus far identified as having a sophisticated system of communication 'twixt themselves - so sophisticated, in fact, that their language thus far defies our 'in full' interpretation - much as the "Phaistos Disc"). I point out, merely in passing, a novel I read aeons ago, "The Day of the Dolpin", writ by - I forget now. But t'was a novel, nonetheless, that impacted greatly on my life (along with Marilyn French's "The Women's Room"). In "Day of the Dolphins", we find self-sacrificing dolphins knowingly strapping torpedoes to their backs and aiming themselves, suicide style, at enemy ships; in "Women's Room" we have - well, that's another story. Dolphins and femmes, oh my! I now thus freely extrapolate from the "Pegopedia" site:
"Horses are a potent symbol from almost every world religion and mythology. Many of its myths express the horse's innate clairvoyance and ability to perceive the magic within humans. Some view the horse as the symbol of strength, virility and lust. Acocording to popular belief it loses its sexual powers when its mane is cut [Editor's note: Eek! shades of Samson], and is the only animal which shows sorrow because it weeps for its dead master (though this later belief is not exclusive to the Horse-Human relationship). Also, it is a symbol of loyalty and devotion, such as the faith it has with its master. It also represents the warrior spirit, bravery and courage. Strength & Sexual Energy."
The relationship between this species and humans was ever frought with - what might be an appropriate word here? Exploitation? Suspense? Peril? Love? I know not...
Mark Borcherding - 07:42am Aug 1, 1999 MST (#1172 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starJan ... recall post 1170 and the Dolphin - Christ relationship formed thru
the 8th Mayan glyph called Lamat."Dolphin + Lamat" = 53 ..... 5+3=8
The 8 looks like an infinity sign and 8 also looks like the double serpent Caduceus
The 8th tarot card is Adjustment VIII ruled by the planet Venus "Goddess" and the
Lamat glyph relates to Venus. In the Aleister Crowley Thoth tarot deck this card VIII
a goddess who wields a magick sword. She has the scales and they are at perfect
balance between the Alpha & Omega. It states on page 88 of "The Book of Thoth"
by Crowley this: "More than this, she is the complete formula of the Dyad the word
AL is the title of The Book of the Law, whose number is 31, the most secret of the
numerical keys of the book".The Lamat glyph mentioned is also called "The Sheild of Arcturus"
"Arcturus" = 31
Arcturus is in the Bootes constellation and according to Edgar Cayce and others
the Arcturians are beings known as Masters of Love. Christ was called the Desciple of Love."Bootes" = 22
"Arcturus + Bootes" = 31 + 22 = 53
(11+11)+ 9 + (11+11) written in mayan numbers looks like this
O OOOO O
O O ==== O O
Michael Peck - 11:43am Aug 1, 1999 MST (#1173 of 1181)Jan:
So many centuries have passed since the game of chess began, that if there is any arcane symbolism in the game it might never be proven because the originators aren't here to verify the hypotheses.
However, here's something for you to consider regarding the "L" moves of the knights.
How does a horse cavalry soldier fight? The horse moves in some direction and the soldier then attacks the opponent on one side of the horse or the other side -- typically using a sword, battle axe, lance, or a mace. Even when using a long lance that is pointed rather much forward, the coup will probably be slightly to one side or another. The horse may even wheel slightly to the right or the left, especially if the attack is against an unmounted opponent and a weapon must be withdrawn from its target, or if forward progress is hindered by meeting the opponent.
I believe that the L pattern of the knight simply reflects the typical technique of a cavalry fighter in classical times. The short portion of the L is always the final part of the knight piece's motion. It represents the blow to the enemy on one side or another of the horse at the point of engagement in the chess piece's advance.
If you are really looking for some symbolism in the knight's L pattern of movement, then you can let your imagination run wild.
You might even consider that given enough room from a centering point, the knight can be moved in a series of moves to and from that point so as to make the pattern of the ancient Indian symbol of partition and reintegration [or in some cultures of a gathering], which in our century became a political hate symbol in the wrong hands.
But the knight can also be moved in a series of L moves centering on one point to form a cross of the form known as the "potent" cross.
Again, however, I believe that the L motion of the knight's piece simply reflects the way in which a classical mounted warrior would have fought an enemy -- by advancing in some direction and then striking an opponent on one side or another of the horse.
Jan Newton - 08:31pm Aug 1, 1999 MST (#1174 of 1181)Michael! How gratified I am to see you are a man who does not shrink from a direct challenge! Welcome to Chess History-Goddess style! LOL!
Now, to address your latest specific argument:
In the ordinary course, I would have crumbled into nothingness and most humbly have begged your pardon for being so inpertinent as to suggest a course other than what you propose (NAH! NOT REALLY!)
Indeed, in the ordinary course you pose a most compelling argument. I must, however, as much as it pains me to do so, point out to you that - per your own time-parameters stated in your post 1166 (SUCH significant numbers!), the Indians did not have a "calvary" (as we now know the term - shades of all those Hollywood and Italian westerns) in pre-Christian times. No, indeed! Then,the armed forces led the charge with their heavy "artillery", the elephants (our modern-day equivalent would be the tank), followed by the chariots containing a team of driver and archer and/or swordsman - and in later times (that is, closer to CE rather than BCE) a trio of driver/swordsman/archer. The "calvary", as was then constituted - consisting of would-be hero fops and princes, did not enter the foray until the bitter end, so to speak, to do "mop up" work, after the foot-soldiers (pawns) would have engaged in arm-to-arm combat, much as our so-called "grunts" do so today, after air-strikes and heavy-barrage artillery do their nasty work. For a modern example of such classical deployment, I need only point out "Desert Storm".
Warfar! Oh, ick! I much prefer the Goddess's point of view - make love, not war! No, Michael, there are multiple "levels" to The Game; on the most fundamental level it may suggest, perhaps, a game of war. But move up one (or more) levels from the ground, and you have.....
Ah, now that is for you to discover here, along with us.
Holmes, as always, you continue to amaze and delight! My figurative hat is off to you, once again! I am so very glad to see that the "dolphin" (water horse? - that is as yet undecided) and Venus are tied together by the "8". But then, I would not have suspected less, if I had suspected anything at all (and, indeed, I did not). Good night, all!
Mark Borcherding - 05:19am Aug 2, 1999 MST (#1175 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starJan a little more on the 8
888 is gematria for Christ and this trinity of 8's sums to 8+8+8 = 24
"Dolphin" = 42 .....which is the mirror of 24
42 + 24 = 66
we see the 66 relates to Chess as follows:
1+ 64+1 = 66
Notice we have 65 going both directions from the center of 64? We have been
discussing the 6 & 5. We also know of the infamous number 666 in the Bible's
Revelations and here we have 66 with one more 6 to go.666 = 6+6+6 = 18
"Love" = 18
Now lets connect this to the beginning of this message:
24 + 18 = 42 -or in words- Christ + Love = Dolphin consciousness
Ron Adams - 01:43pm Aug 2, 1999 MST (#1176 of 1181)
"I'm the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life."The L move of the Knight, or the G image has been called the Sacred Spiral, the Force of God, seems to me that is obvious in a sea shell, but perhaps it is more obvious in the Shape of the Feminine, the force of the Goddess.
Jan Newton - 02:33pm Aug 2, 1999 MST (#1177 of 1181)Michael, what is a "potent" cross? I would like to visualize how a Knightess's moves would make one, but I don't know what it is! I can visualize a swastika cross pattern formed out of a series of "L" moves. That is intriguing, given the general present consensus that The Game arose in India, and the swastika is a Sanskrit symbol for good luck. For a different perspective on the origin of the Knightess's springing move, you might want to read Philip Mistlberger's post 134. But perhaps Bidev's theory that the springing move is just duplicating what a horse can do in the real world, that is, leap over obstacles, is the most logical.
Mark Borcherding - 04:18pm Aug 2, 1999 MST (#1178 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starRon look at what I found in your words of post 1176 ... I just highlited certain letters.
"The L move of the Knight, or the G image has been called the Sacred Spiral, the Force of God,"
Love and G-Spot (errogenous zone)
"Sacred Spiral" = 53
This number came up in post 1172 and 53=5+3=8 (a number that spirals into itself)
Don McLean - 04:41am Aug 3, 1999 MST (#1179 of 1181)A little additional "8" info from Alice Haney's Tarot.
Key 8 Strength. The keyword for this card is the fang of the serpent. The serpent represents the kundalini, or life force, which in undeveloped persons lies coiled three and half times at the base of the spine. This force must be elevated, to transform the individual into a more spiritually-oriented person. All transformations in nature are actually specialized manifestations of this kundalini force.
The only two numbers that can be written over and over are 8 and 0. As such they represent divine power. The number 8 represents material power as well. In key 8 we direct this life force through suggestion. The woman is the subconscious mind controlling body functions and directing the amounts of vital force that the body receives. She also receives and acts upon suggestions from the conscious mind. Her dominion over the lion is through gentle and spiritual power rather than by brute force.
The roses around the woman and the lion form a chain. Roses, representing desire, must be tended and properly cared for. In this context, a chain of roses is a series of cultivated desires. Any suggestion emanating from a desire sets up a chain reaction in the subconscious that eventually results in manifestation. The cosmic lemniscate (the figure-8-shaped curve) over her head gives her dominion in this world. ______________________________________
Perhaps we could say that the game of chess, with its invitation to exercise attention, concentration and all our higher powers of overall discernment - can be seen as a MEDIATING conveyance, one geared to provide practicioners with a system of thought enhancement - like a mandala or a yantra. This is sound shamanic principle - a method of focusing upon an acquired set of teachings - a particular conveyance perhaps stemming from a time when oral and visual skills formed the only practical basis of human communication.
As gods of the board, we are attracted to the divinity within the experience of chess. Chess is not a game. Chess is an experience. Chess is also a "Feynnman Checkerboard" - a quantum field of dreams. Chess math has its own way of becoming dimensionally enhanced - "gifted", in a sense.
According to David Bohm, Chess is taking place both on and off the planet - each earthly event oscillating in two parallel locations at any given time - on waves and beams and particles and strings - at speeds faster than light. While the implications of that statement run deep - and ties the mystics in with the matematicians, you could say that there is an accumulating mass of people on this planet who have found themselves being nudged toward the conclusion that in most cases, under normal consciousness, we fall short of apprehending ourselves for that which we truly are.
Chess draws us into a specified notion of "enhanced dimensionalty" - our apprehension of it, as well as our thoughts about the universe and our place in it. Somewhat like Falun Gong, chess whispers like the wind.
I would venture that there are indeed two very different games of chess going on in China at this time. Chess is the invitation to know thyself. Chess is also the invitation to conflict - a time and motion study of basic human iniquity and the wiles of acquisitors. Ride'em cowboy! That there's an "up" side and a "down" side to chess might be putting it mildly.
Livin' La Vida Loca - Considering all the other passionate scenes (from seductions to shootings) that have taken place around the chess board - it is easy to see what chess is capable of eliciting on conjoint emotional and intellectual levels. Moreover, it is a game which extolls and demands a kind of dedication - perserverance, excellence - leading towards "promotion". So, chess is not just the game we are playing today - chess is the road (long or short) that we took to arrive at today's game. Chess is knowledge. Chess is power of its own kind. Chess is a voyage towards "perfectibility" that may have some of us arriving at swanky international tournaments with Grand Master's caps firmly in place and others arriving at the kitchen table.
With these few basics in hand, its not much of a stretch to view chess as a particular form of meditation. While concentrating on the strategy normally attuned to actually winning the game - "inspiration" can and does come a-calling as anyone who has played often and long aenough can no doubt attest. Where does inspiration come from? Where do ideas come from? Why do certain things connect - even ephemerally? Can chess force Kundalini? Is Kundalini the goddess we are all searching for on this site?
Mark Borcherding - 05:05am Aug 3, 1999 MST (#1180 of 1181)
dare to dream upon your own starDon ref 1179 Looks like some really direct numerology connections between Chess and Kundalini.
"Kundalini Dream" = 64
"Kundalini Meditation" = 88 (8x8=64)
Chess is the power of eight doubled
an infinite black of void
an infinite white of light
and between is the rainbow of LifeThe center frequency of light is the color green which is
the color of the human Heart Chakra which is the 4th chakra
in a 7 chakra system. However, if you add Heaven/Earth (White/Black)
hen you have a 9 chakra system and the Heart chakra is the 5th chakra.
Our 8 is the number between this 7 and 9. If we add these numbers
7+8+9 = 24 we have seen this number and its mirror 42 in relation to
Christ and Dolphin in recent posts.
Joseph Friedah - 05:34am Aug 4, 1999 MST (#1181 of 1181)Don
I would venture that there are indeed two very different games of chess going on in China at this time.Are you talking about XiangQi (Chinese Chess)? There is a download for XiangQi at this site http://user-www.ie.cuhk.edu.hk/~hhyau5/NETGAME/ The site also has Chinese Checkers (hexagram shape, Star of David, 3d stellar Octahedron in 2d, 2 tetrahedrons forming the merkaba). I wonder what symbolism is hidden in Chinese Checkers?
Don McLean - 04:44pm Aug 4, 1999 MST (#1182 of 1206)Hi Joe.
Hmm... maybe not the two games I had in mind, although both Chinese Chess and Checkers - Japanese Shogi too, for that matter - seem cloaked in symbols. To my mind, there is something about the Chinese game of chess, particularly the way the board is laid out on meridian lines rather than squares, that makes it even easier to see some of the geometry inherent in the game. However, Chinese checkers, with its Mogan David pattern, is possibly THE most flagrant example of an orderly micro cosmos appearing on a game board.
Michael Peck - 09:12pm Aug 4, 1999 MST (#1183 of 1206)Jan: Reference your question about the shape of a "potent" cross. Picture, if you will, four T's joined together at right angles at their bases to form a cross. The knight moves in an L pattern. If a knight moves forward and to the right, returns in the next move, moves forward and to the left, and returns again, then two mirror image L patterns will have been made, which together could be viewed as a T pattern.
Reference your remarks about elephants and chariots versus knights on horseback. I suppose that elephants and chariots could have been used in various ways in battle -- as weapons platforms for archers and javelin throwers, as actual weapons for driving directly into the enemy ranks to force them back or trample them, as a means of coming along side the enemy and fighting at close quarters with such weapons as swords or lances, or as a means of simply reaching the enemy before dismounting and fighting on foot. To what extent the ancient Indians used chariots as platforms for archers rather than as vehicles for swordsmen, I can't say. But with the chariot in particular, I still envision that the driver could have held the reins in one hand and a sword in the other -- and would have probably advanced against the enemy and fought the enemy on one side of the chariot or the other, typically on the right.
By the way, I have read that some believe that the elephant in the early games of chess eventually became the rook or castle in modern chess. How could this transition have been made from an elephant to a castle? Real castles certainly don't tend to move unless they're falling down or shaking in an earthquake. A wild speculation: In siegecraft against castles, mobile wooden towers were sometimes constructed to take weapons, battering rams, or troops up to castle walls. Perhaps there is an analogy between certain uses of elephants in battle and some of the uses of mobile wooden towers in siegecraft. If it were true that Indian chess elephants became wooden siege towers when the game reached Europe, then perhaps wooden siege towers later became castles.
As for bishops, what parallel could there have been in the early games? I can understand the inclusion of the bishop in the European form of chess. Bishops could be politically influential at times and some of them surely figured prominently in decisions to launch crusades and other wars -- and, of course, even though bishops were non-combatants during wars, their presence on the chessboard seems consistent with King Alfred's statement that a well-ordered kingdom needs men who work, men who fight, and men who pray. But I'm not sure what the bishop's parallel piece would have been in early Indian chess. What's your take on this matter?
Georgia Albert - 09:32pm Aug 4, 1999 MST (#1184 of 1206)Hello, Micheal and Joseph, I am glad you are here. The both of you have added wonderful texture to the Weave. I will be looking forward to further posts from the both of you.
I found this in the Manley Hall book:
"Of the philosophical constitution of people, the kings represent the spirit; the queens the mind; the bishops the emotions; the knights the vitality; the rooks, the physical body. The pieces upon the kings'side are positive;those upon the queens; side, negative. The pawns are the sensory impulses and perceptive faculties - the eight parts of the soul. The white king and his suite symbolize the Self and its vehicles; the black king and his retinue, the not-self - the false Ego and its legion. The game of chess thus sets forth the eternal struggle of each part of a persons compound nature against the shadow of itself. The nature of each of the chess pieces is revealed by the way in which it moves; geometry is the key to their interpretation. For example: the rook (the body) moves on the square; the bishop (the emotions) moves on the diagonal: the king, being the spirit, cannot be captured, but loses the battle when so surrounded that it cannot escape."
Time for another glass of sonoluminecent sparkling water while I think this over:-)
The Meeting in Las Vegas is quickly approaching, August 13, 1999, just 9 more days. Xena and I, and whom ever would like to join us, are going to be doing color commentary for the Chess Championship:-) Not! Although, Xena and I will be posting our thoughts and insights on the Championship, this, I promise you, will be a fun read, Stay tuned in.
LOVE
G
The Goddess Is With You.
Mark Borcherding - 06:32am Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1185 of 1206)
dare to dream upon your own starGeorgia ref 1184
"the king, being the spirit, cannot be captured, but loses the battle when so
surrounded that it cannot escape."This made me think of a Stalemate in this case both sides have moved into a
interesting position sort of a balance, stillness, or equilibrium is reached."Stalemate" = 24
Well this number has shown up recently alot 8+8+8 and the mirror is 42.
Joseph Friedah - 06:33am Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1186 of 1206)Michael
I have read that some believe that the elephant in the early games of chess eventually became the rook or castle in modern chess. How could this transition have been made from an elephant to a castle?Check out The Battle of Trebbia 218BC HANNIBAL'S INVASION OF ITALY. Near the bottom there is a picture of a war elephant with what appears to be a fighting platform that resembles a castle tower on the elephant.
Jan Newton - 06:49am Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1187 of 1206)Michael, thanks for the explanation of the "potent" cross, all is now clear. I will be posting, I hope tonight, about an article that Gerhard Josten sent to me from a 1990 chess magazine that goes into some depth on the development and deployment of the ancient Indian army and the use of chariots, in particular. The article provides some interesting insight into the possible time-line for the development of chess that predates the most popurlarly accepted 5th-6th centuries CE scenario. Michael and Joe, I have been posting a series from an article by Pavlev Bidev originally written by him in 1947 in which he discusses, among other things, the elephant, which became the European Bishop through a process I have no information on at the present time - a fascinating research project to add to my ever-growing list; the chariot in the Indian game became the rook or tower in the Persian game - from what I understand, based upon a misunderstanding or mistranslation of the Indian word for chariot. More later - the results from yesterday's games at the World Chess Championship have not yet been posted at the USCF site, but prior to yesterday afternoon's games, there were 4 Americans in still the hunt from an original field of 9.
Mark Borcherding - 09:30am Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1188 of 1206)
dare to dream upon your own starPotent Cross
The T symbol in the Mayan is found in the 2nd solar glyph called IK or WIND and it carries the power of Spirit. This glyph is associated with the planet Uranus and has the guide Goddess "Bolon Ik" who reside in the White Spirit Tower. Tower ... Castle ... Rook. In the American Indian and other mandalas the White is the area of the Anscestors "spirit world".
The Goddess Bolon Ik is the guide to mayan king Pacal Votan and look at what the numerology of their names tells us:
"Bolon Ik" = 33
"Pacal Votan" = 3333+33 = 66 which is 64 + 2 ... recall the 2nd glyph is IK
Recall Bolon Ik resides in the "Spirit Tower" = 64
Now we have a third the Trinity guide come into the picture from
Athurian legend: "Merlyn" = 33Now sum the trinity of 33's
33+33+33=99 9+9=18
Jan Newton - 01:14pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1189 of 1206)Thanks, Mark, for the cool drawing! It reminds me very much of the "Maltese Cross". Here's what happened yesterday at the Chess Championships in Las Vegas: Of the four remaining Americans playing (original field of 9), two were eliminated in yesterday's round of play. Gata Kamsky is still in contention, but hanging by a thread after losing to Russian GM Khalifman; he now faces a quick mini-match against Khalifman. Kamsky lodged a protest in his loss to Khalifman about players disturbing him during the match. The other remaining American player, Alex Yermolinsky, also faces a quick mini-match. That gorgeous hunk of man Alexei Shirov of Spain also faces a quick mini-match today. Judit Polgar, the loan remaining female player, and probably the best femme player in the world, advanced to round 3 to be held today - games get underway at 3PM Las Vegas time. Kramnik, #2, #3 or possibly #1, depending upon whose rating system you use, is breezing through the games. Too bad the two "K Boys" didn't show up. I'm rooting for Judit all the way, and a show down between her and Shirov during my L.V. stay!
Ron Adams - 04:00pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1190 of 1206)
"I'm the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life."Kundalini is the Goddess, the 9th Mysterious Force that guides the octave of our 8 Circuit Brain (Timothy Leary and Antero Ali). It is like having dolphins and elephants dancing in the skies. One side of the spine is called Ida, and represents the Moon and Intuition. The other side of the spine is called Pinga, and represents the Sun and Logic. Respectfully these are the male and female aspects. If one ever sees the Caduceus, at the base of the spine is the Serpent, coiled and ready to spring, and at the top of the spine if the Winged Disks, flying away to the heavens.
I had a kundalini experience and the discription of the Mantra and Yantra, the visual images of the chess board are very synchronistic. Interesting that Aleister Crowley was the first to flip the 8th and 11th tarot cards, Strength and Balance, to Balance becoming 8 and Strength becoming the 11th, Lust. All other Tarot Cards has 8 being Strength, the image of the lion or the elephant. Crowley changed this and used the image of the Snake, and the Woman riding the back of the great beast.
Crowley's comments on chess: "Your spirit can only come into contact with his by means of this magickal manufacture of phantoms; in the same way, one can only measure one's mind (a certain part of it) against another man's by expressing them in some such form as the game of Chess. One cannot use chessmen against another man unless he agree to use them in the same sense as you do. The board and men form the Magick Link by which you can prove you power to constain him to yield. The game is a device by which you force him to turn down his kind in surrender, a muscular act made in obedience to your Will, though he may be twice your weight and size.
These general principles should enable the student to understand the nature of the work of making the Magical Link. It is impossible to give detailed instructions, because every case demands separate consideration. It is sometimes exceedingly difficult to devise proper measures.
Remember that Magick included all acts soever. Anything may serve as a Magical weapon. To impose one's Will on a nation, for instance, one's talisman may be a newspaper, one's triangle a church, or one's circle a Club. To win a woman, one's pantacle may be a necklace; to discover a treasure, one's wand may be a dramatist's pen, or one's incantation a popular song."
So I guess playing chess is like playing Magick on Earth and in another dimension as well.
Peace, Sunwolf
Michael Peck - 05:40pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1191 of 1206)Thanks Georgia, Jan, Mark, Joseph, Don, Ron, et. al.! You've shared some very interesting information and thoughts in this discussion area.
Joseph: I didn't realize that the Carthaginians used fighting platforms on their elephants. Somehow, I had imagined that Hannibal used his elephants primarily to carry supplies for his army. Of course, using the elephants to transport supplies would not rule out their use in front line combat. I suppose that Hannibal's elephant force might have been formidable indeed if all of the animals had survived the trek across the Alps.
Mark: Thanks for the excellent illustration of the "potent" cross.
Jan: Thanks for the report that the Indian elephant chesspiece became the bishop and the chariot chesspiece became the rook [the latter by possible linguistic confusion when the game arrived in Persia from India. I'm hardly an expert on ancient languages, and I don't know ancient Persian. However, in Sanskrit, the word for chariot might possibly be written as "rathah" or "rathyah" with our modern alphabet. I'm not sure about the Sanskrit word for tower, but one of the several Sanskrit words for palace might possibly be written "rajakulam". There might have been just enough similarity in sound between those Sanskrit words for them to have been confused by a non-native who wasn't fluent in the language. Or, of course, it could have been that some Persian mistook the shape of an Indian chariot chesspiece to be some sort of castle tower.
Don McLean - 07:40pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1192 of 1206)While looking around and about for likely alternative birthplaces for the game of chess I came across a few oblique links through Tony Smith's web site. I keep referring back to this fellow because I like the way he confuses me! Also, it would appear as though he has the recipe for sonoluminescent H2O - elixer of life! Talking water? Well, I'll be... You can hear the sea! Who could resist the call?
http://www.innerx.net/personal/tsmith/TShome.html
So according to old Tony....
"The 8-fold periodicity was anticipated by a creation myth of the Hermopolitan Egyptians:
I am One that transforms into Two, I am Two that transforms into Four, I am Four that transforms into Eight, After this I am One again.
Hermopolis was known as Khmunu, the City of the Eight, for the Ogdoad of Eight Gods which embodied the inchoate world before creation. The oldest god is Nun, the primeval water of chaos, the father of the Sun God Ra.
The Temple at Luxor was designed to represent the Ogdoad, and shows connections with Tarot, the mathematics of the D4-D5-E6-E7 physics model, and sedenions.
The post-creation deity worshipped at Khmunu was Thoth, god of learning, who was called by the Greeks Hermes Trismegistos, who was identified with the Islamic prophet Idris who appeared between the prophets Adam and Noah and lived most of his 365 years in Egypt, teaching people how to build cities and to write and to sew and to use the Science of the Sands (Ilm al-Raml), which is similar to the I Ching but used 16 Tetragrams which were preserved from the Global Early Civilization as the FA of the Fon people of Benin (Dahomey).
The Egyptian glyph MES, meaning birth, is the root of the Greek word mousike, which is the root of the word music.
Ganesha is the God who uses Mathematics to connect the Macrocosm and the Microcosm, Musaka is the Mouse (an aspect of Ganesha), and Gaja is the Elephant (an aspect of Ganesha).
Hmm...Ganesha - a four limbed chess elephant.
According to The Myths and Gods of India, by Alain Danielou (Inner Traditions International, 1991, at pages 291-296):
"... The principle of all the classifications through which the relations between different orders of things, between the macrocosm and the microcosm, can be understood is called the Lord-of-Categories [or Ganapati, or Ganesha] ....[Ganesha] rules over the universal-Intellect and the principles-of-the-elements derived from it ... Ganapati [Ganesha] stands for ... the identity of the macrocosm and the microcosm ... [which] can be observed in the permanence of the relations found as the substratum of all the aspects of the perceptible universe. These relations can best be expressed in terms of number. Hence number is easily seen as the common element of all forms, the all-pervading unity of all substances.
...Ganapati [Ganesha] is represented as an elephant-headed man to express the unity of the small being, the microcosm ... and ... the macrocosm, pictured as an elephant [Gaja]. ... The trunk of Ganapati [Ganesha] is sometimes represented as bent to the right and sometimes to the left. ... These are the right-hand and the left-hand ways. This meaning applies also to the swastika ... The vehicle of Ganapati [Ganesha] is the mouse [Musaka] ... the master of the inside of everything ..."
Yes - any anyone who has ever had their computer mouse die (like mine did last week - death by humidity!) knows this to be all too true!
Jan Newton - 08:04pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1193 of 1206)I can't keep up with these excellent and informative posts. I will have to sit back and think about some of these things before I reply (if, indeed, I do!). Michael, I remembered the Sanskrit word that the Persians confused when the first heard it: they thought that "ratha" (which I believe is more or less the correct English literation) was "rocca" or possibly "rocha" which is actually, I believe, the Sanskrit term for boat (and in fact, the Indians did use boats against the Persians in their battles), which they took to be "ruhkh" - rook; thus, the chariot became the rook - our modern day castle. Interestingly, in Russia I believe the piece known as ladya is a boat, and always has been a boat, though I don't recall right at this moment what piece they substitute it for (knight or rook).
Mark Borcherding - 05:42am Aug 6, 1999 MST (#1194 of 1206)
dare to dream upon your own starRon ref 1190
"...like having dolphins and elephants dancing in the skies."
thats pretty cool! .... "elephants + dolphins" = 80The card numbers regarding Crowley and the Tarot are also interesting look at
the numbers 8 & 11 for both the 8th and 11th mayan glyphs relate to the planet
Venus. (Goddess)8 = Lamat glyph - Star - power of Art
11 = Chuen glyph - Monkey - power of Magick"Lamat + Chuen" = 35
3+5=8 (the octave of our 8 Circuit Brain)17 + 1 + 17 = 35
1 + 17 = 18 the following words sum to 18 "Love", "Venus", "Chess"
as you wrote Ron "...Kundalini is the Goddess, the 9th Mysterious Force"
and there are two sides so we must double the 9+9=18 ...but if we become
One again then 18 = 1+8 = 9.The Lord of Nine also appears in Thoth's "The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean"
transcribed by Doreal ... this can be found on the internet with a search.The word "Nine" = 24 (9 numerology) and 42 (26 numerology) and recall these numbers
have been posted alot recently. "Dolphin" = 42 and 24=8+8+8, this solar system is also
known as Velatropa 24 by the Arcturians "Magicians of Love". "Arcturian" = 42Currently the 8th mayan glyph Lamat is called "The Sheild Of Arcturus" and in Dreamstar
that glyph becomes the 9th glyph.
8+1=9
5 4 3 6 9 2 7 8 1
Jan Newton - 02:41pm Aug 6, 1999 MST (#1195 of 1206)Update on the 1999 World Knockdown Chess Championships: The two remaining American players, Gata Kamsky and Alex Yermolinsky, were both eliminated in the Round 2 rapid-play playoffs held yesterday afternoon, Kamsky in an upset match, winning the first game but losing the second to the 36th rank player. Shirov (Spain) advances out of the rapid-play play-offs to Round 3, the first game of which begins today at 3PM Las Vegas time. As of this posting I could not locate current pairings for Game #1, so I don't know who Shirov and Judit Polgar are playing.
G. David Bock - 11:06pm Aug 6, 1999 MST (#1196 of 1206)The following is a slightly revised version of a post I tried to place a couple of nights ago that was lost to cyberspace. It focuses on a couple of issues raised a few days back.
From the time of their inception, rulers, whether tribal chief, king, queen, or president, have been surrounded by advisors and administrators to assist in handling the affairs of state. They game we are familiar with has been heavily influenced by the nature and structure of medieval European society. Thanks to the efforts and political agenda of the Roman Emperor Constantine, christianity received a boast to it's questionable future survival via the Council of Nicea in @325 A.D. (when the edited/rewritten version of the New Testiment was formulated) and legislation a few years later when centuries of tradition and tolerance were voided by making christianity the only legal/acceptable religion in the Roman Empire. From these actions came the origins of the Holy Roman (Catholic) Church which filled the social and administrative vaccuum created when the Western Roman Empire collapsed a couple of centuries later.
It was long before the most important "advisor" to any ruler was the personal representative of the Pope, the local bishop. Hence, what had been the "vizier" on the board of earlier times and distant cultures became the bishop, placed closest to those he influenced, on the sides of the rulers, king and queen. Next out was the knight, symbolic of both the authorized agents of the court, personal representatives of the ruler and also symbolic of the ruling lords and barons (who most often held title of knight) of the kingdoms subdivisions or fiefs. The most obvious symbol of the power of the ruler was the the keep/castle in which he/she resided and from which the might of the ruler was dispatched, hence the rook/castle holds outmost position, "containing" the rank of the court.
Carthage and India are the major cultures that employed the elephant in warfare of the early ages. Almost from it's inception the box/tower like platform was emplyed on the back of the elephant to both facilitate the riding of it's pasengers and to provide protection for them. Surving as a mobile battletower, the warriors in the "castle" on the elephant's back usually employed missile weapons, arrows and javelins, against the opponents below them. Long lances could also be used against anyone who got close in. The bulk and novelty of the elephant also provided a shock factor combined with it's mass surging through an enemies lines that would frequently rout warriors upon their first encounters against it. However, against disciplined troops of steely nerve, such as the Roman Legions, the elephant had numorous weaknesses that could be exploited. First would be to target the handler/driver, removing him would the control of the animal. Secondly, several indivduals closing in from all quarters would ensure a good chance of delivering lethal blows to it's soft underbelly. Finally there was fire, flaming torches would often cause elephants to panic and rout back upon their own troops. Often the din and clamour and confussion of combat would also cause elephants to panic, frequently causing more harm to their own side than that of the enemy's. Elephants soon became a double-edged sword and their usage became greatly limited and short lived. The horse now is a more involved and evolving story.
Shortly after it's domestication thousands of years ago, ever inventive mankind sought ways to utilize the horse in combat. Though the bridle and saddle were developed early on in the history of mankind's use of the horse, the stirrup is an item that was seldom realized or widely employed for several centuries. Without the stirrup to "anchor" themselves, earlier horse riders applied a disproportionate amount of effort trying to stay on the horse, greatly reducing the effective utilization of close quarter weapponary, spears, clubs, swords, etc. Hence, horse riders in earliest eras would usually either employ missile weapons such as bow and arrows from a distance in hit and run tactics (marginally effective) or use the horse as a form of battlefield mobile transport, dismounting to fight more effectively upon foot.
It was due to the above limitations that the chariot came into play. The chariot provided a more stable platform from which the mobility of the horse could be employed in combat. When not dealing with stout standing and long pole weapon armed resistance, the charge could be most effective. In most cases though, the chariot was used to move troops forward to the edge of battle from which they would dismount and fight on foot, or employ missile weapons from a distance and in quickly shifting positions.
Images of "Ben Hur" aside, the two to four horse team of the chariot usually required the full attention and both hands of the driver. Each horse of the team had two reins, one on each side of it's head. The left side reins held in the left hand and the right in the right hand, turning was acheived via pulling back with the appropriate hand. Equal pull back of both hands would "brake" or slowdown/stop the chariot. Depending upon size of the chariot, one to three additional persons rode in the chariot and wielded weaponry. For several centuries, the chariot was the most effective way that many civilizations employed the horse in warfare.
The effective employment and dominance of the horse/rider team in combat occurred about the early sixth century with the Hun incursion upon the eastern edges of the fading Roman empire. As nomadic animal herders, the Huns (and other peoples of the steppes) had centuries of horse usage and development, were the first "cowboys". Rodeo feats and the more practical working of herds from horseback only became effective once the stirrup was widely and effectively employed. Raised on horseback almost as soonas they could walk, the Huns were well practiced and developed in fighting from horseback. With the stirrup, a warrior could finally effectively anchor himself to the horse using his feet, freeing his hands to uses weapons and aquiring the needed firm platform (standing in the stirrups) from which effective leverage could be used in wielding close quarter weaponry such as spear/lance, club, and sword.
Finally, after centuries of sparse recognition, the stirrup became a widely embraced and utilized tool. Combined with slective breeding of larger horses to handle the increasing wieght, within a few centuries of the Huns' appearance, the armored and armed knight came about as the dominant mobile shock troop of battle. After thousands of years of "potential", the horse-rider team finally became an effective weapon on the battlefield. Warfare being the gresatest motivator of technological advancement, countermeasures weren't long in coming, from caltrops to incresing penetration abilities of missile weaponry, a seesaw competiton ensued during the next thousand years between cavalry and foot for dominance upon the battlefield.
So Micheal, your example of rider effectively wielding a weapon from horseback has only been a widely effective battle system for the past sixteen hundred years, roughly. The mounted rider's effectiveness began to rapidly decline about the middle of the last century with the advent of more rapid fire gun technology, and the development of motorized vehicles.
Jan Newton - 05:23am Aug 7, 1999 MST (#1197 of 1206)The following is courtesy of an article forwarded to me by Gerhard Josten from the Pergamon Chess Monthly, September 1990 Vol. 55 No. 6, "Protochess, 400 B.C. to 400 A.D.", by G. Ferlito and A. Sanvito.
"The game of chess, as we know it, emerged in the North West of ancient India around 600 A.D. According to some scholars, the game of chess reached Persia at the time of King Khusrau Nushirwan (531/578 A.D.), though some others suggest a later date around the time of King Khusrau II Parwiz (590/628 A.D.) Reading from the old texts written in Pahlavic, the game was originally known as 'chatrang'. With the invasion of Persia by the Arabs (634/651 A.D.), the game's name became 'shatranj' because the phonetic sounds of 'ch' and 'g' do not exist in Arabic language. ...
"At the moment, this 'Indian, Persian, Islamic' theory on the origin of the game is accepted by the majority of scholars, though it is fair to mention here the work of J. Needham and others who sugggested that the historical chess of seventh century India was descended from a divinatory game (or ritual) in China. ...
"From Chatrang Namak, the most important of Pahlavic texts, we learn that chess in ancient India was a war game and its name was 'chaturanga'. In Sanskrit texts, a number of references are made to the fame or even to terms associated with it. ...
"The name of 'chaturanga' has a double meaning: the game of chess and a term referring to the four parts which formed the typical Indian army (infantry, chariots, calvary, elephants). ...
"At this point, we may quote H.J.R. Murray that 'the date when it occurred to some Indian to represent the chaturanga and its evolutions in a game cannot be fixed, though naturally, it cannot be earlier than the organization of the army on which it is based.' We like to add here, that probably the game cannot have been devised in a period in which at least one of the four military parts of the army symbolized in the game was already discarded as obsolete in war terms.
"Today, if a simulated game of war were to be invented, it would seem unlikely that the inventor would mix obsolete armaments with the latest technological ones, like crossbows against tanks, ball cannons against helicopters. Each epoch has its typical armaments. The chess game has military symbols whicha re peculiar to a certain period in the history of warfare. Of course, the game of chess, once developed, managed to stay in existence and, indeed, to flourish in spite of the historical aging of the original military symbols, by virtue of its intrinsic intellectual vitality.
"We shall give a brief outline of military symbols used in chess in order to establish the temporal limits in which the invention of the game may have taken place. the symbols were: infantry, chariots, calvary, elephants.
More later.
Mark Borcherding - 06:59am Aug 7, 1999 MST (#1198 of 1206)
dare to dream upon your own starJan ref 1197
"Chatrang" = 36
3+6=9
"Chess" = 18
1+8=9Looks like a strong connection thru the base harmonic of 9.
9 x 7.111111111111111... = 64 (8x8)
"Nine" = 24
"Seven" = 20"Nine" + "Seven" = 44
4+4=8
Joseph Friedah - 11:04am Aug 8, 1999 MST (#1199 of 1206)Here is a good Chess siteThe Chess Variant Pages
From there click on "Main index file" At the bottom of the "Historic chess variants" link through there is "The Origins of Chess" link which has some good info. Or just click on this link The Origins of Chess to take you straight there. I'm sure this has already been posted somewhere in this thread of 1199 post and counting.
Anatomy of a Chess Coronation
Goddesschess Dissects the Decision
JanXena's Posts
Jan Newton - 01:14pm Aug 5, 1999 MST (#1189 )
Thanks, Mark, for the cool drawing! It reminds me very much of the "Maltese Cross". Here's what happened yesterday at the Chess Championships in Las Vegas: Of the four remaining Americans playing (original field of 9), two were eliminated in yesterday's round of play. Gata Kamsky is still in contention, but hanging by a thread after losing to Russian GM Khalifman; he now faces a quick mini-match against Khalifman. Kamsky lodged a protest in his loss to Khalifman about players disturbing him during the match. The other remaining American player, Alex Yermolinsky, also faces a quick mini-match. That gorgeous hunk of man Alexei Shirov of Spain also faces a quick mini-match today. Judit Polgar, the loan remaining female player, and probably the best femme player in the world, advanced to round 3 to be held today - games get underway at 3PM Las Vegas time. Kramnik, #2, #3 or possibly #1, depending upon whose rating system you use, is breezing through the games. Too bad the two "K Boys" didn't show up. I'm rooting for Judit all the way, and a show down between her and Shirov during my L.V. stay!
Jan Newton - 02:41pm Aug 6, 1999 MST (#1195 )
Update on the 1999 World Knockdown Chess Championships: The two remaining American players, Gata Kamsky and Alex Yermolinsky, were both eliminated in the Round 2 rapid-play playoffs held yesterday afternoon, Kamsky in an upset match, winning the first game but losing the second to the 36th rank player. Shirov (Spain) advances out of the rapid-play play-offs to Round 3, the first game of which begins today at 3PM Las Vegas time. As of this posting I could not locate current pairings for Game #1, so I don't know whom Shirov and Judit Polgar are playing.
Jan Newton - 09:58am Aug 9, 1999 MST (#1201 )
Update on the World Knockdown Chess Championships: Alexei Shirov advanced to Round 4 after winning a play-off yesterday. Judit Polgar advanced to Round 4 after winning both her games - you go girl! Round 4 play commences at 3PM Las Vegas time today. We are now down to 16 players out of an initial field of 70.
Jan Newton - 10:46am Aug 9, 1999 MST (#1202 )
Correction: Judit Polgar drew the first game, won the second game in Round 3.
Jan Newton - 06:45am Aug 11, 1999 MST (#1203 )
Round 4 results: Alexei Shirov advances to Round 5 with a win and a draw; Judit Polgar drew both her games and now faces a play-off. Friday's posts will come "live", direct from Las Vegas, where Isis and I will have Uecker seats (we must be in the front row) to view Round 5 action! Then it's party time at the Sahara. I'm bringing my magnetic travelling chess set along - think I'll try and score a game with a Grand Master or two, LOL!
Jan Newton - 04:38am Aug 12, 1999 MST (#1206 )
Hmmmm, just did a long post from the Ferlito and Sanvito article that hasn't popped up yet. Hope it does, I do not want to have to type it over! Judit Polgar won both of her games in the mini-playoff and advances to Round 5. There are now 8 players left. Round 5 will consist of 4 games by four pairs of players.
Jan Newton - 08:12pm Aug 12, 1999 MST (#1207 )
Good evening, darlings, one last time from home base, before I wing my way to Viva Las Vegas and the never-ending world of Elvis and gambling. At this point I do not know if Judit won, lost, or drew her first game in Round 5; the same for Alexei Shirov (although, given the way this homme has been playing, one would expect him to have soundly trounced his 'opponent' in a "for the ages" match). Tomorrow this time, if not earlier! - Isis and I will be doing our "on the road show" live!, from Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas and will report - if not exactly in the style of the various tres boring Grand Masters watching the matches! - our myriad impressions of the matches, and the crowd, and the fellowess kibitzers, and the referees, and the has-been Grand Masters sitting in the Uecker seats with us (and I will be hitting all of them up for dates and chess games, don't ya know, darlings!) Read about how Xena gets lost at McCarran International Airport and misses the shuttle to her hotel! Kibbutz on JanXena picking up someone else's luggage and discover in her hotel room (13 hours after arrival) that she has the wardrobe of a 325 pound transvestite! Oh my goddess! Listen to the reaction when JanXena looses her newly cut and colored hair (burgundy red, to sort-of match the color of her cheeks - that is, darlings, the cheeks on her face!) on the plebians of Las Vegas Boulevard (yawn; who's that overly-dyed middle-aged broad trying to strut her stuff?) Okay, had enough for tonight? I sure have! LOL, darlings! Viva Las Vegas! Goddess power!
Jan Newton - 07:58pm Aug 13, 1999 MST (#1208 )
Reporting live from Las Vegas! Judit Polgar is out of the tournament with a draw today to Khalifman; Shirov lost in an upset to the Kid Romanian! More tomorrow!
Jan Newton - 08:47pm Aug 14, 1999 MST (#1210 )
Hello darlings! I skipped the mini-playoffs today and will resume flirting with the chessplayers and whatever members of the audience catch my eye on Monday. The gorgeous Judit unfortunately lost her first game in Round 5 to Khalifman, who is playing utterly inspired chess right now; therefore, in order to force a play-off she would have had to have won game 2 on Friday; it was a hard-fought match and I thought she just might pull off a win, but in the end Khalifman pulled a few unexpected moves and rather gallantly played the remainder of the game to offer a draw. In the meantime, Alexei and the Kid Romanian, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, were playing a war of nerves with each other; both ended up with a minute left on their clocks and Shirov somehow managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in a stunning upset that none of the commentators were expecting, while Judit looked on (having finished her game with Khalifman). So, the two I think have a thang for each other were eliminated from the championship, but they each go home $80,000 richer. Now, let me tell you, these chess playing men are sooooo cute! Michael Adams is an absolute hunk, though he missed what I thought was a clear winning move starting with a pawn sacrifice to clear the way for his queen to sweep up from ... oh well, never mind. Isis and I could not believe our eyes when he moved a different pawn that did absolutely nothing! He and Kramnik went into a mini-playoff today. Tomorrow it’s off for more sightseeing and a barbecue in the afternoon, so I will not resume viewing the matches until Monday, when there will be only four players left! At this point I have no clue who they will be, since Shirov, seeded as #2 favorite for the championship, lost to the Kid, who is all of 19 and can't even drink legally or gamble! Perhaps the Kid will continue his brilliantly unconventional play - sort of reminds me of me, LOL! (except I keep losing my games and he keeps winning his) - and Kramnik, #2 player in perhaps the world. Well, it will be interesting, whoever it is. BTW, I have discovered that all chessplayers at this level grab their heads in their hands and twist their faces up as if they are in the grips of an agonizing migraine headache! I did not lose my luggage, thank the goddess, and my flight was only delayed 1 hour 40 minutes, and I've only seen one Elvis impersonator - today at the shops in the Venetian, dancing and "singing" on one of the staircases. I opted to take pictures of fake Venice (complete with fake gondolas) instead of the fake Elvis. Good night, all, time to hit the casino.
Jan Newton - 11:20am Aug 15, 1999 MST (#1211 )
Good morning, all, it's absolutely gorgeous here today, almost feels like Milwaukee except no humidity; of course, by noon the temp will probably hit 100 (or more); got sunburned yesterday while strolling the south end of the Strip from the Venetian to Caesars Palace to the Mirage and Treasure Island; fortunately, not too bad. The semi-finals begin on Monday with the following pairs: Adams and Akopian and Nisipeanu and Khalifman! Yes, Kramnik, #2 or #3 in the world, lost to the hunk Adams! I will be feasting mine eyes as well as enjoying world class exhibitions of chess skills during these semi-finals - Adams is a hunk but the other three players are quite easy on the eyes, even if they are all babies! I will report back on Monday. I intend to be front and center, first row. I'm going to wear a fake FIDE ribbon and pretend I'm an official! Ta ta, darlings!
Jan Newton - 09:30pm Aug 15, 1999 MST (#1213 )
Hello darlings! Isis sends her love. She would do a post but I'm hogging her laptop for the duration my stay. We have decided we are going to do the town in style on my birthday. Tomorrow after the match I'm going shopping for something red and slinky, maybe something in the same shade as my hair. In the morning we are going out to someplace called Bonnie Springs and hiking, will lunch back in town and then it's off to Caesar's Palace for me for the first game of the semi-finals. Today I slept in, went for my morning jaunt down to the Sahara and back, read out by the pool for a bit, caught up on my six internet chess games and then it was off to Road Warrior's folks house for barbecue, yummy! I played Isis a game of chess and won, played Road Warrior and lost (but I was distracted because mom called come and get it and I was starving), and played Michelle (Isis's little girl) and we agreed to a draw. Soon I'll be challenging Khalifman to a match, LOL! Afterwards we ladies sat out under the crescent moon on the veranda enjoying the balmy evening, sipping coffee and talking, naturally, about chess and men, in that order. The menfolk finally had to round us up and hustle us to the jeep. Later this week I am promised a hair-raising ride on the back of RW's Harley and a jaunt Friday night, my last night in town, on his boat. I also splurged today and bought myself a beautiful pair of amber and sterling earrings. The job market is hot here, could hook up with a job with very little problem and the real estate market is just about as hot - 4000 people a month moving into the county, most here in LV and Henderson. A change of scenery may be in my future. Yawn. Good night all, will report tomorrow after the first game. BTW, we are already planning next year's Goddesschess/Chessgoddess convention, so start planning ahead, darlings!
Jan Newton - 07:36pm Aug 16, 1999 MST (#1216 )
Hello darlings. Well, a disappointing day at the play-offs. I thought the semi-finals started today with a day off in between the playoffs, but I was wrong (isn't the first time and sure won' be the last); Game 1 was yesterday and apparently was quite interesting. Adams had Akopian beat but managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory; the Kid Romanian and Khalifman agreed to a draw. Adams and Akopian's game apparently went - if I heard the commentators correctly today - 86 moves and lasted from 3pm until 9:30 with Adams resigning. Poor baby. No wonder he squandered another chance to win today - he had Akopian on the ropes but it was obvious he was exhausted, and Akopian didn't look much better. There was lots of head clutching and agonized twists of the cheeks and foreheads, only to end in a draw. The Nisipeanu-Khalifman match started out strong for the Kid, but Khalifman came back after a poor opening and defended well; it was obvious to the commentators - who appeared continually surprised by the moves the two players made - finally about five minutes before the draw was offered and accepted that the game would so end. Ha! I think I'll audition for the job of commentator myself. These guys and their computer moves - what a bunch of hooey. Maybe with a female commentator the audience will do more than sleep and snort at some of the inane grandmaster commentator chatter, and a few more femmes will show up to watch. I was the lone woman in an audience of about 50; for awhile I had some company, one older woman sat two chairs away from me, but she disappeared about a third of the way through the match. Well! I walked all the way back from Caesar's, picked up something to eat and booted up at 7:10. A quick change, a glass of wine, and I'm off again. Mark, yes, 7 and 8! Good night, all.
Jan Newton - 08:10am Aug 17, 1999 MST (#1218 )
Good morning, all! Today is a do or die day for Adams. If he loses his match today, he is out of the tournament. It will be a tense match for him. It will be interesting to watch the Kid v. Khalifman too. Khalifman likes to get up and walk around after almost every move - I think he lurks behind the curtain partitioning off the ballroom where the matches are being played because he zips around it as soon as he hears the timeclock being slapped! The Kid, on the other hand, rarely gets up from his chair and hardly even moves when he is bent over the chessboard. The levels of concentration are truly remarkable; I do believe at times actual holes appear in the chessboards, the players are staring at them so hard. Will K&K play to another draw today? BTW, the US Chess Federation website reports that Adams and Akopian are both 27; the Kid is 23 (I had read elsewhere that he was 19), and Khalifman is the ripe old age of 33.
Jan Newton - 10:38pm Aug 17, 1999 MST (#1219 )
Hello, darlings. Well, I watched six solid hours of chess and didn't stir from my seat. The results are Adams is out, Akopian is in; the Kid lost to Khalifman and they play game 4 tomorrow - a must win for the Kid if he hopes to force a mini rapid chess play-off with Khalifman. Adams and Akopian played a 66-move barn-burner; by the time it was over and Adams was forced to concede, Adams had his King, a bishop on light, and one pawn; Akopian had his King, a rook, and two pawns. He made one mistake; Akopian made none. The K&
lay by Akopian. Now I will have to refresh myself on the playoff rules. I believe there are two games, both played under rapid-chess format, one game at 25 minutes, the other at ? - don't know, I will check on that. BTW, the guy with the video cam was taking pics all over the place today - if you see a femme with short snappy red hair dressed all in white (the Vestal Virgin look, don't ya know, darlings!) all tied up in a pretzel with her hands on her cheeks and her eyes as big as saucers - that's moi!
JanXena, Tourist Extraordinaire had a brief looksee today at the Luxor. I am going back early tomorrow and will most likely spend the day up to the time for the hike to Caesars - there is tons to see and lots of pictures just begging to be taken. I may even opt for one of those hokey pictures where my sublime image is superimposed over that of some shapely egyptian maiden - would make a nice conversation stopper hanging above my desk, n'est ce pas? LOL! I wish I could be here for the finals! Darn!
Jan Newton - 10:15pm Aug 18, 1999 MST (#1220 )
Oh my poor backside! But it was worth 5 hours and 20 minutes of squirming on my chair trying to find a nonexistent comfortable position for I saw the most incredible game! I wish I could describe it in detail, but it would sound like so much gobbledygook from moi; suffice to say that it came down to the Kid behind white holding seven pawns and a bishop on dark v. Khalifman holding six pawns and a knightess. The opening and middle games were gotten through rather quickly - all was endgame - that took approximately three hours! At the end, when Khalifman extended his hand, the audience broke into spontaneous applause - the first I've heard at these championships - and a well deserved hand for the Kid! By his win, he forces a mini-playoff tomorrow, and I will be there with bells on my toes. These players are really earning their purses! As the minutes ticked by you could literally hear the tension building in the audience with each slap of the time clock - audible intakes of breath and than restless movement while we all waited impatiently for the screens to register the move - hurry up, damn it! And then it would appear - pop! And then everyone's eyes would automatically shift to the player whose turn it was next - as if all of us kibitzers somehow staring intently at that player would magically produce a move without all the agonizing wait! One needs stamina to watch these games - ain't for the soft of fanny or the faint of heart! It really is a shame the crowds watching these matches are so small - these wonderful players deserve more recognition! For anyone interested, the moves for this game will be posted sometime tomorrow at FIDE's official site - I don't know the address but you can get to it through Yahoo/Games/Who Will Be King?, and also at the USCF site at www.uschess.org. This game today is worth a look at, believe me! In fact, all the games are posted at these two sites; the Adams/Akopian game from 8/17 is also worth a looksee for masterful play.
Jan Newton - 06:41pm Aug 19, 1999 MST (#1222 )
The results are in: it's Akopian v. Khalifman in the finals - six games starting I believe on Sunday. The Kid played very well today in the rapid chess playoffs but Khalifman was better - he was the clear winner in the first game, was looking like a loser in the second game when the Kid, under immense pressure, fumbled an exchange which led to a draw. Thus, the Kid goes home about $280,000 richer, and now famous in the world of chess. He was clearly very happy despite his "loss" and he and Khalifman got a rousing round of applause. I'm also happy there were many more people in attendance today than yesterday. Let me tell you, they ain't kidding when they call this rapid chess. These players banged out moves so quickly the eye could not even follow the hands flying, and the computer screen was hopelessly behind until about move 23 or 24 for each of the games! Just amazing! These two games lasted a total of two hours and 15 minutes, with a 10 minute break between! A far cry from the 6 hour marathon on Tuesday and the 5 hour 20 minute bun buster last night! This will be my last report. I'm headed home on Saturday and tomorrow I'm doing a last round of sightseeing. Today was my birthday and I celebrated by buying a watch, a gold ring, a gold diamond and opal ring, an opal, white sapphire and gold necklace, a pair of cultured pearl and gold earrings, a gold choker with floating pearl, and a gold rope chain with a Nefertiti charm, oh, and a hand painted Russian broach from an art gallery, and a music box. I am poor but happy!
Jan Newton - 07:35pm Aug 23, 1999 MST (#1231 )
Back to studiousness; back to seriousness; back to my den/library overflowing with cracked opened and yellow-stickered books and mountains of emails and research - and both doggies now doggedly determined to dog my every move, camped out at my feet so that I can't even move without stepping on one or the other! Back to Monday Night Football and the Green Bay Packers. I wonder if Brett Favre plays chess? LOL! Bet he does!
Back to Gerhard Josten and Dialogue Part IV - and I haven't the faintest clue how to respond - but never fear darlings, divine inspiration will strike. Gerhard may think he has me on the ropes with his latest offering, but I have other plans up my now very tanned arm...
I peeked in at the US chess federation site tonight during a brief break from The Football Game (we are killing Denver, yes yes yes, just killing them, ha!) to discover that Khalifman offered Akopian (who was black today) a draw after only 18 moves - and it was accepted! Oh my goddess! So, Khalifman, who was Isis's pick right from the get-go, is up 1 1/2 to 1/2; a total score of 3 1/2 takes the world championship! But there's a lot of chess yet to go. Sappy romantic that I am, I wanted to see Judit and Alexei face off, but, sigh and alas, was not meant to be - this time!
Darlings, I forget to tell you that I literally ran right into Akopian on Friday afternoon as I was buzzing my way to Caesar's - he had a Caesar's bag in his hand, obviously shopping - and smash - ooooh, pardon me, sir! - right into him, LOL! On the blacktop leading up to the "old" main casino entrance, in front of about 10,000 taxis. Fortunately, I did not quite bowl him over (LOL) and after he somewhat disjointedly assured me that he was quite all right, he did a total about face and headed 180 degrees opposite from where he thought I was headed (and he was right!) Oh my, poor Vladimir! Thus ended my career at the World Chess Championships, cough, cough, cough!
Back to Monday Night Football, darlings...
Jan Newton - 09:47pm Aug 24, 1999 MST (#1232)
Yawn, yawn, yawn..... Darlings, I am still up monitoring Game #3 of The Maestro (Khalifman) v. Akopian (no suitable nickname yet assigned to this Dark Knight - hey! How about Dark Knight? LOL!)
Ohmygoddess, way past 6 hours of play, fast approaching 7 hours, and each side down to a rook, mutual Kings, and a couple of pawns apiece, and damned if I know which side will ultimately prevail in this see-saw game! Grand Master Rohde at the USChess Federation website has been giving blow by blow written commentary, but is not exactly as enlightening (nor as maddening!) as Christensen et al that I listened to via earphones while actually physically present at Caesars Palace. Now Grand Master Valerie Salov is giving blow by blow commentary - but the FIDE website is several days behind posting anything even remotely informative! So, it's adieu and good night - I'm going back for one last look-see to see if The Black Knight is successful in forcing a win, or The Maestro is successful in forcing the draw (he was black tonight). BTW, I got a rather jeering letter earlier tonight from Herr Josten, who thinks he does indeed, have me on the ropes (Ha!).
One does not want to p.o. JanXena.
Jan Newton - 06:46am Aug 27, 1999 MST (#1239 )Good morning, darlings! The Maestro Khalifman executed a work of beauty last evening against the Black Knight Akopian, to go ahead 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 after 4 games. It's getting down to crunch time, folks. The Maestro need only either win one more game, or draw both of the two remaining games to get his 3 1/2 points to take the whole and be crowned the new world chess champion! The pressure is on the Black Knight. I will be glued to my computer monitor tonight, following Rohde's move by move coverage at the USChess Federation website (www.uschess.org).
Jan Newton - 09:22am Aug 28, 1999 MST (#1240 )
Good morning darlings!
Well, I did a post last night and it promptly disappeared into the ether. [Note: the "offending" post did finally show up a couple of days later, as No. 1243; it is inserted where it would have occurred if not held for critical review by the Sysops]. I criticized Gary Kasparov in it. I wonder if he's hard-wired into this website and he zapped me, LOL! Anyway, I'm not going to wait for the case of the mysterious disappearing post to clear itself up (if it ever does), but I will tell you that the Maestro Khalifman drew Game 5 last night (playing black). For awhile it looked as if he might win, then it looked as if Akopkian the Black Knight might win! then Khalifman sucked it up and played such an endgame! Rohde was all admiration again for the endgame - apparently it's been quite a while since this level of play has been seen at the championships!
So, today the Black Knight must win in order to force a playoff. If he draws the game, he loses - although he will go home to Armenia a rather rich "loser". It will be a hard task, however; Khalifman will be playing white today!
I'm not sure whom to root for! I like the idea of an Armenian champion (Armenia is close to the general area where I believe chess first arose), but I like the idea of Khalifman winning (and rubbing the Big K's nose in it) even better! Ha! Well, today's game may well tell the tale.
Jan Newton - 07:17pm Aug 28, 1999 MST (#1241 )
The Maestro has done it - Khalifman played white to a draw this evening and wins the World Chess Championship! Well done!
Jan Newton - 10:25am Aug 30, 1999 MST (#1243 )
Darlings! Game 4 has all the makings of another bun buster for JanXena - except this time I'm not sitting witnessing live play in Las Vegas but only kibitzing on the computer in my messy (very messy!) den/library on my teeny tiny computer screen! Oh, ick!
But tres exciting nonetheless! Yes yes yes! It is now 3 hours and 15 minutes into the game and we are merely up to move 27 - still practically the opening, darlings! And Khalifman (playing Black) has just made an absolutely brilliant move (per GM Rohde) with his Queen - and as far as I (chess ignoramus that I am) can tell, it is true, utterly true. So, we have what appears to be a very long haul before us - or moi, since I seem to be the only one "watching" the progress of "The Games" from our wee little trusty band of knights and knightesses and such. Of course, I don't mind a bit - I find this positively exciting! (Okay, no jokes now about "warped personalities" and such).
What I find "endearing" is that, while as a crass beginner I am constantly making utterly incomprehensible stupid moves (like, duh, JanXena, why the heck did you just DO THAT? YOU IDJUT! YOU JUST GAVE THAT MAN THE GAME! YOU IDJUT! TURN IN YOUR RADICAL FEMINIST CARD, YOU YOU YOU - IMCOMPETENT NERDESS!), these Grand Masters make mistakes too! These two young men playing tonight for high stakes in Las Vegas (how utterly fitting!) are not accompanied by legions of "helpers" who do nothing but analyze moves and potential counter-moves on computer programs with millions of past and present games in their data bases and then "brief" their "masters" who are too arrogant (AND SCARED POOPLESS!) to play REAL CHESS any longer [does this ring any bells, Kasparov?]. No! These men are playing with their hearts - and sheer guts - and memories that can only absorb so much "instruction"!
While I was sad to see Judit lose in the quarter-finals, I know she will rebound and will be a part of the top-level chess scene for many years to come. And, if given an even chance now by the very closed, and what I am learning is a very biased, prejudiced and even IGNORANT chess world, The Kid Nisipeanu will be as well. I am gratified - and highly honored - that I was able to see these wonderful players in person, and get to "know" their chess playing personalities a little bit during the time I was in LV. And whether it is the Maestro or The Black Knight who ultimately prevails in succeeding to the title "World Chess Champion", I will stand up here in the privacy of this cramped but cozy room and applaud the winner! That is what is so truly wonderful about these two relatively unknown players facing off against each other. One just knows that each of these young men - from their humble backgrounds and still humble present circumstances - are utterly and totally for real. True Chess Players. People Who Love The Game. Kasparov can sit back and take all the nasty sniper shots he wants at this Championship and these Great and Wonderful Players. I, for one, now know him for what he truly is!
Kasparov is a man who snidely remarked about Hungary, "that otherwise great chess playing country", being represented by a "mere woman" (the beautiful and totally brilliant Judit Polgar) in these championships; this "mere woman" who somehow managed to forget long enough that she has breasts and long tawny colored hair and is gorgeous, and beat some of the best chess players [all males, darlings] in the world; this is a man who called Nisipeanu, Akopian, and Khalifman "tourists" at these World Chess Championships! Darlings, sounds like sour grapes - and just a tad more than basic insecurity - to moi! And, although perhaps no one else in the CHESS WORLD will dare to say it, I will say it here (because I am no one in the CHESS WORLD, and even if I was, I would say it anyway, because truth always will out): Kasparov has made a complete and utter fool of himself by these idiotic and contemptible statements. The man is a Pathetic Jerk.
For verification of the statements that Kasparov has made regarding this Championship series, I refer you to "This Week in Chess", by Mark Crowley of the UK. From what I gather, darlings, this is a most respected, MOST RESPECTED, source for chess news - both in local print and on the Internet. Also, one may check the archives of ClubKasparov for statements from the Pathetic Jerk himself - if they have not been altered or deleted. HA!
Conclusion
What does it all mean?
For what it's worth, my personal opinion is that Alexander Khalifman is, indeed, the 14th World Chess Champion, and the other would-be claimants to the title are nothing more than pretenders.
Now, darlings, Tradition is a very fine thing, indeed. But Traditions die and are buried every day, with barely a moment’s notice. While it might at one time have been a good enough system for the "two best" chess players in the world to take several months to sit down and play leisurely games opposite each other, the world that such events took place in no longer exist. Today we have the internet; we have - what hundreds? thousands? of chess players qualified as IMs and GMs; we have computer-aided chess analysis that is every second growing more and more sophisticated; we have teams of chess professionals who aid and abet the highest-ranked players, whose jobs consist of nothing but chess analysis; we have a cache of permanent chess professionals who manage to make enough to keep body and soul together by playing a circuit of tournaments every year! Therefore, to envision such a thing happening today as the matches that took place in the 19th century up to and including the mid-20th century (when the Soviet hegemony was still intact and enough of a world power to "insist" upon events happening along a certain line, is to totally subvert present reality. Of course, there are those who would attempt to do so.
But they are candles blowing in the wind. History proves that tradition is only observed so long as it continues to serve and fulfill a fundamental and archetypal purpose. When a paradigm shifts, old traditions are left behind to celebrate well-deserved deaths, and new traditions emerge.
Let the games begin!
Fin du Monde - End of The WEAVE: Part I
