HISTORICAL CHESS
Miscellaneous Archives

 


A Brief Overview of the Vth. I.G.K. Symposium
Participants and Abstracts - Hamburg 1999

Hamburg 1999 - The Participants
Yuri Averbach, Moscow
Peter Banaschak, Alfter
Professor Dr. Gunther G. Bauer, Salzburg
Dr. Ricardo Calvo, Majadahonda (Madrid)
Carmen Calvo, Majadahonda (Madrid)
Professor Helmut Faust, Coburg
Dr. Gianfelice Ferlito, Morosolo-Casciago
Barbara Hollander, Berlin
Professor Dr. Hans Hollander, Berlin
Dr. Victor Keats, London
Rolf Littorin, Stockholm
Horst Luders, Kiel
Koichi Masukawa, Japan
Don McLean, Montreal
Egbert Meissenburg, Seevetal
Manfred Mittelbach, Hamburg
Dr. Peter J. Monte', Voorburg
Frank Palm, Hamburg
Josef Pauser, Wien
Mike Pennell, London
Wolfram Runkel, Hamburg
Dr. Ulrich Schadler, Frankfurt am Main
Lothar Schmid, Bamberg
Hanspeter Suwe, Klein Winsen
Dr. Thomas H. Thomsen, Konigstein/Taunus
F.R. van der Vliet, Den Haag
Kenneth Whyld, Caistor
Christian Zickelbein, Hamburg
Dr. Sanford Zollinger, Wien

The Presentations and Synopses
Here is a list of the Presentations at the Symposium with detailed outlines provided for the presentations of Yuri Averbach, Ricardo Calvo, Gianfelice Ferlito, Ulrich Schadler, and Ken Whyld.

[All materials extracted from the "Program for the 5th Symposium of the Initiative Group Konigstein, Hamburg, November, 1999," presented by Egbert Meissenburg and the authors mentioned, Copyright (c) 1999, all rights reserved.]

Averbach, Yuri:
First Steps in Development of Chess Composition
Presented Sunday, November 28, 1999

Comparing the ways of development of chess composition in the East and in the West we arrive at a point of conclusion that the respective compositions vary far different from one another. All this happened according to the well known words of Richard Kipling that East is East and West is West and they shall never meet each other.

In the East the actual play and the composition were developing alongside, and a long time they kept their steps with each other. The oriental chess manuscripts contained problems (in Arabic mansubat) of two defined groups – one in which victory is achieved by bare king, and another where victory is achieved by a matge. Only when shatranj had already passed its peak of development did the composers begin to look for new ideas. The first steps were made aside from actual play with the appearance of the conditional mansubat.

As a rule, the Muslim composers were artists with a skillful hand. They presented chess as an art, and a large majority of the mansubat were works of art. Finally, it is important to mention that in the East the rules of a game, in the whole, remained without changes during about five centuries. When the game of shatranj entered Western Europe, people adopted it as a game for a stake, but having got acquainted with a new game. They discovered that to play with a stake was to slow and not convenient for settling money accounts with the three ways to win. Because of it the rules of play in Europe were changed, only one way to win a mate was left. Simultaneously the translators of the oriental chess manuscripts started to adapt the mansubat to the new European rules, and the problem arrived at with a new condition – mate in a definite number of moves. It signified the birth of problem composition in the modern sense of this word. Free treatment of the rules of chess, which arose in Europe, led to the appearance of new conditions even contradicting the rules. In consequence the self-mate and fairy chess problems appeared.

It is possible to say that from the very beginning chess composition in Europe went aside of actual play. I suppose that the majority of people who were mainly interested in problems were scholars, lecturers, and clergymen. All of them were in need of food for thought. As a rule, it was forbidden for such people to play in public places, and they met in their own narrow circles. Because at the time people usually played for a stake, they started to solve problems for a stake, too. And simultaneously so named “wager problems” appeared – the main idea of them was to cheat an opponent and to win a stake. With full right we can say that the European collections of problems became the source of income for gamblers.

Banaschak, Peter:
The Eastward Diffusion of Chess:  Why This History Cannot Yet Be Written

Bauer, Professor Dr. Gunther G.:
Mozarts Brettspiele

Calvo: Dr. Ricardo:
Mystic Numbers and the Origins of Chess
Presented Friday, November 26, 1999

Most of the knowledge linked with board exercises seems to be restricted to the initiation.

Specifically, the relationship of esoteric knowledge with the origins of chess remains in the darkness, but Gnostic sparks of ancient schools of thought, confusing as they are, appear here and there in Islamic chess writings, cabbalistic interpretations or internal evidence in some respects of chess evolution. A Jewish participation is not clearly documented, but the general cultural frame shows the Hebrew role as a bridge among all ancient civilisations and other hints here and there deserve an effort in this direction. Thomas Hyde, Moritz Steinschneider and recently Victor Keats have collected pertinent chess references in Jewish authors, but no clear picture emerges about the question in Jewish involvement in the main points of chess evolution.

The secret knowledge linked with exercises upon boards was maintained in hellenistic times inside Gnostic circles, and a game crystallized at least in Persia [no later] than the middle of the 6th century with the following basis [particulars]:

Selection of the 8x8 board Rejection of dice and chance elements
Polarization of the game between two players
Design of the game as a model of war
Linkage of victory with the "Shah-mat" idea
Inclusion of related exercises into the main game

The purpose of this paper is to mention more closely several hints pointing at a Gnostic role in the development of chess along these lines.

Faust, Professor Helmut:
Einseitige Darstellungen in der europaischen Schach-Geschichtsschreibung ­ Die Venefro-Figuren; Die Lewis-Figuren; Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa; In memoriam Prof. Dr. Joachim Petzold

Ferlito: Dr. Gianfelice:
References to Chess in the Italian Secular Literature c. 1250-1450
Hollander, Barbara:
Uberlegungen zur Entwicklung einer Schachter-minologie im Mittelalter

Hollander, Hans:
Karl Wilhelm Ramler und die Schachkulture im 18. Jahrhundert

Josten, Gerhard:
(Paper presented to Symposium but not in attendance): Funf Schach-Probleme aus mehr als 1000 Jahren Schachgeschichte

Luders, Horst:
Die Kieler Schachbibliothek und ihr Angerbot fur den schachgeschichtlich Arbeitenden

Masukawa, Koichi:
Der Transfer des europaischen Schachs nach Japan

McLean, Don:
Chess Historical Research and the Internet

Monte, Dr. Peter J.:
The Origin of Modern Chess - The History of King's Leap and Castling

Pauser, Jospef:
Dr. Jakob Mennel (1460-1526). Jurist, Hofhistoriograph und Schachpublizist

Schadler, Ulrich:
Astrological Chess
Presented Saturday, November 27, 1999

Hitherto three descriptions of the so-called "Astrological Chess" by Al-Masudi, Al-Amuli and King Alfonso X are known. The game has until today not excited considerable interest. This may be due to the fact that following Arabian tradition, which considered all games showing a differentiation of gaming stones as chess games, even in modern chess research it runs as one of the chess variants: van der Linde, Murray, Wieber and others considered all these variants as derivatives of the original game – a predilection to be questioned. Tassilo von Heydebrand und der Lasa seems to have had a slightly different view, but he was not at all interested in chess variants. A closer look at "Astrological Chess" suggests that it should be separated completely from chess and looked at as an original game in its own right.

Until today Al-Masudi, who mentions it as the fifth of six different types of chess, is considered the earliest source for a game related to the stars and to chess. He mentions a second round chess to the so-called "Byzantine round chess" (related to the stars and named ‘celestial): seven pieces corresponding to the number and colours of the five planets and two luminaries Sun and Moon move on circular board divided into 12 houses according to the signs of the zodiac.

In his "Treasury of the Sciences" from 1352 Al-Amuli gives a more detailed account of such a “celestial” chess for two players on a circular board “related to the 7 planets and the 12 signs of the zodiac and the board of which is divided according to the zodiac signs and the planets.” He adds that each of the 12 sections is divided into single fields, so that Saturn moves 7 squares, Jupiter 6, Mars 5, the Sun 4, Venue 3, Mercury 2 and the Moon 1. The aim is to create a special position of the planets, before they reach their starting squares. The game described by Al-Amuli is perhaps the same as the one mentioned by Al-Masudi, but the rules differ considerably from Alfonso's game.

Alfonso's board consists of 12 concentric circles representing the four elements, the orbits of the heavenly bodies and the zodiac, and therefore the whole circular board is also divided into 12 parts. The interior division into single squares is the same as described by Al-Amuli. Alfonso’s gaming pieces are made of statuettes depicting the planetary deities. Their iconography combining Roman and Arabic traditions is absolutely unique. This must be understood as a deliberate creation reflecting Alfonso’s ideology of a synthesis of ancient philosophy and oriental science leading to supreme wisdom.

The figurines are put on cubical bases ("Tablas quadradas") in the colours of the planets and placed on the starting fields in their orbits (wrongly given by Murray). Since these cubic pieces (why not say dice?) would fully suffice as gaming stones they indicate a more ancient stratum of the game, which may be compared to magic-astrological dice-oracles using a planisphere for calculating a horoscope known from Roman and Arabic examples.

The origins of the game may therefore go back to (late) Roman times. This hypothesis is strongly suggested by a late-Roman description of an astrological game by Iohannes of Antioch (1st half of the 7th century AD) and others. Although Salmasius and Hyde had thought the text to relate to Backgammon, which in Arab legends has been interepreted in astrological terms, already Hans Lamer doubted this connection but did not know to what other game the text may refer.

Suwe: Hanspeter:
Mit Pfeil und Zabel. Auf der Jagd nach dem Motiv – ein Interpretationsbeitrag "With Arrow and Board" - An Attempt of Interpretation Selbstmattaufgaben im Mittelalter

Whyld, Kenneth:
Medieval Wager Compositions
Presented Sunday, November 28, 1999

The subject of my paper is a type of composition found only in Europe, and only in the period of about 12th to 16th centuries. It is the medieval composition used commonly as a gambling tool.

The requirements for a suitable composition are completely the reverse of those that make a good modern study. Instead of looking impossible, they should look possible when they are not. They are better if they look familiar, instead of looking completely new.

Examples of good positions for gambling are Mates in 2 that are easy mates in 1, 3, etc. but impossible in 2. A group of almost identical positions whose minor differences change the outcome. Positions in which whoever moves first wins the bet. The gambler is allowed to pick colour in return for moving second. Positions in which whoever moves first loses.

The modern player and the modern problemist are both unimpressed by the medieval composition art. Modern criteria, even basic concepts, do not apply. For example, a problem that stipulates mate in two is not demolished if a mate in one is found. The task is mate in two, not more or less. It is misguided to compare the medieval composition to the modern problem. The two serve different purposes.

It will be no surprise that professional gamblers did not always rely entirely on the skill, but sometimes used tricks.

The examples given in my lecture will be found in the paper distributed later.