The Goddesschess Partnership
Who We Are

The Goddesschess Partnership is an ongoing project. Many individuals have given freely of their time, energy and support, providing invaluable information, research and written submissions - even financial assistance - to our cooperative initiative. Online since May 6, 1999, Goddesschess has grown tremendously since then. With the support and efforts of our friends, correspondents and fans, we will continue to expand our outlook and prosper. To all our loyal friends and supporters, thank you for all of your contributions, your faith in our vision and your ongoing inspiration!

 

(Image - right): Happy times for Goddesschess. This photograph was taken on November 30, 2001 in Amsterdam during the 5th Biennial chess symposium of the Initiativ Gruppe Konigstein hosted by the Max Euwe Centrum. Seated at the left side of the table are (front to back) Georgia Albert, Michelle Albert, Don McLean, Jan Newton. Seated at the right side of the table are (front to back) Carmen Romeo, Ricardo Calvo, Gerhard Josten, Dr. Koichi Masukawa.)

We began as a group of strangers who showed up at various times at the P2P website hosted by Art Bell. apopular late-night AM radio radio host who's early internet presence attracted inquisitive fans of the odd, the unusual, the esoteric, and the other-worldly. Our partnership's first acquaintences came while posting at Artl's discussion forums and remarkably, from December, 1998 through July, 1999, the people of Goddesschess created an astounding 1,200 posts on subjects exploring the origins of chess. Now, some seven years after our recreation of that core of posts - The Weave - continues to be a rich source of research and reference material. Listed here are some of the people of Goddesschess who contributed to The Weave, which remains, as always, the fundamental inspiration for our website.

The People of Goddesschess

Ron Adams
Ron participated in the original Weave from its inception in December, 1998 at the Art Bell message board and continues the tradition today at The Goddess Weave Game, a wide-open, relaxed message board where no subject is taboo and nothing is too controversial to be discussed, analyzed and argued. Among the most prolific posters to The Weave, Ron's resourcefulness, wide-ranging interests and insatiable curiosity led to many interesting (sometimes heated) discussions, causing us to explore areas we might not have otherwise have considered investigating. Ron continues to provide valuable input to Goddesschess both through his posts and through private email exchanges.

Residence: USA

Areas of Interest: Professional counselor, writer and poet; Founder and Operator of Oasis Mystery Silver Academy; Specialist in esoterica, the "occult", numerology, tarot and various systems of divination. Ron's current enterprise is the United Academy of Dreams.

Personal/Professional Website: United Academy of Dreams

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Georgia Albert
Georgia's interests are wide-ranging. Known to us as Isis, Georgia was nicknamed Pochahantas by Ricardo Calvo because of her Native American ancestry and her willingness to explore new worlds. She recently took up the sport of ballroom dancing and with her partner, has already won top awards in special competitions. A championship-level billiards player, Georgia owned an antiques shop for several years before embarking on her current career in the casino industry. Her natural warmth and interest in people couples with her keen awareness and insight into their character. In fact, Georgia's "sixth sense" about people is uncannily accurate. For instance, while watching GM Alexander Khalifman play against GM Judit Polgar at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas during the 1999 FIDE World Chess Championship, Georgia said "He's a winner." Khalifman went on to win the FIDE World Chess Championship.

Georgia has stood behind Goddesschess since that very first post in The Weave when she opened our discussion with her question: "Is chess the game of the goddess?" The grandaughter of a Mason and a former Daughter of Job, Georgia is one of the driving forces behind our partnership. She continues her tradition of raising thought-provoking questions through her posts at On Chess and The Goddess Weave Game while working closely with the Las Vegas Show Girls to produce their entertaining and enlightening articles, one of Goddesschess' most popular features. Along with Don McLean and Jan Newton, Georgia contributed to a 200-page presentation booklet by Goddesschess. Featuring some of our best work. that booklet was snapped up by attendees at the 2001 Symposium of the Initiativ Gruppe Konigstein in Amsterdam. Even our personal copies were given away because of unexpectedly high demand!

Residence: USA

Areas of Interest: Matriarchies in ancient society; the usurpation of goddess attributes by patriarchal-focused societies; histories and symbols of the Goddess; mathematical aspects of board games; alternative history (herstory); alternative historical timelines; Khemetian history; archaeology (old and new world); gemology; physics.

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Mark Borcherding
Mark and his wife, Mer, have given all of the members of Goddesschess an excellent education in Mayan history, the Mayan calendar and Mayan numerology. In addition to the Maya, Mark's posts on the numerological aspects of our subject matter have enlightened and entertained us as well as expanded our horizons towards consideration of multiple possibilities. Mark's posts were often accompanied by thoughtful graphic presentations which helped illustrate and highlight the points he was discussing. Also going under the Mayan name Foto Foton, Mark was also called Marcus Arelius and played Holmes to Jan's ingenious Dr. Watson while teaching her - and all of us - to appreciate the unseen and hidden aspects of chess.

Residence: USA

Areas of Interest: The Maya, numerology (various systems, including Hebrew Gematria), sacred geometry, prayer, Marian apparitions, Dream-Star activation.

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(IM) Dr. Ricardo Calvo
From mid-1999 until a few months before his death on September 26, 2002, Ricardo Calvo was a valued contributor to The Weave, On Chess and The Goddess Weave Game. It was Ricardo who, as "The Chief" of our intrepid tribe, fed us, led us and teased us ever onward toward the goal of uncovering the origins of chess. We will always remember with deep love, respect, and affection this great man, an icon of the international chess community and eminent authority on the history of chess in Spain.

(Photograph, right: The Chief and Ken Whyld).

Ricardo's contributions to The Goddesschess Partnership were delivered from of position of strength that, in some ways, we are only now growing to appreciate. The depth of his experience in all matters pertaining to the history, politics and play of chess remains the greatest jewel in the crown of our initiative. There is no way to express the amount of gratitude we owe this remarkably gifted, generous and fair-minded individual, except through actual remembrance and our continued work.

As a tribute to the genius of our leading Medicine Man, we invite you to visit Dr. Calvo's revealing world of chess in Chessays, where we received permission to publish many of his works, essays and articles. If you want to get to know the man on a more personal level, check out his posts at The Weave under the name "Ricardo Calvo", at The Goddess Weave Game under the name of "ricardo" (go back to posts from 1999 through October, 2000 to find "ricardo" posts), and at On Chess as "Silverhaired". Tributes to The Chief can be found here.

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Don McLean
Don, known in The Weave as Pimander and Wallace, holds a B.A. in Applied Social Science, as well as diplomas in Media Studies, Graphic Arts and Pre-Press Technologies. Appreciative of the many good things received from a formal education, adventures into the untamed jungle of Internet message board systems and the many remarkable friendships encountered in that wild kingdom have made his journey through inquiry into the origins of chess all the more real and rewarding. Entertaining a long-standing interest in the liberal arts, social sciences, history, esoterica and primordial consciousness, forays into creative writing, graphic arts, music performance and composition have provided expressive avenues for a carefree soul in continual search of new horizons.

Don describes his current engagement with The Goddesschess Partnership as both timely and rewarding. He, along with Wallace, Pi and a cast of cartoonish alter-egos owe thanks to all concerned for the pleasure of a mythical Goddesschess journey that has permitted safe passage across a number of virtual and actual horizons. A participant at the IGK Symposium in Hamburg in 1999, Don delivered a brief presentation on the impact and usefulness of Internet-based chess research and also attended the IGK's 2001 Symposium in Amsterdam, where he presented a synopses of his paper, "The Fool's Guide to Pawn Promotion".

Residence: Canada

Areas of Interest: Ancient Egyptian board games, primordial experience, mystery school traditions, myth, history, iconography and religious ritual and "mass media".

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Jan (Janet) Newton
Known as JanXena, after one of her favorite fictional characters, Xena, the Warrior Princess, and as Alpheta (after Alphito, one of the names of Graves' "White Goddess"). Ricardo Calvo named her 'Patton', after the famous general, perhaps due to her propensity to charge full speed ahead in support of her causes and beliefs, regardless of the consequences. Along with Carmen Romeo, Georgia Albert and Don McLean, Jan is a member of a small core group that composes the heart of Goddesschess. Jan has always been interested in archaeology and history, earning a degree in history as part of her undergraduate double-major. An avid reader since childhood, it was a best-selling novel written by Katherine Neville, "The Eight", a story involving an ancient chess set allegedly possessed of mystical powers and said to have been owned by Charlemagne, that was to have a profound impact on her life. In December, 1998 Jan discovered a small Internet discussion group exploring the question - "Is chess is the game of the goddess?" and joined the discussion by posting about Neville's novel, Ever since she has been researching and learning more about the origins of chess and other board games.

Jan attended the 2001 Symposium of the Initiative Group Koenigstein in Amsterdam, where she read a paper written by Dr. Jean-Louis Cazaux, "Is Chess a Hybrid Game?". Jan also published a paper at the Symposium, "Goddess Iconography in Ancient Board Games", and continues her research today, authoring and co-authoring several articles for Goddesschess and providing book reviews for other Internet resources engaged in the study of chess. Jan continues her prolific inquiry at the message boards at On Chess and The Goddess Weave Game.

Residence: USA

Areas of Interest: Sacred spaces/sacred places; historical importance of the horse in proto-chess; etymological roots of chess terminology; goddess iconography and symbolism in ancient board games; proto-chess games in Egypt, China and the Iranian/Afghanistan/Pakistan border area; liubo; divination practices as reflected in ancient board games.

Discussion Group: On Chess at Delphi

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Vickie Ramirez
Vickie posted at The Weave. Vickie, also known as I lumani and Terpsichore (we call her Terpsy), shared her love for and knowledge of music and its relationship to mathematics with us and provided in valuable insights into the mathematical connections between chess and music. When a small group of us first decided to create a website back in 1999, it was Terpsy who took the bull by the horns and designed and published the very first Goddesschess website at xoom.com. She later moved Goddesschess to our current internet home. Terpsy worked tirelessly to preserve all of the posts from The Weave - a truly monumental effort. That was the original goal of creating Goddesschess, but the website soon took on a life of its own! As the site content grew and evolved over time, Terpsy set up the internal structure that still provides the bones and sinew for Goddesschess today and kept on top of publishing the new content that we were then churning out on nearly a daily basis! Without Terpsy, Goddesschess would not now exist. Learn more about Terpsy by reading her posts at The Weave.

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M.C. (Carmen) Romeo
Carmen, affectionately known as W.I., was introduced to us by her late husband, Ricardo Calvo, who called her "The Librarian." If we have a research question that we can't get answered anywhere else, we turn to W.I. W.I. served as The Chief's Right Hand, and is, in her own right, a brilliant researcher and author of articles involving the history of chess. (See, for instance, Alfonso X the Wise: The Law of Gambling Houses and Chess). In addition to maintaining a full-time professional career, W.I. gives presentations before such groups as the Chess Collectors International and the Initiativ Gruppe Konigstein, and appears at other chess symposia around the world to give talks on the history of chess. W.I. is also active in chess activities in her native Spain, such as the Childrens Chess Olympiads and locally-sponsored chess events and tournaments, and is the designated historian of the Spanish Chess Federation. W.I. supports Goddesschess with her research contributions and articles. She is currently editing a multi-volume history of chess written by Ricardo Calvo.

Many of the posts done by our friends and visitors at the various message boards since Georgia Albert first asked "Is Chess the game of the Goddess?" have provided fertile ground for research projects. Here are just a few of the friends of Goddesschess who have served as sources of inspiration and knowledge:

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Philip Mistleberger:
One of the earliest posters at The Weave, Phil lent his wide-ranging knowledge to our cause and also served as a rational "ground" while educating us in his witty posts. Phil was particularly knowledgeable about various esoteric traditions and the ancient Egyptians.

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Alice Haney:
Alice (Nightbird) shared her extensive knowledge of Tarot with us at The Weave.

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Paul Bilyeu:
Paul's sporadic appearances/posts at The Weave were always startling, entertaining, and sometimes enlightening.

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John Fiorentino:
John taught us much about the nuts and bolts of magic squares and contributed his insight into many other topics.

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Ken Whyld:
Ken, well known in the world of chess, freely shared his ideas and research on the origins of chess and encouraged us to continue our work. He corresponded with some of us in privately up to the day before his unexpected death in July, 2003. Ken

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Gerhard Josten:
In our earliest days before there was a Goddesschess, Gerd provided introductions to Ricardo Calvo and others involved in board games research. Gerd provided insight into the status of current research on the origins of chess and shared his research and interpretations of the historical and archaeological evidence on the origins of chess.

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G. David Bock:
A man of wide-ranging interests, G. David never feared a battle or a confrontation and introduced subjects for discussion (such as the concept of substitute king-sacrifice) that curled the hair on some of our heads:

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 occasional 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 among other references seemed highly synchronistic with the current thread of topics.

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Michael Peck:
Michael provided much needed knowledge on the structure of ancient armies and battle tactics, with a liberal sprinkling of ancient history.