CHESMAYNE
Horse
Horse Surround. Find all 24 hidden horses! Artist:
Steve Kushner. Pieces: 500. Size: 18” x 24”.
01 Energy, on every level, from
the energy which works the cosmos, down to the horsepower of a car. They are symbols of war. Horses have in fact played a significant
role in war for many centuries, and the facts influence the symbol, or if you
prefer, are an ephemeral instance of the archetypal validity of the symbol. The ‘lightning’
speed, the swiftness of the horse. Some
horses talk to their rider in tales. The horse was domesticated in
the second millennium BC. It was
considered a sign of wealth to own horses.
It has been used to represent power, fleetness and the intellect and
credited with psychic and magical attributes.
Above The Clouds by Jim Warren. 1,000 jigsaw pieces - 19” x 30”.
KI Solomon
imported them (2nd KIs
Wooden Cart Planted With Primula juliae
A cart or tumbril is the simplest sort of
wheeled vehicle man could contrive having two wheels mounted on a single axle
which takes the weight of the cart body.
Most carts are constructed so that they can be tipped up quickly to
discharge a load. Hay and corn harvest
were important parts of the farming year (and still are) and the carrying
capacity of the cart is increased at such times by the addition of harvest
ladders/raves (also known as ‘Harvest Carts’).
Farmers were not alone in finding tip-carts
useful vehicles and various traders - coal merchants, quarrymen and builders -
employed them too. Tumbril’s are heavy
vehicles and every inessential ounce of timber adds to the horses burden. For this reason carts have their various members
shaven into curious and elegant curves.
Village wheelwrights have left to posterity many cart types which are
well represented in museums throughout
02 In Greek myth,
the Sea God Poseidon created the horse, which indicates a strong association with the
passions, which are the driving force in man.
The sea and the horse are related and refer to these passions. For example, waves are called ‘white horses’
and we speak of ‘riding the waves’.
Passions must be ‘bridled’.
Melody: Johnny Cash “Tennessee Stud”
03 The sinister man-eating mares
(or stallions) of KI Diomedes. Horses
are also associated with Hades, the Underworld, death.
Different qualities of the horse combine: its warlike quality make it
the ideal mount for the figure of death which suddenly and swiftly overtakes
man on the road of life. Horse and
carriage. Coachman - the true master
sits back inside the carriage.
Left:
“Cete de Cheval avant la Charge”, Theodore Gericault.
Right: Horse And Carriage On The Go.
04 When Alexander the Great first
met the great horse Bucephalus (the warhorse of Alexander the Great), nobody could tame or ride the horse.
Alexander noticed that the horse was scared of its own shadow, so he
held the horse and turned its face to the sun. Once the shadow had vanished,
he mounted the horse and tamed it.
Thereafter, Bucephalus carried him on all his campaigns.
05 James Watt 1736-1819 coined
the term ‘Horsepower’.
06 For five millenniums, society
has relied for its motive power on the humble horse, the ox and human beings,
either voluntary or enslaved.
07 The ‘horse’ in Picasso’s ‘
08 Dada: French for
hobby-horse.
09 ‘To put your money on the
wrong horse’.
“The Laughing Cavalier”, Franz Hals
10 The donkey symbolizes
humility but has none of the grandeur or pedigree of the horse. “The ox knoweth his owner, And the ass his
master’s crib” (prophecy of Isaiah concerning Christ who entered Jerusalem on a jenny filly (symbol of gentleness and humility). Jackass colts were seen as a sign of high
rank in Christ’s time.
11 The ‘Horsehead Nebula
’ is found in the constellation of Orion.
12 Castor (in the constellation Gemini)
was reputed to be a great horseman.
Mizar and Alcor in the constellation of Ursa Major
(the Bear) are known as ‘The Horse and Rider’.
M017 is also called the ‘Horseshoe’.
Equuleus is sometimes called the ‘Little Horse’. Alpheratz (in Pegasus)
means ‘The Navel of the Horse’.
13 Palaeolithic art (c.30,000
years ago), preserved in limestone caves in
14 In Tibet, astrological
forces are known as the ‘wind horse’ (rlung-rita). One can also be born in the ‘water-horse’
year.
15 Crazy Horse: American
Indian.
16 Circuit-riders: early
itinerant Methodist preachers on horseback who regularly covered a circuit of
churches and also carried their messages to new settlements. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: symbolic biblical
characters described in Revelation-6, where they signal the
beginning of the messianic age. Each
comes on a steed of a different colour, symbolizing devastations associated
with the end of an age (black = famine; red = bloodshed, war; pale = pestilence,
death), except for the white horse, which has a crown and is sent to conquer.
“Shoeing Horse”,
17 Wooden Horse: the stratagem by
which the Greeks finally gained entry to
18 Arusha and Arushi (Indian mythology): a red stallion and a red mare belonging to the sun-god
(epithet of the rising sun).
19 In Vedic times when a KI had
no son, he would resort to sacrificing his finest stallion. It was expected that the spirit of the noble
animal would make the QUs fertile. This sacrifice of
man’s most precious domestic animal was believed to be magically
powerful.
Horse Offerings,
20 Ashvins (Indian mythology)
are twin horsemen (Gemini). They are young and handsome,
bright, agile and swift as falcons and ride in a golden chariot
drawn by horses or birds.
21 One of the children of Gaea
(Goddess of Earth) was the horse Arion.
22 Glaucus was eaten by his own
horse’s after losing a chariot race to Iolaus.
23 The Harpies were mothers to
Achilles’ two talking horses,
24 Laocoon was the Trojan
priest who warned the Trojans that the Wooden Horse contained Greek soldiers
and the scene is the subject of one of the most famous of all Greek
sculptures.
Merry-go-round, seaside, Bombay
25 Poseidon is associated with
horse’s which he created with their thundering hooves. He was conceived as equine in form. The Isthmian Games were dedicated to Poseidon,
and he was invoked both before horse-races and before sea-voyages. He mated with Demeter who
bore the horse Arion. Pelops gave him a
divine chariot in which he won a race with Oenomaus. His son Pegasus was as horsey as his
father. Philyra coupled with Zeus in
the form of a stallion and she bore the Centaur Chiron, horse from the waist
down, and a wise teacher.
26 Jala-Turaga (
Wall Painting of Horses,
27 Eight Horses (China): the 8
horse’s which drew the carriage of ‘Mu Wang’ often feature in art. After their normal working life he put his
horses out to pasture (unheard of at the time and this action merited him a
place in history).
28 Jade (China) is a talisman
against being thrown from a horse. Ma
Wang (China): ‘KI of the Horses’.
29 Each Uisge (Scottish):
water-horse which haunts lochs and appears like a sleek pony. The horse is a totem beast of the British
Isles and Ireland - a fact attested to by the taboo of eating horse-meat.
Horse Offerings, Madurai, Tamilnadu
30 Horse-breeding and discussing
the points of good racers or jumpers is still common talk in many small Irish
villages. The horse chalk figure,
‘White Horse Hill’ in Berkshire testifies to the joint Celtic and Saxon reverence
for the animal.
31 Mari Lwyd (Welsh): a
hobby-horse made of a garlanded horse-skull which is borne about at Christmas
time. The ritual custom is based on a
legend which says that the Mari Lwyd was put out of the stable in which Christ was
born and that she wanders the land in search of a place to stay.
32 Charger: the horse of the
cavalryman - ‘the chargers prance’.
33 Colt: applied to the young of
a horse.
34 Horsegate: a gate of Jerusalem.
35 Raca: ‘You silly ass’. Expression of contempt and unbelief.
36 Half Horse: (USA, slang): a
crazy populist and roughneck politician.
Taken from the phrase ‘half horse and half alligator’.
37 Shoo-in: a predetermined or
fixed horse race - the winner of it.
38 Never look a gift horse in
the mouth. St. Jerome.
39 Richard III: A horse! a
horse! my kingdom for a horse! (V.4).
For
want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For
want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
For
want of a horse, the rider was lost;
For
want of a rider, the battle was lost;
For
want of a battle, the kingdom was lost!
40 Achille’s
horses: Xanthus and Balios.
41 Appiades: five divinities (Venus,
Pallas, Concord, Peace and Vesta). They
were represented on horseback.
42 Bayard: any valuable or
wonderful horse.
43 Hengist: a stallion.
44 White horse: traditional
badge of Kent (England).
45 Hercules:
one of his tasks was to catch the horses of the Thracian Diomedes.
46 Hippocampus:
sea-monster/sea-horse. It has the head
and forequarters of a horse and the tail and hindquarters of a fish/dolphin. Steed of Neptune.
47 Hippogriff:
horse-griffin. Symbol of love. Paradise Regained, IV, 541-3.
48 Horseshoe: it is considered
lucky to pick up a horseshoe. The
reason being that Mars (iron) is the enemy of Saturn (God of witches). They were nailed
to house
doors with the two ends uppermost
(so that the luck did not run out).
49 The Amish still use horse-drawn
carriages!
50 The 10th advent of
Vishnu will be in the form of a white horse with wings (Kalki), to destroy the
earth.
51 Ecka (India): a small
one-horsed vehicle/unit.
Horsehead Nebula - Orion
52 Sea-Horse: The fidelity of
the sea-horse is astonishing. They form
pairs that last until death. In the
morning they greet each other, circling in a stately dance while changing colour. They mate and do not abandon
their partner. When one partner dies,
the newly single sea-horse pairs up with the nearest unpaired neighbour. The sea-horse (Hippocampus whitei), are 4
inches long and rely on disguise to protect themselves from predators. They move slowly and cover small
distances. Their fidelity is very
uncommon in fish. Each morning after dawn the
male moves to the pair’s greeting place and waits for his female companion to
appear. The males become pregnant. The female produces the eggs and
deposits them in a pouch in the males tail.
They are then fertilized and nourished until the baby-sea-horses get
their first taste of seawater.
53 ‘You can lead a horse to water
but, you cannot make him drink’.
54 Caballine:
horselike.
55 Centaur: fabulous creature
having the upper body of a man and lower body of a horse. Centaurs are seen as coarse and
irrational. Symbolic of vice and sin.
56 Horseman: symbol of the
mastery of wild strength. Revelation:
four horses (white, red, black and pale).
RHINOS
A
FAMILY OF VARIANT CHESS PIECES
Introduction
Rhinos are a family of
variant Chess piece that slide hippogonally
- David Parlett’s term for moving in a Horse or Knight-like fashion - without
jumping. In addition to the basic
Rhino, the family includes such variations as the single-step Rhino, the
Mirror-Rhino and the Double-Rhino.
History
This family of pieces has
been invented more than once. Ralph
Betza invented the TwiKnight or TwiKnight Double-Header (the Rhino), the KnightTwi
(the Mirror-Rhino) and the Bronx (the Double-Rhino) for Confusion
Chess in 1996. Ed Friedlander
independently invented the Cubscout (the Rhino) for his Exotic Chess Applet. Peter Aronson then invented re-invented the
Rhino Family in 2001. It all goes to
show that you should pay attention to Ecclesiastes.
About the Name
The name Rhino is short of
course for Rhinoceros, an animal that shares the Order Perissodactyla with Horses, but is rather harder to block than a
Horse. Other names that were considered
are the Heavy Horse and the Cataphract.
The names Rhino and
Rhinoceros have been used before. Ed
Friedkin uses the Rhino as the name of a piece that moves like a Queen, but
pushes other pieces instead of capturing directly. Gollon gives the name
Rhinoceros for a piece from Shantranj Al-Kabir (Great Chess, but not the same
as Turkish Great Chess), which moves like a Knight or a Bishop. However, as neither of these usages are
common, there should be little confusion between those and the Rhinos described
here. However, Ralph Betza’s names do have precedence.
The Basic Move
The Rhino’s basic move came
from combining the movement of the Xiangqi Horse or Mao with
that of the Wazir. This yields a piece that moves one square
orthogonally, and then optionally, only if the first square was empty, one
square diagonally outward.
The value of this piece
versus a conventional Knight that can jump is hard to calculate: it can reach
more squares, but it can be blocked, which a Knight can not. This piece is a
single-step Rhino.
The Sliding Move
The Rhino’s sliding move is
similar to the alternating move of the Crooked
Bishop: the Rhino slides one square orthogonally, then one square
diagonally outward, then one square orthogonally in the first direction again,
then one square diagonally outward in the second direction again, and so on
until an opposing piece is encountered, the edge of the board is reached, or
the player decides to stop moving.
This piece is the TwiKnight,
the Cubscout or the standard Rhino (z[WF] in Ralph Betza’s funny
notation). If you calculate by the
number of squares it can reach, on a standard chess board it is worth less than
a Pawn more than a Rook (it can reach about 10% more squares than a Rook). However, it is an easier piece to get into
play, but perhaps harder to use.
Mirror Rhinos
Mirror-Rhinos and one-step
Mirror-Rhinos move the opposite of Rhinos: first diagonally, then orthogonally
outward. The basic piece is a
combination of the Fairy Chess Moa and the Ferz: one
square diagonally, and then optionally, only if the first square is empty, one
square orthogonally outward.
This piece - the one-step Mirror-Rhino - is pretty similar to the regular one-step Rhino.
The one-step Mirror-Rhino
becomes a Mirror-Rhino in pretty much the same way a one-step Rhino becomes a
Rhino: first the Mirror-Rhino (or KnightTwi - z[FW] in funny notation) moves a
square diagonally, then a square orthogonally outward, then diagonally again in
the first direction, then orthogonally outward again in the second direction,
and so on until an opposing piece is encountered, the edge of the board is
reached, or the player decides to stop moving the piece.
On a standard eight by eight
chess board, a Mirror-Rhino is worth just slightly less than a standard
Rhino.
The Double Rhino
The Double-Rhino is a
combination of the Rhino and the Mirror-Rhino.
Ralph Betza called it the Bronx (z[WF]z[FW] in funny notation).
While a lot of the squares it
can reach are duplicated, even so it reaches a lot of squares. Calculating solely by the number of squares
it can reach, it is worth about two Pawns more than a Queen; however, since it
has multiple paths to many squares, making it hard to block, it may be worth
more than this. On the other hand,
Ralph Betza guessed it to be worth less than a Queen.
The Monster
The Monster is a combination
Double-Rhino and Queen
(RBz[WF]z[FW] in funny notation). It is
a rather extreme piece, able on an empty eight by eight chess board to reach
all but eight squares:
While the Monster is clearly
a very powerful piece, it is hard to compare to other very powerful
pieces. By squares attacked, the
Monster is much more powerful than an Amazon,
but without the Amazon’s ability to jump, the Monster doesn’t seem a nearly as
terrifying piece. Monster Hunt, for
example, does not seem to be as good a game as Tiger Hunt.
Mating
On an eight by eight chess board,
I don’t believe a Rhino or a Mirror-Rhino plus a King can mate a King, but a
Double-Rhino plus a King can. A Monster
should be able to mate unaided.
Rhinos vs Nightriders
While a Rhino can reach twice
as many or more squares than a Nightrider,
their relative value is unclear, since much of a Nightrider’s value lies in its
ability to jump over obstructing pieces, and to attack pieces behind lines of
Pawns. It seems to me that depending on the
situation, either a Rhino or a Nightrider might be the more valuable. Rhinos are, of course, more clearly more
valuable than Maoriders.
Uses for these Pieces
I don’t think I have figured
out the best use of these pieces yet.
Interestingly, one of my correspondents thought that Rhinos would work
best in large variants, while another thought because of their ability to work
around holes, Rhinos would work well in small variants. So far, they seem at least slightly awkward
anywhere I’ve tried them, but I believe that there is a place for them in some
game somewhere.
Zillions of Games
I have written a ZRF with a
bunch of games featuring various types of Rhinos. None of them seem especially
interesting on their own, but collectively they do illustrate how Rhinos move
and how they interact with other pieces.
It also provides examples of how to implement zig-zagging pieces such as
Rhinos or Crooked Bishops without duplicating moves (duplicating moves messes
up Zillions piece valuations).
It now includes both Ralph
Betza’s Confusion
Chess 1, beta, and Confused Massacre, which is the Confusion Chess array vs
the FIDE array.
You
can download it from here:
Written by Peter Aronson.
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Above: IC-433 – notice the horse-head nebula at
the center of this image? See ‘Orion’?