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 (
28 Jade (
29 Each Uisge (Scottish):
water-horse which haunts lochs and appears like a sleek pony. The horse is a totem beast of the
Horse Offerings,
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
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: (
37 Shoo-in: a predetermined or
fixed horse race - the winner of it.
38 Never look a gift horse in
the mouth.
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:
41 Appiades: five divinities (Venus, Pallas,
42 Bayard: any valuable or
wonderful horse.
43 Hengist: a stallion.
44 White horse: traditional
badge of
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.
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 (
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
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
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’?