CHESMAYNE

Midi: Cats

SQUARE

contest
Enter the 84 Spaces Contest! Win Prizes!

01 Cell (Chesmayne). Non-dynamic symbol contrasted with the circle. Quadratic. Squaring the circle: unsolvable task of changing a circle into a square!

01A French: Case. 01B German: Feld. 01C Italian: Casa. 01D Spanish: Casilla. Square - la case. Black square - case noire. White square - case blanche.

Bethlehem's Manger Square And Church Of Nativity

02 Cube: six squares. Solid, immutable, firm. A cross if made from it is unfolded in a certain way. Rev 21:1 sees the Holy City in the shape of a cube.

03 Magic Square: a mystic diagram or mathematical arrangement of the numbers 1 to 9 so that they add up to 15 in each direction…

4 9 2

3 5 7

8 1 6

Chessmen and Magic Squares

Les carrés magiques à l'origine des pièces ?

THE CHESSMEN

A theory always contains some assumptions. The fact that they are later confirmed or not makes the success of the theory. Let us start with the magic squares.

Their properties have captured the interest of many early mathematicians in several civilisations. Is that a pure chance if China, India and Persia are among those most concerned ?

The relationship between magic squares and chessmen have been affirmed before. That assumption is making a lot of sense since mathematics as well as game boards dive their roots into divination and astrologic processes. Let us imagine someone wishing to define all different kind of basic moves with 1 and 2 steps possible on a grid surface. He will get to the following result, represented here below:

E	H	X	H	E
H	V	G	V	H
X	G		G	X
H	V	G	V	H
E	H	X	H	E

All moves are supposed to start on the central square. One can easily identify the moves of most chessmen from that diagram :

G : represents the Governor or General (jiang, shuai), the central piece in Xiangqi which has no King strictly speaking. It moves 1 step in every orthogonal directions.
V : represents its adviser or counsellor, let us name it the Vizier as in Chatrang. It is also present in Xiangqi. It moves 1 step in diagonal directions.
E : represents the Elephant, a 2 step diagonal leaper, present in both games.
X : is a 2 step leaper in orthogonal direction with no clear Chess connection for the moment.
H : complements the full picture. We believe that this is really the “raison d’être” of this piece, the surprising Horse, jumping as our modern Knight since the mists of times.

That defines 4 of the 5 major pieces in Chess. The Chariot, the Rook ancestor, is missing. Therefore, some have presumed that the Chariot would have been a 2 step leaper in the first times. However, this is not attested nowhere. Even in the first sources, Indian, Persian as well as Chinese, the Chariot is clearly depicted as an orthogonal runner. We shall return on this with a better applicant.

For the moment, these possible moves are just forming some remarkable patterns with no particular ludic significance.

Next / Suite

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Back to Chess origins / Retour vers l'origine des échecs

“The Little Square of St. Marcus”, Francesco Guardi

The words below may be found in this dictionary

3:01 ALVEOLATE-ALVELOUS

3:02 AREOLE

3:03 CELL

3:04 DEATH CELL

3:05 ESCAPE CELL

3:06 FENESTELLA

3:07 F CELL

3:08 FLIGHT CELL

3:09 FOUNDATION STONE

3:10 GASKIN

3:11 GOAF

3:12 GROUND ZERO

3:13 HAPLOID

3:14 HEEL-AND-TOE

3:15 KARYO

3:16 MONAD

3:17 NAMMA

3:18 NEURONE

3:19 :pob (POST-OFFICE-BOX)

3:20 QUILL

3:21 SCONE

3:22STRONG CELL

3:23 SYNAPSE

3:24 THECA

3:25 WEAK CELL

3:26 ZENANA

3:27 ABSCISSA

3:28 ENEMY CELL

3:29 PLEONASM

3:30 QUILL

3:31 SQUARE

3:32 THECA

3:33 MONOCHROMY

3:34 OVER PROTECTION

3:35 REARSPAN

3:36 SPAN

CELLS: LIGHT - DARK - BLOCKED

4:01 ARGYLE

4:02 GERMEN

4:03 MICROGAMETTE

4:04 OXER

4:05 PLEXUS

4:06 ANTIPODES

4:07 BY-LINE

4:08 CELL

4:09 CENTRAL CELLS

4:10 CONJUGATE CELLS :cj

4:11 CONTROL (OF A CELL)

4:12 DECOY, DECOY-SACRIFICE, DECOY-THEME :dy

4:13 GAMONT

4:14 HIATUS

4:15 HOLE

4:16 LIGHT COLOURED CELLS

4:17 SPACE

4:18 WHITE CELLS (:XW)

4:19 LEUCOPENIA

4:20 MELANPENIA

4:21 EPISTASIS

4:22 XB (BLUE CELL)

4:23 XC (ANY CELL)

4:24 XD (DARK CELL)

84 Spaces Contest

To celebrate its seventh anniversary, the Chess Variant Pages is holding a contest to design a Chess variant with 84 spaces. This is the number of months in seven years, i.e. seven dozen or 7*12. The contest lasts from January 1st to December 31st of 2002. Entries will be received for the first seven months, and voting will take place during the remaining portion of the year. Voting will be handled as it was in the 100 Squares Contest of 2000-2001. More details are covered here:

84 Spaces Contest Rules

Competing Entries

None so far.

Non-competing Entries

Chaturanga 4-84 by Peter Aronson

Other Contests

Contests -- Other contests we've hosted

Written by Fergus Duniho