CHESMAYNE

Labyrinth

01 Any confusingly intricate state of things or events - an entanglement.

02 Greek Mythology: the Cretan maze constructed by Daedalus and inhabited by the mythical Minotaur. It had one entrance and was composed of many winding alleys, tortuous corridors and dead ends. Theseus penetrated it safely to kill the Minotaur by the aid of a clew of thread, which enabled him to find his way out of it again. A term used for all mazes in architecture and the visual arts. A passage or initiation rite and discovery of a hidden spiritual center.

03 The word derives from the Cretan word ‘labrys’, a double axe. The maze was portrayed on many of the coins of Knossos. The temple of Amenemhet III of Egypt also bore this name. It seems to reflect a form of dance or elaborate game, like the Game of Troy in Vergil’s Aeneid - a danced representation of conflict and resolution. Originally two-dimensional, and symmetrical, whose middle connects to the exit by very long paths that do not cross nor leave open the possibility of a choice. They are made of circles, squares, octagons, spirals and concentric circles etc and seen often on the floors of churches.

04 Its descendants are the Pilgrim’s Ways of medieval cathedrals.

05 Labyrinths were built in Egypt (by Petesuchis), Cretan (by Daedalus), Leminian (by Smilis, Rholus and Theodorus), Clusium (by Lars Porsena), Samian (by Theodorus) and Woodstock (by Henry II).

06 Meander: to wind/saunter about at random (a winding river of Phrygia), said to have given Daedalus his idea for building his labyrinth.

From Goddess Web page:

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The origins of chess were alchemical and transformative, and created over time by people of vision. Over the centuries chess has seemed to be a game about strategy, like a mock battlefield or war. There is even written evidence that Alexander the Great used a similar game to divine the outcomes of his battles (Secretum Secretorum). The fact that the modern chess pieces resemble English Knighthood make it more associated with a game of War, hence Patriarchal and very male dominated. Perhaps one clue to its origins is in the board itself. 8 x 8 = 64 black and white squares. Similar to sacred labyrinths, the chessboard seems to evoke a sense of sacred space, territory or location. Perhaps it is a star map? There are many magick squares, the 8 by 8 magick square of Mercury. The 9 by 9 magick square of the Moon, to name a few. Sacred Space and labyrinths have always been associated with the Goddess. Perhaps chess is a game of Love, transformation.

Chess Mazes

By Aleksey Bartashnikov

Chess Mazes is a computer game. Below, you see a description of the game.

Aim of the Game

By its nature the game resembles a maze through which the optimum way has to be found as quickly as possible. But the maze is not presented graphically, its air-castle walls being shaped by squares guarded by enemy pieces. Your task is to transfer your single piece from the square it occupies in the initial position to a target square designated by a special symbol. But you have to do it without getting assailed by pieces of the other side (the PC). You are to choose the colour of your piece and, accordingly, the opponents pieces . Making moves on the board is also up to you alone. The PCs pieces just stand there motionlessly waiting for their moment to come. But when your piece has carelessly stepped on a square aimed at by a unit of the opponent the program will immediately capture it, and that will mean you have lost. But if you manage to reach the desired square within the allotted time interval and in no more than 70 moves, the victory is yours. As soon as you hit the target, place your piece on a losing square, or exceed the limit of moves, the program displays an appropriate message on the screen - one of congratulation or sympathy. Along with this message you will be informed about the distance you have covered and the length of the shortest possible route. Both routes - yours and the theoretically shortest one - will be demonstrated on the chessboard by means of a curved line with dots on the squares your piece stepped on/should have stepped on. In case you do not enter your answer in time, if you exceed the time limit, the program will act in an analogous way.

There may be several solutions to a task, i.e. several routes leading to the target square through the maze. In order to win you only need to demonstrate any one of them. However, the number of points you get for your victory (when you lose you score no points) will depend on how close the route you have proposed is to the optimum one: if you have discovered the shortest route you get the most points. Therefore do not try to capture all of the opponents pieces hastily. If an enemy unit is unprotected then you can naturally eliminate it. But that will probably make your route much longer than the optimum one.

Here is an example of the game (6^th level of dificulty). Try to solve it!

What is the best route to transfer your white knight from d8 to c6? Finding the shortest path will not suffice; in addition, the piece’s journey has to be safe. Indeed, the enemy men stay awake. Small hint: the shortest route - 23 moves!

More detailed description of the game and a place to download an evaluation copy of the program may be found at the Chess Puzzles Series.

Written by Aleksey Bartashnikov. HTML conversion by David Howe.

From ‘Chess Variants’ web page.

Welcome to the clickmazes! Lots of unique interactive puzzles and mazes found here, and a few other things besides. Click on the links below to find out more. Enjoy - and let me know how well you survive.

New: This month I introduce yet another new form of tilt-puzzle, this time based on magnetic blocks. Try out my samples or see the complete collection at henleymob. Also a full page covering hexaroll including a couple of extra puzzles of my own devising. More photos of tilt-based puzzles by Oskar added on older pages. Coming soon - even more exotic life-forms for Maze of Life!

	Maze gallery A portfolio of my maze designs collected over the last 20 years.		Magnetic blocks Tilt blocks with magnetic attraction. Unite and conquer.
	Attic gallery A selection of scanned, hand-drawn mazes from the archives.		HexaRoll Tilt with a spin. A gravity based puzzle by Oskar.
	Plank puzzles Work your way across a swamp using a few small planks.		Oskar's four-bit mazes Tiny mazes based on just four binary bits. Can you switch off all the lights?
	Maze of Life Interactive game of life. Can you keep the blue cell alive?		Marble mazes Losing your marbles has never been so much fun.
	2D tilt mazes Roll the ball around the tray and collect all the blue goals.		No left turn maze Looks so easy until you realise you can’t turn left.
	Colour-zone mazes Roll the oblong block around the colour maze.		Oskar's dragon maze An amazing fractal design. See it in action.
	3D tilt mazes Three layers of tilt maze interlinked with lift and drop points.		NEWS and RULES Mazes and puzzles based on simple grids of operators.
	Tilt puzzles Two sliding blocks in one tilt tray. Each block must reach its own goal.		Oskar's hysteresis mazes Negotiate the maze using left and right movement only.
	Blackbox Send rays of light into the blackbox and deduce the location of the hidden atoms.		Tile puzzles A tiny, meany jigsaw. Rearrange the tiles so that there are no loose ends.
	Odd-one-out puzzles A selection of picture and word puzzles.		Knight's tour maze A peep-hole maze based on the KTs move in chess.

Andrea - a potted history. As a child in the 1970s I drew free-hand mazes, ever larger and ever more detailed, on 2D and then 3D surfaces. In the 1980s I preferred form and structure, strong patterns that could be broken in small ways to produce elegant mazes. In the 1990s I turned increasingly to rules and logic to add extra layers of complexity and push my skills to the limit. More and more I lent on my own (and others) software engineering skills to help create, prove and solve my mazes. In the late 1990s the web, and in particular java, finally provided me with the perfect tools to launch and share my ideas, and opened up a whole new range of possibilities. The web-based, interactive puzzle-maze, or the clickmaze. What can I say, the 00s look set to be the most exciting decade yet. Keep clicking and be amazed! Come back and visit soon.

Chartres Labyrinth Maltese Labyrinth Anastazi Labyrinth

Labyrinths