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Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Awesome 'Chess' Pieces from Mongolia!
Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013
Hi everyone,
Before chess came shatar, with battles fought on the steeps 900 years ago Norbu, 60, works on a Mongolian chess piece shatar, an intangible cultural heritage of the Inner Mongolian autonomous region. It is like chess, but this Mongolian cousin of the Western board game is different.
Norbu wears presbyopic glasses and stares at a tiny piece of wood. Beads of sweat ooze from his forehead as he focuses on carving the wood. The 60-year-old ethnic Mongolian says he has been emotionally attached to the small pieces of wood since childhood.
"I was not allowed to touch the chess pieces when I was a child. The adults were afraid I would break these treasures," he recalls. "The shatar sets were antiques passed down through the generations because not many people knew how to make new ones."
But Norbu's eagerness to play shatar motivated him to try to make his own set, and he proved good at it. With a knife and a drill, what started off as hobby became an adventure of promoting the age-old tradition.
Shatar has murky roots in the 13th century and is generally believed to derive from shatranj, a Persian game, which is also the embryo of modern chess. Shatar still keeps some of the original rules of shatranj. What distinguishes shatar from other chess variants are its chess pieces and slightly different rules.
Queens in shatar are shaped like lions or tigers. Bishops are replaced by camels. Pawns are carved into hounds while rooks look like carts.
Your Chess Pieces: Friction Test 'Em for Speed <-- Cool Video
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Blitz players usually want their chessmen fast and sliding smooth. On the other hand, some detest the super-fast action and prefer more solid grip on the chessboard. Here's a very interesting video about just how "fast" different types of chess pieces can be. Wow.
A larger than life chess game is taking shape at the home of former Great Falls mayor Dona Stebbins, where two spruce trees are being transformed into a king and queen. The trees took a beating over the past few years; she had all but the bottom seven feet taken down, and then decided to get creative.
Stebbins said, "I couldn't bear to part with them on a permanent basis so I wanted to do something that was really unique. Something that would really lend something nice to the town." Stebbins solicited the help of well-known Libby sculptor Ron Adamson and his son to turn what she called the "grandma and grandpa" trees into something special.
Adamson noted, "This is different cause you don't know what you're gonna get. There are cracks in it you have to work with. There are bug holes and there are bugs flying around and when I get stung I tend to have to go see the doctor, so things like that are a concern."
Ron typically works indoors on western wildlife pieces.
He and son Jeff started carving on Monday, and expect to wrap up by this weekend.
Chess pieces found during excavations at 4th US President's Orange County estate
Chess blog for latest news and trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
James Madison, Jr. (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836) was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States (1809–1817) and is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.
Hi everyone,
Here is some quintessential news from Orange, VA. USA Today, in an AP report, says: archaeologists have unearthed a couple of pieces of history at James Madison's country estate: portions of two pawns from his chess set!
Wow.
Montpelier officials think the pieces are likely from the same set that Madison and Thomas Jefferson used in their frequent matches during Jefferson's visits. Archaeologists recently discovered the pawns during an ongoing excavation at the fourth president's Orange County estate. Montpelier archaeology director Matthew Reeves called the pieces a treasure that reflects Madison's intellectual pursuits and social life.
The fragments of pawns provided enough detail for researchers to determine what Madison's chess set looked like. Curators then bought an identical, authentic 18th-century ivory chess set, which now is on display in Madison's home.
Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
CHESS APPEAL: Puke Ariki exhibition technician Danny Blattler says the library's outdoor chess set just needs its black Bishop and white Knight to find their way home to be complete once more. Photo: ANDY JACKSON/ Taranaki Daily News
Hello Everyone,
This is a tale you are going to remember for a long time. We bet! Why did the Bishop and Knight walk away? Did they elope? Or are just on a vacation to an island? Or someone simply kidnapped them?
No one knows what has happened to the black Bishop and the white Knight of Puke Ariki's much-loved, long-absent outdoor chess set in Wellington, New Zealand. The set remained outside the library for well over two years. One day the staff forgot to bring the set inside in the evening and the set was stolen.
The police helped find 14 pieces. Five were found later and more followed. Somehow an extra pawn turned up too but the white Knight and black Bishop are still missing.
"They are possibly in Fiji by now," said Puke Ariki exhibition technician Danny Blattler, the man now responsible for the chess set's welfare. "If it were me I might have been spending some time in Samoa."
Puke Ariki marketing co-ordinator Tae Allison said people asked daily about the pieces and the library very much wanted them returned so they could bring chess back into the city.
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12th Women's World Chess Champion
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