Tiger's-eye Opera
Western chess is often called International chess and this reflects the status this game has been accorded.....and Western chess is sometimes called the Royal Game and indeed many such as Kings and Queens have played and been enthusiasts of this game and its precursors for centuries, and still are:*
*There are a few minor changes to some of the quotes and other that follows
Mystery Quest: a Magic-carpet Ride
Contents
Iraq 847: The Arabian chess World Championship Match
and
Momentous Times
Brooklyn 1876: The English draughts World Championship Match
and
St Petersburg 1914: The Western chess Grandmaster Tournament
and
A Mystery Opening
Return to Reykjavík 1972: The Western chess World Championship Match
and
Back to Slovenia
also
A Simulation
New York 1997: A Different chess World Championship Match
and
Back to Slovenia II
Note
At the moment this is very much ‘bits and pieces’ in process of being put together (some – indeed all, may not be included) and will likely be given its own page as a short book
Iraq 847: The Arabian chess World Championship Match
Extract from: www.arabamerica.com/Arab Contributions To The Game Of Chess
Posted on: May 15, 2019
By Habeeb Salloum/Arab America Contributing Writer:
‘The Arabs were also responsible for dividing the game into the three parts we know today: opening, middle and end games. According to C. Alexander in his A Book of Chess, the Arabs not only invented the World Chess Championship but also the Grandmasters. He states that in 820 A.D. there were four ‘aliyat’ or ‘players of the highest class’, and in 847 the Persian ar-Razi defeated al-‘Adli in the presence of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil – an international contest that seems to carry a hint of the classic Fisher/Spassky clashes.’*
*The 1974 book Alexander on Chess (a fine Western chess primer) by C. H. O’D Alexander indeed states: ‘In 847 there was what sounded like the equivalent to the Boris Spassky v Bobby Fischer world championship match – a great master, the Persian ar-Razi, appeared and in the presence of the Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, defeated the champion al-‘Adli’…..and Bobby Fischer defeated the champion Boris Spassky in Reykjavík in a match that many say is the most famous Chess match ever played (it made headline news all over the world for weeks) after losing the first game following an apparent beginner’s mistake – a move sometimes called the biggest blunder ever made in Chess…..or was it, I’m not so sure – there is footage of him actually making this move and other footage on the match in the 2011 DVD Bobby Fischer against the World - the move was 29… Bxh2 and Boris replied 30. g3 trapping the Bishop, but Bobby at first seems to think he can save it with 30... h5 (30… Ke7! threating the b5 pawn – a tiny initiative that may have given Bobby practical chances to hold the game, if not so in theory – or does it, see A Simulation), and I wonder if he simply overlooked 31. Ke2 (a backwards move of the King, though 31. Ke4 followed by Kf3 – another backwards move of the King, may have been as good), then again see Return to Reykjavík…..anyway, there is much information available about this match that took place in 1972 - over a thousand years after the al-‘Adli v ar-Razi match.
But unfortunately there is, of course, nothing like as much information about the match as the Boris Spassky v Bobby Fischer clash…..
Momentous Times
From Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, 1972, 1973:
‘But chess in AD 847 was altogether different from chess today.’
From Alexander on Chess by C. H. O’D Alexander, 1974:
‘Towards the end of the fifteenth century, however, a change took place that revolutionized the game: the modern moves of the Queen and Bishop were introduced.’
Brooklyn 1876: The English draughts World Championship Match
Not so Bonnie over the Ocean
From a Traditional Scottish folk song:
‘Bring back my Bonnie to me’
St Petersburg 1914: The Western chess Grandmaster Tournament
Extracts from Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, 1972, 1973:
‘In 1914, Nicholas II, Czar of all the Russians, was host to a great chess tournament instigated by the St Petersburg Chess Society*…..The world’s most important players took part…..At the banquet concluding the match, the Czar named the first five players the Grandmasters of Chess: Emanuel Lasker, Jose Raul Capablanca, Alexander Alekhine, Siegbert Tarrasch, and Frank Marshall.’
*Spectator receipts were a record at the time.
And the tournament seems to have had everything you could ask for…..
Return to Reykjavík 1972: The Western chess World Championship Match
From Bobby Fischer: A Study of his approach to Chess by Elie Agur, 1992:
‘Quick as a flash came Bobby’s move. (24. C6!)’ - Tigran Petrosian reflecting on a Slovenia, 1961 game
From Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, 1972, 1973:
‘Then, without thinking very long over it, Bobby made his notorious twenty-ninth move (29… Bxh2?)…..’
!?.....But are things what they seem…..
Back to Slovenia
A Simulation
New York 1997: A Different chess World Championship Match
From Bobby Fischer: A Study of his approach to Chess by Elie Agur, 1992:
‘I still remember the days of the world championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in 1972.’ – Garry Kasparov in the forward
Back to Slovenia II
To be continued (possibly)
Setup
The Game of QiPlacements
Introduction
QiPlacements (one word where Qi is pronounced as in the English word key) is very much based on Chinese chess – sometimes called Xiangqi (see Further thoughts - Name changes etc.). The difference here being the placement phase of QiPlacements - a game within a game - though only two deployment placements are made by each player.
Of note here is that boards for QiPlacements would not be of paper or cardboard, as is traditional for some players of Chinese chess, but would be of the finest quality wood or other quality material.
Also included are specified deployment placement procedures – Traditional, Accelerated and Encounter.
Background
In the time of spoken Legends and Myths there is dispute over rights to the Stream that runs between the Rainbow Territories as this Stream is said to have magical healing properties and though this is perhaps but legend and myth only there are many who believe it to be true and there has finally come a time when battle is about to commence to decide who has priority over rights to the Magic stream (as it is called).
Object
The object of the Battle (game) is to Checkmate the opposing Princess and this wins the battle.
Boards:
The board shown above is that used at the very start of the game where the Cannons are awaiting placement (or deployment if the word is preferred).....the Forbidden placement squares that are explained later can simply be a removable overlay and then the rest of the game can take place on a board without them as shown below and some players may prefer not to have these squares shown at all, but in tournaments or matches or suchlike they must be shown during placement and then after placement they must not be shown for the remainder of the game.
Moves of Pieces
Chinese chess comparisons for piece moves are as follows:
A Princess – she is identical to a General, both Princesses are young
An Attendant – she is identical to a Guard
A Protector – he is identical to an Elephant
A Horse – he is identical to a Horse
A Chariot – its powers are identical to Chariots
Soldiers – his powers are identical to Soldiers and he compulsorily promotes to a Leading soldier on his sixth rank who is identical to the promoted Soldier of Chinese Chess and he should differ in appearance to that of an un-promoted Soldier.
Awaiting Placement – see below: Cannons – its powers are identical to Cannons.
Order of Play:
First there is a placement of Cannons to unoccupied squares within their own Territory, other than the Forbidden squares – see below. The first Blue Cannon is placed then followed by the first Green Cannon; then the second and last Blue Cannon is placed followed by the second and last Green Cannon. This is called the Placement phase with the Alternate placing as there is here called so. After the placement of Cannons there follows the Engagement phase where Blue moves first and moves are then played alternately.
Background - the Forbidden squares
As part of the background ethos it is forbidden, when placing them in the placement phase, to train a Cannon on a Princess, a Protector or a Chariot (these are manned) – all are initially undefended – and so the Forbidden squares as shown on the board are not permitted to have a Cannon placed on any of them. It is permitted, however, to train a Cannon on a Soldier – see Note below. During the Engagement phase the Forbidden squares (that are also the Soldiers’ promotion squares) are the same as ordinary squares and have no different effect (other than promotions) than any other ordinary square, also Cannons are now free to attack any piece, whether defended or not, in the same way as any other piece is free to.
Note
The Forbidden squares benefit initially undefended pieces from immediate Cannon attacks, but since these squares benefit Soldiers by their promotion when (if) reaching them they do not also have the benefit of immunity from having a Cannon initially trained on them.
Further Rules and Notes
There are three specific placements that follow a set procedure of offers/counter-offers and acceptance as follows:
1. The Traditional placement
If south places his first Cannon on square H3 then this must be construed as an offer to play Traditional Chinese chess and if north places his first Cannon on B8 then he is deemed to have accepted this offer and then south must place his second Cannon on B3 and north must place his remaining Cannon on H8. This is effectively Chinese chess and is called the Traditional placement.
2. The Accelerated placement
If south places his first Cannon on square F4 then this must be construed as an offer to play a placement variation called the Accelerated placement and if north places his first Cannon on D7 then he is deemed to have accepted this offer and then south must place his second Cannon on D4 and north must place his remaining Cannon on F7. This placement is called accelerated because if played from the traditional Chinese chess placement position it takes twice as many moves for the Cannons to reach these squares i.e. four moves each side
3. The Encounter placements
This is usually simply called Encounter and is where one side plays with the Traditional placement while the other side plays with the Accelerated placement and comes about as follows:
a) If south places his first Cannon on H3 he is construed to be offering to play Traditional Chinese chess as above, but if north places his first Cannon on D7 he is deemed to have made a counter-offer to play an Encounter placement and if south places his second Cannon on B3 he is deemed to have accepted this offer and north must place his second Cannon on F7
b) If south places his first Cannon on F4 he is construed to be offering to play the Accelerated placement as above, but if north places his first Cannon on B8 he is deemed to have made a counter-offer to play an Encounter placement and if south places his second Cannon on D4 he is deemed to have accepted this offer and north must place his second Cannon on H8
To distinguish between a) and b) it is stated who has the Traditional placement.
Note
These offer, counter-offer and acceptance rules for Encounter placements apply to what are called Stand-alone games and where games are played in the Rainbow group (see Part two: Grouping of Games) they differ.
Open placements
It is possible to reach the above positions by transposition of placements - perhaps including subsequent moves (this is not considered proper - even if the player 'with the move' is reversed, and players could well forfeit games for doing so), but where none of the above placement positions are reached the classification is Open placement and this would be assumed if nothing was otherwise stated.
A Note on Encounter
Encounter is considered to be the Bridge game of the Matched games of Chinese chess and QiPlacements Accelerated/Open placements - the advantage of the Accelerated placement over the Traditional placement of Chinese chess would seem to be the quicker control of open files by the Chariots with the possibility of them then moving into the opposing territory.....in significant games south would usually have the Traditional placement thereby giving first move advantage to the Traditional placement.
Other notes
Tests suggest that with correct play no significant advantage can be gained from the placement phase.
Copying placements during the placement phase can lead to significant loss of material.
Discounting the required order of Traditional, Accelerated and Encounter placements, the possible number of placement moves is 26 x 26 x 25 x 25 = 422,500 and if there were no symmetry this would lead to 105,625 positions, but there is some symmetry and some positions give advantage – however as something of a guess I would think viable placements run into thousands and perhaps well into thousands. Also see Further thoughts - Other possible games etc. - Deployment variation from TigerChess, where two possible deployment placement variations are described with Western chess as an example.
Princesses, like Generals in Chinese chess, are forbidden to face each other along an otherwise (between them) unoccupied file - see later
The background etc. is the same for all these placements/games.
Pieces are 3D and not disc-like as they are traditionally in Chinese chess, below is a picture of an antique traditional Chinese chess set whilst in Further thoughts - Name changes etc. there is a picture of a 3D representational set
Note that Generals in Chinese chess are piece names and not player names as they are in QiPlacements.
It has been said that Chinese chess is probably played by more people than any other board game in the world.
Individual pieces are usually referred to by Green or Blue but Northern or Southern is allowed.
Players are usually referred to as the Green General or the Blue General but Northern General or Southern General is allowed as is simply Green or Blue or simply North or South.
Further of Cannons, and Two-piece Pins and Triple and Quadruple checks
It seems the Cannon was probably not part of the original game of Chinese chess and may not have been added to the game for some centuries – the Cannon’s (and Horse’s) move make possible several situations that do not occur in Western chess:
Two-piece Pin
A single Cannon can pin two pieces - for example, with South to move
North Cannon e7
North Princess e10
South Horse e4
South Protector e3
South Princess e1
South must move his Princess since moving either his Horse or Protector would leave his Princess in check – both the Horse and Protector are then pinned.
Triple check
An example, with South to move
North Princess e10
South Horse e6
South Chariot e4
South Cannon e3
South Princess e1
Horse to f8 or d8 and North’s Princess is in check from South’s Horse, Chariot and Cannon.
Quadruple-check with Checkmate
The Quadruple-checkmate Puzzle makes a reasonably challenging Chinese chess puzzle and is: To set up a position where one side has four pieces and moves to Checkmate in one with a check from all four pieces – obviously both Princesses must also be placed on the board (or the position would be illegal) and there could be a further stipulation that no Chariot is allowed – an answer:
North Princess f8
South Leading soldier (or Chariot) g7
South Horse h7
South Horse g6
South Cannon f5
South Princess e1
South is to move (North is not in check here - this would be illegal with South to move)
Leading soldier (or Chariot) to f7 and North’s Princess is in Checkmate with a check from all four of South’s pieces - there are also variations where the four pieces give check but not Checkmate (for example if all the pieces were moved one square to the left though South’s Princess need not be, or just South's Princess could be moved one square left or right).
This Quadruple-check with Checkmate could perhaps theoretically occur in a game, but it is intended as an amusing puzzle only rather than a study, and perhaps it should be added that the Horses are not necessary for Checkmate here but their unblocking gives rise to two extra checks that are necessary to answer the puzzle.
Opening shots and the Quickfire gambit.....and statistics
When looking at the Traditional and Accelerated placements it can be seen that it is possible to make captures with the Cannons at the very start of the game:
With the Traditional placement South can start the game by exchanging both his Cannons for both opposing Horses, but the recapturing Chariots then come more quickly into the game and the Cannons are likely to be an advantage for the coming middle game – this opening possibility may scarcely have been played and were South to play it he would, I think, find himself at a disadvantage if playing against an equally strong North…..but this opening could be played by inexperienced players as practice games where South must make the most of his Horses and North the most of his Cannons – perhaps useful learning experience made more so by the focus on different pieces…..and perhaps it should have a name – ‘Opening shots’ seems passable.
With the Accelerated placement South also has possibilities to make immediate captures with his Cannons, but these are of a different type from the above Opening shots and the possibilities can collectively be named the ‘Quickfire gambit’ where the object is to use the Cannons to leave the opposing Princess with less defence and open to a subsequent attack, particularly by South’s Chariots…..so, keeping symmetry in mind, some moves are:
1. Cannon x Attendant f10 (One shot variation)
The very first move is a gambit by South – Quickfire indeed
1… Princess x Cannon f10
This leaves North’s other Attendant undefended, and so
2. Cannon x Attendant d10 (Two shot variation)
At first glance it appears South has captured both of North’s Attendants for the loss of one of his Cannons, and his second Cannon on d10 attacks both North’s Horse on b10 (though defended by the a10 Chariot) and his undefended Protector on g10…..but the Cannon cannot simply be extricated and escape being captured
2… Princess e10
North attacks the Cannon immediately
3. Cannon x Protector g10 (Three shot variation)
The Cannon now forks the Chariot on i10 and the Protector on c10 – both are undefended
3… Chariot i8
North moves his Chariot out of the line of fire
4. Cannon x Protector c10 (Four shot variation)
South has captured all four of North’s defensive pieces after four moves and his Cannon now forks the a10 Chariot and the h10 Horse…..and both are undefended
4… Chariot a9
North moves his a10 Chariot out of the line of fire - the Chariots have full control of their second and third ranks
5. Cannon x Horse h10 (Five shot variation)
The Cannon captures the undefended h10 Horse and attacks North’s remaining Horse on b10 who is now himself undefended, and in addition also has a possible escape route back along the h file…..North here has a choice of moving or defending his remaining Horse, or cutting off the Cannon’s escape route
5… Chariot h8
North cuts off the Cannon’s escape route and attacks it while taking control of the open h file
6. Cannon x Horse b10 (Six shot variation)
The Cannon captures North’s undefended remaining Horse and also now has a new possible escape route, this time back along the b file
6… Chariot b9
North cuts off the new escape route and attacks the Cannon and also takes control of the open b file
7. Cannon c10
South moves his Cannon out of attack
This is probably the most radical line (perhaps rather an extreme one) of this opening and has led to the opposite of gambits generally with South here having a material advantage but not an initiative as all his pieces other than the Cannon are unmoved, whereas North has both his Chariots fully active, but North has lost all his defensive pieces and his Princess could be very vulnerable if South can bring his Chariots into the vicinity of her Palace.....but whatever of the above mentioned choices North continues with on his fifth move I think he would need to make full use of his more active Chariots with the support of his Cannons before South can use his own Chariots in an attack on the Northern Princess…..but there are other possible moves besides those shown.....first though it may be worth saying something of Initiative and Tempi:
It is widely considered that at the start of a game of both Western and Chinese chess the first moving side has an advantage – how much of an advantage though…..well, there are now databases of many high level games of Western chess going back well over a hundred years and the statistics suggest an advantage to the first moving player of perhaps around 55%.....but I am not aware of such an amount of information being readily available for Chinese chess – however in his 1974 book Hsiang Ch'i (a fine introduction to the game) Terence Donnelly states that having first move in Chinese chess probably gives a greater advantage than in Western chess, and gives an example of a 50 game collection where First move won 33 and Second move 13, with the remaining 4 being draws (at 8% a much lower percentage of draws than in high level Western chess – over 50%)…..this gives a First move advantage of 70%*, but the number of games are far less than the Western chess numbers here – nevertheless I think it is worth keeping these figures in mind…..
*The calculation for this is: add the number of wins to half the number of draws, then divide this by the total number of games, finally - multiply this by a hundred for a percentage…..and for Second move subtract this from a hundred – giving a 30% disadvantage here.
To be continued
Representational
The Stream separating the Blue and Green territories is representational only and has no actual effect on the game as the river has no actual effect in Chinese chess.
Horses and Chariots and Cannons are manned.
With regard to Princesses being forbidden to face each other along an otherwise (between them) unoccupied file - see earlier: this is also the case for the Royal pieces in Meridian, RiverQi and Shadow.....the representational aspects of this are that these Royal pieces have a talismanic Sceptre (Staff in the case of the Sorceress of Shadow) that can send rays (vertically forwards only) along unoccupied squares along files, but they only have effect against the opposing Royal piece and these pieces may not move into them or be exposed to them - there should be ornamental Sceptres/Staffs for these pieces.
After the battle the Stream was to eventually become a large River – see the game RiverQi later.
Information Table
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By Glenn Nicholls.
Last revised by Glenn Nicholls.
Web page created: 2015-11-16. Web page last updated: 2015-11-16