Check out Atomic Chess, our featured variant for November, 2024.

Tiger's-eye Opera

 

 

A Mystery Quest: a Magic-carpet Ride is a short book by Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls of Merridonia

 

© SAE Nicholls 2019-2020

©-® Copyright with all Rights Reserved Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls (SAE Nicholls) 2019-2020

 

 ©-® = Copyright of Merridonia with all Rights Reserved.

The moral right to the work herein is asserted by the author Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls (SAE Nicholls) of Merridonia.

Merridonian Copyright with Reserved Rights or Trademarks or Emblems or suchlike are without limit.

Only those of Merridonia are eligible for the aforesaid Copyright or Reserved Rights or Trademarks or Emblems or suchlike.

Those of Merridonia are those that have been accepted as such by the author and stated to be so accepted by the author.

Merridonian Copyright or Reserved Rights or Trademarks or Emblems or suchlike require acceptance by the author.

Merridonia is a private world by invitation of the author only.

The work herein is subject to change at any time and in any way as the author sees fit.

The author has full valuation and revaluation rights in all matters relevant to the work herein and has the right to decide what matters are relevant to the work.

 

 

 

Forward

From A Chess Set

‘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.’

From The Oxford Companion to Chess by David Hooper & Kenneth Whyld, 1984/87

‘No game has surpassed Chess to the extent that it has commanded a following in all countries of the known world for many centuries.’

 

 ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

Mystery Quest: a Magic-carpet Ride

By SAE Nicholls

Contents

 

 

Iraq 847: The Arabian chess World Championship Match

and

Momentous Times I

also

A Secret Sealed – But What Revealed

 with Patterns in the Force

 

 

 

Brooklyn 1876: The English draughts World Championship Match

and

Not so Bonnie over the Ocean

 

 

St Petersburg 1914: The Western chess Grandmaster Tournament

and

Momentous Times II

also

 A Mystery Opening

 

Return to Reykjavík 1972: The Western chess World Championship Match

and

Back to Slovenia I

 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 and some – indeed all, may not be included.

 

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 hold regardless, 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…..

…..there are a number of references in books and online to this match but the one as quoted from Alexander on Chess with: ‘…..what sounded like the equivalent to the Boris Spassky v Bobby Fischer world championship match…..’ is the only one I have seen that gives this sort of perspective on the scale of the match, and the words what sounded like suggest a more first-hand reading or telling of the match…..but from what source.....  

 

…..first though let us take a look at the wider settings of things…..

 

Momentous Times I

 

 

 

 

A Horseman’s Journey by al’Adli

(Author’s title)

 

 

 

From Grandmasters of Chess by Harold C. Schonberg, 1972, 1973:

‘But chess in AD 847 was altogether different from chess today.’

 

 

A Secret Sealed – But What Revealed

 

Over a thousand years ago the Aliyat as-Suli wrote of a chess problem that even then was already old:

‘There is no one in the world who would be able to solve it, except those I have taught to do so.’

 

…..the position is called as-Suli’s Diamond and a solution was not found and published for over a thousand years…..

…..but what was its fantastic secret that took so long to discover – or does it have no such thing at all…..   

 

Patterns in the Force

1. Beginnings

2. Departure

3. Change

4. Return

5. Endings

 

 

1. Beginnings

 

….the Northern Shah must stay within striking distance of the Southern General…..

…..if the Southern Shah can hold the Diamond his win is assured…..

 

 

 

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:

‘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…..

 

Momentous Times II

 

A Mystery Opening

 

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:

‘Then, without thinking very long over it, Bobby made his notorious twenty-ninth move (29… Bxh2?)…..’

 

!?.....But are things what they seem…..

 

From Grandmasters of Chess:

‘There was a growing feeling that Bobby Fischer was not only the greatest player of his time; he probably was the greatest player of all time.’

‘Was it a blunder or a deep conception that mis-fired?'

 

 

Back to Slovenia I

 

A Simulation

 

New York 1997: A Different chess World Championship Match

From Bobby Fischer: A Study of his approach to Chess:

‘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)

 

A Mystery Quest finishes but

A Chess Set continues

 

 

E&OE

 

Shaye-Alexander Ellis Nicholls of Rhun, Merridonia

Thursday, 24th December 2020

 

 

 

Page finishes

 

             

 


This 'user submitted' page is a collaboration between the posting user and the Chess Variant Pages. Registered contributors to the Chess Variant Pages have the ability to post their own works, subject to review and editing by the Chess Variant Pages Editorial Staff.

By Glenn Nicholls.

Last revised by Glenn Nicholls.


Web page created: 2015-11-16. Web page last updated: 2015-11-16

Revisions of MStigers-eye-opera