Activists protest against chess as 'racist'

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by MikeH
On the plus side it's totally pro-homosexuality. Look at the way the queen dominates the board.

Pro lesbianism.




"It's clear that in chess, the female has taken back the power she had before the rise of the monotheistic and patriarchal belief systems, in which the puny male phallocracies usurped the power of woman, creator, begetter, all powerful, Mother Goddess, virgin, crone and temptress."

(try to read it in a Millie Tant/Andrea Dworkin tone for best effect)


Shah mat.

[Seeker]

'Checkmate' is an english corruption of Persian 'Shah Mat', or 'the King is Dead'.

Chess spread from Persia both east and west, the east asian version having slightly different rules (pawns move back and forth and sideways, knights can move in a very long L shape, and the king is limited to a special zone).

In different countries the characters of course took on different cultural meanings....Bishops in europe, elephants in asia.

(end pedantry)

[Elok]

From what I've read, chess did indeed start somewhere in Asia, probably India, with VERY different rules, and migrated all over the world, changing rules en route. Hence the regional variations, like Shogi, which has cannon bombardments.

And I say this is just more fake bait for DRoseDARS to make a fool of himself. Or is there a source I missed? Calling chess racist is an even dumber move than the thing about white chocolate.

[Last Conformist]

Clear enough to suggest that Adagio doesn't have a clue.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Seeker
'Checkmate' is an english corruption of Persian 'Shah Mat', or 'the King is Dead'.

Actually in Arabic it means the king is dead.


In Persian/Iranian it means the king is incapable, or stymied, or cannot move.


Which is what actually happens on the board.


Even more pedantic moi.



Oh, and yes, the queen was a vizier or counsellor.

[Adagio]

Originally posted by Last Conformist
Clear enough to suggest that Adagio doesn't have a clue.

Yes, I know nothing about chess...

But it was the last reason I posted that actually made me vote yes, the other reasons I just thought of after voting

[Kropotkin]

Once, I think it was before the 14th century, the queen could only move one square diagonally, and was thus a pretty lame piece. Nothing compared to the Nietzchian überfrau she's today.

Is this the feminists fault?

[Last Conformist]

The Mandarins in the Chinese version, the name of which escapes me, which kinda replaces the queen, move just like that.

[:) Smiley]

actually those pieces are even worse- only diagonal and confined to 5 spots on the board. At least ya got two.

[RGBVideo]

EDIT: DanSed by Molly Bloom.

On-topic: "chess accused of racism by hypersensitive limousine liberals"?... I think I've read something along these lines from Snopes some years back.

[Sandman]

Maybe they should use different colours. How about yellowish pink and dark brown...

[dunk]

Utter silliness! Whee.

Isn't checkers racist too? I mean, making blacks and Native Americans fight to the death is pretty racist.

[:) Smiley]

Chinese chess uses red and green, or red and blue. originally, though, all the pieces were the same color, but the words on them were written differently to tell em apart.
Checkers uses red and black
Go uses black and white
Civ uses white, orange, green, dark and light blue, purple, yellow, and red.

[Tuberski]

Man of course chess pieces are black and white.

Anything before the 1950's was black and white, don't you guys watch old TV shows?



ACK!

[Nubclear]

The TV set is racist.