Activists protest against chess as 'racist'

[Natalinasmpf]

Don't you know quarks come with colour charges?

Yes, but I don't recall positrons or electrons being composed of quarks.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Ancyrean


It doesn't count as art at all, but I remember in Star Wars episode IV (?) 3PO was playing some kind of holo-chess with Chewy . On a more obscure note, your mention of 'the Prisoner' episode (which I didn't see) reminded me of yet another scene, but in the Conan the Barbarian comic series (does anybody remember Conan? ). There, there was this king playing chess with a foreign dignitary on a huge board with real people, and the "pieces" had to actually kill eachother if a piece "took" another. He was casually chatting with Conan I guess as he carelessly lost his queen, who was run through by a knight after just having stabbed a pawn-dude...

I seem to recall an 'Avengers' episode that involved chess pieces too.....



And I know that Matisse painted several paintings with men playing chess within the precincts of a mosque when he spent time in North Africa. Several of his paintings of odalisques also involve either chessboard patterns or a chess set.


I always loved those beautiful sunsoaked paintings of his from the Maghreb, where men sit or loll in clear light on a Berber rug, watching goldfish in a bowl, or using a narghileh, or sipping tea. It was only when I went to Morocco for myself that I realized why it had such a profound effect on him, and on Delacroix too.

The difference betwen the quality of light under Northern skies, and the sunlight to be found in Morocco was astonishing, and then there were the whitewashed buildings, the indigo dye, the wrought iron around windows....


Anyway- didn't a caliph or sultan ban the playing of chess for a while, although to no lasting effect, thankfully?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Natalinasmpf

Don't you know quarks come with colour charges?

Yes, but I don't recall positrons or electrons being composed of quarks.

So? At least half of the elementary particles don't have charges.

[Ancyrean]

Originally posted by molly bloom
And I know that Matisse painted several paintings with men playing chess within the precincts of a mosque when he spent time in North Africa. Several of his paintings of odalisques also involve either chessboard patterns or a chess set.

I always loved those beautiful sunsoaked paintings of his from the Maghreb, where men sit or loll in clear light on a Berber rug, watching goldfish in a bowl, or using a narghileh, or sipping tea. It was only when I went to Morocco for myself that I realized why it had such a profound effect on him, and on Delacroix too.

The difference betwen the quality of light under Northern skies, and the sunlight to be found in Morocco was astonishing, and then there were the whitewashed buildings, the indigo dye, the wrought iron around windows...

Ahh, the charms of the Orient...

Originally posted by molly bloom
Anyway- didn't a caliph or sultan ban the playing of chess for a while, although to no lasting effect, thankfully?

I remember a story like that too...According to this site, in the Islamic world there was some suspicion towards the game and debate about it in the beginning. One caliph, al-Mahdi, urged the religious leaders in Mecca in 780 "to give up gambling with dice and chess" but his idea died with him, fortunately for the game . There was also a ban in Egypt on the game in early 11th century (end of ban unspecified, but presumably didn't last the ruler that decreed it). It seems like after this, chess was an accepted game in the Islamic world. The only exception, lo and behold, is the Islamic revolution in Iran nearly a millenium after the last mentionable ban (suckers ). "Chess players went underground with their boards and pieces" from 1981, when it was declared forbidden, until 1988, when Khomaini finally cared to decree it as OK. I'm also surprised to learn that the history of chess in the West was more checkered () according to these sites.

Also, some interesting footnotes here in this site.

[:) Smiley]

The only exception, lo and behold, is the Islamic revolution in Iran nearly a millenium after the last mentionable ban (suckers ). "Chess players went underground with their boards and pieces" from 1981, when it was declared forbidden, until 1988, when Khomaini finally cared to decree it as OK.

I always thought them among the most backwards government in the world, though I'd never thought it'd be by a thousand years.

[The Mad Viking]

Ancyrean and others:

To view chess merely as a military game is a failure of the imagination.

War is an extension of politics, and chess reflects all the strategic policitical manoeverings of both.

Hence bishops are as powerful as knights. The influence of church leaders on nations was as significant as warriors.

IMHO

[Natalinasmpf]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
Don't you know quarks come with colour charges?

Originally posted by natalinasmpf
Yes, but I don't recall positrons or electrons being composed of quarks .

So? At least half of the elementary particles don't have charges.

But positrons and electrons do...

Their energy when they annhiliate forms a photon, that will be of a certain unified colour...(heck they may release photons of different frequencies, but it will still be one colour because they are combined)...

And furthermore, colour charges don't really affect colour. Its an analogy to the whole "RGB makes white" thing...that three different types of colour charged particles makes neutral.