Quadibloc
2018-11-21 03:37:53 UTC
As some participants in this newsgroup may be aware, several years ago, Magnus
Carlsen became the World Chess Champion after defeating Viswanathan Anand in a
match.
Some of you may even be aware that he is currently facing a challenger in another
World Championship chess match at this very moment - Fabiano Caruana, from the
United States. This match has currently had eight games, all of which were draws.
This prompted me to think about one specific appearance of a Chess-like game in
science fiction.
I refer to the three-dimensional chess game seen in the television show Star
Trek.
Showing characters playing three-dimensional chess on such a TV show made sense.
It was a recreational activity suited to the limited space on board a spaceship.
It was an intellectual pursuit, and the show was about people in the future,
engaged in the scientific pursuit of learning more about other planets.
But the Enterprise also had a military role, and thus since space combat was
three-dimensional, a chess game that developed three-dimensional thinking would
naturally be encouraged for its crew.
It wasn't until many years after the show ended that you could buy a Star Trek
three-dimensional chess set yourself - and it was an expensive collectors item,
rather than a cheap plastic toy.
Why this merchandising delay?
Well, there were games of three-dimensional chess in existence before Star Trek.
One is described in Anthony S. M. Dickins' book _A Guide to Fairy Chess_. It is
played on a board of five stacked 5 by 5 square boards.
Star Trek's 3-D chess, though, to make it more analogous to regular chess, was
played on a board with only 64 squares. Sixteen of them were on little 2 by 2
islands.
This all looked very decorative. But that doesn't mean it was fully thought out
before appearing on screen. And so trying to supply the rules for a playable
game for that board... may be almost as unreasonable to ask for as, say, the
blueprints for a working warp drive.
John Savard
Carlsen became the World Chess Champion after defeating Viswanathan Anand in a
match.
Some of you may even be aware that he is currently facing a challenger in another
World Championship chess match at this very moment - Fabiano Caruana, from the
United States. This match has currently had eight games, all of which were draws.
This prompted me to think about one specific appearance of a Chess-like game in
science fiction.
I refer to the three-dimensional chess game seen in the television show Star
Trek.
Showing characters playing three-dimensional chess on such a TV show made sense.
It was a recreational activity suited to the limited space on board a spaceship.
It was an intellectual pursuit, and the show was about people in the future,
engaged in the scientific pursuit of learning more about other planets.
But the Enterprise also had a military role, and thus since space combat was
three-dimensional, a chess game that developed three-dimensional thinking would
naturally be encouraged for its crew.
It wasn't until many years after the show ended that you could buy a Star Trek
three-dimensional chess set yourself - and it was an expensive collectors item,
rather than a cheap plastic toy.
Why this merchandising delay?
Well, there were games of three-dimensional chess in existence before Star Trek.
One is described in Anthony S. M. Dickins' book _A Guide to Fairy Chess_. It is
played on a board of five stacked 5 by 5 square boards.
Star Trek's 3-D chess, though, to make it more analogous to regular chess, was
played on a board with only 64 squares. Sixteen of them were on little 2 by 2
islands.
This all looked very decorative. But that doesn't mean it was fully thought out
before appearing on screen. And so trying to supply the rules for a playable
game for that board... may be almost as unreasonable to ask for as, say, the
blueprints for a working warp drive.
John Savard