Please stop by e4c5.net for a visit and enjoy. If you feel like it, change your links and such to point to e4c5.net.

Sadly, the statement by Sir John Simon, “So far as I know it is the only game in the world in which it is impossible to cheat.” is no longer true as seen this summer with the cheating scandals that the World Open. On a more humorous note, Frank Pestaño has written an interesting column detailing famous accusations of cheating and chess. Enjoy.

Just released, David Shenk’s The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science and the Human Brain. Goodness, that could be the longest book title ever!

Still, much to my wife’s dismay, I got hooked. It is an intoxicating game that, though often grueling, never grows tiresome. The exquisite interplay of the simple and the complex is hypnotic: the pieces and moves are elementary enough for any five-year-old to quickly soak up, but the board combinations are so vast that all the possible chess games could never be played—or even known—by a single person. Other parlor games sufficiently amuse, entertain, challenge, distract; chess seizes. It does not merely engage the mind; it takes hold of the mind in a way that suggests a primal, hardwired connection.

Read more of the Introduction here. Looks like some interesting late night reading.

If you haven’t seen this commercial, go to this site to watch.

Design is like chess
War is like chess
Law is like chess
Natural products synthesis is like chess
Math is like chess
Shogi is like chess
Engineering is like chess
Football is like chess
Basketball is like chess
SQL is like chess
Romance is like chess
Foreign policy is like chess
Website development is like chess
Computer science is like chess
Business is like chess
Life is like chess
Cycle racing is like chess
Flying gliders is like chess
Curling is like chess
Revolution is like chess
Sailboat racing is like chess
Consensus is like chess
Golf is like chess
A heist is like chess
Baseball is like chess
Classical music is like chess
Climbing is like chess
Judo is like chess
Random Chess is like chess
Poker is like chess
Shuffleboard is like chess
Risk 2210 AD is like chess
Survivor is like chess
This mideast stuff is like chess
Bike racing is like chess
Polo is like chess
Fiction is like chess
Six-wicket [croquet] is like chess
Analog circuit design is like chess
Rap is like chess
Language is like chess
Short track is like chess
Communication is like chess
Tennis is like chess
Litigation is like chess
Retail business is like chess
Decapitation is like chess
A zero sum game is like chess
Deontology is like chess
Snooker is like chess
Nothing is like chess
Negotiating is like chess
Badmitton is like chess
Go is like chess
Story telling is like chess
Art is like chess
Optimization is like chess
Trading is like chess
Ground-fighting is like chess
Platinum printing is like chess
Love is like chess
Dynamic Decision-Making Design is like chess
Mortal Kombat is like chess
Intrusion detection is like chess
Conversation is like chess
Backgammon is like chess
Java is like chess
Martial Arts is like chess
Career planning is like chess
Fencing is like chess
Jazz is like chess
Billiards is like chess
Project management is like chess
CSS is like chess
Soccer is like chess
Mutants & Masterminds is ike chess
Evolution is like chess
Human development is like chess
The Palestinian/Israeli conflict is like chess
Rugby is like chess
UT is like chess
The world is like chess
Outsourcing is like chess
France is like chess
Talmud is like chess
Diplomacy is like chess
Politics is like chess
The game of Universe is like chess
Picking up chicks is like chess
Freight hopping is like chess
E-mail is like chess
Play-writing is like chess
Business is like chess
Management is like chess
Artificial Intelligence is like chess
Pool is like chess
Boxing is like chess
Quake3 is like chess
HIV is like chess
Quarrelling is like chess
Motor-sport is like chess
Climbing is like chess
Painting is like chess
Age of Empires is like chess
Squash is like chess
Billabong is like chess
Team racing is like chess
AIDS treatment is like chess
Politics is like chess
nethack is like chess
Strategy is like chess
Debate is like chess
Frist & Co. is like chess
Nursing is like chess
Hockey is like chess
Information modelling is like chess
Ceran is like chess
Star Trek – Conquest Online is like chess
Musical memory is like chess
Crossword puzzling is like chess
Serving dynamic content is like chess
The middle east is like chess
Karma is like chess
WarCraft3 is like chess
The whole dating ritual is like chess
World War 2 Online is like chess
Advance Wars is like chess
Personality is like chess
Grappling is like chess
Online gaming is like chess
Ice cream is like chess
Critical thinking is like chess
Rowing is like chess
Warhamer 4000 is like chess
Tango is like chess
Optics is like chess
Learning SQL Server is like chess
Paintball is like chess
Rock, Papers, Scissors is like chess
Dreamblade is like chess
Ninja Gaiden Black is like chess
Sniping is like chess
Hostessing is like chess
Starcraft is like chess
Philosophy is like chess
Marketing is like chess
Bankruptcy law is like chess
Square dancing is like chess
Tai Chi is like chess
The body shop productivity game is like chess
Winning Eleven is like chess
Splinter Cell is like chess
HeroClix is like chess
Woaley is like chess
Programming is like chess
Courtship is like chess
Axis & Allies is like chess
The battle of the sexes is like chess
Bowling is like chess
Baseball pitching is like chess
Music is like chess
Docking is like chess
Wi-Fi Walking Talkie is like chess
Civilization is like chess
The CIO job is like chess
Air traffic control is like chess
Political intrigue is like chess
Visual Basic is like chess
Microprocessing programming is like chess
My style is like chess
Clay court tennis is like chess
Illustration is like chess

Originally this post was to be about “You know if you’ve read too much Harry Potter when . . . “, but then I got to investigating the Harry Potter chess set and discovered the Isle of Lewis chess set which is housed at The British Museum. Above is a replica of this beautiful chess set from 1200 AD. More information can be found at Wikipedia and History of Chess and, of course, The British Museum. Below are pictures of these remarkable chess pieces. Click on any of the hyperlinks to view a larger image of it.

The Set

The King

The Queen

The Bishop

The Knights

The Beserkers

BTW, I did check out Sarah’s Journal Archive and Edgar Winter‘s websites for more information, but I didn’t find anything there. If I missed a link in these sites, I apologize.