CHESS VARIANTS

RYTHMOMACHIA

2005-02-15T14:15:00.000Z

The mayor chess variant
through the years 500 to 1,800

During the investigation of the Subject Rythmomachia,
the editor has substantially added new material during the year 2004 to
text as below, and specifically the two first paragraphs

BALDERIC LE ROUGE.

Chronicon Cameracense et Atrebatense, sive Historia utrisque Ecclesiae, III Libris, ab hinc DC sere annis conscripta. Nunc primum in luce edita, and notis illustrata Per G. COLVENERIUS.

Douay, Ioan. Bogarde, 1615. Contemporary vellum.

With engraved printer's vignette on title, 9 engraved illustrations of seals and dice in text, and 3 large folding plates, partly in wood cut and partly engraved, of three different tables for a popular lottery game.

Editio princeps of a mediaeval chronicle of Cambray and Arras, containing the earliest known description and representation of a lottery game, which had been invented by Wibold, a French divine from Cambray who died in the year 965.

Inspired by the "Rythmo-machia" or "Philosophical Game" of Pythagoras, the game was referred to by Wibold as "Ludus regularis seu clericalis". However, it was also known as "Alearegularis contra alea secularis".

It was played with a dice with letters instead of numbers, and a board with the names of all 56 virtues arranged in squares around the middle.

At the end of the book three different tables are given to play this game, two with square boards to be played with dice, and one circular board to be played as a wheel of fortune with a turning pointer in the middle.

On verso of two of these tables explanatory text is present, and the game is extensively explained in chapter 88 of the first Book and is further discussed in the notes at the end on pp. 461 ff.

The folding tables, size ca. 42 x 37 cm, were meant to be cut and mounted to be played with, including the engraved figures of dice. In text the list of names of the virtues, and the figures of dice were given too.

The chronicle itself is of interest, written by the French historian Balderic the Red, bishop of Noyon andTournay, as it gives numerous accounts of scholarly reseach and curious details.

The book presents the history from Clovis to 1090, as the author died in 1097. The outstanding feature now is the representation of a mediaeval lottery-game, which according to the inventor could be of use at schools or for charity ( Lottery games initially are invented and used to draft new militairy-personnel and create money).

The importance of this chronicle was rediscovered in 1834 by Le Glay,who published a new edition based on three manuascipts, and in the preface discussed and explained the lottery game present in it.

His Latin edition then was also translated into French in 1836, by Faverot and Petit

Firs edition, with the bookplate of Pierre Briffaut.- (Ms. entry on title) Brunet I, 621 Graesse I, 260 cf. Introduction to the new edition by Le Glay, Cambray & Paris, 1834 NUC.

New data pertaining to -integral change txt

RHYTHMOMACIE

Geschichte & Literatur des Schachspiels, (prof.) Antonius van der Linde (curator & chess literature collector from NL / DE), 1874 original, reprint in German 1981.

RHYTHMOMACIE, Rhythmomachya, Victoria Ritmachie;
Notation Parlante / Figurines
Hippogonal (round) - use Pawns - name: Rotundi
Diagonal - use Couriers - name: Trigoni
Orthogonal - use Rook - name: Tetragoni
(rook = pyramid)

Array notation on 8*16 board

..PPPP..
BBPPPPBB
QQBBBBQR
QQ....QQ

Based on the *old system* of moves of the chess game.
Translator Barozzi states that chess has been developed from
Rythmomachy, since it is older. However the original Greek
transcripts have never been found.

Other variant::

METROMACHIA ; Metromaxia ; Sive Ludus Geometricus.

Board with 53*33 squares, the figurines are geomatrical.

Rythmomachia
===========

Equipment::

The Rhythmomachy board is rectangular.

Generally 8 squares wide by 16 long. Each player begins with his men arrayed on one of the short ends.

In some descriptions, the board is shorter (8 x 14) or even 8 x 9, but the 8 x 16 arrangement seems to be most common.

It is unclear whether the board became checkered or not; there is no intrinsic reason why it should be, and most of the historic images don't depict checkering, but a few do.

We assume that both the size and the occasional checkering resulted from the fact that the game is easy to play on two chessboards, set side-by-side; since chess was quite common in pretty much all cultures that had Rhythmomachy, this was likely a common way to play.

The checkering with chessboard was introduced during the years 1,000 - 1,300, and also was introduced the longer range of some or the pieces (easier to move long distance). The black sheckered fields depict the grainfields and the historic chessboard was the city of Babylon.

Thus, the checkering was probably an accident of that, and the board size standardized on the convenient double-chessboard.

Array::

Each player has 24 men, eight round, eight triangular, and eight square.

Each man has a number on it; the rationale behind the numbers is discussed below.

Rhythmomachy is unusual in that it is an "asymmetrical game" --
although each player has the same number of pieces,
the numbers written on those pieces differ widely.

We usually think of one side as "even", and the other "odd", but the reality is more complex than that.

The two sides have contrasting colors, usually but not always black and white.

We usually play black as odd and white as even out of habit, but that is a semi-arbitrary choice, based on the illustrations in Fulke.

On average, the odd numbers are significantly higher than the even numbers.

The men are usually flat, and double-sided, with the same number in the opposing color on the opposite side.

For my personal sets, we paint the edges of the men with the color of the side they start on, to make them easier to sort for setup.

The Numbers on the Men on each side fall into six "ranks": two ranks of circles, two of triangles, and two of squares. Each rank contains four men on each side. The actual numbers come from straight forward mathematical progressions.

The first rank of rounds can be thought of as the "seeds" for the rest; they are the odd or even numbers less than ten. That is, the evens have 2, 4, 6, and 8; the odds have 3, 5, 7, and 9. Since each rank has four men, each of those flows from a particular seed. (Thus, for the first rank of squares on the even side, one man is based on 2, one on 4, and so on.)

The second rank of rounds are the first rank of rounds squared; thus, on the even side, they are 4, 16, 36, and 64, and on the odd are 9, 25, 49, and 81.

The first rank of triangles are the two rounds added together; thus, on the even side, they are 6 (2 plus 4), 20, 42, and 72, and on the odd are 12, 30, 56, and 90.
The second rank of triangles are the seed plus 1, squared. Thus, on the even side they are 9 (2 plus 1 squared), 25, 49, and 81, and on the odd are 16, 36, 64, and 100.

The first rank of squares are the two triangles added together. Thus, on the even side they are 15 (6 plus 9), 45, 91, and 153, and on the odd are 28, 66, 120, and 190.

The second rank of squares are twice the seed, plus one, squared. Thus, on the even side they are 25 ((2*2)+1, squared), 81, 169, and 289, and on the odd are 49, 121, 225, and 361.

Summarizing all of that into a table, we get::

Evens
Odds
1st Rounds (x)
2
4
6
8
3
5
7
9
2nd Rounds (x2)
4
16
36
64
9
25
49
81
1st Triangles (x + x2)
6
20
42
72
12
30
56
90
2nd Triangles ((x + 1)2)
9
25
49
81
16
36
64
100
1st Squares (x + x2 + (x + 1)2)
15
45
91
153
28
66
120
190
2nd Squares ((2x + 1)2)
25
81
169
289
49
121
225
361

The Kings::

On each side, one square is replaced by a "King" instead. The king is a large number which happens to be a sum of some square numbers, and takes the form of a pyramid of pieces.

On the even side, the King is the 91, and is composed of a pyramid of six pieces: a square 36, a square 25, a triangular 16, a triangular 9, a round 4, and a round 1. On the odd side, the King is the 190, and is composed of a pyramid of five pieces: a square 64, a square 49, a triangular 36, a triangular 25, and a round 16.

The Kings are generally treated specially: in most variants, they have enhanced powers of movement, and capturing the opponent's King is at least part of the objective of the game. Usually, the King can be captured intact or piecemeal, capturing its component pieces out of the pyramid.

Details vary from version to version, however.

Play::

Since each variant is a bit different, I will only speak in broad generalities here. Roughly speaking, movement happens by turns, as in most board games; each player gets to make one move on his turn.

The three shapes move differently; in general, the squares move furthest and the rounds move least.

Movement is never affected by the number on a piece -- the numbers are relevant mainly for capture.

While each version has a couple of degenerate captures (eg, surrounding a piece completely), capture is generally done mathematically.

The details of this vary greatly, but in general you capture opposing pieces by creating mathematical relationships between those pieces and your own. For example, if two of your men are positioned by an enemy man, and they add up to his value, they capture him. Note that capture frequently does not require actually jumping into the enemy's space, as Chess does; you can often capture simply by setting the position up.

In most versions, captured men can then be subverted; when you capture the man, you flip him over (so that your color shows), and re-enter him on your side. This is essential in some cases, since most numbers exist only on one side or the other.

Mathematical Proportions::

There are many different kinds of mathematical relationships that can figure in Rhythmomachy. we assume that the reader is capable of dealing with basic arithmetic: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

These will serve you fine in most of the basics of the game. But for the more advanced versions of the game, and for the higher victories, you need to understand the three major forms of Proportions:

Arithmetic, Geometric, and Harmonic

Don't worry about learning these upfront; they can come later. Also, all of the proportions available in the game are available as tables in Fullke's book, the period source from which we took these reconstructions. It is common to look up the proportions in tables, especially at first.

In general, all of these proportions are ways of defining a relationship between three numbers. In all of these examples, we will talk about three numbers A, B, and C, where A is the smallest number and C the largest. we will give examples for each, as well.

Arithmetic Proportion::

Three numbers are in arithmetic proportion when the difference between A and B is the same as the difference between B and C. For example, the numbers 2, 4, and 6 form an arithmetic proportion, because (4 - 2) = (6 - 4). Similarly, 5, 25, and 45 form an arithmetic proportion, because (25 - 5) = (45 - 25).

In other words, the numbers are rising in a simple progression, adding the same number each time. 5 plus 20 is 25; 25 plus 20 is 45; so 5, 25, and 45 form an arithmetic proportion. Another way to think of it is that there is a number X, such that (A + X) = B, and (B + X) = C.
There are 49 arithmetic proportions available among the numbers in Rhythmomachy, according to Fulke.

Geometric Proportion::

This is similar to arithmetic proportion, except that instead of adding the same number to go from A to B and B to C, you multiply instead. That is, the ratio between A and B is the same as the ratio between B and C. Similar to the last concept above, there is a number X, such that (A x X) = B, and (B x X) = C.

So for example, 3, 12, and 72 are in geometric proportion, because (3 x 6) = 12, and (12 x 6) = 72. 2, 4, and 8 are in geometric proportion, because (2 x 2) = 4, and (4 x 2) = 8. A more sophisticated example would be 4, 6, and 9, which are in geometric proportion because (4 x 1.5) = 6, and (6 x 1.5) = 9. (Yes, this is a period example; they understood fractions perfectly fine.)

There are 27 geometric proportions available in Rhythmomachy, according to Fulke.

Harmonic Proportion ::

Harmonic, (or Musical in many period sources) proportion refers to the way that musical harmonies relate to each other. Mathematically, it is the relationship (C / A) = ((C - B) / (B - A)) -- the ratio between the largest and smallest numbers equals the ratio of the differences between both of those numbers and the middle one.

So for example, 3, 4, and 6 are in harmonic proportion, because (6 / 3) = 2, and ((6 - 4) / (4 - 3)) = 2 as well. Or 25, 45, and 225, because (225 / 25) = 9, and ((225 - 45) / (45 - 25)) = 9 also.

There are 17 harmonic proportions available in Rhythmomachy, according to Fulke.

Example proportions: 2 3 4 6

Arithmatical 2 3 4
Musical 2 3 6
Geometrical 3/2 = 6/4 (old system, before zerro)

***********

Rithmomachia, the Philosophers' Game::
A Medieval Battle of the Numerical Harmonies

Therefore a Arithmomachia is the "battle of the numbers", or better still the "battle of the numerical harmonies", referring therefore to the substance of the game that is, like we will see, that one to create of the numerical proportions between numbered pawns.

Game privileged from medieval the intellectual class, is known also with the expression of ludus philosophorum ("the game of the intellectuals").

Objective of the game it is to construct with the own pawns one or more proportions (or "harmonies") numerical, therefore to realize a "triumph".

When the triumph happens through a capture (v. over), is worth the classic rule for which the capturing pawns they must be found to the debita distance of movement from that adversary.

Different is the situation if the pawns belong already all to the player.

In the first place, the triumph must be realized in the half opposing chessboard; moreover, not be a matter itself of a capture, the distance of movement of the pawns does not have value.

Then, because a harmony of three pieces is valid, they must find themselves online (horizontal, vertical or diagonal) in adjacent cases or to form three you concern us of a side square three cases.

For the harmonies of four pieces, they must obligatorily form the four concern us of a side square three cases.

1. Introduction

'A knowledge of the battle of numbers is a source of enjoyment and of profit.' John of Salisbury stated this praise in his Policraticus (I,5) in 1180, when reporting about the use and abuse of games.

When the medieval scholar talked about this competition of numbers, he meant Rithmomachia, which he got to know as a useful and pleasant teaching aid for arithmetical lessons. This game had spread from monastery schools in southern Germany to England. (Evans 1976)

What kind of game is it that John of Salisbury highly praises? What made him and other people talk about Rithmomachia so long ago, after it had been almost forgotten after a prime of about 700 years?

Roger Bacon also recommended Rithmomachia to his students in his 'communio mathematica' (I, 3,4) in the 13th century. He listed seven points on how his students should learn their arithmetics according to Boethius, and at the end he advised that they use the game Rithmomachia as a teaching aid.

As Thomas More was convinced of the good character of the game, he let the fictious inhabitants of 'Utopia' (1516. II,5) play it for recreation in the evening hours.

As well Robert Burton regarded the use of Rithmomachia as an efficient cure for melancholy, because it is a good exercise for the human spirit. (The Anatomy of Melancholy. 1651. II,4)

The name of the game is of Greek origin.

The first part 'Rithmo-' is derived from a combination of arithmos and rhythmos. Arithmos means number and rhythmos had, besides rhythm, also the meaning number and proportion of numbers in the Middle Ages, because not only is the game about the numbers on the pieces, but also about the relation between numbers.

The second part of the name '-machia' comes from machos, which means battle. Therefore Rithmomachia can be described as a 'battle of numbers'. In England the game was also known as the 'Philosophers' Game'.

Rithmomachia is a strategy game for two players. A black and a white party of numbers face each other, similar to chess.

There was a time when Rithmomachia was in competition with chess and was even more respected than chess, for example in some medieval treatises Rithmomachia was favoured. (Folkerts 1989) The reason was, that Rithmomachia was the only game in the curriculum of the mediaval schools and universities - an honour which chess had never received, because it was played as a tactical war game in the nobility for pure entertainment, but it did not suit the canon of the seven liberal arts. In Rithmomachia the aim is not to fight against each other with armies of numbers, rather to take part in a contest, where the players must bring some of their pieces into a harmonious order.

Contrasts between black and white, even and odd, equality and inequality develop and are in the end resolved into harmony. Especially the latter two pairs appear in the philosophy of numbers of Boethius, which dictates a selection of numbers on the pieces. (Borst 1990).

The Boethius number theory is based on the Pythagorean philosophy of numbers, which deals with classification, sequences, and figured presentation of numbers (figurative numbers), and the harmonical proportion between the numbers.

All of these features of Boethius' number theory recur in the game of Rithmomachia. Pythagoras' number symbolism, as a part of Boethius' philosophy of numbers, was of particular interest during the period of origin of Rithmomachia. The complete world order was searched for within and represented by this number symbolism. (Coughtrie 1984).

Rithmomachia was an entertaining way to memorize the number theory of Boethius. Basically, it was a pleasure to play Rithmomachia, the only game accepted by the Christian scientific community of the Middle Ages, because, unlike chess and dicing games, it was of great use.

2. The History of Rithmomachia

In many old records Boethius or Pythagoras were presumed as the inventors of Rithmomachia, however, they only created the mathematical basis of this game.

It is certain, that the oldest written evidence of Rithmomachia was found in Wurzburg around 1030. At a competition between the cathedral schools of Worms and W?rzburg, both well-known for their leading position at arithmetics, a disputational text was written with arithmetical sequences of numbers based on 'De institutione arithmetica' of Boethius.

On the basis of these writings a monk by the name Asilo created a game - Rithmomachia - which illustrated the number theory of Boethius for the students of monastery schools.
The first outline was adapted by other scholars.

Hermannus Contractus, respected monk in Reichenau, checked the rules of the game written by Asilo, enlarged them and added music theoretical remarks. At a school in Li?ge, they worked out a way of realising the game practically not only to enhance the game itself, but also to improve the training of the students in arithmetics. (Borst 1987).

In the 11th and 12th century Rithmomachia spread through monastery schools in southern Germany and France. There the rules were collected, ordered and summarised. The rules became more extensive, and sufficient enough to be played without a teacher.

Rithmomachia was an excellent teaching aid. Gradually it was also played by intellectuals just for pleasure. In the 13th century Rithmomachia spread through France and swept over into England. The mathematician Bradwardine and some of his colleagues wrote a text about Rithmomachia, and even in the pseudo-ovidian poem 'De vetula', Rithmomachia was highly praised.

Rithmomachia reached the greatest expansion at the time of book printing. The books written about Rithmomachia had various intentions. Faber (1496) and Boissi?re (1554/56), both professors of mathematics, wrote their treatises for their students at the university of Paris.

***********

The Philosopher's Game

This file is a transcription of a 1563 translation by William Fulke (or Fulwood -- the sources disagree) of Boissiere's 1554/56 description of Rythmomachy. It is entry 15542a in the Short Title Catalog of Pollard and Redgrave, and on Reel 806 of the corresponding microfilm collection.

Annotation will occur occasionally throughout; they will appear in square brackets and italics, [like this]. Spelling will be erratic; I'm transcribing quickly, so I will often be modernizing the spelling, but will leave original spelling whenever I consider there to be doubt about the meaning. I also will sometimes modernize the punctuation and paragraph breaks in the interests of readability. This is not intended to serve as a definitive critical edition, merely a working copy, good enough to understand the game.

[Title Page]
THE MOST NOBLE
ancient, and learned playe, called the Phi-
losophers game, invented for the honest re-
creation of students, and other [sober?] persons, in
passing the tediousness of time, to the release of
their labours, and the exercise of
their wittes.
Set forth with such playne precepts, rules and ta-
bles, that all men with ease may understande
it, and most men with pleasure practice it.
by Rafe Lever and augmen-
ted by W. F.
[Picture, probably stock, of two men playing at a game on a square 10x10 board.]

Printed at London by James Rowbothum, and are
to be sold at his shop under Bowchurch
in chepe syde.
[Page]

The Lord Robert Duddedlye.

[Picture of Lord Robert, with the motto "Vulnere virescit virtus" alongside.]

The Physiognomie here figured, appeares by Paynters Arte:
But valyant are the vertues that, possesse the inward parte.
Whych in no wise may paynted be, yet playnely so appeare,
& shine abrod in every place with beames most bright & clear.

[Page]

[The Epistle Dedicatory]
TO THE RYGHT HO-
norable, the Lord Robert Dudley, Mai
ster of the Queenes Maiesties horse,
Knight of the most honorable order
of the Garter, and one of the Queenes
maiesties privie Counsell, JAMES
ROUBOTHUM heartelye wisheth long life, with
encrease of godly ho-
nour and eternall
felicitie.
Sith that your honour is full bent,
(right honorable lord)
To wisdom & to godlines
with true faithful accord.

Sith that in deed you do delyte,
in learning and in skyll:
The show wherof doth well expresse
a perfect godly wyll.

Sith that also you have in hand,
affayres of force and waight:
And study do both day and night,
to set all thinges full straight.

[Page]

I thought therfore your honour should
not lacke some godly game:
Whereby you might at vacant times
your self to pastyme frame.

Whereby I say you might release,
such travailes from your mynde:
And in the meane while honest mirth
and prudent pastyme fynde.

Remembring then this auncient play,
where wisdome doth abound:
Called the Philosophers game,
me thinkth I have one found.

Which may your honour recreate,
to read and exercise:
And which to you I here submit,
in rude and homly wise.

Pithagoras did first invent,
this play as it is thought:
And therby after studies great,
his receation sought.

[Page]

Yea therby he would well refreshe,
his studious wery braine:
And still in knowledge further wade
and plye it to his gaine.

Accompting that a wicked play,
wherin a man leudely:
Mispendes his tyme & wit also,
and no good getts thereby.

But grevously offendes the Lord,
and so in steed of rest:
With trouble and vexation great,
on every side is prest.

Most games and playes abused are,
and fewe do now remaine:
In good and godly order as,
they ought to be certaine.

For why? all games should recreat,
the hevy mynde of man:
And eke the body overlayde:
with cares and troubles than.

[Page]

But now in stead of pleasant mirth,
great passions do arise:
In stead of recreation now,
revengings we practise.

In stead of love and amitie,
long discords do appeare:
In stead of trueth and quietnes,
great othes and lyes we heare.

In stead frendship, falshode now,
mixed with cruell hate:
We finde to be in playes & games,
which dayly cause debate.

Pithagoras therfor I saye,
to make redresse herein:
Invented first this godly game,
therby to flye from sinne.

Since which time it continued hath,
in Frenche & Latin eke:
Still exercisde with learned men,
their comforts so to seeke.

[Page]

Wherby without a further prose,
all men may be right sure:
That this game unto gravitie,
and wisdome doth allure.

Els would not that Philosopher,
Pithagoras so wyse:
Have laboured with diligence,
this pastime to devyse.

Els would not so well learned men,
have amplified the same:
From tyme to tyme with travell great,
to bring it into fame.

But let us nerer now proceed,
and come we to theffect:
And then shall we assuredly,
this pastime not neglect.

For it with pleasure doth asswage,
the heavy troubled hart:
And with lyke comforts drives away,
all kynde of sourging smart.

[Page]

The mynde it maketh circumspect,
and heedfull for to bee;
The tyme that theron is bestowd,
is not in vaine trulye.

The body it doth styrre and move,
to lightsomnes and ioye:
The sences and the powers all,
it no wyse doth annoye.

It practiseth Arithmeticke,
and use of number showth:
As he that is conning therein,
assuredly well knowth.

In Geometie it truly wades,
and therein hath to do:
A learned play it is doutlesse,
none can say nay thereto.

Proportion also musicall,
it ioynes with thother twayne:
So that therin three noble artes,
are exercisde certayne.

[Page]

What game therfore lyke unto this,
may gotten be or had?
There is not one that I do know,
the rest are all to bad.

It causeth no contention this,
nor no debate at all,
By this no hatred wrath nor guyle,
in any wise doth fall.

It stirreth not such troubles that,
our frend becomes our foe:
It moveth not to mischiefe this,
as many others do.

Let us avoyde the worst therfore,
and cleve we to the best.
So shall we shunne all wickednes,
and purchase quiet rest.

So shall we serve the living Lorde,
and walke after his will:
So shall we do the thing is good,
and flye that which is yll.

[Page]

So shall we live right christianlyke,
and do our duties well:
So shall we please both god & prince,
none shall us need compell.

And then the Lord of his mercie,
will prosper us alwayes:
And graunt us here to have on earth,
full many godly dayes.

Yea then the Lord of his goodnes,
and grace celestiall:
Will guyde and governe our affaires,
and blesse our doings all.

Which Lord graunt to your honour here,
good dayes & long to have:
with much encrease of helth & welth
and from all hurt you save.

Your honours most humble,
James Roubothum.

[Page]

To the Reader.
I Dout not but some man of severe judgement so soone as he hath one read the title of this boke wyl immediately sai, that I had more need to exhort men to worke, then to teach them to play, which censure if it procede not of such a froward morositie that can be content with nothing but that he doth himself, I do not only well admit, but also willingly submit my self therto. And if I could be persuaded that men at mine exhortation wold be more diligent to labour, I would not only write a treatise twise as long as this, but also thynke my whole time wel bestowed, if I

[Page]

did nothing els, but invent, speake, and write that which might exhort, move, & persuade them to the furtherance of the same. But if after honest labour and travell recreation be requisit, (and that nede no further probation because we favour the cause wel inough) I had rather teach men so to play, as both honestye may be reserved, their wittes exercised, they them selves refreshed, and some profit also attayned, then for lacke of exercise to see them either passe the tyme in idlenes, or els to have pleasure in thyngs fruitles and uncomely. And if great Emperours and mighty Monarches of the world have not bene ashamed by writing bookes to teaches the art of Dyce

[Page]

playing, of all good men abhorred, and by all good lawes condemned: have I not some colour of defence, to teache the game, which so wyse men have invented, so learned men frequented, and no good man hath ever condemned.

The invention is ascribed to Pythagoras, it beareth the name of Philosophers, prudent men do practise it & godly men do praise it. But because many herein (as in a play) have challenged much authoritie, they have filled this game with much diversitie. In which as I could perceive the most differens of playing to consist in thre kindes, so have I playnly and briefly set them forth in Englishe not as though there might not more diversities be espied, but

[Page]

that I thought these to them whom I have written to be sufficient. yet for that I woulde be lothe, from playe & game, to fall to earnest contention, if any man in this doing or any part thereof shall think I have done amisse, and will do better himself, so far am I from envying his good proceding, that I wil be right glad, and geve him heartye thankes therefore.

All things belonging to this game
for reason you may bye:
At the bookeshop under Bochurch
in Chepesyde redilye.

[Page]

The bookes verdicte.
Wanting I have bene long truly,
In english language many a day:
Lo yet at last now here am I,
Your labours great for to delay,
And pleasant pastime you to showe,
Mynding your wits to move I trowe.

For though to mirth I do provoke,
Unto Wisdome yet move I more:
Laying on them a pleasant yoke,
Wisdom I meane, which is the dore,
Of all good things and commendable:
Dout this I thinke no man is able:

CATO
Interpone tuis interdum gaudia curis:
Yt possis animo quemuis sufferre laborem.

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The diffinition
That moste auncient and learned playe, called the Philosophers game, beinge in Greeke termed [...], is as much to saye in Englishe, as the battell of numbers. Numbers be either even or odde, wherefore the even parte is against the odde, either parte havinge a kyng, whych being taken of the adversaryes part, and a triumphe celebrated within his campe, the game is ended.

Of diverse kyndes of playinge.
Amonge the dyverse kyndes of playing thys game, we shall sette forth three sortes, of which the reader maye chose whether of them he lyketh beste. And of all those three, we shall

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gyve suche shorte and easye rules, that no man (althoughe he were altogether ignoraunt in Arithmetike) shall fynde the game so hard, but that he may learne to playe it.

Of the partes of thys Game.
He that wyll learne thys game, any of the three waies, muste first be enstructed of these sixe partes.

The table as the fielde
.2. the menne and the numbers of them as the hoste
.3. the placynge of them, as the encampynge
.4. the order of playe and removynge the men, as the marchynge and fyghtynge
.5. the manner and lawes of conqueryng and taking
.6. and last of al the triumphe after the victorye.
Of these partes in the fyrst kynd of playng.
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The table muste be a playne borde conteynynge .128. squares that is .8. in breadth and .16. in length sette forthe in two dyverse collours. Or for a plainer understandynge, the table is a doble chesse bord, as it were two chessebordes joyned together, the length of twoo, the breadth of one, whereof thys is an example.

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[Complex picture, showing a 16x8 checkerboard, with various letter and symbols on various parts. This can't be fully represented in text, so I won't try to show the whole thing now. The middle section -- rows 6 through 12 -- have letters on them, and look somewhat like this:]

K L M
X F Z
B S C
R H Y A T I N
E V D W
G
Q P O

[Later sections will refer back to this table frequently, to describe movement.]

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Of the men.
The men be in number .48. Wherof .24. be of one side & must be knowen by one colour, and .24. on the other syde, whyche also must be marked with a contrarye colour, as White and Blacke, Blew and Redde, or what colours els you lyke best. But in the colering there .3. thinges must be observed, the bottome or lower part of every man (excepte the two kinges) muste by marked wyth his adversaries colour, that when he is taken, he maye chaunge his coate and serve him unto whome he is prisoner.

The seconde thinge considered in the men, is their fashion: for of euther syde .8. are rounds, other .8. are triangles & .7. (the king making .8.) are squares. There fashion is such [small inset showing roundes, triangles, squares].

The kynges because they consist of all three sortes, as it is knowen by the learned speculation of the numbers, beare

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the fashion of all thre kindes, his foundations are two squares, on which are sette, two triangles & upon them rounds. But this difference is betwene the kinges, the king of the even numbers, hath a pointed toppe, the king of the odde numbers is not pointed, the cause dependeth upon the consideration of these numbers by which they arise into piramidall fashion. The third thing considered in the men, is the number that must be written or graven upon them which to learne plainely for practise marke these short rules.

There be of eche kynde of men, two rankes or orders.

The first ranke or order of roundes be the digites even or odde namely of the even .2.4.6.8. of the odde .3.5.7.9.

The second order of rounds are found by multiplyinge these digites by themselves as .2. times .2. is .4.3. times .3. is .9. Of the even they be .4.16.36.64. of the odde they be .9.25.49.81.

The first order of the triangles are found by addinge two of the roundes together

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one of the firste order and another of the seconde order, as .2. and .4. make sixe .3. and .9. make twelve, on the even syde they are these .6.20.42.72. on the odde syde .12.30.56.90.

The second order of triangles be made by addynge one to every one of the first order of roundes, and then multiplying that number in hym selfe: as .2. is one of the firste order of roundes, thereto adde one, that is .3. then .3. tymes .3. is .9. a triangle of the seconde order, on the even syde. Likewise to thre a round on the odde side, adde .1. so it is .4. then .4. tymes .4. is .16. On the even parte, they be .9.25.49.81. on the odde parte .16.36.64.100.

The first order of squares (in whyche are contayned the kynges) be made by addynge two triangles together, one of the fyrste order, and another of the secondes, as .6. and .9. make .15. likewyse .12. and .16. make .28. Amonge the even they be .15.45. and .91. the kynge .153. amonge the odde they be .28.66.120. and .190. the kynge.

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The last order of squares be found, by dobling of every one of the firste order of roundes, and after adding one, last of all be multiplying that number in itself, as twise .2. is .4. and .1. added is .5. so .5. times .5. is .25. likewyse twyse .3. is .6.1. added is .7. then .7. tymes .7. is .49. These be on the even syde .25.81.169.289. And of the odde syde .49.121.225.361.

These numbers must be sette uppon the men both on the upper side, & also on the nether side. Except one of the kynges, which must with the whole number of their pyramid, be marked, onely on the bottome. Because the sydes muste have other numbers, namely the highest point of the even kyng, must have .1. the rounde next under him marke with .4. the uppermost triangle with .9. the nethermost with .16. The uppermost square muste have .25. The nethermost square shall have .36. The king of the odde upon his head, whiche is a rounde, not pointed hath .16. upon his first triangle .25. on the second triangle .36. uppon the fyrste square .49. upon the lowest square .64.

[The numbers in the next paragraph are in circles and triangles, to illustrate.]

Finally it shalbe good for the avoydance of confusion, to drawe a line under every number. Ells may you take one for another, as 6 the even round & 9 the odde rounde, may be taken one for another with oute this lyne or some suche marke, lykewise 6 and 9 Tryangles bothe of one syde. And this sufficient for the men, the fashion, colours and numbers.

The reason of these numbers and the knowledge of their proportione.
For them that seke the speculation of these numbers, rather then the practise for playing, and have some sight in the sciens of Arithmetike, some thyng must be sayde of proportion. For this purpose there be three kyndes of proportion. Multiplex, superparticuler, and superpartiens.

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Of multiplex.
MULTIPLEX proportion, is when a great number conteyneth a lesse number manye tymes, and leaveth nothing, as .8. conteyneth .2. fower tymes and nothing remaineth .16. conteyneth .4. &, this proportion semeth best to agree with roundes because the one number conteyneth the other and nothynge remaineeth as the fyrste order of roundes be.

[The following table shows the white (even) and black (odd) rounds.]

2 4 6 8
3 5 7 9

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The second order be these.
[This table shows the first and second orders of rounds for both sides.]

double. quadruple. sextuple. occuple.
2 4 6 8
4 16 36 64 proportion.

triple. quintuple. septupl. nonuple
3 5 7 9
9 25 49 81

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Of superparticuler proportion.
Superparticuler proportion is when a greater number contayneth a lesser with one part of it, which may measure the whole, as .12. contayneth .9. and .3. whiche is a thyrde parte of nine .6. contayneth .4. and .2. that is one halfe to .4. Thys proportion beinge the cheife, next unto multiplex, is beste figured by a trianguler forme, whyche hathe fewest lynes and angles next unto a circle. For the manner of thys proportion consider thys figure.

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[This table shows each base number above two rows of triangles, and appears to be badly fouled up. I believe the rows of base numbers are wrong -- the first set should be the evens (2, 4, 6, 8), and the second the odds (3, 5, 7, 9). That would make each Latin header match the number below it, the first row of triangles would be the superparticulates for that base number, and the second row would be the second order of triangles for that base number, which is (x+1)2.]

sesquialter. sesquiquart sesqui.sext sesqu.oct.
3 5 7 9
6 20 42 72
9 25 49 91

sesquiter. sesquiquint. sesquisept. sesquinona.
4 6 8 10
12 30 56 90
16 36 64 100

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Superpartiens proportion.
The superpartiens proportion is when the greater number conteyneth the lesser and mo partes of it then one as .15. conteyneth .9. and .6. whiche is two thirdes of .9. lyke wyse .28. conteyneth .16. and .12. that is 3/4 of .16. This proportion conteineth divers parts beside the whole number therfore is wel figured in the square, which also conteyneth more corners and sides. For the maner of their proportion consyder thys table.

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The first order of squares.
[The following table contains the two rows of triangles, with the corresponding square beneath.]

6 20 42 72 supparticulares added
9 25 49 91
15 45 91 153 being the squares.

12 30 56 90
16 36 64 100
28 66 120 190

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The second order followeth.
third fyft seventh ninth
5. 9. 13. 17. These two rows are just plain numbers.
10. 36. 78. 136.
15 43 91 153 These two rows are the two white orders of squares.
25 81 169 289
superbipartiens tertias supquadrupartiens quintas supsextupartiens septimas supoctupartiens nonas

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fourth sixth eight tenth
7. 11. 15. 19. These two rows are just plain numbers.
21. 55. 105. 171.
28 66 120 190 These two rows are the two black orders of squares.
49 121 225 361
supertripartiens quartas supquinpartiens sextas supseptupartiens octavas supnonpartiens decimas

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Of the kings.
[Image of the two kings. Each is a pyramid of numbered pieces, with two squares, two triangles, and a round; one has a little triangular "cap" on top. The images make it look like higher-numbered pieces are actually larger -- I wonder if this is true...]

The kinges conteine in them suche numbers, as beyng all added together, make the whole piramidall number, the lowest square of the even is .36. which riseth of the multiplying of .6. in it selfe. The next square that must be lesse, is .25. arisinge by the multiplyinge of fyve in it self and so followeth .16. of .4. then .9. of .3. laste .4. of .2. and single .1. all these added together make up .91. After the same maner consisteth the king of adde. The lowest square is .64. arisinge of .8. multiplied in himselfe. The next .49. of

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.7. times .7. then .36. of .6., .25. of .5. and .16. of .4. these numbers make the whole pyramidall number .190. which because it riseth not to the poynct of one, oughte not to be sharpe poyncted, as hathe beene sayde before.

Of the placing, encamping or setting in araie.
To retorne againe to the plaine and easye playing of this game, next to the armie & their armour, follow ether the order of their battel or encamping. Which because it is more playne and easely seen which the eye, then learned by the eare, I referre thee unto the table where the battell is appoynted in suche order as thys kynde of playe requireth.

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[The table below shows the layout of the board. To illustrate this through text, I put squares into square braces, triangles into angle brackets, and rounds into parentheses. Kings are signified with an asterisk. Note that the top half, the evens, should be upside-down.]

[25] [81] [169] [289]
[15] [45] <25> <20> <42> <49> [91]* [153]
<9> <6> (4) (16) (36) (64) <72> <81>
(2) (4) (6) (8)

(9) (7) (5) (3)
<100> <90> (81) (49) (25) (9) <12> <16> [Error in original: 2 instead of 12]
[190]* [120] <64> <56> <36> <30> [66] [28]
[361] [225] [121] [49]

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Of the marchinge or removing of the men.
The battell beyng duely placed, it followeth next, to know the maner of marching & removing, for every kynd of men, hath their proper kynde of motion, and fyrste we muste speake of the roundes.

The motyon of the roundes.
The roundes muste move into the space that is next unto them cornerwyse, as in the table, from the space .A. to any of these .B.C.D. or .E.

[Yes, this is clearly saying that rounds only move diagonally.]

Of the triangles.
The triangles passe three spaces counting that in which they stande for one, and that into whych they do remove for another, that is leaping over

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one space. As from the space .A. he maye remove into any of these space .F.G.H. or .I. this is the motion of the triangle in marchying or takyng. But in flying he maye remove the knyghtes draught of the chesse, as from .A. into .X. or .W. &c.

Of the Squares.
The Squares remove into the fourth place from them, that is leaping over two, right forwarde or sydelong, as from the place of .A. to any of these spaces .L.N.P.R. flyinge they maye remove after the knyghts draught, but that they must passe foure spaces, as from .P. to .Y. or .T. &c. And this for the marchinge and removyng of the men, where note, that with theyr flying draughte they can take no man, but if needed by helpe to besiege a man.

Of the kynge marching.
The kings because thei beare the forme of al the thre kynds, may remove any

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of all theyr draughts when they list, into the nexte with the rounde, into the thyrde with the triangle, and into the fourth with the square, and finally in all poyntes lyke the Queene at the Chesse, saving that he can not passe above foure spaces at the most.

Of the maner of taking.
The men may be taken sixe wayes, namely by Equalitie, Oblivion, Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, and also if you wyll, and so agree by

/ Arithmeticall.
Proportion <> <42> <20> <6{r}>
<81> <56> <30> <12>

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The seconde order of triangles, have all excepts one (whiche is the number of .100.) their cossicall signes, as .9. bothe of the roote and of the quadrate, .25.36. and .49. have the signe of the quadrate .64. of the quadrate and the cube, and also the quadrat of the cube .16. and .81. of the quadrate, and the foure squared quadrate.

<81{24}> <49{2}> <25{2}> <9{r2}>
<100> <64{236}> <36{2}> <16{24}>

In the first order of squares, onely .15. is marked with the roote, all the rest doe want theyr cossicall sygnes in thys game.

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[A rather odd little illustration here, showing the two kings in some detail, with each constituent pieces marked both with its number and the square root of that number, and the complete number of the king on the top. Also, a couple of odd little images of a round and a square with a peculiar symbol on top; this symbol may be peculiar to king components. Note also that, in the table of squares below, the 91 and 190 have a picture of the king on them.]

[153] [91] [45] [15{r}]
[190] [120] [66] [28]

The seconde order of squares hath .3. numbers marked with cossicall signes, that is .25. and .225. wyth the signe of the quadrate .81. is marked with the sygne of the quadrate and the fouresquared quadrate.

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[289] [169] [81{24}] [25{2}]
[361] [225{2}] [121] [49]

And thys have you all the men that be marked with cossicall sygnes.

The setting in aray.
The teachers of this kynde of playing, doe not so well allowe, the former kynde of placing or any other, as the naturall placing of every man under him of whome he aryseth. So thei conteyne .6. ranks in length, extending to the furthermoste edge of the Table after this sorte.

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[Note that, in this table, the odds are colored black, while the evens are left white.]

[361] [225] [121] [49]
King [120] [66] [28]
<100> <64> <36> <16>
<90> <56> <30> <12>
(81) (49) (25) (9)
(9) (7) (5) (3)

(2) (4) (6) (8)
(4) (16) (36) (64)
<6> <20> <42> <72>
<9> <25> <49> <81>
[15] [45] King [153]
[25] [81] [169] [289]

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The marching or moving.
The men maye remove every way, into voyde places, forwarde, backewarde, towarde both sydes, direct or cornerwyse. So that the rounde men remove into the next space, the triangles into the third place, and the squares into the fourth place, accompting that place in which they stande for one.

Also every man savyng the two kynges to besiege his enemie, or to flye from the siege himself, may remove the knights draught in chesse, but neither take anye man (except it be by siege) nor erect a triumphe by suche motions. The kynges move even as squares, but that they have not the flyinge draughte.

It is compted lawefull amonge suche as wyll to agree, that the Triangles and Squares, maye remove into voyde places, thoughe the spaces betwene be occupyed of other men.

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The maner of taking.
The men may be taken seven ways by Oblivion, by Equalitie, by Addition, by Subtraction, by Multiplication, by Division, and by Cossicall Sygnes.

Of takynge by Oblivion.
All men maye be taken by Oblivion when by foure men they be letted of theyr ordinarie draughte, as hath bene taught before.

Of takynge by Equalitie.
By Equalitie maye these men take or be taken, as hathe bene sayde before, .9.16.25.36.49.64.81., as yf after you have played your .9. stande in

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your mans draught, you may take him by not removing into his place, unlesse you espye him standing in your draught before you playe, then muste you take him up and remove into his place.

Of takynge by Addition.
The takyng by Addition is all one with the first kynde of play, in all respectes, saving that some require the men that shoulde take by Addition to stande in the next spaces to him that is taken, either directly, or cornerwyse, but the former waye is better.

Of taking by Subtraction.
That whiche was sayde in the first kinde of subtraction and that whiche was last sayde of Addition may be bothe referred together. For this subtraction

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differeth not from the former, but for the opinion of them, that would have the two takers stande onelye in the nexte spaces to him that is taken.

Of takyng by Multiplication.
Takyng by multiplication doth differ. For in this kynde of playng, it is thus. When your man standeth so, that beyng lesser than your adversaries man, you may multiplie your man by the voyde spaces betwene them, and the product is all one with the adversarye, you maye take hym upm not removynge into his place, except you espye hym so, before you remove your man.

Of takynge by Division.
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Lykewise by Division, yf your man beyng greater then the adversarye, stande so, that beyng devyded by the voyde spaces, the quotient is all one with the adversarye, you maye take hym up, not removyng into hys place, unlesse you see hym so standynge before you drawe.

Of taking by Cossicall signes.
By Cossicall sygnes anye man that hath these signes, {2}.{3}.{4}.{6}. meeting with his roote in his ordinary draught that hath this signe {r} taketh him up, or elles is taken of him, without removing into his place, except he maye take him before he remove.

Of the kynges, and their taking.
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The king of the even must be foursquare, havyng sixe steppes, every one lesser then other, on one syde he muste have on him these rootes .1.2.3.4.5.6. on the other syde the quadrates arising of these rots, that is .1.4.9.16.25.36.

The king of the odde men, muste have but fyve steppes, that is .4.5.6.7.8. lackyng the rootes that he can not ende in .1. The quadrates of hys rootes by these .16.25.36.49.64. These muste be so set on, that the least must be hyghest and the greatest lowest.

The kinges be taken by Oblivion, or yf theyr Pyramidall number, be taken by anye of the aforesayde meanes. Also yf by suche meanes you can take all his quadrates one after another.

The privilege of the king.
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If anye of the kynges quadrates be taken, he maye redeme it by anye of his men having the same number, and muste remove into his place, whiche redemed hym. But yf he have none of the same number, he maye redeme hym for anye man of hys, that his adversarye wyll chuse, and lykewyse remove into his place by whome he is redemed.

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A table to take the men by Multiplication and Division.
Even against odd
spaces
6 2 12
8 2 16
15 2 30
45 2 90
4 3 12
4 4 16
9 4 36
16 4 64
6 5 30
20 5 100
2 6 12
15 6 90
20 6 120
4 7 28
8 7 56
2 8 16
8 8 64
4 9 36
9 9 81
25 9 225
9 10 90
21.

odd against even
spaces
3 2 6
36 2 72
3 3 9
5 3 15
12 3 36
5 4 20
9 4 36
16 4 64
3 5 15
5 5 25
9 5 45
12 6 72
7 7 49
5 9 45
9 9 81
3 12 36
3 14 42
17.

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For Division.
even against odd
spaces
6 2 3
72 2 36
15 3 5
36 3 12
9 3 3
20 4 5
36 4 9
64 4 16
15 5 3
25 5 5
45 5 9
42 6 7
72 6 12
49 7 7
72 7 9
45 9 5
81 9 9
36 12 3
91 13 7
42 14 3
20.

odd against even
spaces
12 2 6
16 2 8
30 2 15
90 2 45
12 3 4
16 4 4
36 4 9
64 4 16
100 4 25
22 5 45 [sic -- 22 should be 225]
30 5 6
100 5 20
12 6 2
36 6 6
90 6 15
120 6 20
28 7 4
56 7 8
16 8 2
64 8 8
120 8 15
3 9 4 [sic -- 3 should be 36]
81 9 9
225 9 25
90 10 9
66 11 6
28 14 2
27.

To take by cossicall signes

2 16{4}
2 64{6}
3 81{4}
3 9{2}
4 16{2}
4 64{3}
5 25{2}
6 36{2}
7 49{2}
8 64{2}
9 81{2}
15 225{2}

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Of the triumph.
The triumph is after the Kynge be cleane taken away, to be create in the adversaries campe, as well of your owne men as of your adversaries men that be taken, or of both in proportion as hath bene shewed before, and proclaimed that those men ons placed, may not be taken, as it was declared sufficiently, and no difference betwene the triumphes, savyng that some wyll not alowe a triumphe but of foure numbers, and two proportions at the lest. All three for the greater victorie, makynge but two kyndes of triumphes.

Here foloweth the thyrd kynde of playing at the Philosophers game.
There must also in this thyrd kynde be considered the table, the men, their markyng, the order of theyr battell, the motions, their taking, and last of all theyr triumphing.

The table is the same that hath bene twyse already discribed. Yet some wyll not have it so longe, but at the lest is must conteyne .10. squares in length and alwayes .8. in breadth. The longest is best.

Of the men.
The men be .48. as it hath bene told of two contrary collor, the head and bottom all of one collor, because men ons taken be no more occupyed in thys kynde of playing.

The inscription and fashion.
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The fasion is as hath bene last declared both of the men, and of the kynges, the inscription of numbers the same, but without cossical signes.

Of the order of the battell.
The order of battell is after the firste maner, but not so farre from the bordes end, namely the .4. squares standynge in the plattes nearest to the bordes end the rest accordingly joined to them, as in the first kynde of playing.

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[Note that, in this diagram, the odds are colored black. Also, it actually shows the odds and evens on reverse ends from this textual representation; I'm not redoing the whole thing right now...]

[25] [81] [169] [289]
[15] [45] <25> <20> <42> <49> [91]* [153]
<9> <6> (4) (16) (36) (64) <72> <81>
(2) (4) (6) (8)

(9) (7) (5) (3)
<100> <90> (81) (49) (25) (9) <12> <16>
[190]* [120] <64> <56> <36> <30> [66] [28]
[361] [225] [121] [49]

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Of their motions.
The men move frowarde and backward, to the right hand, and to the left hande, but not cornerwise, except the gamesters so agree, the rounds into the next space, the triangles into the thyrde, and the squares into the fourth, the kyngs move as squares. And these be their ordinary draughts in marching.

Of their taking.
They are taken by encountering, bu eruption, by laying wayght, and by Oblivion.

Of takyng by encountering.
To take by encountering is to take by Equalitie, as hath bene twyse before declared.

Of taking by eruption.
To take by eruption is when a lesse number beyng multiplied by the spaces that are betwene him & hys adversary, the product is asmuch as his adversary, he may take his enemie awaye whether he stand directly from him or cornerwise.

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For men that may be taken by eruption looke in the table of takyng by multiplication in the second kynd of playing.

Of takyng by deceypt or lying weyght.
To take by deceypt or lying weight, is to take by addition, not as before when the adversary standeth within the draught of two men which being added make the juste number of the adversary, but when the .2. numbers that are to be added, stande in the next spaces to the adversarie. For to take by deceipt, looke in the table that was set forth for takyng by addition in the first kynde of playinge.

Of taking by Oblivion.
By Oblivion all men may be taken, when foure men besiege the adversarye, standynge in the foure nexte

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spaces about him directly, or cornerwise, the man so besieged can not escape, because he can not remove cornerwyse, therefore maye be taken up, so soone as the last of the foure is set in his place.

In all three kyndes of playing no Oblivion can be of any man with some of his fellowes, but all foure muste be hys adversaries.

In this thyrde kynde, these men can be none otherwyse taken but by Oblivion. Namely amonge the even .2.4.4.135. among the odde .3.5.7.190.

In all maner of taking this is to be noted, that we muste not place the man which taketh in place of him that is taken, but when he maye be taken before we drawe, then shall we remove our man into his place.

The privilege of the king.
The king standeth for so many men as he hath steppes, that is the even for .6. the odde for .5. if anye of these

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(except the lowest and greatest) be taken the king may redeme hym, by any man of his that is of the same number. If he have none of the same number, he maye redeme him be any of his men that hys adversary wyll chuse. But if his lowest square be taken, no ransom will delyver him. Also if the whole kyng at ons that is the whole number of Pyramis be taken, he can not be redemed.

Of the triumphe.
To take awaye the tediousnes of long play from them that be yonge beginners, wryters of this game have invented divers kyndes of shorte victories, wherefore they devide victory into proper and common. Of the proper victory need nothing here be spoken, for all things thereto belonging are sufficientlu set forth in the first kind of playing.

Of the common victory.
The common victorie (they say) is after fyve maners, for men contende either for bodies, goods, quarrelles, honour, or els for both quarels & honor.

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Victory of bodies.
Victory of bodies is only to take a certain number of men, as if the gamesters agree, that he which first taketh .4. or .5. or .6. or .10. men &c, shall wyn the game.

Victorye of goods.
Victorie of goods, is to take a certain number without respect of the men. As if it be covenanted, that he which first taketh men amounting to the number of .100. or .200. shall have the victorie.

Victory of quarell.
Victorie of quarell is when neither the men, nor the number, but the characters of the number be considered. As if it be determined that he which first taketh .100. in .8. characters not regarding in how many men they standes, shall winne. As .2.4.5.8.24.64. so you have .100. in .8. characters it skilleth not, although there be more then .100. as in this example there is more then .100. by .4.

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Victorie of honour.
Victorie of honour, is whe a determined number is made in a determined number of men, as if it be determined that he whiche first cometh to .100. in .8. men, shall winne the game. As in these .2.4.6.8.4.16.45.15. And though there were somewhat more then .100. so it be in .8. men, it skilleth not.

Of victorie of honour and quarell.
The victorie of honour and quarell, is when one obteyneth the decreed number, in the decreed number of men and the decreed number of characters: as let .100. be the decreed number .8. the determined number of men, and .9. the determined number of characters. He that obteyneth .2.4.6.8.4.6.9.64. obteineth the victorie of honour and quarell. It shalbe no hinderance though .8.

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men and .9. characters conteyne somwhat more then .100. so that there be not .100. upon one man, as in the victorie before.

Victorie of standers.
They have invented another victorie, that is of standerdes, by counterfeyting two armies, one of the Christians, another of the Turkes. The whyte men, that is the even hoste, conteyneth .1312. footemen (not compting the rootes of squares expressed in the kynges) let the first and last be captaines and let them devide the whole armye into .10. standerds so every standerd shall have .130. men, besyde the two captaines and the ten standard bearers. The black men, that is the odde armie (except the kings rootes) be .1752. The two captaynes and ten standerd bearers taken out, there remayneth .1740. souldyers, to every standerd .174. He that wynneth more standers have the victorye. If the even hoste

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wyne .348. men he hath obtayned two standerds if he wynne .522. he hath gotten thre standerds and forth of the rest.

If the odde armye wynne .260. they wyn two standerds .390. three standerds and so of the rest.

Table of the victorye of standerds.
One standerd of the even, conteyneth 130.
Two standerds. 260.
Three standerds. 390.
Foure standerds. 520.
Fyve standerds. 650.
Sixe standerds. 780.
Seven standerds. 910.
Eyght standerds. 1040.
Nyne standerds. 1170.
Tenne standerds. 1300.
One standerd of the odde, conteyneth 174.
Two standers. 348.
Three standerds. 522.
Foure standerds. 696.
Fyve standerds. 870.
Sixe standerds. 1044.
Seven standerds. 1218.
Eyght standerds. 1392.
Nyne standerds. 1566.
Tenne standerds. 1740.
You maye use anye of these syxe kyndes of common victorie, in every one of the three kyndes of playing.

FINIS
Prynted at London by Rouland Hall,
for James Rowbothum, and are to
be solde at his shoppe in
chepeside under Bowe
churche.
1563.

***********

( above transcription of a 1563 translation by William Fulke (or Fulwood -- the sources disagree) of Boissiere's 1554/56 description of Rythmomachy. It is entry 15542a in the Short Title Catalog of Pollard and Redgrave, and on Reel 806 of the corresponding microfilm collection.)

Faber and a later Italian adapter, whose text is called 'Florentine dialogue' (1539) adopted even the form of the Greek didactic dialogue and the Pythagorean tradition again according to their times. Shirwood (1474) and Fulke/Lever (1563) wrote their book about Rithmomachia for their sovereigns or patrons.

The hand-written manuscript by Abraham Ries (1562) was written with the same intention. Abraham Ries was the second son and heir of the mathematical talents of the most well-known German Rechenmeister (arithmetic teacher) Adam Ries. Selenus (1616), whose real name is duke August II of Brunswick-L?neburg, published his Rithmomachia as an appendix to his book about chess.

All these texts were characterised by the fact that Rithmomachia was merely played by intellectuals for pure pleasure and mental recreation. (Illmer 1987) Rithmomachia was known at this time mainly in Italy, England, France, and eastern Germany.

At the end of the 17th century Rithmomachia lost its great popularity. The mathematician and philosopher Leibniz knew only the name, not the rules of the game. The main subject of mathematics changed during that time.

The introduction of the zero, the integration and differentiation of integrals, the calculation with fractions and smallest units did not fit into the number theory of Boethius. Mathematics moved towards the calculation of chance with probability calculus.(Folkerts 1989).

Chess became the great game of that time, and protected the traditions of Rithmomachia mainly in Germany despite its unpopularity of the time. Because Selenus, as a great enthusiast of chess printed his version of Rithmomachia in the appendix of his book of chess, later writers of chess books included Rithmomachia as 'arithmetical chess' in German speaking area. (Allgaier 1796, Waidder 1837, also Koch 1803) In a similar way Zimmermann (1821) adapted Rithmomachia to checkers (in German, Dame) as 'Zahl-Damenspiel' (numerical checkers).

Until now Rithmomachia is described particularly in game books. (Archiv 1819, Jahn 1917, Strutt 1801) Two German teachers were also inspired by Selenus to announce Rithmomachia again. Adler, a passionate mathematician and chess player, discovered the didactical profit of Rithmomachia and published a text with the rules in his school programme in 1852, but he received no greater attention. (Jahn 1917). 65 years later Jahn, parish priest and rector of the Z?llchower Anstalten near Stettin, took up the game in effort to contribute to a greater popularity, but he suffered the same meager results. (1917, 1929?).

For more than 100 years the academic research of the origin of Rithmomachia and the mediaeval history of it developed independently to the traditions of the game. In 1986 this academic research obtained with 'Das mittelalterliche Zahlenkampfspiel' by Borst a basic work, in which the oldest source texts are edited.

The mediaeval traditions of Rithmomachia are certain. Illmer (1987) however suspects, that Rithmomachia is older. There are conspicuous parallels between the raising and the moves of the pieces and the raising and the mobility of Roman armies. Already in approximately 1070 in Li?ge this Roman model provided the players with an easier way of playing. (Borst 1986) There are, however, no testimonies of texts, but generally the sources of texts about ancient board games are very short, like, for example, in different works by Plato.

An exact description or even a rule of the game is difficult to reconstruct. Also no archaeological evidence has been hitherto found. There have been no pieces found neither ancient nor medieval.

3. The Rules of Rithmomachia::

The rules have changed over the centuries.

During the 1000-year history of the game the rules have changed often. The extent increased from few hand-written pages to more than 100 printed pages, in which detailed the mathematical and harmonic backgrounds are described. But the rules have the following things in common: the number of pieces with the numbers printed on them, the two pyramids and a rectangular board.

In addition the goal of the game is common::

Two players try to build through fixed moves an arrangement of three or four pieces on the opponent's side of the board. The numbers of the pieces must be in a specific proportion to each other and with the arrangement of one of these groups the player gains victory. In the process the opponent's pieces can be captured according to certain rules. Depending on whether one seeks a perfect game or an easier version of it, the size of the board and other details of the rules may vary.

The rules presented here correspond mostly to the way Rithmomachia was played during the 17th century, before it retreated in a shadowy existence. (1).

These rules are suitable for playing today.

A. Preparations

Rithmomachia is played on a board of 16 by 8 squares. The white and black pieces have numbers written on them according to the number theory of Boethius.

The second and proceeding rows of numbers are derived from the first. The white pieces are called the even and the black are called the odd, but there are odd numbers in the even party and vice versa.

On the round pieces the multiples (multiplices) are placed. The base row is built from multiples of 1. In the second row the base numbers are multiplied with themselves.

The numbers on the triangles are the superparticulares. They contain the preceding number and one fraction of it ([n + 1] / n). T

he numbers on the squares are built with the preceding number and a multiple fraction of it ([n + 2] / [n + 1]). They are the superpartientes.

There are many mathematical relations between the numbers. Boethius gave several procedures for derivation of the numbers. One of these mathematical relations is that the first row of triangles can be built by adding the numbers of the two preceding circles. In the same way the first row of the squares is obtained from the two rows of triangles.

At the position of the white 91 a pyramid is located. The square numbers 36 and 25 on square, 16 and 9 on triangular, and 4 and 1 on round pieces add up to the total sum of 91 of the white pyramid. Corresponding to this the black 190 is replaced by a pyramid with the total sum 190, consisting of the square numbers 64 and 49 on squares, 36 and 25 on triangles, and 16 on a circle.

The pieces are set up according to the array.

The tables of harmonies, in which all combinations of pieces for harmonies are recorded, are very helpful in playing. (2)

B. The Aim of the Game ::

Through tactical moves, the players should attempt to arrange a harmony out of three or four pieces in a specific proportion in the opponent's field. The players should however pay attention to the opponent and prevent him from blocking his harmony. The first player who arranges a harmony is the winner.

C. The Moves of the Pieces ::

The players move alternately into an empty space. No piece is allowed to be jumped over. Black starts, because white has better possibilities for capturing and arranging harmonies. This inequality is a special attraction of Rithmomachia, because through this a balanced playing is possible between unequal players.

The circles move into the second field, forwards, backwards or sideways, but not diagonally. The triangles move into the third field, only diagonally. The squares move into the fourth field, in all directions (including diagonally). When moving, both the starting and finishing field are counted.

The 5 or 6 piece pyramids move according to their individual components.

D. The Capture of Pieces ::

Pieces can capture others that stand in the way of their movement, but they remain at their place and do not take the field of the opponent's captured piece.

By meeting: If a piece is so placed, that in its next regular move it could take the place of an opponent's piece with the same number, the opponent's piece is taken away.

By ambush: If two or more pieces of ones party are in a position in which in their next move they could move into the field of an opponent's piece, and the sum or difference equals the number of the opponent's piece, the opponent's piece is taken away.

By assault: If in its ordinary direction a piece could meet an opponent piece, and its number equals by multiplication or by division the number of fields between the two pieces, the opponent's piece is taken away from the board. The fields of the capture and the captured piece are counted.

By siege: If an opponent's piece is encircled by pieces of the other party in such a way that it could neither move nor be set free by one piece of its party, the besieged opponent's piece is taken away from the board.

The individual components of the pyramids can both capture and be captured. If single components are missing, the pyramids can be captured by their total sum, but they cannot capture other pieces with their total sum in this case.

Partial sums are inadmissible.

E. The Victory::

The game is finished, when one player has built up a harmony of three or four pieces in the opponent's field. Therefore the pieces must be arranged in an ascending row, in a right angle, or four pieces also in a square, and must be equidistant. The captured opponent's pieces may also be used in creating a harmony, however, they may not be the last piece of a harmony. There are three ways of creating harmonies with three pieces:

In an arithmetical harmony the difference between the two smaller numbers equals the difference between the two bigger ones, e. g. 2, 4, 6 => b - a = c - b.

A geometrical harmony exists, when the ratio between the two smaller numbers equals the ratio between the two bigger ones, e. g. 5, 10, 20 => (a / b) = (b / c).

By the musical harmony the ratio of the smallest and the biggest number equals the ration between the difference of the two smaller numbers and of the two bigger ones, e. g. 6, 8, 12 => (a / c) = [ (b - a) / (c - b) ].

To enable a rapid game, the harmonies need not be calculated; rather, they can be looked up in the tables of harmonies.

Three different grades of victories can be gained from different harmonies:

1.) A small victory is reached by an arithmetical, geometrical or musical harmony of three pieces.

2.) A big victory is gained by building two (but not more than two) different harmonies with 4 pieces.

3.) A great victory is reached by 4 pieces containing all three harmonies.

The players agree on which victory or victories they are aiming for. It is possible to play with even simpler goals.

If the players desire a simpler game, a victory could be possible when a predetermined number of opponent's pieces are captured, or a certain sum or number of digits of the captured pieces is reached or exceeded.

The most essential features of Rithmomachia have been represented. Because of the briefness some smaller details are missing; but players can certainly work with this outline and work out smaller details as necessary. A few variations of Rithmomachia have been presented, which players can try.

Unfortunately, to play Rithmomachia today, one must build a game for oneself, if one is not interested in using one of the two computer games from Italy or from the USA. In the 16th century it was easier, because the game could be bought in Paris and London, as Boissi?re and Fulke/Lever wrote in their books on Rithmomachia. Presumably Jahn (1929?) offered a set of the game for sale.

In the past treatises about Rithmomachia were published more often, and it also appeared in game books. So there is still hope, that Rithmomachia will be known better again.

This desire was expressed in the pseudo-ovidian poem 'De vetula' in the 13th century: 'Oh, if only more people had enjoyed the battle of numbers! If it was only known, it would on its own accord be highly respected.' Hopefully this wish, that Rithmomachia be played again, will come true.

***********

Rithmomachia: The Game for Medieval Geeks (Culture)

In 965 Wibold, bishop of Cambrai, suggested to the local monks that they give up playing dice games and instead play "the battle between virtues and vices". In all likelihood this was the game rithmomachia, otherwise known as the ludus philosophorum. Today we are familiar with a number of ancient board games but unfortunately rithmomachia, as well as some related games Ouranomachia and Metromachia have all but disappeared

Rithomachia was played by the intellectuals of Europe, often Church employees and most likely male. Although it is obscure today, rithomachia played an important part in the lives of this elite group. The rules were complex and convoluted and required considerable computational skill. Its players also claimed that its benefits extended well beyond numerical training - it supposedly improved the moral character of players and even gave deep insights into religious truth.
There are many different versions of the rules of play but there are many common features. There are two players who take turns moving pieces on a board, much like chess or checkers. The board is something like a chess board, though rectangular and not square, with 48 pieces, each inscribed with a number. The size of board varies with rule set but eventually it was standardized on 8 by 16.

But now the complication starts. Rithomachia was inspired by a type of mathematics made popular by Boethius. This work was dominated by various types of numerical progression: in particular arithmetic progressions (where the nth number is a+b*n for constant a and b), geometric progressions (a*b^n) and harmonic progressions (1/(a+b/n)). There were also other more complex types of progression such as multiplex progression or the progression of superparticulars. At the start of the game the initial layout of the numbered pieces, in three ranks for each side, was such that the numbers formed various types of progression. One side had odd numbers in the first rank, the other side even. So even before the game had started quite a bit of mathematical knowledge was required. And don't forget that in earlier times arabic numerals were unknown so any calculations were carried out using Roman numerals. (By the way, these proportions played an important part in medieval music theory. Consider the harmonic progression in particular.)

Pieces from the first rank could move one square, those from the second rank two and those from the third three. As a mnemonic the pieces in these ranks were sometimes circles, triangles and squares respectively (a slightly illogical mnemonic!). Like in chess, pieces could be captured, however there were many ways to capture. One way was to move a piece with a number onto another with the same number. Two pieces could take another if it was the case that if they were simultaneously to make legal moves that would land them both on the captured piece and the sum of the numbers on the two pieces sums to that of the captured one. Another way to capture was to occupy all the spaces that another piece could move to making it unable to move - this was called besieging it. Here is another example of a capture rule taken from Lever and Fulke's "The Most Noble and Auncient, and Learned Playe" published in 1563:

Of taking by cossical signs
By cossical signs: any man that hath these signs, 3, &, 33, 3&, meeting with his root in his ordinary draught that hath this sign z taketh him up, or else is taken of his, without removing into his place; except he may not take him before he remove.

Obviously there has been a little semantic drift over the centuries. There were also some much more complex capture rules requiring the pieces to be arranged in a progression.

Now we've warmed up we can get onto the conditions to achieve victory in the game. Typically a player had to line up a series of pieces in certain arrangements, often as a Boethian progression of a certain length. Whoever did this would win. There were many different choices of victory conditions based on such progressions and players would negotiate before to game to decide which were in play for a particular game. An example simple victory condition follows:

Victory of goods

Victory of goods is to take a certain number without respect of the men. As if it be covenanted that he which first taketh men amounting to the number of 100 or 200 shall have the victory.
There was even a victory condition based on simulating the armies of the Christians and Turks at war.
As you can see, this was no game for weenies and yet it was played all over Europe from Medieval times, through the Renaissance into Elizabethan times. Many rithomachia manuals still exist today and doubtless many more were originally published. It seems to me there is only one explanation: Rithomachia is a geek game and the players were predecessors of today's game playing geeks! They spent their time shut up in dark rooms hunched over books and games believing themselves to be superior to the masses because they were experts in difficult and arcane, but largely useless knowledge.

Today Boethian mathematics is almost unheard of. This is the key to the decline of rithmomachia. Boethian mathematics was highly technical but today it's abstruseness seems completely arbitrary and useless. As it was replaced by more modern approaches to mathematics the rules to rithmomachia came to seem more and more arbitrary until interest in the game completely waned. However it is worth noting that this game did have a lifetime of 500 years and was played by such illustrious luminaries as John Dee and praised by Roger Bacon.

***********

Appendix III:Table of harmonies
1. Harmonies for a small victory

Geometrical harmony:

2 4 8
2 12 72
3 6 12
4 6 9
4 8 16
4 12 36
4 16 64
4 20 100
4 30 225
5 15 45
9 12 16
9 15 25
9 30 100
9 45 225
16 20 25
16 28 49
16 36 81
20 30 45
25 30 36
25 45 81
36 42 49
36 66 121
36 90 225
49 56 64
49 91 169
64 72 81
64 120 225
81 90 100
81 153 289
100 190 361

Arithmetical harmony:

2 3 4
2 4 6
2 5 8
2 7 12
2 9 16
2 15 28
2 16 30
3 4 5
3 5 7
3 6 9
3 9 15
3 42 81
4 5 6
4 6 8
4 8 12
4 12 20
4 16 28
4 20 36
4 30 56
5 6 7
5 7 9
5 15 25
5 25 45
6 7 8
6 9 12
6 36 66
7 8 9
7 16 25
7 28 49
7 49 91
7 64 121
8 12 16
8 25 42
8 36 64
8 49 90
8 64 120
9 12 15
9 45 81
9 81 153
12 16 20
12 20 28
12 42 72
12 56 100
12 66 120
15 20 25
15 30 45
15 120 225
16 36 56
20 25 30
20 28 36
20 42 64
28 42 56
28 64 100
30 36 42
42 49 56
42 66 90
42 81 120
49 169 289
56 64 72
72 81 90
81 153 225
91 190 289

Musical harmony:

2 3 6
3 4 6
3 5 15
4 6 12
4 7 28
5 8 20
5 9 45
6 8 12
7 12 42
8 15 120
9 15 45
9 16 72
12 15 20
15 20 30
25 45 225
30 36 45
30 45 90
72 90 120

2. Harmonies for a big victory
Arithmetical and musical harmony:

3 4 5 6
3 4 5 15
3 5 7 15
4 5 6 12
4 6 12 20
4 12 15 20
5 7 9 45
6 7 8 12
9 12 15 45
9 15 30 45
9 15 45 81
12 15 20 28
15 20 25 30
15 30 36 45
30 36 42 45
72 81 90 120

Geometrical and musical Harmony:

2 3 6 12
3 4 6 12
3 5 15 45
3 6 8 12
4 6 12 36
5 9 15 45
5 9 45 225
9 12 16 72
9 15 25 45
9 15 45 225
9 25 45 225
20 30 36 45
20 30 45 90
25 30 36 45
25 45 81 225

Arithmetical and geometrical harmony:

2 3 4 8
2 4 5 8
2 4 6 8
2 4 6 9
2 4 8 12
2 7 12 72
2 9 12 16
2 12 42 72
3 6 9 12
3 9 15 25
4 5 6 9
4 6 8 9
4 6 8 16
4 8 12 16
4 8 12 36
4 8 16 28
4 12 20 36
4 12 20 100
4 16 28 49
4 16 28 64
4 20 36 100
4 30 56 225
5 9 15 25
5 15 25 45
5 15 30 45
5 25 45 81
6 9 12 16
6 36 66 121
7 16 20 25
7 16 28 49
7 49 91 169
8 9 12 16
8 64 120 225
9 12 15 16
9 12 15 25
9 12 16 20
9 15 20 25
9 25 45 81
9 45 81 225
9 81 153 289
12 16 20 25
15 16 20 25
15 64 120 225
16 20 25 30
16 36 56 81
20 25 30 36
20 25 30 45
25 30 36 42
30 36 42 49
36 42 49 56
42 49 56 64
49 56 64 72
49 91 169 289
56 64 72 81
64 72 81 90
72 81 90 100
81 153 225 289

3. Harmonies for a great victory
Arithmetical, geometrical and musical harmony:

2 3 4 6
2 3 6 9
2 4 6 12
2 5 8 20
2 7 12 42
2 9 16 72
3 4 6 8
3 4 6 9
3 5 9 15
3 5 15 25
3 9 15 45
4 6 8 12
4 6 9 12
4 7 16 28
4 7 28 49
5 9 25 45
5 9 45 81
5 25 45 225
6 8 9 12
6 8 12 16
7 12 42 72
8 15 64 120
8 15 120 225
9 12 15 20
12 15 16 20
12 15 20 25
15 20 30 45
15 30 45 90

(1) This description of the rules is based for the most part on Illmer (1987), who used the rules of Selenus (1616) as basis. There are some differences in Stigter's version (199?). His rules include many details with a good structure and the mathematical basis, they could not be represented here because of the necessary briefness. It contains a more extensive derivation of the numbers. More extended descriptions of the rules of the Rithmomachia can be found in Coughtrie (1984) and Richards (1946). In my master's thesis (1996) I have also listed many different variations for playing.

(2) More extensive tables of harmonies can be found in Richards (1946), Illmer (1987) and Mebben (1996).

***********

More Rythmomachia and techniques

Arithmomachia laughed them to 1030, Wurzburg.

In a competition between the schools of the cathedral of Worms and Wurzburg - both many rinomate in the field of the Arithmetic - a text of containing dispute was written up numerical sequences based on the "De arithmetica institutione" of Boezio; on the base of this text, monaco of name an Asylum it created a game - Arithmomachia, exactly - useful to the students of the two monasteri in order to learn the numerical theory of Boezio.

The first drawing up was adapted from other scholars. Hermannus Contractus, respected monaco to Reichenau, rimaneggiò the rules of Asylum and added to some notes on the musical theory (a second version wants instead that the author originates them is just Hermannus Contractus).

There is also who thinks that the attribution is gives is given to the bishop of Cambrai, Wibold, than in the 965 it invited the monaci local to stop to play to dice and to play instead "the battle between the virtues and the defects". There are however various hypotheses that rivendicano an origin still more ancient, sights some correspondences between the disposition and the movement of pieces and the disposition and the movement of the armys Roman. Between the XI and XII the Arithmomachia century diffuses po' to the time in all a Germany and France.

The rules came ulteriorly extended. Between the XII and XIII the century the game reached also in England. Giovanni di Salisbury writes in its "Policraticus" (1180) that "the acquaintance of the battle of the numbers is one source of divertimento and profit".

Also Roger Bacon comment the Arithmomachia, in its "mathematica Communio". To along Arithmomachia it remained in competition with chess and there was a period in which even more it was respected of same chess.

The reason of that is in the fact that Arithmomachia was the only game previewed in the programs of the medieval schools and university - I privilege that chess will not never receive, in how much game of military inspiration that did not respect the canoni of the seven liberal limbs.

Arithmomachia found the maximum spread in XVI the century, in particular as consequence of the invention of the press. Rules were written from Shirwood (1474), Faber (1496), Boissiere (1554/56), Ries (1562), Fulke/Lever (1563), Selenus (1616).

The greater centers of rinascimentale spread were England, France, Italy and the Germany orients them. To the end of XVII the Arithmomachia century lost popolarità and fell in the oblivion. Signals on the numerical theory of Boezio Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius nacque around to the 480 to (or near) Rome and died to Pavia in the 524.

The witnesses matemati us of Boezio, for how much of insufficient quality, were between the best that could be found in the high Middle Ages and were use you for centuries in a rather rear Europe in the field of the mathematics. The Arithmetica di Boezio was based on the job of Nicomaco and for the medieval scholars it was the maximum base of study for the numerical theory of Pitagora. Boezio was one of the greater sources of supplying for the crosss-roads.

The mathematics of Boezio is dominated from the concept of "numerical progression"; there are arithmetical progressions (a+b*n), geometric progressions (a*(b^n)), harmonic progressions (1/(a+(b/n))) and other anchor... The rules of the game As we have been able to see, an only set of rules for Arithmomachia does not exist. During the history to plurisecolare of the game they they are often changed and in consisting way; their complexity, as an example, is last from the little pages written by hand of the first version until beyond one hundred printed publication pages in the later versions.

Probably, in the first phase of spread of the game, every school adopted of the own rules, that is those deductions more adapted for an understanding of the arithmetical bases of the game.

Moreover obvious E' that the greater documentary sources regard the rinascimentali versions of the game, while on the first medieval versions it is not equally remained material; the only medieval version available is that one of Asylum (XI sec.). Archaeological evidences do not exist at the moment: no pawn never has been found again, neither medieval neither rinascimentale. The present set of rules, therefore, does not mean to represent a specific version of the game: the objective that is placed me has been that one to create a reasonable set of rules for uses in Italian area in the second half of XIII the century, extrapolating i characters generates them and the rules base of the game, with particular reference to the version of Asylum, and taking part with personal corrections where it is seemed to me not were clarity in the consulted sources here. With the same spirit who - creed - has animated in the time the various authors, in all the doubt situations I have decided to resort to the criterion of the maximum giocabilità, also without to neglect the more fascinating and educational aspect than this game, that is the manipulation of the numbers.

The table from game The table from game is composed from 112 cases: 8 cases of width and 14 of depth. The pawns The pawns are in number of 23 more 1 king for every player; the king is formed from 5 or 6 disposed pawns in guisa pyramidal (will see one more ahead detailed description more).

The pawns, except that constituent king, are painted on the two faces with contrasting colors (R-bianco.e.nero, red and blue...) and on ciascuna of they they bring back a numerical value; the use of the two colors derives from the fact that the pawns captured to the enemy come introduced in game from the own part.

It makes exception the king, than he does not change alignment and, if captured, he comes simply removed: its pawns are of a single color, but they bring back anch' they a numerical value.

The pawns have also one various geometric shape: 8 are round, 8 triangular and 7 square ones.

The two king has to the base two square pawns, sormontate from two triangular ones and, finally, one or two round pawns. We see hour which numbers must be brought back on ciascuna pawn.

The pawns are uniforms in six ranks from 4 elements everyone.

The first rank of circles is constituted from the numbers base: 2,4,6,8 for a player (than from hour in then, for this reason, will come defined like equal side) and 3,5,7,9 for the other player (that we will call uneven side).

According to rank of circles base is constituted from the square of the numbers: 4,16,36,64 for pars and 9.25.49.81 for the odd number.

The first rank of triangles is constituted from the sum of the two previous ranks: 6,20,42,72 for the pars; 12,30,56,90 for the odd number.

According to rank of triangles it is obtained adding 1 to every number base and elevating to the square the turning out value: one obtains 9.25.49.81 for pars and 16,36,64,100 for the odd number.

The first rank of squares is given from the sum of the two ranks of triangles: 15,45,91(re),153 for the pars and 28,66,120,190(re) for the odd number.

According to rank of squares it is obtained adding 1 to the double quantity of every number base and elevating to the square the turning out value: one obtains 25,81,169,289 for pars and 49.121.225.361 for the odd number.

The values of the two king are given from the sum of the faces on ciascuna of the constituent pawns the same ones.

The equal king is constituted from 6 pawns, that they bring back the following numerical values: 1 on the smaller circle; 4 on according to circle; 9 and 16 on the two triangles; squared 25 and 36 on the two.

Analogous, the uneven king is constituted from 5 the following pawns with values: 16 on the only circle, 25 and 36 on the two triangles, squared 49 and 64 on the two.

Preparation To the beginning of the game the pawns come disposed in "order of battle". The beginning of the game is up to the uneven player, which it has minors possibility to capture pieces and to realize harmonies. Thanks to this disparity, it is possible to make to meet players of various level. Scope of the game Through tactical movements, every player must per.primo.cosa eliminate the enemy king. Subsequently, he must realize a "triumph" (v. beyond).

The realization of a "excellent triumph" door to the definitive conclusion of the game. With the smaller triumphs ("mediocre triumph" and "great triumph") the game continues, but the players can come to an agreement themselves for giving they a partial value of Victoria.

The movement of pieces The players alternatively move one pawn to the time in one empty case, according to characteristic rules of ciascuna geometric shape. Also the cases crossed from the pawns in their movement must be empty: it is not possible "to jump" other pawns.

The pawns can be moved in whichever direction (horizontal, vertical and diagonal). The circles move exclusively of one case. The triangles move exclusively and exactly of two cases. The squares move exclusively and exactly of three cases. The king moves like the piece that is found to its base.

To the beginning of the game, therefore, muoverà of three cases, like a square; but if, in the course of the game, it had to lose both squares, muoverà only more than two cases (like the triangles) and, if it had to lose also both triangles, muoverà only more than one case (like a circle).

The king cannot voluntarily be separated in its constituent units.

The capture of pieces Five various ways exist in order to capture pieces of the adversary: encounter, I besiege, ambush, onslaught and proportion.

In all the cases the king can capture is with its number total (given from the sum of the numbers that constitute it in that moment) are with a single piece; partial sums are not admitted.

In any case, the distance for the capture is equivalent to that one of movement, even if the capturing piece is of a geometric shape that normally you would preview a various distance (to es. a still complete king moves and capture to three cases of distance, even if the single used element is a triangle or a circle).

Analogous it can be captured in the its totality or a piece to the time, except that in I besiege where can be captured single in its interezza. Every time that a piece is captured, it comes rigirato so as to to change alignment. They make exception constituent pieces the king, than they cannot change alignment and they come therefore simply it eliminates to you from the table from game.

In order to capture an opposing piece, it does not have to be entered physically in the case from occupied it: it is necessary only that there is this possibility, that is the piece to capture must be found to a distance that corresponds to the movement of the capturing pawn.

In practical, if a pawn before or after just the movement is found to the own distance of movement from an opposing pawn, and exists the conditions for the capture, the opposing pawn is captured. In the case in which the capture it happens before the movement, that replaces the same movement and the turn of the player is ended. The capture are not obligatory

***********

Number Games ; Rythmomachia / Rithmimachia

Aritmomachia::

The game is of ancient derivation and involves
pieces moving on a board.

Together with Courier Chess (Germany and
depicted by e.g. Lucas van Leyden), Aritmomachia
(rithmomachia / rithmimachia, latest: rythmomachy),
is considered to be one of the two (dormant) successors of
the ancient game of chess (peaked in popularity at appr.
1,000 ac - 1,800 ac, and was referred to as The Pythagoras Game).

Rythmomachy:

Ritmos = Number
Mache = Battle

Latin: Pugna (certamen) numerorum

Board:

The board8*16 (two chessboards; face long side,
right hand is home board). The board as shown above is considered
a practice board seized 8*9.Pieces: Total 24 pieces;
Round, Triange, Square. White is Even (feminine) en
black is Odd (masculine).

Arithmetic / Geometrical / Harmonic progression

The competition board 8 * 16

An Italian Manuscript Dec 1539 concerning "Pythagoras'Game"
or the "Rithmimacia", with an intriguing insert loosely attached
to the body of the text with the appropriate numbers and
positions. From the Giannalisa Feltrinelli Library as sold at
Christie's in December 1997 (lot 220) with a letter that explained
that the second half of the MS was found in the studio of the
Aristotelian polymath Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples and sent to
Cosimo Rucellaiin Florence.

The practice board 8 * 9

from Jordanus and Faber Arithmetica decem librisdemonstrata;
Paris 1496a page from Claude de Boissiere's Rythmomachia,
Paris1556. According to Smith/Plimpton, the book is
profusely illustrated and "was connected with the medieval
number classifications and ratios..."

Origin:

Pythagoras of Samos, Nicomachus of Gerasa, Anicius Manlius
Severinus Boetius. Six levels of numbers.

Integral and proportional (equal - unequal 5 different ways).

Constillation:

Roman militairy; Vegetius (writter: Flavius Vegettos
Renatus), Belisar's battle formation.

CAVALARY CAVALARY

PHALANX

INFANTRY & CAVALERY

***********

Books::

RHYTHMOMACHIA (1987) by Illmer, Detlef , Gadeke, Nora, & Henge, Elisabeth Pfeiffer, Helene & Spickler-Beck, Monika. ISBN 3880343195.

Furthermore, these book titles should be available at your library:

1.) OXFORD HISTORY OF BOARD GAMES by James Parlett
2.) BOARD AND TABLE GAMES FROM MANY CIVILIZATIONS
by Robert Charles Bell
3.) DISCOVERING OLD BOARD GAMES by R.C. Bell (Shire Publications LTD)
4.) BOARD GAMES AROUND THE WORLD by Robbie Bell and Michael Cornelius
(Cambridge University Press).
5) Murray History of Boardgames xx
6) Oxford History of Boardgames xx

All these books contain solid information regarding the rules of Rithmomachia.

Historical books::

Selenus, Gustav (d. i. August II. Herzog von Braunschweig-Lüneburg) Das Schach- oder König-Spiel.

(translation UK)

Selenus, Gustav (D i August II. Duke of Braunschweig Lueneburg) chess or king play. Into four distinctive books, with special diligence, creating and properly binded.

This is too end, angefueget, a very old play, genandt, Rythmo Machia. Leipzig, Kober 1617. Fol. (26), 495, (3) sides with 6 stung TitleBroderies, 1 doublesince. Table, 2 Kupfertafeeln, 83 (28 full-page) text-copper and 1 printer mark at the conclusion.

Pgt. of the time with handschriftl. Back title - - Van of the lime tree 1955 265 - Schmid, Schachlit. 118 - Title edition of the first edition 1616, large D J appeared with Henning. - the most important and determining chess text book of its time, a revision from Lopez of Tarsia.

With a listing of the used literature. The attaching work is a pythagoreisches number play, from the Italian of the franc.

Barozzi translates and works on. - the broad Titelbordueren with representation of game of chess scenes.

Chessmen and play positions show the copper.

Further References

Borst, A. 1986. Das mittelalterliche Zahlenkampfspiel. Supplemente zu den Sitzungsberichten der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Klasse, vol. 5.
Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitsverlag
Borst, A. 1990. Rithmimachie und Musiktheorie. In Geschichte der Musiktheorie. Vol. 3, Rezeption des antiken Fachs im Mittelalter. edited by Frieder Zaminer, 253-288. Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
Coughtrie, M. E. 1984. Rhythmomachia: A Propaedeutic Game of the Middle Ages. Ph.D. diss., University of Cape Town (in typewriting)
Evans, G. R. 1976. "The Rithmomachia: A Mediaeval Mathematical Teaching Aid?" Janus 63:257-273
Folkerts, M. 1989. Rithmimachie. In Ma?, Zahl und Gewicht: Mathematik als Schl?ssel zu Weltverst?ndnis und Weltbeherrschung. edited by M. Folkerts and others, 331-344, Ausstellungkataloge der Herzog August Bibliothek, no. 60. Weinheim: VCH, Acta humanoria Illmer, D. and others. 1987.
Rhythomomachia: Ein uraltes Zahlenspiel neu entdeckt von --. Munich: Hugendubel
Mebben, P. 1996. Rithmomachie - Ein aus dem Mittelalter ?berliefertes Zahlenspiel: Neu entdeckt f?r die Schule. Master's thesis, P?dagogische Hochschule Freiburg (available by the author upon request) Richards, J. F. C. 1946. "Boissi?re's Pythagorean Game". Scripta Mathematica
Stigter, J. 199?. The History and Rules of Rithmomachia, the Philosophers' Game: An Introduction. London: (will be published soon)
Appendix I Some old, famous and well-known printed books about Rithmomachia
John Shirwood. 1480. Ad reverendissimum religiosissimumque in Christo patrem ac amplissimum dominum Marcum cardinalem Sancti Marci vougariter nuncupatum Johannis Shirvuod quod latine interpretatur Limpida Silva sedis Apostolicae protonotarii Anglici, praefatio in Epitomen de ludo arithmomachiae feliciter incipit. Rome: Ulrich Han.
Jacobus Faber Stapulensis (Jacques Lef?vre d'Etaples). 1496. Rithmimachie ludus qui pugna numerorum appellare. In Jordanus Nemorarius. Arithmetica decem libris demonstrata. edited by Jacobus Faber Stapulensis. Paris: David Lauxius of Edinburgh.
Claude de Boissi?re. 1554. Le tr?s excellent et ancien Jeu Pythagoriqhe, dit Rhythmomachie. Paris: Amet Breire. Or the latin translation: Claudius Buxerius. 1556. Nobilissimus et antiquissimus ludus Pythagoreus (qui Rythmomachia nominatur). Paris: Guilielmum Canellat. (Translated into English by Richards 1946)
Rafe Lever and William Fulke. 1563. The Most Noble Ancient, and Learned Playe, Called the Philosophers Game. London: Iames Rowbothum.
Francesco Barozzi. 1572. Il nobilissimo et antiquissimo Givocco Pythagorea nominato Rythmomachia cioe Battaglia de Consonantie de Numeri. Venice: Gratioso Perchacino.
Gustavus Selenus (Duke August II of Brunswick-L?neburg).1616. Rythmomachia. Ein vortrefflich und uhraltes Spiel desz Pythagorae. In Das Schach= oder K/nig=Spiel. 443-495. Leipzig: Henning Gro? jun. Reprint 1978. Z?rich: Olms
Appendix II
Texts of modern era with a description or rules of Rithmomachia until 1940 - The special German tradition
Johannes Allgaier. 1796. Das pythagor?ische oder arithmetische Schachspiel. In Neue theoretisch-praktische Anweisung zum Schachspiel. Vol. 2, p. 73-97. Wien: Franz Joseph R/tzel.
Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Koch. 1803. Die Rythmomachie. In Die Schachspielkunst nach den Regeln und Musterspielen der gr/?ten Meister. Part 2, p.V-VI, 127-154. Magdeburg: Georg Christian Keil.
Archiv der Spiele. 1819. Das Zahlenspiel (Rythmomachie). In --. vol. 1, sect. 2, 11., p. 94-106. Berlin: Ludwig Wilhelm Wittich.
Ferd. Zimmermann. 1821. Zahl-Damenspiel. In Volst?ndiger Codex der Damenbrett-Spielkunst. p. 365-404. K/ln, Rommerskirchen.
S. Waidder. 1837. Das arithmetische Schachspiel. In Das Schachspiel in seinem ganzen Umfange. Vol. 2, sect. 2,C., p. 118-142. Wien: Mich. Lechner.
Karl-Friedrich Adler. 1852. Beschreibung eines uralten, angeblich von Pythagoras erfundenen, mathematischen Spieles. Schulprogramm des K/niglichen und St?dtischen Gymnasiums in Sorau. Sorau.
Fritz Jahn. 1917. Rythmomachia. In Alte deutsche Spiele. p.1-4, 15. Berlin.
[Fritz] Jahn. 1929(?). Zahlenschach f?r Mathematiker. In Verzeichnis Weihnachtskrippen und Spiele der Z?llchower Anstalten 1929/30. Z?llchow.
Joseph Strutt. 1801. The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England. p. 313-316. London.

***********

THE RULES OF
BOOLEAN RITHMOMACHIA
(A New Twist On An Old Game)

Boolean Rithmomachia
by L. Lynn Smith

The following game is in homage to the Medieval game of numbers. It was thought
that the ideas of this game should be updated and could even be utilized in the
teaching of computer math.

PLAYING FIELD

In order to bring this game into the 21st Century, it was thought that it should
be played upon a 3D field. To make this play as simple as possible, a 4x4x4 field
was selected.

PIECES

The playing pieces consist of two of each of the following. Such pieces, except for the Pyramids, are two sided and have different colors of either side, black or white, but the same value(1 - 14) represented by the binary code. The Pyramids are whole pieces of solid color, two black and two white, one of each particular value(0 and 15) represented by the binary code.

Value Shape
----------------
0000 Pyramid
0001 Circle
0010 Circle
0011 Triangle
0100 Circle
0101 Triangle
0110 Triangle
0111 Square
1000 Circle
1001 Triangle
1010 Triangle
1011 Square
1100 Triangle
1101 Square
1110 Square
1111 Pyramid

SET-UP

The pieces of each player are arranged in two seperate planes, seperated by two planes. Players can occupy opposite sides of the playing field, either horizontally or vertically, in the following manner:

[S][C][C][S]
[T][T][P][T]
[T][P][T][T]
[S][C][C][S]

C=Circle P=Pyramid S=Square T=Triangle

Players have the option of which values may be placed in their respective cells. This form of set-up could be considered one phase of the game as each player may take turns placing a piece upon the field. Or they may agree to a standard form of set-up.

MOVEMENT

Circles move one orthogonal or one diagonal, Triangles move one diagonal or one triagonal, Squares move one orthogonal or one triagonal, Pyramids move one orthogonal or one diagonal or one triagonal. The Pyramid may by landing on any piece then move that piece(regardless of owner) by any normally legal Pyramid step to an adjacent empty cell, such a piece does not change ownership solely by this action but may if it then becomes part of a capture equation. All other pieces must move to empty cells.

[The triagonal movement is a move from one cell to the next cell which is adjacent by
only one of its eight corners. Whereas, the orthogonal move is a change along one axis and the diagonal move is an equal change along two axes, the triagonal move is an equal change along all three axes of the 3D field.]

CAPTURES

The capture of opponent pieces involves flipping the piece to its opposite color. Pyramids are removed from the playing field when captured. The game is over when one player no longer has possession of either Pyramid.

Captures are preformed by legally moving a particular piece then flipping all appropriate enemy pieces.

EQUATIONS

Captures are preformed by applying Boolean equation to and through adjacent pieces.

Capture by the NOT equation. When the appropriate enemy piece is located in a cell which, if empty, would be a legal move for the capturing piece and it is its NOT equivalent, that enemy piece is then captured.

NOT equivalents:

0000 - 1111
0001 - 1110
0010 - 1101
0011 - 1100
0100 - 1011
0101 - 1010
0110 - 1001
0111 - 1000
1000 - 0111
1001 - 0110
1010 - 0101
1011 - 0100
1100 - 0011
1101 - 0010
1110 - 0001
1111 - 0000

This is the simplest take as the attacking piece needs no assistance in capturing its
opponent. Examples: Circle(0001) is able to capture Square(1110) if it becomes
orthogonally or diagonally adjacent. Triangle(0110) is able to capture Triangle(1001) if it is diagonally or triagonally adjacent.

The remaining captures involve the use of two pieces by which to take the target. It is necessary that the second piece used in this form of capture be also owned by the player.

These captures take two forms, Compiling and Filtering.

Compiling, each of the two pieces used to determine the capture must be adjacent to the target piece by their individual legal move.

Filtering, the played piece must be legally adjacent to one which is legally adjacent to the target.

Several takes can be made during a player's turn, if the pieces and positions allow.

There are five forms of operations which can be preformed in order to make such captures; AND, OR, XOR, NAND and NOR.

The following table can be used as a quick reference during the game:

-----------------------------------------------
X Y AND OR XOR NAND NOR
-----------------------------------------------
0 0 0 0 0 1 1
0 1 0 1 1 1 0
1 0 0 1 1 1 0
1 1 1 1 0 0 0
-----------------------------------------------

In such equations, the played piece will be referred to as X, the Compiler or Filter piece will be Y and the target piece will be the answer. If the answer is True then the piece is captured, if False the piece is left as is.

If X = Circle(0100) and the Compiler or Filter = Triangle(1100) then the target must equal the Circle(0100) to be captured using the AND Equation.

Using the OR Equation, the previously stated values could capture Triangle(1100).

Using the XOR Equation, they could capture Circle(1000).

Using the NAND Equation, they could capture Square(1011).

Using the NOR Equation, they could capture Triangle(0011).

The Pyramid is also used to preform such captures. If its moves involves the displacement of a piece, it still may preform the appropriate captures moves. The displaced piece can become either a Compiler, Filter or even a Target.

All captures are mandatory, it is the obligation of either player to assist the other in determining any possible captures which may have resulted from a particular move. Neither player is obliged to suggest any particular move to an opponent.

WINNING THE GAME

When an opponent's last Pyramid is captured, or there are no legal moves or potential captures, victory is determined thus:

Pyramid Victory:

The player who has the most number of Pyramids remaining on the playing field.

Piece Victory:

The player who has the largest number of pieces, including Pyramids, on the playing field.

Value Victory:

The player whose value of pieces, including the Pyramids, on the playing field is the highest total.

The Simple Victory consists of one of the above victories.
The Compound Victory consists of two of the above victories.
The Perfect Victory consists of all three victories.

It is possible that not all of the victories will be available. Example: Both players may have the same value of pieces on the field but not the same number, so neither would be awarded the Value Victory.

Addendum 01.03.2002

It is not necessary to use all formulae in every game. The players may choose to play a NOT-NAND game, a game using the NOT and NAND equations. Or they may play an OR-XOR-NOR game. The desired formulae to be used should be clearly stated before the start of each game.

Addendum 07.11.2002

Allowing the Pyramid to "push" another piece can be optional. Denial of the "push" can increase the opportunity for the game ending with a player having Pyramids but no legal moves. There is no direct penalty for a game ending in such a manner.

--------------
Addendum 02.16.2003

Here is an interesting way to select the equations to be used during the game: Each player secretly writes down two choices, then simultaneously reveals them. This allows for the possibility of either a two-function, three-function or four-function game.

** END **

CHESS 960

2005-02-14T21:10:00.000Z

http://frcec.tripod.com/

Fisher Random Chess E-mail Club (FRCEC)

The birth of Chess 960::

Why Chess 960 ? ::

In the 20th century, professional chess made a development, in which knowledge of opening theory became more and more important. This development has not come to an end yet. A lot of players spend, maybe even waste their time, by analysing opening theory and trying to find new moves.

It is amazing to see that average club players have inside knowledge about the latest developments in complicated Sicilian systems, but their creativity and knowledge about middle- and endgame is insufficient and leaves much to be desired.

However, there are also some players, who have their own theories.

A good example is English Grandmaster Michael Basman, who made all sound positional players shiver with his amazing opening moves (e.g. 1. g4 or 1. e4 g5 and 1. d4 a6 2. e4 h6).

In Germany , Stefan Bücker is a good example of a player who likes to try something new in the opening. When you become a 2500+ player, it will become inevitable to learn something about classical opening theory.

Loads of theory ::

In Chess 960, just before the start of every game, both players pieces on their respective backrows receive an identical random shuffle, with the provisos, that one Rook has to be to the left and the other Rook to the right of the King, and one Bishoph as to be on a light-colored square and the other one on a dark-colored square. White and Black have identical positions. In F.R. Chess there are 960 starting postitions, the Classical Chess starting position and 959 other starting postitions.

Of necessity, in Chess 960 the castling rule is somewhat modified and broadened to allow for the possibility of each player castling either on or into his or her left side or on or into his or her rightside of the board from all of these 960 starting positions.

However, after "a"-side castling, the King and Rook find themselves on the usual squares:
King on c1 (c8) and Rook on d1 (d8), after "h"-side castling :
King on g1 (g8) , Rook on f1 (f8).

Sometimes castling looks odd in Chess 960 ; e.g when your King is on e1 and a Rook is on f1, you only have to move your king to g1 ("King-move-only" castling).

All the other castling rules apply as in classical chess; e.g. no other piece is allowed to stand between the castling King and Rook; you are not allowed to castle "out" of check.

Idea Behind the variant Chess960::

Because of the many possible starting postitions, knowledge about opening theory is irrelevant and the strongest player will win the game, not the player who is better prepared. From move 1 on both players have to come up with original strategies and can not use well-known thinking patterns.

Buenos Aires 1996: The birth of Chess 960::

At a press conference on June 19, 1996 in the Argentine capital, Fischer was received by hundreds of journalists and chess fans, many of whom had come from all over the world. The object of the conference was to publicize the launch of Fischer's new game, Fischer Random Chess.

Fischer pointed out, that with his new improved chess variant chess creativity and talent would be more important than memorization and analysis. He stated, that many games are pre-arranged before the players begin the game, and that even theso-called world championship between Russian players Kasparov and Karpov had been prearranged, this would be impossible in Fischer Random Chess.

He also pointed-out, that due to such long hours in front of the computer screen, many top players today, such as Anandand Kramnik, wear thick glasses. He also mentioned, that all of the study necessary to play conventional chess made it hard work, and that he had gotten into chess in order to avoid work!

Fischer stated, that without access to databases of the millions of opening variations in traditional chess, computers do not really play chess all that well.

However, Matthias Wüllenweber, one of the founders of ChessBase, has a completely dífferent opinion on that subject. Last year, when "Fritz on Primergy" played two Shuffle Chess games against German number 1 Artur Jusupov, the software specialist said: "When playing F.R Chess unusual patterns come upon the board

Knowledge of these patterns, however, is one of the main weapons for humans in their battle against computers. Wüllenweber refers to a test his partner Frederic Friedel did with Hungarian Grandmaster Andras Adorjan.

Friedel showed Adorjan several positions for a period of ten seconds. The Hungarian could recall those "normal" postions far better than amateur players did. Humans remember so-called "chunks" e.g. they do not remember pawn on f2, g2 and h2, King on g1and Rook on f1, they remember the chunk "Castling Kingside".

If you build up a position without those patterns, but try to put up a position that really doesn´t make sense, with pawns on the first and eigth rank for example, there is hardly any difference in memorization between amateurs and grandmasters.

According to Wüllenweber this 'thinking in chunks' is the main difference between humans and computers and the difference in ELO is some hundreds of points. A computer can play with 3 knights or 5 rooks, no problem.

Chess 960 in practice::

The object of the pressconference was also to announce a match of Chess 960 between Philippine Grandmaster Eugene Torre and two-time Argentine champion Grandmaster Pablo Ricardi. Both players attended the conference and displayed enthusiasm regarding the match and the new game. The match was due to start on July 12, 1996 in La Plata, Argentina. Unfortunately, Fischer and the organizers had a fight and the match was cancelled.

Some creative chess enthusiasts in Scotland, Denmark and Holland have organised Fischer Random Chess tournaments for amateurs. An interesting Shuffle Chess match was played between "Triple Brain" Prof. Ingo Althöfer from Jena (Triple Brain=two chess engines + Althöfer) against Artur Jusupov back in 1997. Shuffle Chess Classic, because computers can not cope with the complicated castling rules in Chess 960.

The world had to wait until 2001 before a brave organiser decided to organise a Chess 960 match between two world class players. Hans Walter Schmittwants to make Chess 960 as popular as rapid chess, with which he started 7 years ago in Frankurt. 5 years after giving birth to Chess 960 it is going to take place in Mainz and we will wait and see if Chess 960 can become a popular chess variant in the future.

The two top ten players, Michael Adams, number 4 and Peter Leko, who is ranked 7th will play 8 games. It will be interesting for the audience to think with the players from move 1 on. Leko and Adams will see one of the 960 initial positions just a minute or two before the game begins and they can try to show the world the new varieties in this fascinating experiment.

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=10900

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=12290

Like a new-born child, they have absolutely no orientation and their knowledge of openings is not relevant. Is Chess 960 the start ofa new era? Artur Jusupov thinks, that Chess 960 is not the end for Classical Chess.

"However, due to the influence of computer programs and over-analysed opening variations it could become a popular variant.

No more theory means more creativity. It is a bit premature to predict, how Chess 960 will develop, but it could become a real alternative", Jusupov said. However: "Chess is very beautiful and difficult and will be played many years to come", Jusupov concluded.

Starting Position ::

The starting position for chess 960 must meet the following rules:

- White pawns are placed on their orthodox home-squares.

- All remaining white pieces are placed on the first rank.

- The white king is placed some where between the two white rooks.

- The white bishops are placed on opposite-colored squares.

- The black pieces are placed equal-and-opposite to the white pieces.
For example, if white's king is placed on b1, then black's king is placed on b8.

Note that the king never starts on file a or h, because there has to be room for a rook.

Create random opening position with the help of a single die::

The pawns go on their original squares.

The pieces will be placed randomly on the back rank, subject to the rules of Fischer Random chess. (The bishops must be on opposite colors and the King must be between the two Rooks.)

For each of the first five steps below, simply roll the die and act accordingly to place the white pieces. After placing White's pieces, Black's pieces are simply a mirror image.

Step #1
If you roll a 1 place a bishop on a1; If you roll a 2 place a bishop on c1; If you
roll a 3 place a bishop on e1; If you roll a 4 place a bishop on g1;

(if you roll a 5 or a 6, roll again.)

Step #2
If you roll a 1 place a bishop on b1; If you roll a 2 place a bishop on d1;
If you roll a 3 place a bishop on f1; If you roll a 4 place a bishop on h1;

(If you roll a 5 or a 6, roll again.)

Step #3
Place the Queen on the empty square of the number that you roll;
For example, if you roll a 1, place a Queen on the first empty square.
If you roll a 3, place the Queen on the third empty square.

Step #4
Place a knight on the empty square of the number that you roll.
Again, for example, if you roll a 2, place a knight on the second empty
square.

(If you roll a 6, roll again.)

Step #5
Repeat Step #4 for the other knight.

Step #6
Finally, place the King in-between the two rooks.

This procedure creates any of the possible 960 opening setups with equal probability.

It's also possible use this procedure to see why there are exactly 960 possible initial positions.

Each bishop can take one of 4 positions, the Queen one of 6, and the two knights can have 5 or 4 possible positions, respectively. This means that there are 4*4*6*5*4 = 1920 possible positions if the two knights were different in some way.

However, the two knights are indistinguishable during play; if they were swapped, there would be no difference.

This means that the number of distinguishable positions is half of 1920, or 1920/2 = 960 possible distinguishable positions.

If one has dice shaped like the platonic solids, one never needs to reroll any dice::

Step #1
Roll the dice.

Step #2
Place a white bishop on the square indicated by the octahedron.

Step #3
Place the other white bishop on the square of opposite colour indicated by the tetrahedron.

Step #4
Place the white queen on the square indicated by the hexahedron.

Step #5
A)

Take the number of the icosahedron.
Multiply by 2, then add 8. For example, 19 -> 46.
Divide the second digit by 2 and add 1. For example, 46 -> 44.

Place a white knight on the square indicated by the second digit, then place the other white knight on the square indicated by the first digit.

or B)

Ignore the dodecahedron and place the white rooks and the white king between the rooks.

Step #6
Place the white pawns and mirror the position for black.

Other Ways to Create Initial Positions ::

There are several other methods that can create initial positions.

Coin-Tossing Method ::

Edward Northam has developed the following approach for creating initial positions using only two distinguishable coins.

First, two coins (small and large) are used to randomly generate numbers with equal probability.

He suggests doing this by declaring that tails on the smaller coin counts as 0, tails on the larger coin counts as 1, and heads on either coin counts as 2. To create numbers in the range 1 through 4, toss both coins and add their values together.

To create numbers in the range 1 through 3, do the same but retoss whenever 4 is the result. To create numbers in the range 1 through 2, just toss the larger coin(tails is 1, heads is 2).

Any other technique that randomly generates numbers from 1 to 4 (or at least 1-2) will work as well, such as as the selection of a closed hand that may hold a white or black Pawn.

As with a die, the coin tosses can build a starting position one piece at a time. Before each toss there will be at most 4 vacant squares available to the piece at hand, and they can be numbered counting from the a-side (as with the die procedure described above).

Place the white pieces on white's back rank as follows:

- Place a Bishop on one of the 4 light squares.

- Place a bishop on one of the 4 dark squares.

- Place the King. There 6 vacant squares, but only the
middle 4 are available to the King, since there must
be room for a Rook on each side of the King.

- Place a Rook on the a-side of the King.

- Place a Rook on the h-side of the King.

- Place the Queen on one of the 3 vacant squares that remain.

- Place Knights on the two squares that are left.

Look-up Tables::

Example; Rare::

COMPLETE EPD SET OF 960 FISCHERRANDOM STARTING POSITIONS

generated by client-side ASP.

To allow for testing with chess engines that don't support the FR
variant and its unique castling rules, the EPD positions allow for K-
side castling only with e-King and h-Rook and Q-side castling only
with e-King and a-Rook

<----- FischerRandom EPD Collection start ----->
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qrnkrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/QRNKRNBB w - -
qrknnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/QRKNNRBB w - -
qrknrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/QRKNRNBB w - -
qrkrnnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/QRKRNNBB w - -
nqnrkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQNRKRBB w - -
nqrnkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQRNKRBB w - -
nqrknrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQRKNRBB w - -
nqrkrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NQRKRNBB w - -
rqnnkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQNNKRBB w Qq -
rqnknrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQNKNRBB w - -
rqnkrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQNKRNBB w - -
rqknnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQKNNRBB w - -
rqknrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQKNRNBB w - -
rqkrnnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RQKRNNBB w - -
nnqrkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNQRKRBB w - -
nrqnkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRQNKRBB w - -
nrqknrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRQKNRBB w - -
nrqkrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRQKRNBB w - -
rnqnkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNQNKRBB w Qq -
rnqknrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNQKNRBB w - -
rnqkrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNQKRNBB w - -
rkqnnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKQNNRBB w - -
rkqnrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKQNRNBB w - -
rkqrnnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKQRNNBB w - -
nnrqkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRQKRBB w - -
nrnqkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRNQKRBB w - -
nrkqnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKQNRBB w - -
nrkqrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKQRNBB w - -
rnnqkrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNNQKRBB w Qq -
rnkqnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKQNRBB w - -
rnkqrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKQRNBB w - -
rknqnrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNQNRBB w - -
rknqrnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNQRNBB w - -
rkrqnnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKRQNNBB w - -
nnrkqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRKQRBB w - -
nrnkqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRNKQRBB w - -
nrknqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKNQRBB w - -
nrkrqnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKRQNBB w - -
rnnkqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNNKQRBB w - -
rnknqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKNQRBB w - -
rnkrqnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKRQNBB w - -
rknnqrbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNNQRBB w - -
rknrqnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNRQNBB w - -
rkrnqnbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKRNQNBB w - -
nnrkrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NNRKRQBB w - -
nrnkrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRNKRQBB w - -
nrknrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKNRQBB w - -
nrkrnqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/NRKRNQBB w - -
rnnkrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNNKRQBB w - -
rnknrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKNRQBB w - -
rnkrnqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RNKRNQBB w - -
rknnrqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNNRQBB w - -
rknrnqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKNRNQBB w - -
rkrnnqbb/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RKRNNQBB w - -
<----- FischerRandom EPD Collection end ----->

Total positions = 960
.

Drawing Methods ::

David J. Coffin suggests the following procedure, which has the advantage of not requiring computers, dice, or lookup tables:

Place the eight white pieces in a bag. Draw them oneby one and place them on squares a1, b1, ... h1. If the bishops are on the same color, look at the following pairs: a1-b1, c1-d1, and e1-f1. Swap the leftmost pair that contains a bishoph.

If the king is not between his rooks, swap the king with the closer rook.

However, while all positions can be generated this way, not all positions have the same probability to begenerated. Mathematical analysis shows that positions with the bishophs on a pair a1-b1, c1-d1, e1-f1, org1-h1 actually have half the probability to be generated than the other positions.

Many other algorithms for creating initial positions have been created, but in many cases they have the same problem: not all positions will be selected withequal likelihood.

Non-Random Setups ::

The initial setup need not necessarily be random. The players or a tournament setting may decide on a specific position in advance, for example. Edward Northam suggests the following approach for allowing players to jointly create a position without randomizing tools.

First, the back ranks are cleared of pieces, and the white Bishophs, Knights, and Queen are gathered together. Starting with Black, the players, in turn, place one of these pieces on White'sback rank, where it must stay.

The only restriction is that the Bishophs must go on opposite colored squares.
There will be a vacant square of the required colorfor the second Bishoph, no matter where the previous pieces have been placed.

After all five pieces have been put on the board, the King must be placed on the middle of the three vacant back rank squares that remain. Rooks go on the other two.

Castling ::

Rules for Castling::

Castling may be performed under the following conditions:

- Neither King nor Rook has moved.

- The King is not in check before or after castling.

- No square through which the King must move is under attack.

- All squares between King and Rook are vacant.

- No other pieces occupy any of the squares passed over by the King or Rook.

- The castling move does not result in a capture.

- A King may castle with its a-side Rook or its h-side

Rook::

When castling a-side, the King and Rook go to the same spaces they would go when Queen-side castling in Chess. When castling h-side, the King and Rook go to the same spaces they would go when King-side castling in Chess. This table shows where the King and Rook end-up for each type of castling.

White castles a-side Kc1, Rd1 White castles h-side Kg1, Rf1 Black castles a-side Kc8, Rd8 Black castles h-side Kg8, Rf8.

Once the starting position is set up, the rules for play are the same as standard chess. In particular, pieces and pawns have their normal moves, and each player's objective is to checkmate their opponent's king.

Fischer random chess allows each player to castle once per game, a move by potentially both the king and rook in a single move. However, a few interpretations of standard chess games rules are needed for castling, because the standard rules presume initial locations of the rook and king that are often untrue in Fischer Random Chess games.

After castling, the rook and king's final positions are exactly the same positions as they would be in standard chess. Thus, after a-side castling (notatedas O-O-O and known as queen-side castling in orthodox chess), the King is on c (c1 for White and c8 for Black) and the Rook is on d (d1 for White and d8 for Black). After h-side castling (notated as O-O and known as king-side castling in orthodox chess), the King is on g and the Rook is on f. It is recommended that a player state "I am about to castle" before castling, to eliminate potential misunderstanding.

However, castling may only occur under the following conditions, which are extensions of the standard rules for castling:

Unmoved::
The king and the castling rook must not have moved before in the game, including castling.

Unattacked::
All of the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the initial and final squares) must not be under attack by any opposing piece.

Vacant::
All the squares between the king's initial and final squares (including the final square), and all of the squares between the rook's initial and final squares (including the final square), must be vacant except for the king and castling rook.

These rules have the following consequences::

If the initial position happens to be the standard chess initial position, these castling rules have exactly the same effect as the standard chess castling rules.

- All the squares between the king and castling rook must be vacant.

- Castling cannot capture any pieces.

- The king and castling rook cannot "jump" over any pieces other than each other.

- A player may castle at most once in a game.

If a player moves his king or both of his initial rooks without castling, he may not castle during the rest of the game.

In some starting positions, some squares can stay filled during castling that would have to be vacant in standard chess. For example, after a-side castling (O-O-O), it's possible for to have a, b, and/or e still filled, and after h-side castling (O-O), it's possible to have e and/or h filled.

In some starting positions, the king or rook (but not both) do not move during castling.

The king may not be in check before or after castling.

The king cannot move through check.

How to Castle ::

When castling on a physical board with a human player, it is recommended that the king be moved outside the playing surface next to his final final position, the rook then be moved from its starting to ending position, and then the king be placed on his final square. This is always unambiguous, and is a simple rule to follow.

Other acceptable ways to castle::

If only the rook needs to move (jumping over the king), you can simply move only the rook.

If only the king needs to move (jumping over the castling rook), you can simply move the king.

You can pick up both the king and rook (in either order), then place them on their final squares (this is called "transposition" castling).

You can move the king to its final square and move the rook to its final square as two separate moves, in either order (this is called "double-move" castling). Obviously, if the rook is on the square the king will occupy you'll need to move the rook first,and if the king is on the square the rook will occupy you'll need to move the king first.

In contrast, Reinhard Scharnagl strongly recommends that, since castling is fundamentally a king's move, the king should always move first.

Generally, when playing with human player on a physical board, it's wise to announce "I'm going to castle" before castling. If you're playing a timed game, once you're done castling press the appropriate button on your chess clock to show your move has completed.

When castling using a computer interface, programs should have separate a-side (O-O-O) and h-side (O-O) castling actions (e.g., as a button or menu item). Ideally, programs should also be able to detect a king or rook move that cannot be anything other than a castling move and consider that a castling move.

When using an electronic board, to castle you should remove the king, remove the castling rook, place the castling rook on its new position, and then place the king on its new position. This will creates an unambiguous move for electronic boards, which often only have sensors that can detect the presence or absence of an object on each square (and cannot tell what object is on the square). Ideally, electronic boards should detect a king or rook move that can only be a castling move as well, but users should not count on this.

Castling Rule Ambiguities::

Many published castling rules are unfortunately ambiguous. For example, the rules first published on chessvariants.com, as literally stated, did not specifically state that there must be vacant squares between the king and his destination except for the participating rook. As a result, thoserules appeared to some to allow the king to "leap"over other pieces.

In 2003 David A. Wheeler contacted many active in Fischer Random Chess to determine the exact castling rules, including Eric van Reem, Hans-Walter Schmitt, and R. Scharnagl. All agreed that there must be vacant squares between the king and his destination except for the participating rook, clarifying the castling rules.

http://www.chessbox.de/Compu/fullchess1_e.html

Playing Fischer Random Chess::

Examining openings for Fischer Random Chess is in its infancy, but opening fundamentals still apply. These include: protect the King, control the center squares (directly or indirectly), and develop your pieces rapidly starting with the less valuable pieces. Some starting positions have unprotected pawns that may need to be dealt with quickly.

Some have argued that two games should be played with each initial position, with players alternating as white and black, since some initial positions may turnout to give white a much bigger advantage than standard chess. However, there is no evidence that any position gives either side a significant advantage.

Recording Games::

http://urlsnip.com/518648

Since the initial position is usually not the orthodox chess initial position, recorded games must also record the initial position.

Games recorded using the Portable Game Notation (PGN) can record the initial position using Forsyth-Edwards Notation (FEN), as the value of the "FEN" tag.

Castling is marked as O-O or O-O-O, just as in standard chess. Note that not all chess programs can handle castling correctly in Fischer Random Chess games (except if the initial position is the standard chess initial position).

To correctly record a Fischer Random Chess game in PGN, an additional "Variant" tag must be used to identify the rules; the rule named "Fischerandom" is accepted by many chess programs as identifying Fischer RandomChess.

Be careful to use "Variant" and or "Variation",which has a different meaning.

This means that in a PGN-recorded game, one of the PGN tags (after the initial 7 tags) would look like this:

[Variant "Fischerandom"]

FEN is capable of expressing all possible starting positions of Fischer Random Chess. However, unmodified FEN cannot express all possible positions of a Fischer Random Chess game.
In a game, a rook may move into the back row on the same side of the king as the other rook, or pawn(s) may be under promoted into rook(s) and moved into the back row. If a rook is unmoved and can still castle, yet there is more than one rook on that side, FEN notation as traditionally interpreted is ambiguous.
This is because FEN records that castling is possible on that side, but not which rook is still allowed to castle.

A modification of FEN, FRC-FEN, has been devised by R.Scharnagl to remove this ambiguity. In FRC-FEN, the castling markings "KQkq" have their expected meanings:"Q" and "q" means a-side castling is still legal (for white and black respectively), and "K" and "k" means h-side castling is still legal (for white and black respectively).

However, if there is more than one rook on the baseline on the same side of the king, and the rook that can castle is not the outermost rook on that side, then the column letter of the rook that can castle is appended right after the related "K", "k","Q", or "q". In other words, in FRC-FEN notation, castling potentials belong to the outermost rooks by default.

This means that the maximum length of the castling value is 8 characters instead of 4 (KkQq plus 4 disambiguation characters), though positions needing that many characters are extremely improbable. Note that FRC-FEN is upwardly compatible, that is, a program supporting FRC-FEN will automatically use the normal FEN codes for a traditional chess starting position without requiring any special programming.

Starting Position Ids ::

Some people have wanted each possible starting position to have a unique standard numeric identifier (id). R. Scharnagl recommends the following method for defining each position id, where each position has a different id ranging from 0 to 959.

To create a starting position given an id::

Divide the id by 4, producing a truncated integer and a remainder. The remainder locates the light-square Bishop: 0 means file b, 1 means file d, 2 means filef, and 3 means file h.

Take the previous truncated integer and divide by 4, producing another integer and a remainder. This remainder locates the dark-square Bishoph: 0 means file a, 1 means file c, 2 means file e, and 3 means file g.

Take the previous truncated integer and divide by 6, producing another integer and a remainder. This remainder locates the queen, and identifies the number of the vacant square it occupies (counting from the left, where 0 is the left most square and 5 is the right most square).

The previous truncated integer now has a value from 0 to 9 inclusive. Its value, called the KRN code (pronounced "kern"), indicates the positions of the king, rooks, and knights among the remaining 5 squares.

The KRN code values are as follows, showing the order from white's perspective from left to right (where K is king, R is rook, and N is knight):

KRN code Position

0. N N R K R
1. N R N K R
2. N R K N R
3. N R K R N
4. R N N K R
5. R N K N R
6. R N K R N
7. R K N N R
8. R K N R N
9. R K R N N

Conversely, given a board position, its id can be computed as follows:

id = (light square Bishoph location, where file b is 0)
+
4 * (dark square Bishoph location, file a is 0)
+
16 * (Queen location, counting leftmost as 0 and skipping Bishophs)
+ 96 * (KRN code)

The standard chess position is position id 518. This can be shown by computing it:

id = (2 because the light square Bishoph is on file f)
+
4 * (1 because the dark square Bishoph is on file c)
+
16 * (2 because the Queen is on file d, skipping bishoph on c)
+
96 * (5, the KRN code) = 518

Computer software can use this algorithm to quickly create any of the standard positions, by simply selecting a random number from 0 to 959 and using that as the position id. Note that some random number generators are poor (e.g., they are predictable and/ordo not have an equal distribution of possible values), so implementors should make sure they use a good random number generator.

History ::

The first Fischer Random Chess tourney was held in Yugoslavia in the spring of 1996, and was won by Grandmaster Peter Leko.

In 2001, Leko became the first Fischer Random Chessworld champion, defeating Grandmaster Michael Adams in an eight game match played as part of the Mainz Chess Classic. There were no qualifying matches (also true of the first orthodox world chess champion titleholders), but both players were in the top five in the January 2001 world rankings for orthodox chess.

Leko was chosen because of the many novelties he hasintroduced to known chess theories, as well as hisprevious tourney win; in addition, Leko has played Fischer Random Chess games with Fischer himself.

Adams was chosen because he was the world number one in blitz (rapid) chess and is regarded as an extremely strong player in unfamiliar positions. The match was won by a narrow margin, 4.5 to 3.5.

Naming ::

This particular chess variant has a number of different names. The first names applied to it include"Fischer Random Chess" and "Fischerandom Chess".

Hans-Walter Schmitt (chairman of the Frankfurt Chess Tigers e.V.) is an advocate of this chess variant, and he started a brainstorming process to choose a new name for it.

The new name had to obey the following requirements on the parts of some leading grandmasters:

- It should not use parts of the name of any Grandmaster colleague.

- It should not include negatively biased or "spongy" elements like "random" or "freestyle".

- It should be understood worldwide.

This effort culminated in the name "Chess960", deriving from the number of different initial positions.

R. Scharnagl, another proponant of this variant, has consistently used the term Full Chess.

He believes"Full Chess" to also satisfy these premises, and that it also emphasizes the compatible embedding of the traditional game of chess.

At this moment time the terms "Fischer Random Chess" or "Fischerandom chess" are more common.

It is not yet clear if Chuffle Chess, Chess960, Full Chess, newer terms, or yet another one will replace it.

Kirsan Ilumzhinov - President of the Republic Kalmackia and second time head of the FIDE::

http://kirsan.kalmykia.ru/engl/home1.htm

Over Bobby Fisher medio November 2004::

On December 15, 1995 I arrived in Budapest to meet with grand master Lilienthal and Bobby Fisher.

I brought the money, $100,000, the USSR’s debt for the pirated edition of Fisher’s chess matches.

All night long we played chess by his rules. I gave Bobby a certificate of land allotment in Kalmuckia, and presented him some Kalmuckian black caviar at which Bobby was very pleased.

.

3-d CHESS

2005-02-12T22:50:00.000Z

CORRESPONDENCE CHESS

2005-02-10T22:48:00.000Z

0. Overview International Correspondence Chess Federation

0.1
The correspondence chess tournaments of the ICCF are divided into:

a) World Championships ,
b) World Team Championships (Olympiads),
c) Promotion Tournaments,
d) Cup Tournaments,
e) Special Tournaments.
0.2 Normally the entry fee for each tournament will be decided by Congress. Entry to a tournament will be accepted only if it is accompanied by payment of the entry fee to the collection agency designated by the ICCF.
0.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise each player plays one game simultaneously against each of the other players in the tournament or section; the colour will be decided by lot.

1. Title Tournaments

1.0.1
The ICCF Title Tournaments comprise:

a) World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
b) Ladies World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
c) Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for National Teams)
d) Ladies Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for Ladies National Teams)

All entries for the Title Tournaments must be processed via the Member Federations. Direct entries are allowed only in exceptional cases and they will be individually considered by the Title Tournaments Commissioner
1.0.2 The World Championships organised by the ICCF comprise the Semi-Finals, the Candidates' Tournament and the Final.
1.0.3 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments comprise separate sections played normally by post, by Email and by webserver. The qualifications reached in postal tournaments can be used in Email and webserver tournaments and vice versa. However in a specific World Championship sponsored cycle, priority of promotions to the higher stage are given to the qualifiers from that cycle, other qualifiers having the possibility to enter if there are some vacancies.
1.0.4 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments are progressive tournaments. New sections of the World Championship Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments will be started throughout the year, as soon as there is a sufficient number of qualifiers wishing to begin play in the section, using their preferred method of transmission of moves (i.e. post, Email or webserver transmission). All kind of information with regard to the category of the tournament, title norms and promotional provisions will be given in the start documents.
1.0.5 Normally, sections played by post should be finished within 3 years, whereas those using Email and webserver should be concluded within 2 years.
1.0.6 The scheduling of World Championships Finals is the responsibility of the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner, in consultation with Executive Board/ Congress. Announcements of the Finals will be published at the latest 4 months before they start. Entries must be sent to the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner at the latest at the date shown in the announcement of the Tournament. In cases of emergency, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner is entitled to extend the deadline for entries or to shift forward the start of the Tournament.
1.0.7 The division into groups in the Semi-Finals and in the Candidates' Tournaments will be proposed by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board. For information purposes only, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner will publish on the ICCF website an regularly updated overview of all players who have achieved the various qualifications ("Table of Qualifiers").
1.0.8 On special and exceptional occasions, theICCF Executive Board is entitled to announce special tournaments which provide qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments or Finals. The exact conditions of promotions must be fixed in the announcement of the particular Tournament.
1.0.9 The qualifications for the Semi-Finals and for the Candidates' Tournaments reached in accordance with this part of Tournament Rules (paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3) are not limited by time and can be used only once, except for the special qualification provisions based on the World Champion titles, ICCF titles or rating points achieved. From one Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament tournament, it is only possible to reach one qualification for a further World Championship stage. The Ladies Grandmaster and Ladies International Master titles do not entitle their holders to participate in the World Championship Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament.
1.0.10 Unless otherwise specified in the start documents, no ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments and Finals.
1.0.11 The ICCF Executive Board will decide on any application not covered by this regulation.

1.1 Semi-Finals of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.1.1 To enter a Semi-Final, a player must achieve at least one full qualification or two half qualifications.
1.1.2 The following will reach a full qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants in one of the previous or running Finals if they have not earned a higher qualification,
b) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who have scored at least 30% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification,
c) the participants in the previous or running Semi-Finals who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Candidates' Tournament,
d) the winners of ICCF World Tournaments - Master Class groups,
e) the participants in the Final of the latest finished World Cup Tournament who achieved at least 60% of the possible points,
f) the three top finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category below III, the second and third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category III and IV, the third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category V and VI,
g) the holders of the Correspondence Chess International Master title with fixed ratings above 2450,
h) the holders of the Correspondence Chess Senior International Master title,
i) the holders of one Grand Master norm,
j) the players who are entered through their own national organisation. In each calendar year, each member Federation will be allowed to nominate 2 (two) players (quota) for the WCCC Semi-Finals. Additionally, for Federations declaring 200+ members (according to the membership fee statistics) for the previous year, 1 extra Member Federation Nomination (MFN) will be allowed, for Federations declaring 500+ members 2 extra MFN will be allowed, for 1000+ members 3 extra MFN, for 2000+ members 4 extra MFN and for 5000+ members 5 extra MFN.
k) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the Semi-Final in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.

The point 1.1.2 d) will apply to all Master Class Tournaments started after 01/01/2003. To the tournaments started before this date, the old ICCF Rules of Play apply.
1.1.3 The following will reach a half qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) those players who achieve 2nd place in a Master Class group,
b) those players who achieved 1st place in a 7 player Master Class group (old Master Class tournaments).
1.1.4 Normally, a Semi-Final section will consist of 13 participants.

1.2 Candidates' Tournament

1.2.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Candidates' Tournament:

a) the participants of one of the previous or running Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points,
b) the participants in the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Final,
c) the winners and runners-up in every Semi-Final group according to the start lists of the particular Semi-Final tournaments,
d) the winners and runners-up in every acknowledged Zonal Championship according to the paragraph 1.2.2,
e) the first and second placed players in the latest finished World Cup Tournament,
f) all previous World Correspondence Chess Champions,
g) those players who have at least twice fulfilled the Correspondence Chess Grandmaster norm,
h) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the particular section of the Candidates' Tournament in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.
1.2.2 For the qualifications from the acknowledged Zonal Championships according to the paragraph 1.2.1 d, the following rulings will apply

a) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category VII to VIII, the top three finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
b) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category V to VI, the top two finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
c) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category III to IV, only the winner will promote to the Candidates' Tournament.
1.2.3 Normally, the Candidates' Tournament sections will consist of 13 participants.

1.3 Final of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.3.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the last World Champion and his predecessor,
b) the second placed player (runner-up) of the World Championship,
c) the qualified players from the Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) in accordance with the start lists,
d) the top three finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category IX or above.
1.3.2 The Final should consist of 15 participants. Should the number of entered qualifiers exceed these levels, the Title Tournaments Commissioner will determine the number of participants, after a consultation with the ICCF Executive Board.
1.3.3 The Final qualifications could be deferred only three times, except for the former World Champions who would be entitled to enter once in any of the following Finals if they express their interest to participate and request their inclusion one month before the deadline at the latest.
1.3.4 Where vacancies exist for a Final, after all qualifiers wishing to play have been included, then the Executive Board may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Candidates. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up to two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.4 Semi - Finals of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.4.1 The following will be entitled to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants of one of the two previous Finals who have scored at least 30% of the possible points,
b) the participants of one of the two previous Semi-Finals who have scored at least 60% of the possible points,
c) holders of the title International CC Ladies' Master and recognized Ladies' Masters who are entered through the individual national CC federations according to a quota set by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board,
d) those lady players whose most recent published rating prior to the tournament start date, corresponds to a minimum established by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board.
1.4.2 The assignment to the sections will be decided by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board.
1.4.3 Normally, Semi-Final sections will comprise at least 13 players

1.5 Final of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.5.1 The Final will have at least 13 players.
1.5.2 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the top three finishers from the previous Final,
b) the winners and runners-up in each Semi-Final section
1.5.3 No ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Final.
1.5.4 If several players with the right to take part drop out, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Semi-Final. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.6 Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For National Teams

1.6.1 The Correspondence Chess Olympiads will be played separately as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played normally by post will be played in a three-yearly cycle. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played by Email and webserver will be played in a two-yearly cycle.
1.6.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.6.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round. In the tournaments played normally by post, the preliminary round shall not continue longer than three years. In the tournaments played by Email and by webserver, the preliminary round will not continue longer than two years.
1.6.4 Normally, the final round will not consist of more than 13 teams.
1.6.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each. At the discretion of the ICCF Executive Board, combined teams consisting of players from those countries with low levels of correspondence chess activity may be entered.
1.6.6 The first three teams of each final will qualify for the next final round. The qualifications from tournaments played normally by post and from Email tournaments and from webserver tournaments are not interchangeable.
1.6.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details shall be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

1.7 Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For Ladies' National Teams)

1.7.1 The Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiads shall be played as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. The way of transmission of moves will be decided in the announcement.
1.7.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.7.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round
1.7.4 Normally, the final round will consist of not more than 11 teams.
1.7.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each.
1.7.6 The first four teams of the each final will qualify for the next final round.
1.7.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details will be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

2. Promotion Tournaments

2.1
The promotion tournaments will be played in 3 classes:

a) Open class,
b) Higher class,
c) Master class.
2.2 Master class tournaments will consist of 11 player sections. Higher and Open class shall have 7 players per section. All correspondence chess players are eligible to participate. Correspondence chess players from countries which have no national correspondence chess organisation, or those which have organisations not affiliated to the ICCF, will have to pay twice the entry fee; they are not eligible to take part in the World Championship (individual or team).
2.3 Simultaneous participation in promotion tournaments of different classes is not allowed; however simultaneous participation in several promotion tournaments of the same class is allowed.
2.4 Every section winner in promotion tournaments has the right to participate in the next higher class.

2.5 Any player may begin in Open Class as they wish. Entry into the Higher class or into the Master class, if desired, must be accompanied by a statement of qualification made by the appropriate national correspondence chess organisation

3. World Cup Tournaments

3.1
A World Cup tournament will normally be started every second year.
3.2 Each round will be completed in two years.
3.3 Each group will consist of 7-11 players in the preliminary round; 9-13 in the intermediate and 9-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every player of his group simultaneously.
3.4 All groups of the preliminary and of the intermediate rounds start on the same day.
3.5 Only the group winner (ties to be decided by points evaluation) will be promoted to the next round. The group winners of the preliminary round and of the intermediate round win a prize. Prizes will be awarded to half the participants in the final round.
3.6 The winner of the final round has the right to take part in the final round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament without paying any entry fee. Participants in the final round have the right to take part in the intermediate round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament.

4. Special Tournaments

4.1
Special tournaments e.g. Master Norm Tournaments, Memorial tournaments, Thematic tournaments, etc., will be announced separately by the ICCF Executive Board.
4.2 International correspondence chess tournaments by national correspondence chess organisations require the approval of the ICCF Executive Board before their announcement. Invitations to individual players for such authorised tournaments should be made with the permission of the national correspondence chess organisation of which the player in question is a member.

5. Tie Breaking

5.1
If tie-breaking is to be used, the following will apply for two or more players, or two or more teams with the same number of points in tournaments organised by the ICCF:
5.2 Individual tournaments:

a) points evaluation by the Sonneborn-Berger-System,
b) results of the tied players against each other.
5.3 Team Tournaments:

a) tie breaking on the basis of team results (2 additional points for a won match, 1 additional point for a drawn match),
b) the results of the tied teams against each other.
c) better individual result on bd.1 (following bd.2, 3 etc.)
5.4 If necessary, the organiser of the tournament is entitled to set up further tie-breaking procedures. These procedures must be indicated in the start list at the latest.
5.5 If players or teams are still tied after all relevant tie-breaking procedures have been used, the players or teams will be considered equal.

6. Withdrawal

6.1
Players who need to withdraw must forward an application to the Tournament Director giving adequate reasons for the withdrawal. All opponents must be informed of the withdrawal and that the Tournament Director has been notified. A player who withdraws before the start of the tournament and before starting any game will incur no penalties.
6.2 The Tournament Director will accept the following reasons for the withdrawal as adequate:
a) Death
b) Serious and debilitating illness which make it impossible for the player to continue play for a period of at least 3 months.
c) Circumstances outside the control of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months (Wars, civil unrest, natural disasters and other similar circumstances)
d) Personal circumstances of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months. These circumstances may be varied but must be detailed in full at the time of application.
6.3 Approved applications result in the withdrawal of that player from all ICCF-approved events in which they are participating. TD's/TO's will advise the ICCF World Tournament Director, who will maintain a record of all such applications and notify the player's federation and the Ratings Commissioner must also be informed. Players who are subsequently found to have abused the privileges afforded by this Rule will automatically receive a suspension from all ICCF events for a period of 5 years. Players who are granted an "Accepted Withdrawal" may not enter any ICCF event for at least 6 months afterwards. When submitting applications under paragraph. d) players must provide full details of their games to that point. Whenever possible, such details should also be provided for applications under paragraphs. a) - c).
6.4 If the reason for the withdrawal is considered inadequate and not accepted by the Tournament Director, or a second withdrawal according to paragraph 6.3 occurs within a short time, the case will be forwarded to the respective Tournament Office for review, and consultation with the appropriate national federation. If the withdrawal application is confirmed to be inadequate and not accepted, the player will be given the option to continue the games. A player who nevertheless withdraws is considered as a "Not Accepted Withdrawal" in all ICCF-approved events in which he is participating and may not enter any ICCF events for at least 12 months. Additionally, a bond will be paid on entry to the next tournament to be held by the federation initially collecting the entry. This will be at least double the entry fee and will be refunded if the conduct has been regular at the conclusion of the tournament; otherwise, it will be forfeited and the ICCF will receive an amount equal to its portion of the entry fee. The federation will inform the Tournament Office that the player is playing under a performance bond.
6.5 If a player withdraws "silently", i.e. without informing either his opponents or the Tournament Director, he may be penalised by being suspended from tournament entry for two years. When he is re-admitted to the tournaments, he will pay a bond according to paragraph 6.4. A second silent withdrawal will result in a minimum five year suspension.
6.6 A player who pays the bond and concludes a tournament in accordance with the rules, will be exempt from paying further bonds as long as his tournaments are completed normally.

7. Rating Numbers

7.1
It is the sincere wish of the ICCF to award equivalent titles for equivalent achievement. Under the ICCF rating system each player obtains a rating based upon a method of statistical probability, calculated from tournament results over a period of many years. The qualification norms for awarding titles in a tournament are based upon an average of the individual ratings of the participants.

7.2 The tournaments which are taken into the rating system are:

a) All ICCF tournaments except thematic tournaments,
b) principal zonal tournaments, team championships, Master Class, Higher Class and Open class promotion tournaments,
c) all such national tournaments which require a qualification from master class, as well as the final of a national championship, team championship or cup final. Based on an application from the national federation, preliminaries for a national championship may also be included,
d) individual and team tournaments authorised by the ICCF-Congress or Presidium
e) friendly matches between countries.

7.3 Each player who has completed games in the tournaments referred to in 7.2 obtains a rating. This rating will be published only if the player has completed at least 12 games. A rating based on at least 30 completed games is a "fixed" rating.
7.4 The rating calculation procedure would use players' ratings as at the start of a tournament for those players with a published rating in the applicable ratings list. For newer players, FIDE ratings may be used if available, failing which a player would be regarded as having a rating equal to the tournament level.
7.5 A new rating list will be released twice each year, in which the results of games reported during the previous rating period have been calculated. The rating periods are January-June and July-December, respectively. These lists will be released on October 1st and April 1st, respectively, and will be made available on the ICCF website.
7.6 The rating list will contain:

a) the effective date (April-September and October-March, respectively),
b) a list of rated events,
c) the name and federation of each player with at least 12 rated games,
d) the ICCF title held by each player listed,
e) the current rating of each player listed,
f) distinguish marks for inactive players.
7.7 Players who appeared on previous lists but who do not qualify for a rating because they have been inactive are nevertheless considered currently at their most recently published rating. Players will be considered inactive if they do not finish a rateable game in a rating period. Inactive players will continue to be shown for five years after being considered inactive.

8. Titles

8.1
The ICCF awards the following titles:

a) Correspondence Chess World Champion,
b) Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion,
c) Correspondence Chess Grandmaster,
d) Senior International Correspondence Chess Master,
e) International Correspondence Chess Master,
f) Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster,
g) International Correspondence Chess Ladies' Master,
h) International Arbiter of the ICCF

In addition there are classifications according to paragraph 2.1. In team tournaments (e.g. Correspondence Chess Olympiads) substitute players may only acquire title qualifications when not more than 10 moves have been played in the games taken over.

8.2 The title "Correspondence Chess World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Championship Final (Individual). Each World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and he/she retains with this title forever.
8.3 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final (Individual). Each Ladies' World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and she retains with this title forever.
8.4 The title "Correspondence Chess Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the WC final,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the final of the CC Olympiad,
c) those players who gain at least two grandmaster results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.

A Grandmaster title based upon results under c) will not be awarded unless at least five of the players in the tournament(s) have been grandmasters or players with a fixed rating of at least 2600. However, of this five-player quota a maximum of two may be substituted by two SIM players each.
8.5 The title "Senior International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain at least two senior master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games; however one or more international master result over a total maximum of 14 games in an event or events which started or were approved prior to the Daytona 2000 Congress, will count towards a Senior International Master title.
b) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this, a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.
8.6 The title "International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who qualify for the World Championship Final or gain a master result in a ¾-Final (Candidates' tournament),
b) the player who takes first place in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship,
c) the player who takes first place in the ICCF World Cup Tournament Final,
d) those players who gain two or more master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
e) those players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.7 The title of "Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the World Ladies' Championship,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the Final of the Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad,
c) those players who achieve two ore more Ladies' Grandmaster Results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games
d) those players for who their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds majority vote of Congress must be obtained.
8.8 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies Master" in not limited and is awarded to:

a) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final who score at least 60% of the possible points,
b) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad Final who score at least 60% of the possible points on board 1,
c) those players who achieve two or more ladies' master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those lady players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.9 The title "International Arbiter of the ICCF" is not limited in time and will be awarded:

a) for four year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments without a break,
b) for six year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments with a break,
c) if an adequately substantiated application is submitted by a national correspondence chess organisation and the experience and service is proved by work done for international chess tournaments. A two-thirds' majority of the Congress is necessary to approve bestowal of the title.
8.10 Every title holder receives a certificate which is awarded by Congress.
8.11 Post Mortem Titles may only be awarded to players deceased since the previous ICCF Congress.

9. Rules for International Team Tournaments

9.1
International team tournaments must be conducted by a Tournament Director.
9.2 Each team must have a team captain.

9.3 The tournament notices should contain:

a) the name of the organisation which is promoting the tournament,
b) the teams entitled to take part in the tournament and the condition of selection,
c) the conditions for conducting the tournament: the maximum number of teams in the preliminary round groups, the semi-finals and finals, regulations for admission to the next higher round,
d) the number of boards in each team,
e) the number of games to be played at each board,
f) the rules for the substitution of players,
g) the starting date and the intended concluding date of the tournament,
h) the name of the Tournament Director.
9.4 The Tournament Director will maintain contact with the Team Captains. Direct contact with each player is not desirable except when it is unavoidably necessary.
9.5 In the case of disputes the Team Captains should make every effort to come to agreement with each other and only if this fails, to refer the matter to the Tournament Director. However the Tournament Director remains responsible for the conduct and progress of the tournament and may intervene directly if necessary.
9.6 The games will be conducted according to the Tournament and Playing Rules of the ICCF plus the following additional rules:

a) Exceeding the time limit is valid only if it is confirmed by the Tournament Director (if a player agrees that he has exceeded the first time limit, this takes effect only after confirmation by the Tournament Director),
b) If a player stops play, or if the Tournament Director has awarded the first exceeding of time and considers that an orderly continuation of play is threatened (e.g. sickness, special leave beyond the prescribed norm, etc.) the Tournament Director can call upon the Team Captain to replace this player within a prescribed time (at most two months),
c) If a player dies, the Tournament Director will decide whether his games will be adjudicated or whether the Team Captain shall name a substitute player,
d) A month after the start, the Team Captain will ensure that all players have begun play. If a player of a team has not begun play against all opponents within two months after the starting date despite written reminders by his opponents, and his Team Captain has not informed the Tournament Director within this time that a substitute player was placed on the board, then the team will lose the game on that board.
e) The Team Captain may demand all documents from a substituted player. If this is not possible, he has the right to request them (inter alia, the progress of the game) from the opponent team captains. When making such a request, the reason for it must be given.
f) In team tournaments where several teams play over several boards, the allocation of colours will be so arranged that the team which has drawn 1 on board 1 will have white against those teams which have drawn an even number and a change of colour will always alternate in the direction of board and player

10. Players' Eligibility

10.1
A player's Member Federation is normally the federation of his / her country of citizenship or residence.
10.2 When players move country of permanent residence and wish to change federation, they may do this with the mutual consent of the respective federations.

10.3 10.3 When the transfer is approved, the new Member Federation shall notify the ICCF Ratings Commissioner. The player's ICCF Identification Number and ratings history stay with the player regardless of the change in Member Federation.
10.4 A player may appeal to the Arbitration Commission (whose decision would be final) if there is an objection to the transfer.

11. Live display of games

11.1
Provided that it is not stated otherwise in the tournament announcement and/or in the start documents, any player is allowed to publish or submit for publishing on the internet or elsewhere any unfinished games or positions played by him/her under the conditions that:

all his/her games in the tournament are already different from each other,
the game (position) is demonstrated with a delay of at least 3 moves,
the URL of the subject website is given,
the date of the last update is mentioned,
his/her opponents involved, officially agree with the live-publishing of their game and declare this to the Tournament Director.

11.2 The Tournament Director is not expected to check player's private websites regularly. However, if his/her attention is drawn to a violation of this rule by another person, he shall investigate.

11.3 When a player violates this guideline for the first time, then the TD shall not apply any sanctions, but simply order the change of the status of the published game according to this rule.
11.4 When a player violates this rule for a second time in the same tournament, the player shall be penalised by 10 extra days added to his time of reflection in all games of the respective tournament.
11.5 When a player violates this rule for a third time in the same tournament, the player shall be disqualified from this tournament and all his/her remaining unfinished games shall be scored as losses.
11.6 When a player violates this rule repeatedly in various tournaments, the World Tournament Director is authorised to ban this player from ICCF play for 2 years.
11.7 The jurisdiction to deal with appeals concerning violations of this rule is designated to the Appeals Commission (Other ICCF Rules).

0. Overview

0.1
The correspondence chess tournaments of the ICCF are divided into:

a) World Championships ,
b) World Team Championships (Olympiads),
c) Promotion Tournaments,
d) Cup Tournaments,
e) Special Tournaments.
0.2 Normally the entry fee for each tournament will be decided by Congress. Entry to a tournament will be accepted only if it is accompanied by payment of the entry fee to the collection agency designated by the ICCF.
0.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise each player plays one game simultaneously against each of the other players in the tournament or section; the colour will be decided by lot.

1. Title Tournaments

1.0.1
The ICCF Title Tournaments comprise:

a) World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
b) Ladies World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
c) Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for National Teams)
d) Ladies Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for Ladies National Teams)

All entries for the Title Tournaments must be processed via the Member Federations. Direct entries are allowed only in exceptional cases and they will be individually considered by the Title Tournaments Commissioner
1.0.2 The World Championships organised by the ICCF comprise the Semi-Finals, the Candidates' Tournament and the Final.
1.0.3 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments comprise separate sections played normally by post, by Email and by webserver. The qualifications reached in postal tournaments can be used in Email and webserver tournaments and vice versa. However in a specific World Championship sponsored cycle, priority of promotions to the higher stage are given to the qualifiers from that cycle, other qualifiers having the possibility to enter if there are some vacancies.
1.0.4 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments are progressive tournaments. New sections of the World Championship Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments will be started throughout the year, as soon as there is a sufficient number of qualifiers wishing to begin play in the section, using their preferred method of transmission of moves (i.e. post, Email or webserver transmission). All kind of information with regard to the category of the tournament, title norms and promotional provisions will be given in the start documents.
1.0.5 Normally, sections played by post should be finished within 3 years, whereas those using Email and webserver should be concluded within 2 years.
1.0.6 The scheduling of World Championships Finals is the responsibility of the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner, in consultation with Executive Board/ Congress. Announcements of the Finals will be published at the latest 4 months before they start. Entries must be sent to the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner at the latest at the date shown in the announcement of the Tournament. In cases of emergency, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner is entitled to extend the deadline for entries or to shift forward the start of the Tournament.
1.0.7 The division into groups in the Semi-Finals and in the Candidates' Tournaments will be proposed by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board. For information purposes only, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner will publish on the ICCF website an regularly updated overview of all players who have achieved the various qualifications ("Table of Qualifiers").
1.0.8 On special and exceptional occasions, theICCF Executive Board is entitled to announce special tournaments which provide qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments or Finals. The exact conditions of promotions must be fixed in the announcement of the particular Tournament.
1.0.9 The qualifications for the Semi-Finals and for the Candidates' Tournaments reached in accordance with this part of Tournament Rules (paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3) are not limited by time and can be used only once, except for the special qualification provisions based on the World Champion titles, ICCF titles or rating points achieved. From one Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament tournament, it is only possible to reach one qualification for a further World Championship stage. The Ladies Grandmaster and Ladies International Master titles do not entitle their holders to participate in the World Championship Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament.
1.0.10 Unless otherwise specified in the start documents, no ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments and Finals.
1.0.11 The ICCF Executive Board will decide on any application not covered by this regulation.

1.1 Semi-Finals of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.1.1 To enter a Semi-Final, a player must achieve at least one full qualification or two half qualifications.
1.1.2 The following will reach a full qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants in one of the previous or running Finals if they have not earned a higher qualification,
b) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who have scored at least 30% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification,
c) the participants in the previous or running Semi-Finals who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Candidates' Tournament,
d) the winners of ICCF World Tournaments - Master Class groups,
e) the participants in the Final of the latest finished World Cup Tournament who achieved at least 60% of the possible points,
f) the three top finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category below III, the second and third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category III and IV, the third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category V and VI,
g) the holders of the Correspondence Chess International Master title with fixed ratings above 2450,
h) the holders of the Correspondence Chess Senior International Master title,
i) the holders of one Grand Master norm,
j) the players who are entered through their own national organisation. In each calendar year, each member Federation will be allowed to nominate 2 (two) players (quota) for the WCCC Semi-Finals. Additionally, for Federations declaring 200+ members (according to the membership fee statistics) for the previous year, 1 extra Member Federation Nomination (MFN) will be allowed, for Federations declaring 500+ members 2 extra MFN will be allowed, for 1000+ members 3 extra MFN, for 2000+ members 4 extra MFN and for 5000+ members 5 extra MFN.
k) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the Semi-Final in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.

The point 1.1.2 d) will apply to all Master Class Tournaments started after 01/01/2003. To the tournaments started before this date, the old ICCF Rules of Play apply.
1.1.3 The following will reach a half qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) those players who achieve 2nd place in a Master Class group,
b) those players who achieved 1st place in a 7 player Master Class group (old Master Class tournaments).
1.1.4 Normally, a Semi-Final section will consist of 13 participants.

1.2 Candidates' Tournament

1.2.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Candidates' Tournament:

a) the participants of one of the previous or running Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points,
b) the participants in the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Final,
c) the winners and runners-up in every Semi-Final group according to the start lists of the particular Semi-Final tournaments,
d) the winners and runners-up in every acknowledged Zonal Championship according to the paragraph 1.2.2,
e) the first and second placed players in the latest finished World Cup Tournament,
f) all previous World Correspondence Chess Champions,
g) those players who have at least twice fulfilled the Correspondence Chess Grandmaster norm,
h) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the particular section of the Candidates' Tournament in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.
1.2.2 For the qualifications from the acknowledged Zonal Championships according to the paragraph 1.2.1 d, the following rulings will apply

a) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category VII to VIII, the top three finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
b) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category V to VI, the top two finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
c) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category III to IV, only the winner will promote to the Candidates' Tournament.
1.2.3 Normally, the Candidates' Tournament sections will consist of 13 participants.

1.3 Final of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.3.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the last World Champion and his predecessor,
b) the second placed player (runner-up) of the World Championship,
c) the qualified players from the Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) in accordance with the start lists,
d) the top three finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category IX or above.
1.3.2 The Final should consist of 15 participants. Should the number of entered qualifiers exceed these levels, the Title Tournaments Commissioner will determine the number of participants, after a consultation with the ICCF Executive Board.
1.3.3 The Final qualifications could be deferred only three times, except for the former World Champions who would be entitled to enter once in any of the following Finals if they express their interest to participate and request their inclusion one month before the deadline at the latest.
1.3.4 Where vacancies exist for a Final, after all qualifiers wishing to play have been included, then the Executive Board may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Candidates. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up to two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.4 Semi - Finals of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.4.1 The following will be entitled to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants of one of the two previous Finals who have scored at least 30% of the possible points,
b) the participants of one of the two previous Semi-Finals who have scored at least 60% of the possible points,
c) holders of the title International CC Ladies' Master and recognized Ladies' Masters who are entered through the individual national CC federations according to a quota set by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board,
d) those lady players whose most recent published rating prior to the tournament start date, corresponds to a minimum established by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board.
1.4.2 The assignment to the sections will be decided by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board.
1.4.3 Normally, Semi-Final sections will comprise at least 13 players

1.5 Final of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.5.1 The Final will have at least 13 players.
1.5.2 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the top three finishers from the previous Final,
b) the winners and runners-up in each Semi-Final section
1.5.3 No ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Final.
1.5.4 If several players with the right to take part drop out, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Semi-Final. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.6 Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For National Teams

1.6.1 The Correspondence Chess Olympiads will be played separately as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played normally by post will be played in a three-yearly cycle. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played by Email and webserver will be played in a two-yearly cycle.
1.6.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.6.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round. In the tournaments played normally by post, the preliminary round shall not continue longer than three years. In the tournaments played by Email and by webserver, the preliminary round will not continue longer than two years.
1.6.4 Normally, the final round will not consist of more than 13 teams.
1.6.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each. At the discretion of the ICCF Executive Board, combined teams consisting of players from those countries with low levels of correspondence chess activity may be entered.
1.6.6 The first three teams of each final will qualify for the next final round. The qualifications from tournaments played normally by post and from Email tournaments and from webserver tournaments are not interchangeable.
1.6.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details shall be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

1.7 Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For Ladies' National Teams)

1.7.1 The Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiads shall be played as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. The way of transmission of moves will be decided in the announcement.
1.7.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.7.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round
1.7.4 Normally, the final round will consist of not more than 11 teams.
1.7.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each.
1.7.6 The first four teams of the each final will qualify for the next final round.
1.7.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details will be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

2. Promotion Tournaments

2.1
The promotion tournaments will be played in 3 classes:

a) Open class,
b) Higher class,
c) Master class.
2.2 Master class tournaments will consist of 11 player sections. Higher and Open class shall have 7 players per section. All correspondence chess players are eligible to participate. Correspondence chess players from countries which have no national correspondence chess organisation, or those which have organisations not affiliated to the ICCF, will have to pay twice the entry fee; they are not eligible to take part in the World Championship (individual or team).
2.3 Simultaneous participation in promotion tournaments of different classes is not allowed; however simultaneous participation in several promotion tournaments of the same class is allowed.
2.4 Every section winner in promotion tournaments has the right to participate in the next higher class.

2.5 Any player may begin in Open Class as they wish. Entry into the Higher class or into the Master class, if desired, must be accompanied by a statement of qualification made by the appropriate national correspondence chess organisation

3. World Cup Tournaments

3.1
A World Cup tournament will normally be started every second year.
3.2 Each round will be completed in two years.
3.3 Each group will consist of 7-11 players in the preliminary round; 9-13 in the intermediate and 9-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every player of his group simultaneously.
3.4 All groups of the preliminary and of the intermediate rounds start on the same day.
3.5 Only the group winner (ties to be decided by points evaluation) will be promoted to the next round. The group winners of the preliminary round and of the intermediate round win a prize. Prizes will be awarded to half the participants in the final round.
3.6 The winner of the final round has the right to take part in the final round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament without paying any entry fee. Participants in the final round have the right to take part in the intermediate round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament.

4. Special Tournaments

4.1
Special tournaments e.g. Master Norm Tournaments, Memorial tournaments, Thematic tournaments, etc., will be announced separately by the ICCF Executive Board.
4.2 International correspondence chess tournaments by national correspondence chess organisations require the approval of the ICCF Executive Board before their announcement. Invitations to individual players for such authorised tournaments should be made with the permission of the national correspondence chess organisation of which the player in question is a member.

5. Tie Breaking

5.1
If tie-breaking is to be used, the following will apply for two or more players, or two or more teams with the same number of points in tournaments organised by the ICCF:
5.2 Individual tournaments:

a) points evaluation by the Sonneborn-Berger-System,
b) results of the tied players against each other.
5.3 Team Tournaments:

a) tie breaking on the basis of team results (2 additional points for a won match, 1 additional point for a drawn match),
b) the results of the tied teams against each other.
c) better individual result on bd.1 (following bd.2, 3 etc.)
5.4 If necessary, the organiser of the tournament is entitled to set up further tie-breaking procedures. These procedures must be indicated in the start list at the latest.
5.5 If players or teams are still tied after all relevant tie-breaking procedures have been used, the players or teams will be considered equal.

6. Withdrawal

6.1
Players who need to withdraw must forward an application to the Tournament Director giving adequate reasons for the withdrawal. All opponents must be informed of the withdrawal and that the Tournament Director has been notified. A player who withdraws before the start of the tournament and before starting any game will incur no penalties.
6.2 The Tournament Director will accept the following reasons for the withdrawal as adequate:
a) Death
b) Serious and debilitating illness which make it impossible for the player to continue play for a period of at least 3 months.
c) Circumstances outside the control of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months (Wars, civil unrest, natural disasters and other similar circumstances)
d) Personal circumstances of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months. These circumstances may be varied but must be detailed in full at the time of application.
6.3 Approved applications result in the withdrawal of that player from all ICCF-approved events in which they are participating. TD's/TO's will advise the ICCF World Tournament Director, who will maintain a record of all such applications and notify the player's federation and the Ratings Commissioner must also be informed. Players who are subsequently found to have abused the privileges afforded by this Rule will automatically receive a suspension from all ICCF events for a period of 5 years. Players who are granted an "Accepted Withdrawal" may not enter any ICCF event for at least 6 months afterwards. When submitting applications under paragraph. d) players must provide full details of their games to that point. Whenever possible, such details should also be provided for applications under paragraphs. a) - c).
6.4 If the reason for the withdrawal is considered inadequate and not accepted by the Tournament Director, or a second withdrawal according to paragraph 6.3 occurs within a short time, the case will be forwarded to the respective Tournament Office for review, and consultation with the appropriate national federation. If the withdrawal application is confirmed to be inadequate and not accepted, the player will be given the option to continue the games. A player who nevertheless withdraws is considered as a "Not Accepted Withdrawal" in all ICCF-approved events in which he is participating and may not enter any ICCF events for at least 12 months. Additionally, a bond will be paid on entry to the next tournament to be held by the federation initially collecting the entry. This will be at least double the entry fee and will be refunded if the conduct has been regular at the conclusion of the tournament; otherwise, it will be forfeited and the ICCF will receive an amount equal to its portion of the entry fee. The federation will inform the Tournament Office that the player is playing under a performance bond.
6.5 If a player withdraws "silently", i.e. without informing either his opponents or the Tournament Director, he may be penalised by being suspended from tournament entry for two years. When he is re-admitted to the tournaments, he will pay a bond according to paragraph 6.4. A second silent withdrawal will result in a minimum five year suspension.
6.6 A player who pays the bond and concludes a tournament in accordance with the rules, will be exempt from paying further bonds as long as his tournaments are completed normally.

7. Rating Numbers

7.1
It is the sincere wish of the ICCF to award equivalent titles for equivalent achievement. Under the ICCF rating system each player obtains a rating based upon a method of statistical probability, calculated from tournament results over a period of many years. The qualification norms for awarding titles in a tournament are based upon an average of the individual ratings of the participants.

7.2 The tournaments which are taken into the rating system are:

a) All ICCF tournaments except thematic tournaments,
b) principal zonal tournaments, team championships, Master Class, Higher Class and Open class promotion tournaments,
c) all such national tournaments which require a qualification from master class, as well as the final of a national championship, team championship or cup final. Based on an application from the national federation, preliminaries for a national championship may also be included,
d) individual and team tournaments authorised by the ICCF-Congress or Presidium
e) friendly matches between countries.

7.3 Each player who has completed games in the tournaments referred to in 7.2 obtains a rating. This rating will be published only if the player has completed at least 12 games. A rating based on at least 30 completed games is a "fixed" rating.
7.4 The rating calculation procedure would use players' ratings as at the start of a tournament for those players with a published rating in the applicable ratings list. For newer players, FIDE ratings may be used if available, failing which a player would be regarded as having a rating equal to the tournament level.
7.5 A new rating list will be released twice each year, in which the results of games reported during the previous rating period have been calculated. The rating periods are January-June and July-December, respectively. These lists will be released on October 1st and April 1st, respectively, and will be made available on the ICCF website.
7.6 The rating list will contain:

a) the effective date (April-September and October-March, respectively),
b) a list of rated events,
c) the name and federation of each player with at least 12 rated games,
d) the ICCF title held by each player listed,
e) the current rating of each player listed,
f) distinguish marks for inactive players.
7.7 Players who appeared on previous lists but who do not qualify for a rating because they have been inactive are nevertheless considered currently at their most recently published rating. Players will be considered inactive if they do not finish a rateable game in a rating period. Inactive players will continue to be shown for five years after being considered inactive.

8. Titles

8.1
The ICCF awards the following titles:

a) Correspondence Chess World Champion,
b) Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion,
c) Correspondence Chess Grandmaster,
d) Senior International Correspondence Chess Master,
e) International Correspondence Chess Master,
f) Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster,
g) International Correspondence Chess Ladies' Master,
h) International Arbiter of the ICCF

In addition there are classifications according to paragraph 2.1. In team tournaments (e.g. Correspondence Chess Olympiads) substitute players may only acquire title qualifications when not more than 10 moves have been played in the games taken over.

8.2 The title "Correspondence Chess World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Championship Final (Individual). Each World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and he/she retains with this title forever.
8.3 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final (Individual). Each Ladies' World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and she retains with this title forever.
8.4 The title "Correspondence Chess Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the WC final,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the final of the CC Olympiad,
c) those players who gain at least two grandmaster results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.

A Grandmaster title based upon results under c) will not be awarded unless at least five of the players in the tournament(s) have been grandmasters or players with a fixed rating of at least 2600. However, of this five-player quota a maximum of two may be substituted by two SIM players each.
8.5 The title "Senior International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain at least two senior master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games; however one or more international master result over a total maximum of 14 games in an event or events which started or were approved prior to the Daytona 2000 Congress, will count towards a Senior International Master title.
b) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this, a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.
8.6 The title "International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who qualify for the World Championship Final or gain a master result in a ¾-Final (Candidates' tournament),
b) the player who takes first place in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship,
c) the player who takes first place in the ICCF World Cup Tournament Final,
d) those players who gain two or more master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
e) those players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.7 The title of "Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the World Ladies' Championship,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the Final of the Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad,
c) those players who achieve two ore more Ladies' Grandmaster Results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games
d) those players for who their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds majority vote of Congress must be obtained.
8.8 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies Master" in not limited and is awarded to:

a) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final who score at least 60% of the possible points,
b) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad Final who score at least 60% of the possible points on board 1,
c) those players who achieve two or more ladies' master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those lady players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.9 The title "International Arbiter of the ICCF" is not limited in time and will be awarded:

a) for four year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments without a break,
b) for six year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments with a break,
c) if an adequately substantiated application is submitted by a national correspondence chess organisation and the experience and service is proved by work done for international chess tournaments. A two-thirds' majority of the Congress is necessary to approve bestowal of the title.
8.10 Every title holder receives a certificate which is awarded by Congress.
8.11 Post Mortem Titles may only be awarded to players deceased since the previous ICCF Congress.

9. Rules for International Team Tournaments

9.1
International team tournaments must be conducted by a Tournament Director.
9.2 Each team must have a team captain.

9.3 The tournament notices should contain:

a) the name of the organisation which is promoting the tournament,
b) the teams entitled to take part in the tournament and the condition of selection,
c) the conditions for conducting the tournament: the maximum number of teams in the preliminary round groups, the semi-finals and finals, regulations for admission to the next higher round,
d) the number of boards in each team,
e) the number of games to be played at each board,
f) the rules for the substitution of players,
g) the starting date and the intended concluding date of the tournament,
h) the name of the Tournament Director.
9.4 The Tournament Director will maintain contact with the Team Captains. Direct contact with each player is not desirable except when it is unavoidably necessary.
9.5 In the case of disputes the Team Captains should make every effort to come to agreement with each other and only if this fails, to refer the matter to the Tournament Director. However the Tournament Director remains responsible for the conduct and progress of the tournament and may intervene directly if necessary.
9.6 The games will be conducted according to the Tournament and Playing Rules of the ICCF plus the following additional rules:

a) Exceeding the time limit is valid only if it is confirmed by the Tournament Director (if a player agrees that he has exceeded the first time limit, this takes effect only after confirmation by the Tournament Director),
b) If a player stops play, or if the Tournament Director has awarded the first exceeding of time and considers that an orderly continuation of play is threatened (e.g. sickness, special leave beyond the prescribed norm, etc.) the Tournament Director can call upon the Team Captain to replace this player within a prescribed time (at most two months),
c) If a player dies, the Tournament Director will decide whether his games will be adjudicated or whether the Team Captain shall name a substitute player,
d) A month after the start, the Team Captain will ensure that all players have begun play. If a player of a team has not begun play against all opponents within two months after the starting date despite written reminders by his opponents, and his Team Captain has not informed the Tournament Director within this time that a substitute player was placed on the board, then the team will lose the game on that board.
e) The Team Captain may demand all documents from a substituted player. If this is not possible, he has the right to request them (inter alia, the progress of the game) from the opponent team captains. When making such a request, the reason for it must be given.
f) In team tournaments where several teams play over several boards, the allocation of colours will be so arranged that the team which has drawn 1 on board 1 will have white against those teams which have drawn an even number and a change of colour will always alternate in the direction of board and player

10. Players' Eligibility

10.1
A player's Member Federation is normally the federation of his / her country of citizenship or residence.
10.2 When players move country of permanent residence and wish to change federation, they may do this with the mutual consent of the respective federations.

10.3 10.3 When the transfer is approved, the new Member Federation shall notify the ICCF Ratings Commissioner. The player's ICCF Identification Number and ratings history stay with the player regardless of the change in Member Federation.
10.4 A player may appeal to the Arbitration Commission (whose decision would be final) if there is an objection to the transfer.

11. Live display of games

11.1
Provided that it is not stated otherwise in the tournament announcement and/or in the start documents, any player is allowed to publish or submit for publishing on the internet or elsewhere any unfinished games or positions played by him/her under the conditions that:

all his/her games in the tournament are already different from each other,
the game (position) is demonstrated with a delay of at least 3 moves,
the URL of the subject website is given,
the date of the last update is mentioned,
his/her opponents involved, officially agree with the live-publishing of their game and declare this to the Tournament Director.

11.2 The Tournament Director is not expected to check player's private websites regularly. However, if his/her attention is drawn to a violation of this rule by another person, he shall investigate.

11.3 When a player violates this guideline for the first time, then the TD shall not apply any sanctions, but simply order the change of the status of the published game according to this rule.
11.4 When a player violates this rule for a second time in the same tournament, the player shall be penalised by 10 extra days added to his time of reflection in all games of the respective tournament.
11.5 When a player violates this rule for a third time in the same tournament, the player shall be disqualified from this tournament and all his/her remaining unfinished games shall be scored as losses.
11.6 When a player violates this rule repeatedly in various tournaments, the World Tournament Director is authorised to ban this player from ICCF play for 2 years.
11.7 The jurisdiction to deal with appeals concerning violations of this rule is designated to the Appeals Commission (Other ICCF Rules).

0. Overview

0.1
The correspondence chess tournaments of the ICCF are divided into:

a) World Championships ,
b) World Team Championships (Olympiads),
c) Promotion Tournaments,
d) Cup Tournaments,
e) Special Tournaments.
0.2 Normally the entry fee for each tournament will be decided by Congress. Entry to a tournament will be accepted only if it is accompanied by payment of the entry fee to the collection agency designated by the ICCF.
0.3 Unless explicitly stated otherwise each player plays one game simultaneously against each of the other players in the tournament or section; the colour will be decided by lot.

1. Title Tournaments

1.0.1
The ICCF Title Tournaments comprise:

a) World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
b) Ladies World Correspondence Chess Championships (Individual)
c) Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for National Teams)
d) Ladies Correspondence Chess Olympiads (World Championships for Ladies National Teams)

All entries for the Title Tournaments must be processed via the Member Federations. Direct entries are allowed only in exceptional cases and they will be individually considered by the Title Tournaments Commissioner
1.0.2 The World Championships organised by the ICCF comprise the Semi-Finals, the Candidates' Tournament and the Final.
1.0.3 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments comprise separate sections played normally by post, by Email and by webserver. The qualifications reached in postal tournaments can be used in Email and webserver tournaments and vice versa. However in a specific World Championship sponsored cycle, priority of promotions to the higher stage are given to the qualifiers from that cycle, other qualifiers having the possibility to enter if there are some vacancies.
1.0.4 The Semi-Finals and the Candidates' Tournaments are progressive tournaments. New sections of the World Championship Semi-Finals and Candidates' Tournaments will be started throughout the year, as soon as there is a sufficient number of qualifiers wishing to begin play in the section, using their preferred method of transmission of moves (i.e. post, Email or webserver transmission). All kind of information with regard to the category of the tournament, title norms and promotional provisions will be given in the start documents.
1.0.5 Normally, sections played by post should be finished within 3 years, whereas those using Email and webserver should be concluded within 2 years.
1.0.6 The scheduling of World Championships Finals is the responsibility of the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner, in consultation with Executive Board/ Congress. Announcements of the Finals will be published at the latest 4 months before they start. Entries must be sent to the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner at the latest at the date shown in the announcement of the Tournament. In cases of emergency, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner is entitled to extend the deadline for entries or to shift forward the start of the Tournament.
1.0.7 The division into groups in the Semi-Finals and in the Candidates' Tournaments will be proposed by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board. For information purposes only, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner will publish on the ICCF website an regularly updated overview of all players who have achieved the various qualifications ("Table of Qualifiers").
1.0.8 On special and exceptional occasions, theICCF Executive Board is entitled to announce special tournaments which provide qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments or Finals. The exact conditions of promotions must be fixed in the announcement of the particular Tournament.
1.0.9 The qualifications for the Semi-Finals and for the Candidates' Tournaments reached in accordance with this part of Tournament Rules (paragraphs 1.1 to 1.3) are not limited by time and can be used only once, except for the special qualification provisions based on the World Champion titles, ICCF titles or rating points achieved. From one Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament tournament, it is only possible to reach one qualification for a further World Championship stage. The Ladies Grandmaster and Ladies International Master titles do not entitle their holders to participate in the World Championship Semi-Finals or Candidates' Tournament.
1.0.10 Unless otherwise specified in the start documents, no ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Semi-Finals, Candidates' Tournaments and Finals.
1.0.11 The ICCF Executive Board will decide on any application not covered by this regulation.

1.1 Semi-Finals of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.1.1 To enter a Semi-Final, a player must achieve at least one full qualification or two half qualifications.
1.1.2 The following will reach a full qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants in one of the previous or running Finals if they have not earned a higher qualification,
b) the participants in one of the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who have scored at least 30% of the possible points if they have not earned a higher qualification,
c) the participants in the previous or running Semi-Finals who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Candidates' Tournament,
d) the winners of ICCF World Tournaments - Master Class groups,
e) the participants in the Final of the latest finished World Cup Tournament who achieved at least 60% of the possible points,
f) the three top finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category below III, the second and third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category III and IV, the third placed players from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of tournament Category V and VI,
g) the holders of the Correspondence Chess International Master title with fixed ratings above 2450,
h) the holders of the Correspondence Chess Senior International Master title,
i) the holders of one Grand Master norm,
j) the players who are entered through their own national organisation. In each calendar year, each member Federation will be allowed to nominate 2 (two) players (quota) for the WCCC Semi-Finals. Additionally, for Federations declaring 200+ members (according to the membership fee statistics) for the previous year, 1 extra Member Federation Nomination (MFN) will be allowed, for Federations declaring 500+ members 2 extra MFN will be allowed, for 1000+ members 3 extra MFN, for 2000+ members 4 extra MFN and for 5000+ members 5 extra MFN.
k) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the Semi-Final in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.

The point 1.1.2 d) will apply to all Master Class Tournaments started after 01/01/2003. To the tournaments started before this date, the old ICCF Rules of Play apply.
1.1.3 The following will reach a half qualification to enter a Semi-Final:

a) those players who achieve 2nd place in a Master Class group,
b) those players who achieved 1st place in a 7 player Master Class group (old Master Class tournaments).
1.1.4 Normally, a Semi-Final section will consist of 13 participants.

1.2 Candidates' Tournament

1.2.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Candidates' Tournament:

a) the participants of one of the previous or running Finals who scored at least 50% of the possible points,
b) the participants in the previous or running Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) who scored at least 60% of the possible points but did not qualify for the Final,
c) the winners and runners-up in every Semi-Final group according to the start lists of the particular Semi-Final tournaments,
d) the winners and runners-up in every acknowledged Zonal Championship according to the paragraph 1.2.2,
e) the first and second placed players in the latest finished World Cup Tournament,
f) all previous World Correspondence Chess Champions,
g) those players who have at least twice fulfilled the Correspondence Chess Grandmaster norm,
h) those players who have a fixed rating in the most recent rating list prior to the start date of the particular section of the Candidates' Tournament in accordance with the level determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board in the beginning of each calendar year.
1.2.2 For the qualifications from the acknowledged Zonal Championships according to the paragraph 1.2.1 d, the following rulings will apply

a) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category VII to VIII, the top three finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
b) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category V to VI, the top two finishers will promote to the Candidates' Tournament,
c) from all acknowledged Zonal Championships of Category III to IV, only the winner will promote to the Candidates' Tournament.
1.2.3 Normally, the Candidates' Tournament sections will consist of 13 participants.

1.3 Final of the World Correspondence Chess Championship

1.3.1 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the last World Champion and his predecessor,
b) the second placed player (runner-up) of the World Championship,
c) the qualified players from the Candidates' Tournaments (3/4-Finals) in accordance with the start lists,
d) the top three finishers from the acknowledged Zonal Championships of the tournament Category IX or above.
1.3.2 The Final should consist of 15 participants. Should the number of entered qualifiers exceed these levels, the Title Tournaments Commissioner will determine the number of participants, after a consultation with the ICCF Executive Board.
1.3.3 The Final qualifications could be deferred only three times, except for the former World Champions who would be entitled to enter once in any of the following Finals if they express their interest to participate and request their inclusion one month before the deadline at the latest.
1.3.4 Where vacancies exist for a Final, after all qualifiers wishing to play have been included, then the Executive Board may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Candidates. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up to two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.4 Semi - Finals of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.4.1 The following will be entitled to enter a Semi-Final:

a) the participants of one of the two previous Finals who have scored at least 30% of the possible points,
b) the participants of one of the two previous Semi-Finals who have scored at least 60% of the possible points,
c) holders of the title International CC Ladies' Master and recognized Ladies' Masters who are entered through the individual national CC federations according to a quota set by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board,
d) those lady players whose most recent published rating prior to the tournament start date, corresponds to a minimum established by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the ICCF Executive Board.
1.4.2 The assignment to the sections will be decided by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board.
1.4.3 Normally, Semi-Final sections will comprise at least 13 players

1.5 Final of the Ladies World Correspondence Chess World Championship

1.5.1 The Final will have at least 13 players.
1.5.2 The following will be entitled to enter the Final:

a) the top three finishers from the previous Final,
b) the winners and runners-up in each Semi-Final section
1.5.3 No ties are broken when considering qualifications for the Final.
1.5.4 If several players with the right to take part drop out, the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner may admit the next qualified players from the previous Final or Semi-Final. The Executive Board also has the right to grant up two free places on the basis of extraordinary international performance.

1.6 Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For National Teams

1.6.1 The Correspondence Chess Olympiads will be played separately as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played normally by post will be played in a three-yearly cycle. Normally, the Correspondence Chess Olympiads played by Email and webserver will be played in a two-yearly cycle.
1.6.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.6.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round. In the tournaments played normally by post, the preliminary round shall not continue longer than three years. In the tournaments played by Email and by webserver, the preliminary round will not continue longer than two years.
1.6.4 Normally, the final round will not consist of more than 13 teams.
1.6.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each. At the discretion of the ICCF Executive Board, combined teams consisting of players from those countries with low levels of correspondence chess activity may be entered.
1.6.6 The first three teams of each final will qualify for the next final round. The qualifications from tournaments played normally by post and from Email tournaments and from webserver tournaments are not interchangeable.
1.6.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details shall be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

1.7 Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiad (World Championship For Ladies' National Teams)

1.7.1 The Ladies' Correspondence Chess Olympiads shall be played as team tournaments normally played by post, by Email or by webserver. The way of transmission of moves will be decided in the announcement.
1.7.2 The number of players in a team will be set out in the announcement.
1.7.3 The tournaments will consist of a preliminary round and a final round
1.7.4 Normally, the final round will consist of not more than 11 teams.
1.7.5 Those ICCF member countries which have met their financial commitments are entitled to take part with one team each.
1.7.6 The first four teams of the each final will qualify for the next final round.
1.7.7 The right to be promoted from the preliminaries as well as other details will be determined by the ICCF Title Tournaments Commissioner and approved by the Executive Board at the start of the tournament.

2. Promotion Tournaments

2.1
The promotion tournaments will be played in 3 classes:

a) Open class,
b) Higher class,
c) Master class.
2.2 Master class tournaments will consist of 11 player sections. Higher and Open class shall have 7 players per section. All correspondence chess players are eligible to participate. Correspondence chess players from countries which have no national correspondence chess organisation, or those which have organisations not affiliated to the ICCF, will have to pay twice the entry fee; they are not eligible to take part in the World Championship (individual or team).
2.3 Simultaneous participation in promotion tournaments of different classes is not allowed; however simultaneous participation in several promotion tournaments of the same class is allowed.
2.4 Every section winner in promotion tournaments has the right to participate in the next higher class.

2.5 Any player may begin in Open Class as they wish. Entry into the Higher class or into the Master class, if desired, must be accompanied by a statement of qualification made by the appropriate national correspondence chess organisation

3. World Cup Tournaments

3.1
A World Cup tournament will normally be started every second year.
3.2 Each round will be completed in two years.
3.3 Each group will consist of 7-11 players in the preliminary round; 9-13 in the intermediate and 9-15 in the final round. Each player plays one game with every player of his group simultaneously.
3.4 All groups of the preliminary and of the intermediate rounds start on the same day.
3.5 Only the group winner (ties to be decided by points evaluation) will be promoted to the next round. The group winners of the preliminary round and of the intermediate round win a prize. Prizes will be awarded to half the participants in the final round.
3.6 The winner of the final round has the right to take part in the final round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament without paying any entry fee. Participants in the final round have the right to take part in the intermediate round of the next correspondence chess World Cup tournament.

4. Special Tournaments

4.1
Special tournaments e.g. Master Norm Tournaments, Memorial tournaments, Thematic tournaments, etc., will be announced separately by the ICCF Executive Board.
4.2 International correspondence chess tournaments by national correspondence chess organisations require the approval of the ICCF Executive Board before their announcement. Invitations to individual players for such authorised tournaments should be made with the permission of the national correspondence chess organisation of which the player in question is a member.

5. Tie Breaking

5.1
If tie-breaking is to be used, the following will apply for two or more players, or two or more teams with the same number of points in tournaments organised by the ICCF:
5.2 Individual tournaments:

a) points evaluation by the Sonneborn-Berger-System,
b) results of the tied players against each other.
5.3 Team Tournaments:

a) tie breaking on the basis of team results (2 additional points for a won match, 1 additional point for a drawn match),
b) the results of the tied teams against each other.
c) better individual result on bd.1 (following bd.2, 3 etc.)
5.4 If necessary, the organiser of the tournament is entitled to set up further tie-breaking procedures. These procedures must be indicated in the start list at the latest.
5.5 If players or teams are still tied after all relevant tie-breaking procedures have been used, the players or teams will be considered equal.

6. Withdrawal

6.1
Players who need to withdraw must forward an application to the Tournament Director giving adequate reasons for the withdrawal. All opponents must be informed of the withdrawal and that the Tournament Director has been notified. A player who withdraws before the start of the tournament and before starting any game will incur no penalties.
6.2 The Tournament Director will accept the following reasons for the withdrawal as adequate:
a) Death
b) Serious and debilitating illness which make it impossible for the player to continue play for a period of at least 3 months.
c) Circumstances outside the control of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months (Wars, civil unrest, natural disasters and other similar circumstances)
d) Personal circumstances of the player which make it impossible for him to continue play for a period of at least 3 months. These circumstances may be varied but must be detailed in full at the time of application.
6.3 Approved applications result in the withdrawal of that player from all ICCF-approved events in which they are participating. TD's/TO's will advise the ICCF World Tournament Director, who will maintain a record of all such applications and notify the player's federation and the Ratings Commissioner must also be informed. Players who are subsequently found to have abused the privileges afforded by this Rule will automatically receive a suspension from all ICCF events for a period of 5 years. Players who are granted an "Accepted Withdrawal" may not enter any ICCF event for at least 6 months afterwards. When submitting applications under paragraph. d) players must provide full details of their games to that point. Whenever possible, such details should also be provided for applications under paragraphs. a) - c).
6.4 If the reason for the withdrawal is considered inadequate and not accepted by the Tournament Director, or a second withdrawal according to paragraph 6.3 occurs within a short time, the case will be forwarded to the respective Tournament Office for review, and consultation with the appropriate national federation. If the withdrawal application is confirmed to be inadequate and not accepted, the player will be given the option to continue the games. A player who nevertheless withdraws is considered as a "Not Accepted Withdrawal" in all ICCF-approved events in which he is participating and may not enter any ICCF events for at least 12 months. Additionally, a bond will be paid on entry to the next tournament to be held by the federation initially collecting the entry. This will be at least double the entry fee and will be refunded if the conduct has been regular at the conclusion of the tournament; otherwise, it will be forfeited and the ICCF will receive an amount equal to its portion of the entry fee. The federation will inform the Tournament Office that the player is playing under a performance bond.
6.5 If a player withdraws "silently", i.e. without informing either his opponents or the Tournament Director, he may be penalised by being suspended from tournament entry for two years. When he is re-admitted to the tournaments, he will pay a bond according to paragraph 6.4. A second silent withdrawal will result in a minimum five year suspension.
6.6 A player who pays the bond and concludes a tournament in accordance with the rules, will be exempt from paying further bonds as long as his tournaments are completed normally.

7. Rating Numbers

7.1
It is the sincere wish of the ICCF to award equivalent titles for equivalent achievement. Under the ICCF rating system each player obtains a rating based upon a method of statistical probability, calculated from tournament results over a period of many years. The qualification norms for awarding titles in a tournament are based upon an average of the individual ratings of the participants.

7.2 The tournaments which are taken into the rating system are:

a) All ICCF tournaments except thematic tournaments,
b) principal zonal tournaments, team championships, Master Class, Higher Class and Open class promotion tournaments,
c) all such national tournaments which require a qualification from master class, as well as the final of a national championship, team championship or cup final. Based on an application from the national federation, preliminaries for a national championship may also be included,
d) individual and team tournaments authorised by the ICCF-Congress or Presidium
e) friendly matches between countries.

7.3 Each player who has completed games in the tournaments referred to in 7.2 obtains a rating. This rating will be published only if the player has completed at least 12 games. A rating based on at least 30 completed games is a "fixed" rating.
7.4 The rating calculation procedure would use players' ratings as at the start of a tournament for those players with a published rating in the applicable ratings list. For newer players, FIDE ratings may be used if available, failing which a player would be regarded as having a rating equal to the tournament level.
7.5 A new rating list will be released twice each year, in which the results of games reported during the previous rating period have been calculated. The rating periods are January-June and July-December, respectively. These lists will be released on October 1st and April 1st, respectively, and will be made available on the ICCF website.
7.6 The rating list will contain:

a) the effective date (April-September and October-March, respectively),
b) a list of rated events,
c) the name and federation of each player with at least 12 rated games,
d) the ICCF title held by each player listed,
e) the current rating of each player listed,
f) distinguish marks for inactive players.
7.7 Players who appeared on previous lists but who do not qualify for a rating because they have been inactive are nevertheless considered currently at their most recently published rating. Players will be considered inactive if they do not finish a rateable game in a rating period. Inactive players will continue to be shown for five years after being considered inactive.

8. Titles

8.1
The ICCF awards the following titles:

a) Correspondence Chess World Champion,
b) Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion,
c) Correspondence Chess Grandmaster,
d) Senior International Correspondence Chess Master,
e) International Correspondence Chess Master,
f) Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster,
g) International Correspondence Chess Ladies' Master,
h) International Arbiter of the ICCF

In addition there are classifications according to paragraph 2.1. In team tournaments (e.g. Correspondence Chess Olympiads) substitute players may only acquire title qualifications when not more than 10 moves have been played in the games taken over.

8.2 The title "Correspondence Chess World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Championship Final (Individual). Each World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and he/she retains with this title forever.
8.3 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies' World Champion" is awarded to the winner of the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final (Individual). Each Ladies' World Champion should be numbered according to the cycle being played and she retains with this title forever.
8.4 The title "Correspondence Chess Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the WC final,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the final of the CC Olympiad,
c) those players who gain at least two grandmaster results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.

A Grandmaster title based upon results under c) will not be awarded unless at least five of the players in the tournament(s) have been grandmasters or players with a fixed rating of at least 2600. However, of this five-player quota a maximum of two may be substituted by two SIM players each.
8.5 The title "Senior International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain at least two senior master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games; however one or more international master result over a total maximum of 14 games in an event or events which started or were approved prior to the Daytona 2000 Congress, will count towards a Senior International Master title.
b) those players for whom the national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this, a two-third's majority vote of a Congress must be obtained.
8.6 The title "International Correspondence Chess Master" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who qualify for the World Championship Final or gain a master result in a ¾-Final (Candidates' tournament),
b) the player who takes first place in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship,
c) the player who takes first place in the ICCF World Cup Tournament Final,
d) those players who gain two or more master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
e) those players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-third' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.7 The title of "Correspondence Chess Ladies Grandmaster" is not limited in time and is awarded to:

a) those players who gain places 1-3 in the World Ladies' Championship,
b) the player who has the best result on board 1 in the Final of the Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad,
c) those players who achieve two ore more Ladies' Grandmaster Results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games
d) those players for who their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds majority vote of Congress must be obtained.
8.8 The title "Correspondence Chess Ladies Master" in not limited and is awarded to:

a) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Championship Final who score at least 60% of the possible points,
b) those players in the World Correspondence Chess Ladies' Olympiad Final who score at least 60% of the possible points on board 1,
c) those players who achieve two or more ladies' master results in international title tournaments with a total of at least 24 games,
d) those lady players for whom their national federation makes an appropriately qualified application. For this a two-thirds' majority vote of the Congress must be obtained.
8.9 The title "International Arbiter of the ICCF" is not limited in time and will be awarded:

a) for four year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments without a break,
b) for six year's successful work as Tournament Director of the ICCF promotion and/or title tournaments with a break,
c) if an adequately substantiated application is submitted by a national correspondence chess organisation and the experience and service is proved by work done for international chess tournaments. A two-thirds' majority of the Congress is necessary to approve bestowal of the title.
8.10 Every title holder receives a certificate which is awarded by Congress.
8.11 Post Mortem Titles may only be awarded to players deceased since the previous ICCF Congress.

9. Rules for International Team Tournaments

9.1
International team tournaments must be conducted by a Tournament Director.
9.2 Each team must have a team captain.

9.3 The tournament notices should contain:

a) the name of the organisation which is promoting the tournament,
b) the teams entitled to take part in the tournament and the condition of selection,
c) the conditions for conducting the tournament: the maximum number of teams in the preliminary round groups, the semi-finals and finals, regulations for admission to the next higher round,
d) the number of boards in each team,
e) the number of games to be played at each board,
f) the rules for the substitution of players,
g) the starting date and the intended concluding date of the tournament,
h) the name of the Tournament Director.
9.4 The Tournament Director will maintain contact with the Team Captains. Direct contact with each player is not desirable except when it is unavoidably necessary.
9.5 In the case of disputes the Team Captains should make every effort to come to agreement with each other and only if this fails, to refer the matter to the Tournament Director. However the Tournament Director remains responsible for the conduct and progress of the tournament and may intervene directly if necessary.
9.6 The games will be conducted according to the Tournament and Playing Rules of the ICCF plus the following additional rules:

a) Exceeding the time limit is valid only if it is confirmed by the Tournament Director (if a player agrees that he has exceeded the first time limit, this takes effect only after confirmation by the Tournament Director),
b) If a player stops play, or if the Tournament Director has awarded the first exceeding of time and considers that an orderly continuation of play is threatened (e.g. sickness, special leave beyond the prescribed norm, etc.) the Tournament Director can call upon the Team Captain to replace this player within a prescribed time (at most two months),
c) If a player dies, the Tournament Director will decide whether his games will be adjudicated or whether the Team Captain shall name a substitute player,
d) A month after the start, the Team Captain will ensure that all players have begun play. If a player of a team has not begun play against all opponents within two months after the starting date despite written reminders by his opponents, and his Team Captain has not informed the Tournament Director within this time that a substitute player was placed on the board, then the team will lose the game on that board.
e) The Team Captain may demand all documents from a substituted player. If this is not possible, he has the right to request them (inter alia, the progress of the game) from the opponent team captains. When making such a request, the reason for it must be given.
f) In team tournaments where several teams play over several boards, the allocation of colours will be so arranged that the team which has drawn 1 on board 1 will have white against those teams which have drawn an even number and a change of colour will always alternate in the direction of board and player

10. Players' Eligibility

10.1
A player's Member Federation is normally the federation of his / her country of citizenship or residence.
10.2 When players move country of permanent residence and wish to change federation, they may do this with the mutual consent of the respective federations.

10.3 10.3 When the transfer is approved, the new Member Federation shall notify the ICCF Ratings Commissioner. The player's ICCF Identification Number and ratings history stay with the player regardless of the change in Member Federation.
10.4 A player may appeal to the Arbitration Commission (whose decision would be final) if there is an objection to the transfer.

11. Live display of games

11.1
Provided that it is not stated otherwise in the tournament announcement and/or in the start documents, any player is allowed to publish or submit for publishing on the internet or elsewhere any unfinished games or positions played by him/her under the conditions that:

all his/her games in the tournament are already different from each other,
the game (position) is demonstrated with a delay of at least 3 moves,
the URL of the subject website is given,
the date of the last update is mentioned,
his/her opponents involved, officially agree with the live-publishing of their game and declare this to the Tournament Director.

11.2 The Tournament Director is not expected to check player's private websites regularly. However, if his/her attention is drawn to a violation of this rule by another person, he shall investigate.

11.3 When a player violates this guideline for the first time, then the TD shall not apply any sanctions, but simply order the change of the status of the published game according to this rule.
11.4 When a player violates this rule for a second time in the same tournament, the player shall be penalised by 10 extra days added to his time of reflection in all games of the respective tournament.
11.5 When a player violates this rule for a third time in the same tournament, the player shall be disqualified from this tournament and all his/her remaining unfinished games shall be scored as losses.
11.6 When a player violates this rule repeatedly in various tournaments, the World Tournament Director is authorised to ban this player from ICCF play for 2 years.
11.7 The jurisdiction to deal with appeals concerning violations of this rule is designated to the Appeals Commission (Other ICCF Rules).

These Rules were adopted by the ICCF Congress Mumbai 2004

PROGRESSIVE CHESS

2004-11-26T22:50:00.001Z

BUG HOUSE CHESS

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FAIRY CHESS

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LIVING CHESS

2004-11-26T22:49:00.000Z

SIMULTANEUOS

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OTHER CHESS DERIVATIVES

2004-11-26T09:00:00.000Z

UPON THE ROSICRUCIAN RITUAL OF THE RELATION
BETWEEN CHESS AND TAROT

By

G.H. FRATER S.R.M.D.

The modern game of Chess is derived from the scheme which follows; whence its name chess, from chequers. And like Tarot, originally the chess pieces were anciently small figures of the Egyptian Gods presenting the operation of the Divine Forces in Nature.

The chess pieces correspond to the Tarot Aces and Honours, thus, for the Chessmen, Tarot card, and Element:

King - Ace - Spirit - Sun

Queen - Queen - Water - Moon

Knight - King - Fire - Mars

Bishop - Knight - Air - ?

Rook or Castle - Knave - Earth - ?

Pawn - Venus & ?

Pawns, the potencies of the Ace combined with each of the other forces, the servant or viceroy of that force.

The pawns can only move one square at a time, and not two at the first move as in modern chess. The moves of the other pieces excepting the Queen are the same as those of modern chess. The move of the Queen in this scheme is unlike that of any piece in modern chess, for she controls only the 3rd square, from herself, in any direction - perpendicularly, horizontally, or diagonally, and can leap over any intervening piece. From which it results that she can check or control only 16 out of the 64 squares, including the one on which she stands, and these squares to which she can move are all of her own colour. Each elemental set of pieces then consists of: King, Queen, Knight, Bishop, Rook, and four pawns.

OFFICIAL RITUAL

The Correct Application of the Action of the Moveable Images Representing the Motion of The Ruling Angels Over the Servient Squares is Called The Plays or Raying of the Chequers of The Tablets.

Of the Chess King and the Tarot Ace.

The move of this piece is one square every way, and answereth to the action of the Spirit wherever it goeth, commencing and initiating a fresh current. Whence represented by the motion of only one square in any direction and there staying for this purpose before moving onward. So that his action is not hurried, but represents a balanced movement. Yet in his beginning of action is he at first a mute force, and throned upon the water; as in the end of his action he is a life manifested and throned upon the earth. And herein is a mystery of the Lord Aeshoori when enthroned between Isis and Nephthys, thus representing the beginning and end of the action of him in whom end and beginning are not, but rather concealment and then manifestation. Herein is a great mystery of life, for His Thrones are not in the two active elements, seeing that these are his horse and chariot of transition in the passage from concealment unto manifestation. This piece, then, is the symbolizer of the action of the potencies of the crosses on the Servient Squares.

Of the Chess Knight, the Tarot King.

The move of this piece is three squares cornerwise every way and representeth the leaping motion of the flickering flame. Wherefore also is he not stopped in his course by a piece or an intervening square, even as Fire seizing on a matter speedily rendereth it transparent. This piece representeth the action of Fire as the Revealer of the strength of the Spirit, even as Hoor is the avenger of Aeshoori. It is a force potent and terrible, the King in the elemental operations.

Thus is opened the locked doors of matter and sheweth forth the treasure hidden therein. Therefore hath all life its beginnings in a Fire Celestial. And the number of squares covered by the move of the King in the midst of the Board (reckoning from the Square on which he standeth, but not including it) is 16 squares of which 8 are checked, and 8 are passed over.

Of the Chess Queen, the Tarot Queen.

The move of this piece is unto every third square from her (reckoning the square whereon she standeth as the first) as well cornerwise, as well perpendicular, as horizontal. Thus again covering 16 squares out of a square of 25 squares, of which 8 are threatened, and 8 are passed over. But she threateneth not a piece upon the intervening square of her move. And her movement is as that of the waves of the sea, and (like the Knight) she is not hindered in her motion by a piece on an intervening square. This piece representeth the undulating action of water and of the sea, and she is ascribed unto the Great Goddess Isis, who is the Cherisher of Life.

The Chess Bishop or Fool, the Tarot Knight.

The move of this piece is any number of squares cornerwise in any direction even unto the limits of the Tablet. He representeth the keen and swift wind, and he is ascribed unto Aroueris the God. He is stopped by any piece in his way, even as the wind is stopped by a material barrier. He representeth the swift vehicle of the Spirit.

The Chess Castle or Rook, the Tarot Knave.

The move of this piece representeth the ponderous and formidable force of earth and its motion is any number of squares in a square direction, perpendicular or horizontal (but not cornerwise) even unto the limits of the boards.

It is ascribed unto Nephthys the Goddess. It representeth the completed action of the Spirit in matter, therefore is its movement square, and also stopped by intervening pieces, yet powerful from the length and breadth of its range.

The Pawns.

The four pawns represent certain forces formed by the conjunction of the Spirit with each of the four elements severally, and they are severally ascribed unto Ameshet, Ahephi, Tmoumathph, and Kabexnuv, who stand before the face of Aeshoori. And their movement is but one square forward, perpendicular, and they threaten one square forward diagonal on each side, thus formulatmg the symbol of the Triangle, for they each represent a mixture of three elements under the presidency of the Spirit. Therefore, each is as it were the servant of the God or Goddess, before whom he standeth yet they be all in a manner alike in action, although their Lords be different and each is the servant of the God or Goddess whose element is expressed in his symbol, without its contrary.

For in each set of 3 elements, taken together, two are contrary. Wherefore Ameshet (Water, Fire, Earth) is the servant of Nephthys, whose element Earth is expressed in his attribution without the contrary of Air.

Ahepi (Air, Fire, Water) equals Aroueris.

Tmoumathph (Water, Air, Earth) equals Isis.

Kabexnuv (Fire, Air, Water) equals Hoor.

Below is a further description of the Chess pieces. The pertinent element will be described in bold type, followed by the chess name, title and description.

Air

King, Socharis, Hawk with Osiris head dress.

Knight, Seb, Human head; Goose.

Bishop, Shu, Human head with feather.

Queen, Knousou, Goddess, human with vase.

Castle, Tharpesht, Lioness head with disc.

Water

King, Osiris, God with double crown - three weapons over chest.

Knight, Sebek, Crocodile headed.

Bishop, Hapimon, Fat God with water plants.

Queen, Thouerist, Hippopotamus’ body crocodile head.

Castle, Shu, Cow head, disc horns.

Fire

King, Kneph, Ram-headed God, crowned.

Knight, Ra, Hawk disc.

Bishop, Toum, Human head, double crown.

Queen, Sati-Ashtoreth, Goddess.

Castle, Anouke, Goddess with crown.

Earth

King, Aeshoori, Mummied God, crook, scourge, Phoenix wand, whinged mitre.

Knight, Hoori, Hawk’s head. Double mitre.

Bishop, Aroueris, Human, double mitre.

Queen, Isis, Throne head dress.

Castle, Nephthys, Altar head dress.

What follows is a description of the pawns.

Knight’s Pawn

Kabexnuv, Mummy, hawk’s head.

Bishop’s Pawn

Ahephi, Mummy, ape’s head.

Queen’s Pawn

Tmoumathph, Mummy, dog’s head.

Castle’s Pawn

Ameshet, Mummy, human head.

What follows is a description of the chessmen with their Tarot, Element and Hebrew letter attribution.

King

Ace, Spirit, Shin.

Queen

Queen, Water, Heh.

Knight

King, Fire, Yod.

Bishop

Knight, Air, Vau.

Rook

Knave, Earth, Heh (f).

Differences from normal chess moves:

The pawns move one square only. No taking en passant.

No castling.

The Queen controls 3rd square in any straight line, counting square on which she stands as 1, and may jump over pieces.

AWAKENING OF THE ABODES

Four Players, two against two.

Partners. Fire, Air - Water, Earth.

The First player is the Querent. The first player chooses angle and sets the pieces in order of the Kerubic line, other players follow the first player’s setting.

The corner square always has King in addition to other pieces. Both Kings must be checkmated. A pawn on the 8th square becomes the piece of which it isthe vice-regent.

PTAH

The Ptah used for divination - set by first player on any square in his own Lesser Angle the King to reach and remain on the square of Ptah for one round of game undisturbed and unchecked.

The pieces should (if four players) be coloured Red, Black, Blue and Yellow.

THE BOARDS

The Four Boards of the Rosicrucian game, although different, nevertheless agree in certain particulars. In each board it is convenient to speak of the arrangement of the Lesser Angles as an Upper and Lower Rank - Air and Water forming the Upper Rank, and Earth and Fire the Lower.

It is evident that the columns of the one rank are continuous with those of the other; and in this continuity a certain regular rule is observable. Every column of eight squares in the Upper Rank is continued below by a column of the opposite Element.

Thus the Fiery columns invariably stand on the Watery columns below; the Watery on the Fiery; the Airy on the Earthy; and the Earthy on the Airy.

A different arrangement of the Ranks of Squares is observable, and a difference is seen in this in the Upper and Lower Tablets.

In the Upper Tablets the Kerubic Rank of squares is continuous with the Elemental Rank; and the Cardinal is continuous with the common sign Rank, whereas in the Lower Tablets the various Ranks - Kerubic, Cardinal, etc., are continuous right across the boards.

The diagonal lines or Bishop’s move present pecularities. Every Lesser Angle throughout the Tablets has a diagonal line of four squares starting from its prime square; which are allotted respectively to Aries, Gemini, Scorpio and Earth (the non Osiris Squares). From these four squares the Bishops can move one square into a square of Libra, Sagittarius, Taurus or Water, these completing the series of squares in that Lesser Angle in which a Bishop can move. Let us call this the Aries System of diagonal squares.

This diagonal is crossed by another which in the Airy and Watery boards is composed of Cancer, Leo, Virgo and Air Squares, having as subsidiaries, squares of Aquarius, Pisces, Capricorn and Fire. In the Earthy and Fiery board the second series of four form the diagonal, and the first the subsidiaries. Let us call this the Cancer series.

If we now examine the Boards we shall see that the Aries system of any Lesser Angle is joined diagonally to the Aries system of the other three Lesser Angles; and that the Cancer also is similarly joined to every other Cancer system. So that we have two systems of squares; the Aries and the Cancer; of the whole, each containing four squares allotted to every sign it contains. This resembles the black and white systems of squares of the ordinary board; and it is as if we allotted the White to Aries, and the Black to Cancer.

PLACING THE MEN

The yellow and red men are so placed that they advance to the attack of the black and the blue respectively by the columns; while the latter advance by the ranks. That is, the actives are shown as a vertical force, while the passives are shown as operating horizontally. Shewing the Cross of life, corresponding to the forces of the Court Cards and the Zodiacal Trumps.

The central squares of the board contain the 16 signs that are allotted to each Lesser Angle. And it is only from these 16 squares that the pieces - except the Rook and the King develop their full influence or defensive force.

The Watery and Airy Boards are counterparts of each other, so far as the arrangement of the signs, etc., of the squares are concerned. And the same is true as regards the Earth and Water Boards. Every Board has its uppermost and lowermost ranks of the passive or female element; and its two central ranks are of the active or male element.

The most striking difference between the Air and Water, and the Earth and Fire boards is in the fact that in the former the ranks are broken; whereas in the latter they are not only continuous across each board, but they are continuous right across both boards when in situ. To this is due the greater balance and eveness seen in the play of the pieces in the lower boards.

The Aries and Cancer systems are composed respectively of naturally allied pairs of Signs.

The Aries System consists of Aries, Gemini, Scorpio and Earth, the non-Osiris Squares and Taurus and Water, Libra and Sagittarius, two natural pairs.

The Cancer system consists of Cancer, Leo; Virgo, Air; Capricorn, Fire; Pisces and Aquarius, for natural pairs.

EARTH of FIRE setting. EARTH Prime Player.

Showing the Queens of Prime Player and his Ally governing all the Squares of the Aries System.

Blue - Watery Queen’s move.

Brown - Earthy Queen’s move.

THE QUEEN

The four Queens, the Watery portion of their respective Elements govern between them every Square of every board. But a Queen can never check another Queen for the following reasons.

Each of these pieces govern 16 Squares on the board, four in each Lesser Angle; and they are so placed as to divide the 64 squares equally between them.

It follows, therefore, that there is only one of them that can check the Ptah square.

The 16 squares governed by any Queen are allotted to eight Signs, two Squares of each Sign to every Queen. And the remaining two squares of the same 8 Signs are governed by the friendly Queen.

And the other pair of Queens govern the 32 other Squares similarly. The Queen of the Prime Player always governs the Water, Earth, Taurus, and Scorpio squares of its own lesser Angle, and also of the Lesser Angle of the same rank.

In each of the other two Lesser Angles the Queen of the Prime Player governs the Sagittarius, Gemini, Libra, and Aries squares.

The allied Queen governs the same squares in the opposite ranks of the Lesser Angles. Thus the Prime Player’s Queen and his ally together govern the Aries system of squares.

And this is equally true of every Board.

Showing the variation against an active Prime Player.

Blue - Watery Queen’s move.

Brown - Earthy Queen’s move.

Green - Airy Queen’s move.

Red - Fiery Queen’s move.

Showing the opposing Queens governing all the Squares of the Cancer System, against a passive prime player.

Fire - Prime Player.

The opposing Queens govern the squares of the Cancer System in a similar manner. But there is a slight variation dependent on the position of the Prime Player. They together govern the Cancer system.

If Water or Earth be the Prime Player, the opposing Queens govern the Air, Fire, Leo and Aquarius squares in their own lesser Angles and in the others of the same rank; while in the other rank they govern Virgo, Pisces, Cancer and Capricorn squares.

If Air or Fire be the Prime Player these two sets of squares are reversed.

The Queen of the Prime Player, and, therefore, of the attacked Lesser Angle, invariably governs therein the passive Kerubic and Elemental squares.

The attacking Queens govern and have for their bases, when active Elements attack - the active Kerubic and Elemental squares.

When passive elements attack, the passive Cardinal and Common Sign squares.

The allied Queen, supporting the defence, has for base the squares corresponding to those of the Prime Player, the passive Kerubic and Elemental squares.

It also falls out that no Passive Queen can, under any circumstances of Board or setting, check an active Kerubic, Cardinal; Common or Elemental square in her own rank of Lesser Angles, nor a similar passive square in the other rank.

It is to be seen that there are certain Signs whereon the Queens are strong and others whereon they are weak.

In defence the Queens, or Watery Forces of each Element, are strong in the Water, Earth, Scorpio and Taurus squares of their respective domains. But in attacking the vulnerable points of the hostile domain depends on which Elements are in operation.

If Water be the Prime Player, and hence the point of attack, the Watery Queen can deliver a strong counter attack on Water, Earth, Scorpio and Taurus of yellow (being in the same rank), and on Aries, Gemini, Sagittarius and Libra of red. While the friendly Water of Earth delivers attack on Aries, Gemini, Sagittarius, and Libra of yellow and Water, Earth, Scorpio, and Taurus of Red.

The Aries System then offers the strong points for the Airy portion of an Elemental Force in defence; and the Cancer System in offence.

The Watery Forces of the Elements never oppose one another, nor clash in their action. Each undulates onwards unaffected by and unaffecting the undulations of the others. Each Queen will swamp opposing force only when that force encroaches on the domain of the particular Queen.

Every Queen has to fear the attack of the opposing Airy forces. But as the latter develop force as the matter proceeds towards ultimation, the Queen when protected is not likely to be destroyed by an opposing and threatening Bishop. The same is true as regards the hostile Knight’s attack.

This rule of play is generally sound except in the case of a Queen that can check the Ptah Square; which ability greatly enhances her value.

THE BISHOP

The Bishops of Partners always govern the same set of squares; and the Bishops of the opposing sides govern opposite sets of squares. These sets are the same as those before mentioned as the Aries and Cancer Systems.

The Bishops of the Prime Player and his ally always govern the Cancer system; and those of the opponent always act in the Aries System.

Hence if the Ptah square be of the Aries system, the airy parts of the opposing forces have great power; but if it be of the Cancer System the opposing aerial forces are impotent in direct attack, and can only be operative secondarily. It follows, too, that the Bishops and Queens are great opponents, since the Bishops operate over the same system as their opposing Queens. The Queens can only touch 16 squares, while the Bishop can touch 32, giving the latter a great superiority in this respect. But the Queen must be considered the equal of the Bishop from the power she possesses to hop over an intervening piece, which would arrest the approach of the Bishop.

And further, the Watery piece is not hampered by the pawns in opening, whereas the Bishop as a rule cannot act at all until at least one pawn has been moved.

THE KNIGHT

The Knights can all reach every square on the Boards, and, therefore, operate over both the Aries and Cancer Systems.

The Knight moves from one of these Systems into the other every time he is played. If he starts on a square of the Aries, his first, third and fifth, etc., moves will bring him on to squares of the Cancer System. And in his first, third or fifth moves he can get to any Cancer system square on the board.

His second, fourth and sixth moves will equally bring him to any Aries System square. There appears to be only one square on the board that requires six moves to reach That is, if the Knight be in one of the corner squares he cannot cross the board diagonally into the opposite corner square in less than six moves.

This results in some peculiarities as shown in the diagrams on the following pages:

AIRY AND WATERY BOARDS

The various Signs can be moved as follows:

In the Aries System
In the Cancer System

Knight Can Move
Knight Can Move

On to Sagittarius 24 times
On to Pisces 23 times

On to Aries 23 times
On to Cancer 22 times

On to Libra 23 times
On to Capricorn 22 times

On to Gemini 22 times
On to Leo 21 times

On to Water 20 times
On to Virgo 21 times

On to Scorpio 19 times
On to Air 21 times

On to Earth 19 times
On to Water 20 times

On to Taurus 18 times
On to Aquarius 18 times

EARTHY AND FIERY BOARDS

The various Signs can be moved as follows:

In the Aries System
In the Cancer System

Knight can Move
Knight can Move

On to Sagittarius 23 times
On to Virgo 23 times

On to Libra 23 times
On to Cancer 22 times

On to Aries 22 times
On to Capricorn 22 times

On to Gemini 22 times
On to Pisces 22 times

On to Scorpio 20 times
On to Leo 20 times

On to Earth 20 times
On to Aquarius 20 times

On to Water 19 times
On to Fire 20 times

On to Taurus 19 times
On to Air 19 times

The Knight when placed in the corner square can only move to 2 others.

The Knight when placed in two adjacent squares can only move to 3 others.

The Knight when placed in any other outside square can only move to 4 others.

The Knight when placed in the corner square of the second row can only move to 4 others.

The Knight when placed in any other second row square can only move to six others.

But in the central 16 its full power is developed and it can move to eight others. This gives the possible moves of a Knight as 336.

There is a curious difference between the details of these 336 moves in the upper and lower Ranks of Tablets.

The Air Board will be identical with the Watery.

The Earthy Board will be identical with the Fiery.

It will be seen by the annexed table that the squares of certain signs are more often attacked by the Knight than others; for instance in the first column it is shown that the four Sagittarius squares in the Air and Watery Boards are attackable from no less that 24 squares: while the four Taurus squares are only attackable from 18 squares.

When playing from the 16 central squares, each Knight governs 8 squares. These 8 squares, however, are not promiscuously arranged, but follow one rule in the Air and Watery boards, and another in the Earth and Fire.

In the former the 8 squares are allotted always to 6 signs, 2 of which are moved to twice.

Thus from the Earth square of the Water Tablet, the Knight moves to the following Squares: Virgo, Leo, Capricorn 2, Cancer 2, Pisces, Aquarius, duplicating Capricorn and Cancer, and missing Fire and Air of the Cancer System.

Or again from the Aries square, the Knight moves to Pisces, Aquarius, Air 2, Capricorn 2, Virgo and Leo, duplicating Air and Capricorn, and missing Fire and Cancer.

But in the Earth and Fire Boards it is different. There the Knight only moves to squares of 5 signs of its system, triplicating 1, duplicating 1, and missing three.

Thus from the Earth square the Knight moves to: Pisces 2, Capricorn, Cancer 3, Leo, and Aquarius; triplicating Cancer, duplicating Pisces, missing Fire, Air, and Virgo.

And from the Aries Square: Aquarius 2, Pisces, Virgo 3, and Air, Fire; triplicating Virgo, duplicating Aquarius, missing Cancer,Capricorn, and Leo.

Green shows the Knight’s moves from the Earth square of the central Sixteen. Crimson shows move from Aries Square.

Green as before.

Crimson as before.

From the central 16 squares an attack is made on the Cardinal and Common Signs 10 times each; but on the Kerubic and Elemental Squares 6 times each. This is true of every board, and the reason is to be found in the position of the ranks; which in every case are disposed so that the uppermost and lowermost ranks are Kerubic and Elemental, while the two central ranks are Cardinal and Common. The same reason will explain the peculiarities of the curious difference between the columns “No. of times the Sign is duplicated,” “triplicated,” and “missed.”

This analysis of the moves from the 16 central squares seems to show a certain steadiness in the Earth and Fire Tablets, and is less seen in the Water and Air.

The same increase of steadiness is shown in the tablet at the foot of the diagrams on the Boards.

In Air and Water the extreme numbers are 24 and 18.

In Earth and Fire the extreme numbers are 23 and 19.

The moves of the Knight referred in a similar way to the remaining 48 squares show the same point, a greater steadiness in the Earth and Fire boards than in the Water and Air. And this difference is seen in the outer row and not in the inner one.

The 28 outside squares are attacked by 96 possible moves.

The 20 next squares are attacked by 112 possible moves.

The 16 central squares are attacked by 128 possible moves.

The Knights or Fiery forces of the Elements meet and clash violently in all parts, and are strong in attack against everything and everywhere. Their moves, like Fire pass unarrested through the other elements in irregular courses like the lambent flame, leaping both diagonally and square-wise at every move. They contain the potential forces of the other pieces. Their force is similar to the Tarot King, and to Chokmah. They are the ABBA forces, and with the Queens represent the Briatic forces of the scheme.

The Queens or Watery forces of the Elements never clash with one another, but ever undulate onwards each in its own course unaffected by opposing or crossing waves. But the Watery forces only move in their respective pre-ordained courses; they cannot leave their limits and enter upon the domain of others. Water, like Fire, is unarrested and undulating, and like Air and Earth it can act diagonally or square-wise containing the potential force of Air and Earth. They are the Queen of the Tarot, and Binah. They are the AIMAH, and are of Briah.

The Bishops are subtle and sharp, moving rapidly, but are easily arrested in their course. They clash not with opposing Bishops, and friendly Airs support each other in attack and defence; where the active Airs whirl the passive cannot come. They are the forces of the Knights, and of Yetzirah, the SON.

The Rooks are the heavy resisting powers of the Knave, mighty indeed in action when preceded by the action of the other three. That is, when in any matter the forces of Fire, Water, and Air have been absorbed and equilibriated, i.e., removed from the board, the mighty powers of the Castles come into play. But woe to him who too early calls these ponderous forces forth.

THE ROOK

This piece moves through columns as through ranks. He is able, therefore, to reach every square on the board, and is very powerful. But his movement is very ponderous, and it is a piece that is not moved many times in a game unless the forces of the other Elements have been absorbed in its working out. While the Aleph, Mem, and Shin forces are in full operation the Rook is easily attacked and with difficulty defended, unless he remain quiet, and act as a firm basis of support and defence to the side. If he however, make the mistake of entering early into action he is nearly sure to fall a prey to the more subtle forces whose proper sphere is attack.

If the more subtle forces do not bring about a solution of the question, and the matter has to be fought out to the bitter end, that is, if the Yetziratic and Briatic forces are absorbed and balanced in the matter, then do the ponderous forces of Assiah, the Knave, engage in powerful combat.

THE KINGS

The Kings of Water and Earth stand in squares of the Aries System. The Kings of Air and Fire stand in squares of the Cancer System.

If Water or Earth be the Prime player the opposing Bishops attack the squares on which they stand. If Air or Fire be the Prime Player they do not.

The King is the Ace, and the King of the Prime Player being the piece on whose action that of all the forces depends, it is this King that, at every move he makes, causes a new whirl to be set up in the other forces.

NOTES CONCERNING THE PLAY.

See to which system the Ptah square belongs. Because if it be a square of the Aries system the attack of the opposing Queens is insignificant, while that of the Bishops is strong. In such a case the number of pieces is 6; 2 Bishops, 2 Knights and 2 Rooks. That is, in these matters the Airy attack is strong, and the Watery weak.

If the Ptah be on a square of the Cancer System, one opposing Queen directly attacks this Square, but the Bishops do not. In this case the number of attacking pieces is 5; one Queen, 2 Knights, and 2 Rooks. That is, in these matters the Airy attack is insignificant, while the Watery is strong.

If an opposing Queen can attack the Ptah, the defence should note well which Queen it is and should remember that this fact greatly enhances her power. He should thereupon not hesitate to exchange what might otherwise be considered a more powerful piece for her. She should certainly be exchanged for a Bishop, and probably also for a Knight.

THE ARIES SYSTEM OF TRUMPS

Aries - Emperor.
The Chief Among the Mighty.

Taurus - Hierophant.
Magus of the Eternal Gods.

Gemini - Lovers.
Oracles of the Mighty Gods.

Libra - Justice.
Holder of the Balance.

Scorpio - Death.
Child of the Great Transformer.

Sagittarius - Temperance.
Daughter of the Reconciler.

Saturn - Universe.
Great One of the Night of Time.

Water - Hanged Man.
Spirit of the Mighty Waters.

THE CANCER SYSTEM OF TRUMPS

Cancer - Chariot.
Child of the Powers of the Waters.

Leo - Strength.
Daughter of the Flaming Sword.

Virgo - Prudence.
Prophet of the Gods.

Capricorn - Devil.
Lord of the Gates of Matter.

Aquarius - Star.
Daughter of the Firmament.

Pisces - Moon.
Ruler of the Flux and Reflux.

Fire - Judgment.
Spirit of the Primal Fire.

Air - Fool.
Spirit of Ether.

The YHVH order of the pieces corresponds with their respective offensive and defensive powers, thus:

Most offensive - Knight.

More offensive - Queen, than defensive.

More defensive - Bishop, than offensive.

The Rook, most defensive, i.e., in a general sense. Because every piece assumes both roles according to circumstances.