MARK RUBERY CHESS

Three-dimensional chess appears in numerous episodes of Star Trek and is obviously the most popular form of the game in the 24th century. In a number of Star Trek episodes, Kirk and Spock can be seen playing a three dimensional chess variant together. Being three-dimensional and unusual in design, it leaves the impression that it is a game requiring even greater skill and intelligence than Chess. The board consisted of three 4x4 layers and four more 2x2 areas for a total of 64 squares- although the set used in Star Trek was a prop with no particular rules behind it. Somewhat earlier Kiseritzsky showed an early variant of the game to Anderssen at the first ever-major tournament that took place in London in 1851. The form of the game that was proposed by the German Ferdinand Maack was somewhat more complicated version than the one played by Mr Spock and Captain Jean Luc Picard. He proposed eight 8x8 boards one above another and orthodox pieces whose moves were extended to three dimensions.. The array follows the pattern of normal chess with White’s pieces on the lowest tier from Aa1 to Ah8 and Black’s on the top tier from Ha8 to Hh8 and the pawns place above and below the white and black pieces respectively. This game was launched into the chess world from the Frankfurter Zeitung in 1907 and generated at least two books on the subject. When Fischer Random becomes too predictable perhaps this variant of the game will boldly take players to where they have never been before…

And very loosely on the same subject here is a piece from Robert Grudin, an American writer and philosopher primarily concerned with the implications of human liberty.

‘Chess, which exists predominantly in two dimensions, is one of the world’s most difficult games. Three-dimensional chess is an invitation to insanity. But human relationships, even of the simplest order, are like a kind of four-dimensional chess, a game whose pieces and positions change subtly and inexorably between moves, whose players stare dumbly while their powerful positions deteriorate into hopeless predicaments and while improbable combinations suddenly become inevitable. To make matters worse, some games are open to any number of players, and all sides are expected to win.’

WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN

It’s sad, misleading, and grossly unfair that Spassky is best known as the guy who lost to Fischer. There was so much more to the man and the player. He simply had the misfortune to be mayor of Tokyo when Godzilla rose from the sea. – Kelly Atkins