Human chess

Last updated
A game of human chess at Palace Square, Leningrad, Soviet Union (1924) Dvorcovaja1924.jpg
A game of human chess at Palace Square, Leningrad, Soviet Union (1924)
A game of human chess in Monselice, Italy. Monselice z18.JPG
A game of human chess in Monselice, Italy.
A game of body painted human chess at the World Bodypainting Festival in Portschach am Worthersee, Carinthia, Austria. Body painted chess 4.jpg
A game of body painted human chess at the World Bodypainting Festival in Pörtschach am Wörthersee, Carinthia, Austria.

Human chess, living chess or live chess is a form of chess in which people take the place of pieces. The game is typically played outdoors, either on a large chessboard or on the ground, and is often played at Renaissance fairs.

Contents

In Vietnam, human chess is one of the folk games that take place during folk festivals of in general and the Northern Delta in particular, especially during the Lunar New Year of the nation.

Forms

Many human chess games are choreographed stage shows performed by actors trained in stage combat. When this is the case, piece captures are represented by choreographed fights that determine whether the piece is actually taken or not. Alternatively, the pieces may spar, following rules similar to those used by the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Instances

A costumed human chess game has been staged every two years on the second week in September in the Italian city of Marostica, near Venice, since 1923. The game commemorates a legendary chess game played in 1454 by two young knights in order to settle which of them would court the lady that both had fallen in love with. The event lasts 3 days. The participants of the game dress in historic clothes. The human chess game has strict rules which have been set by a specific committee. The performance lasts 30 minutes. [1]

Human shogi Tendo Ningen Shogi.jpg
Human shogi

In terms of the Japanese game of shogi, an annual festival in Tendō, Yamagata held every late April has an event called Ningen Shōgi (人間将棋), where people involved alongside large shogi pieces with stands are dressed in Sengoku period costumes. [2] Tendō and Marostica have been sister cities since 1993.

In xiangqi, human chess is a tradition in Vietnam, where it is called cờ người, and is a feature at many Vietnamese village and temple festivals. [3]

Fictional representations

Human chess is a theme in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871). [4]

The E.R. Burroughs pulp novel The Chessmen of Mars depicts an ordeal called Jetan, which is a Martian variant of chess in which the pieces are all human captives, and captures in the game are replaced by fights to the death between them.

In the TV program Land of the Giants "Deadly Pawn" (se.2, ep.4), an insane chess master uses the little people as live chess pieces; if they can't escape, they are either turned over to the SIDE, or killed.

The book and movie Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone features a game of Wizard's chess with magically animated human-sized pieces. The characters Harry, Ron, and Hermione take the place of three of the pieces.

An episode of the TV series Hunters featured a game of human chess, staged as having been played at a concentration camp during WWII. The Auschwitz Museum criticized the episode, since no such game ever actually took place. [5]

Episode "Checkmate" of The Prisoner features the protagonist in such a chess match.

The section "Chess" in the horror movie Tales of the Unusual features a human chess game in which the main protagonist is forced to play. Those human chess pieces who are eliminated in the game seem to be killed; at the end it revealeds that all the killings and deaths were faked.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shogi</span> Japanese strategy board game

Shogi, also known as Japanese chess, is a strategy board game for two players. It is one of the most popular board games in Japan and is in the same family of games as Western chess, chaturanga, xiangqi, Indian chess, and janggi. Shōgi means general's board game.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosplay</span> Type of performance art

Cosplay, a blend word of "costume play", is an activity and performance art in which participants called cosplayers wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character. Cosplayers often interact to create a subculture, and a broader use of the term "cosplay" applies to any costumed role-playing in venues apart from the stage. Any entity that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Favorite sources include anime, cartoons, comic books, manga, television series, rock music performances, video games and in some cases, original characters. The term heen adopted as a slang, often in a critical context in politics, pretending to play a role or take on a personality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shogi variant</span> Games based on, or similar to, shogi

A shogi variant is a game related to or derived from shogi. Many shogi variants have been developed over the centuries, ranging from some of the largest chess-type games ever played to some of the smallest. A few of these variants are still regularly played, though none are as popular as shogi itself.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tendō, Yamagata</span> City in Tōhoku, Japan

Tendō is a city located in Yamagata Prefecture, Japan. As of 1 February 2020, the city had an estimated population of 61,947 in 22392 households, and a population density of 550 persons per km2. The total area of the city is 113.01 square kilometres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Promotion (chess)</span> Chess rule

In chess, promotion is the replacement of a pawn with a new piece when the pawn is moved to its last rank. The player replaces the pawn immediately with a queen, rook, bishop, or knight of the same color. The new piece does not have to be a previously captured piece. Promotion is mandatory when moving to the last rank; the pawn cannot remain as a pawn.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of chess</span>

The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Persia, where it was modified in terms of shapes and rules and developed into Shatranj. Following the Arab invasion and conquest of Persia, chess was taken up by the Muslim world and subsequently spread to Europe via Spain and Italy. The game evolved roughly into its current form by about 1500 CE.

Navia Dratp is a collectible miniatures game with similarities to shogi, the Japanese equivalent of chess. See also chess variants for similar games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marostica</span> Comune in Veneto, Italy

Marostica, is a town and comune in the province of Vicenza, Veneto, northern Italy. It is mostly famous for its live chess event and for the local cherry variety.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Otakuthon</span> Anime convention in Quebec, Canada

Otakuthon is a Canadian anime convention promoting Japanese animation (anime), Japanese graphic novels (manga), related gaming and Japanese pop-culture. It is held annually for 3 days in downtown Montreal during a weekend in August. It is a non-profit, fan-run anime convention that was initiated by Concordia University's anime club, named Otaku Anime of Concordia University. The name "Otakuthon" is a portmanteau of the Japanese word "otaku" and "marathon". Otakuthon strives to be a bilingual event, having programming, the masquerade and the program book in both official languages. The first edition of Otakuthon was held in 2006 in mid-June, but later moved to early-mid August / late July from 2007 onward. The most recent edition, Otakuthon 2024, was held on August 2-4, 2024 at the Palais des congrès de Montréal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess in the arts</span>

Chess became a source of inspiration in the arts in literature soon after the spread of the game to the Arab World and Europe in the Middle Ages. The earliest works of art centered on the game are miniatures in medieval manuscripts, as well as poems, which were often created with the purpose of describing the rules. After chess gained popularity in the 15th and 16th centuries, many works of art related to the game were created. One of the best-known, Marco Girolamo Vida's poem Scacchia ludus, written in 1527, made such an impression on the readers that it singlehandedly inspired other authors to create poems about chess.

<i>Shion no Ō</i> Japanese manga series

Shion no Ō, subtitled The Flowers of Hard Blood, is a Japanese manga series written by Masaru Katori and illustrated by Jiro Ando. It is published by Kodansha in the seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon, and is collected in eight bound volumes. It has been adapted as a twenty-two episode anime television series by Studio Deen, which aired in Japan between October 2007 and March 2008. A video game for the Nintendo DS was released on April 10, 2008, by Mainichi Communications.

The World Cosplay Summit is an annual international cosplay event, which promotes global interaction through Japanese pop culture. It developed from a cosplay exhibition held at the Aichi Expo in 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zillions of Games</span> General game playing software

Zillions of Games is a commercial general game playing system developed by Jeff Mallett and Mark Lefler in 1998. The game rules are specified with S-expressions, Zillions rule language. It was designed to handle mostly abstract strategy board games or puzzles. After parsing the rules of the game, the system's artificial intelligence can automatically play one or more players. It treats puzzles as solitaire games and its AI can be used to solve them.

<i>Human Crossing</i> Japanese manga series

Human Crossing, originally titled Human Scramble, is a Japanese manga written by Masao Yajima and illustrated by Kenshi Hirokane. The manga is about a series of unrelated stories of people's life and their lessons in life. Human Crossing received the 1985 Shogakukan Manga Award for the General category.

Cosplay Mania is an annual cosplay-centered convention organized by Cosplay.ph. It is usually held in the fourth quarter of the year in the Philippines. The convention features various events related to cosplay, anime, and J-pop culture which features rookie and veteran cosplayers and cosplay enthusiasts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alodia Gosiengfiao</span> Filipino cosplayer (born 1988)

Alodía Almira Arraiza Gosiengfiao-Quimbo is a Filipino cosplayer, model, TV presenter, singer, vlogger, actress and co-founder of Tier One Entertainment. She is also known as Senpai Alodia of the Philippines. As a celebrity endorser, she is one of the ambassadors and VJ for Animax Asia known as the "Ani-mates" and co-host of ABS-CBN's prank show Laugh Out Loud. She has been featured in various magazines, newspapers and TV shows locally and abroad. She appeared on the Filipino FHM 100 Sexiest Women poll, ranking No. 1 in 2009, No. 2 in 2010 and No. 3 in 2012; she posed as the cover girl for that magazine on its July 2013 issue. She was named by DOS Magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in the Philippines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of chess</span> Strategy board game

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chess:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monokuma</span> Identity in the Danganronpa franchise

Monokuma is a fictional identity adopted by several characters in the Danganronpa series, serving as the mascot and central antagonist of the series. Monokuma first appears in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc as a disguise used by Junko Enoshima during her killing game in the fictional school of Hope's Peak Academy. Monokuma was created by scenario writer Kazutaka Kodaka and designed by Rui Komatsuzaki. The identity is used primarily as a disguise for the masterminds of each game to conceal their identities while overseeing and organizing killing games, and as such has been voiced by several actors. The character has often appeared in popular culture since its inception, spawning a series of action figures and merchandise. Nobuyo Ōyama and TARAKO voice Monokuma in Japanese, while Brian Beacock provides his voice for the English versions of the games and Greg Ayres provides his voice for the English dub of Danganronpa: The Animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chess variant</span> Games related to, derived from or inspired by chess

A chess variant is a game related to, derived from, or inspired by chess. Such variants can differ from chess in many different ways.

References

  1. WhereMilan. "The Human Chess Game in Marostica - September 2018 [Less than 250Km from Milan]". Where Milan. Archived from the original on 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  2. "Tendo Ningen Shogi".
  3. "Human chess (Co nguoi), a funny traditional game - Vietnam Tourism Information".
  4. Stamp, Jimmy (17 April 2013). "The 64 square grid design of Through the Looking Glass". Smithsonian Magazine . Retrieved 19 March 2020.
  5. "Amazon drama Hunters criticized by Auschwitz Memorial Museum". EW.com. Entertainment Weekly. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 3 March 2020.