I liked chess but did not have the dedication to learn all the gambits and opening series of moves. Even now, I do like thinking of what is likely to appear or develop. But if something is nearly certain, my attitude has always been why not just get there fast – or even start from there. Get rid of the obvious.
I spotted this in the window of the Irish Cancer Shop on Castle Street a while back. I was in the shop the week after the window sale. It had been sold. I wonder would I have purchased or was I just curious as to price.
I think I played it only twice – finding a willing referee among 11 year-olds was not that easy as I remember.
The window display in the shop brought it all back. Wikipedia advises that I was actually playing Kriegspiel – one of the very many variations of chess. That there was such an extent of variations was completely new to me, forty years after being introduced to one.
Blind Chess (or Blindfold Chess) is yet another variation, which is actually chess played in the mind, without seeing any board or pieces. It brought back again that scene in ‘A Midnight Clear’ where a game of bridge among four has been written by a fifth on separate pieces of cardboard and that keeping them occupied for such a time – when five to ten minutes is the norm.
I like to think that I have a good memory and also an interest in things new to me but I suspect that Blindfold Chess will remain unplayed in this lifetime.
As for three-handed chess, as well as two other players, I will need to find a board.