Speaking of my friend Sandi; for Christmas she taught me the true origin of the game of chess by giving me this:
It is a Dragon Chess set. Now apart from being beautifully ornate and an excellent strategy game, it is something else as well. Not many people are aware of it, however this game is based on an actual battle that took place way back in Medieval times, back when dragons used to roam the Earth. The majority of historians believe that humans used dragons to fight in their petty squabbles. If you really think about it though, how could a puny human ever make a mighty dragon do his bidding. Dragons did not care at all for the land disputes of humans. They would never even recognize the human kings due to the fact that, to a dragon, a human life barely lasts for the blink of an eye. On a few occasions, though, dragons recruited humans to assist in their mighty battles.
These Great Wyrms would gather on a vast field (roughly the size of the three Canadian Prairie Provinces) and would engage in a complex battle of skill and strategy. These skirmishes would usually last two human generations. The men that were recruited would train their eldest sons to take up their positions when they became too old. The two king dragons would direct all of the movements of their individual armies on a grid. The engagement would last until a sufficient number of one kings defenders had been removed so as to allow the opposing king’s troops to corner him. The cornered king would concede defeat and the battle would end. The winning king would rule the land for a thousand years and the losing king would hibernate for that time. The humans were rewarded with their own weight in treasure (which was of course a mere pittance of a dragon’s horde). Then everybody would just go about their usual routine until the next match.
The study of these battles by the learned sages lead eventually to the formation of the game of Chess (which is an Anglo-Saxon word meaning, “strategic battle”). The game lives on though the true origin of chess is almost completely forgotten.
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5 responses so far ↓
1 Canucklehead // Jan 15, 2008 at 7:26 am
This is a wonderfully complete and accurate post on the true origins of chess. You forgot only about the drunken clergy men that would stagger diagonally across the landscape blessing people and of course, the specially trained horses that would take one step sideways for every two steps froward in order to confound the dragons. (Dragons problems with spatial vision was well-written about at the time.) Anyway, I digress - it is nice to see your blog is finally educating on top of entertaining. Nobel cause and good on you.
2 Ernie // Jan 15, 2008 at 8:39 am
It was an abridged version. The full story can be downloaded from my head…for a price.
3 Speedy Cash Payday Loans // Jul 21, 2008 at 12:04 pm
This is really cool. I might do a paper on this for school. Thanks.
4 connor from UB Funkeys // Aug 5, 2008 at 6:22 pm
I hope this is a joke.
connor’s last blog post..U.B. Funkeys - Wasabi
5 Tim Ebl // Aug 5, 2008 at 7:32 pm
No, Dragons really did roam the Earth in medieval times. I’m surprised you never heard of this before, connor!
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