The Rook's Bailey

It's time to announce GameSquad's fourth annual chess tournament! If you've ever wanted to try your hand at the Royal Game, now is your chance! Our tournament is a friendly & leisurely affair that features a good mix of players that will allow all skill levels - from rank beginners to expert players - to have a good time.

This year's tourney will be a bit different in that it will be a Chess960 tourney. Chess960 - aka Fischer Random ...

I realized something interesting recently: even though I have played my fair share of computer role playing games, I rarely blog about them. Oh sure, occasionally I will have a post about how RPG X has really impressed me with some facet of its gameplay, but rarely do I find myself drawn into an ongoing narrative as I have been wont to do with other genres. This is strange when you stop and think about it. I mean, RPGs by definition are designed to weave an engaging story that should be readily tailored into not just a single blog posting, but multiple

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"For whan this kyng Evylmerodach sawe this playe, and the barons, knyghtes and gentilmen of his court playe wyth the phylosopher, he merveylled gretly of the beaulté and noveltee of the playe and desired to playe agaynst the philosopher....Than the phylosopher began to teche hym and to shewe hym the maner of the table of the chesse borde and the chesse meyne, and also the maners and the condycions of a kyng, of the nobles, and of the comyn peple, and of theyr offyces, and how they shold be touchyd and drawen, and how he shold amende hymself ...

“A recorded game of chess is a story in symbols, relating in cipher the struggle of two intellects; a story with a real plot, a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which the harmonies of time and place are scrupulously observed; the fickleness of fortune is illustrated; the smiles of the prosperous, the struggles of adversity, the change that comes over the two; the plans suggested by one, spoiled by the tactics of the other - the lures, the wiles, the fierce onset, the final victory. An hour's history of two minds is well told in a game of chess.” –

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This is pretty cool. In an interview with SF Weekly, George R. R. Martin explains how there is a bit of chess in his epic fantasy series:

The title of the first book, A Game of Thrones, made me think of a chess board when I heard it back in 1996. Did chess have an influence on the series?

The game of chess has had a huge influence on my life. I made my living through chess for a couple of years in the early '70s -- not playing it, but running chess tournaments. I was a tournament director during the whole big chess boom that

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