Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Re: gli scacchi sono un gioco tranquillo

 :-(
Nella dama si mangia anche di piï¿œ.
Il nostro presidente regionale Renzo Tondo ï¿œ appassionato
giocatore e campione di non so cosa.
E. A. Poe in uno dei racconti di Dupin sostiene che la dama
richiede maggior capacitï¿œ riflessive degli scacchi:
ï¿œThe faculty of re-solution is possibly much invigorated by
mathematical study, and especially by that highest branch of it
which, unjustly, and merely on account of its retrograde
operations, has been called, as if par excellence, analysis.
Yet to calculate is not in itself to analyse. A chess-player,
for example, does the one without effort at the other. It
follows that the game of chess, in its effects upon mental
character, is greatly misunderstood. I am not now writing a
treatise, but simply prefacing a somewhat peculiar narrative by
observations very much at random; I will, therefore, take
occasion to assert that the higher powers of the reflective
intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the
unostentatious game of draughts than by a the elaborate
frivolity of chess. In this latter, where the pieces have
different and bizarre motions, with various and variable
values, what is only complex is mistaken (a not unusual error)
for what is profound. The attention is here called powerfully
into play. If it flag for an instant, an oversight is committed
resulting in injury or defeat. The possible moves being not
only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are
multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more
concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers.
In draughts, on the contrary, where the moves are unique and
have but little variation, the probabilities of inadvertence
are diminished, and the mere attention being left comparatively
unemployed, what advantages are obtained by either party are
obtained by superior acumen. To be less abstract? Let us suppose
a game of draughts where the pieces are reduced to four kings,
and where, of course, no oversight is to be expected. It is
obvious that here the victory can be decided (the players being
at all equal) only by some recherchï¿œ movement, the result of
some strong exertion of the intellect. Deprived of ordinary
resources, the analyst throws himself into the spirit of his
opponent, identifies himself therewith, and not unfrequently
sees thus, at a glance, the sole methods (sometime indeed
absurdly simple ones) by which he may seduce into error or
hurry into miscalculation.ï¿œ
THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE 
-- 
ï¿œï¿œï¿œ
 O 

 different rules?
Draws are very common in chess too.
(Do you remember the world wide chess-fever when Fisher and
Spassky fought that endless World Championship in Reykjavik?)
I've read in an old book, regarding draughts when played on an
8x8 board, that opening moves should be drawn by lot to avoid
players always use the same opening amongst the 49 possible.
There are many kinds of draughts, italians used to play on a
board 8x8 having the white corner at left, and men on black
squares.
There are also: English draughts, the Spanish draughts, turkish
draughts etc.
For what I know today's international draughts uses a 10x10
board with 15 men each side.
According to my old dict the words chequers/checkers are used in 
the USA for the game of draughts.
Interesting that in Italian "pedina" (man) and "dama" (king) are
feminine names.
p.s. what do readers think of Poe's prose?
I see a lot of long words, many French words, long sentences.
