How can we be so bored?
Our opponents we have gored,
Clocks, calendars ignored,
And focused on the board.
There little pieces compete
In a game, like life, complete
With no chance at all to cheat
For victory or defeat.
Deciding to play chess
Is more than simple guess.
It's dalying no less
With the kiss of death's caress.
From the Rubaiyat, by Omar Khayyam
XLIX
But helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.
chess has a thousand combinations just like words...
If I would not endeavor,
upon the black and white
With hope to some day conquer,
and end up being right
Perhaps I would stop wondering,
what plan to use in fight
And ‘stead decide to save my soul,
and quickly take to flight
Beyond the rigid Sixteen
on squares of three-score and four
Are the shades of gray between
in shapes and colors galore.
Nations often lead by fools
that too quickly rush to war
Where passions obey no rules -
so sons, not pawns, litter the floor
© Writch 2009
For now, I think JCharles & IJReilly's contributions stay truest to the spirit of the thread's title: A call to use a meta-reference to chess to temporarily escape chess.
1Chessman's only makes me want to get back into the game - a very short break indeed!
Well, 1chessman, I'll accept the charge of "neither being in the spirit of the thread", but I don't beleive its fair to say "anything to do with chess."
I hope you realize that my comment was in good will and not mean-spirited. I also can tell that you are a fair-minded indiviual and if I just show you where those references are, you may change your verdict.
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Beyond the rigid Sixteen |
“rigid Sixteen” pieces on the chess board with same shape and role each game; |
|
Are the shades of gray between |
“shades of gray” - the issues in the Real World (beyond the board) are not as easy as black-and white like chess; “shapes and colors galore” - |
|
Nations often lead by fools |
Okay, now compare the ‘mock-war’ of polite chess between 2 people against the chaotic destruction of ‘real-war’ |
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Where passions obey no rules - |
Chess has rules – war does not (not really enforceable) – especially when emotions run high; |
I wrote this after watching coverage of the conflict in Gaza (we won't go into that here - that's for another forum).
I apologize, 1chessman: It must have been the unfortunate order of my comments that made it sound like I excluded your poem from the intended spirit of the thread. After re-reading my informal "vote", I could see how you thought how you did.
But in defense of my "counter spirit" (to all readers, not just 1chessman), I have to say that just as often as we sometimes need to stop and look up from our boards for a while, we also need to then look around us to see what is happening in the wider world while we have escaped to our sheltered virtual world here. Some of us do, some of us don't.
White and Black, Black and White
You are white and I am black
But our world is not as stark
as white or dark
as black.
I am the white
Your black is poised to fight
In chess, yet men of all colors unite
And move over squares to our delight.