Why are they so crazy?

You would think that people who play chess are capable of thoughtful consideration and some logic before acting because that is what the game of chess requires. Yet at my chess club I have seen that some people there seem to enjoy damaging the chess sets at the club. Our club is  within a public library and anyone who wants to play chess can walk in and sit down and start playing, no fees, no forms to fill out, no hassle at all. I have noticed that some of the sets have been damaged. In some of the sets the cross on the King's crown has been cut off and on others one of the turrets on the rooks has been cut off. I have noticed that the turret that was cut off was cut neatly and cleanly so it wasn't just done by some crazy kid with a pocket knife. The library is in a "black hat" Orthodox Jewish community and there are fanatics among them so I can understand a disturbed person cutting off the cross, just as there are disturbed fanatical Christians who sometimes spray paint disturbing symbols on Jewish property. But why would somebody take the time and trouble to desicrate rook?  

Maybe they're upset with gentrification and newcomers coming in?  Wasn't it enough for them that Bloomberg got rid of a bike path because God forbid people not meet their crazy standard of "modesty"?  At least at night they illegally painted the bike trail back. 

I'm not saying that the "black hats" did it since there are other people who use the library and play chess there. There are high schools and colleges in the area that have students of all ethnicities and they use the library. Also various other people live in the area served by the library, Arabs, Russians, black people and so forth.  The cross on the King was entirely cut off. I'm sure if it were a Star of David there would have been a very loud protest. But the thing that puzzles me is that some of the sets have one of the turrets of the rooks cut off. One of the sets is a wooden set and it was very cleanly cut and as someone who has some familiarity with tools, it seems to me that to get such a clean cut on such a small object someoneone would have to know what he was doing. And why cut it off in the first place? Since the Rook was originally an elephant maybe it was cut off by a disgruntled Hindu?

Immaturity perhaps?

+1, are there any kids there?

Maybe they wanted the turret for something.

I know it sounds funny and you can laugh at it if you like but it is a mystery to me, sort of like the mutilation of the animal bodies that some say was done by space aliens for some mysterious reasons. The desecraton of the cross however reprehensible is understandable given the mentality of certain people. But why cut off the battlement of rooks? The top of a rook has four battlements as you may know. In several of the chess sets in our club one of the four battlement was cut off. I was playing chess today and the set I was using was a brand new wood set. One of the battlements was cut off the white rook and one off the black rook. It was a tournament size rook and the part cut off was fairly small, yet it was neatly cut off. It seems to me that to make a neat cut like that one would have to use a jewler's saw. Many of the "black hats" are employed in the jewelry industry so maybe one of them did it. But the question remains, why?  

Was "jewlers" a Freudian slip? And why hasn´t El Quaida put in an appearance yet?

To answer some of the questions: This is a public library and there are children of all ages there. "Jewler's saw" was not a Freudian slip, just a slight misspelling, correct spelling "jeweler's saw." It is used for precision cutting by hobbyists and of course jewelers. The chess pieces and boards are kept in a large plastic box near the information desk so anyone can access them at any time. I don't know about Al Quaida, there are Arabs and Moslems in the neighborhood but they all seem very nice and friendly, at least the ones I've spoken with.  

Plastic and wooden oieces cannot be broken just by throwing them against a wall. These pieces were deliberately cut, probably by a "black hat." I was wondering if there is anything in their religion that requires chess pieces to be cut since we all know what else they like to cut. I have read the entire Old Testament and of course there is nothing there about chess but there may be something in the Talmud that relates to this. The Talmud dates to the 8th century AD and is a book filled with similar ridiculous nonsense. They consider the Talmud to be more important than the Old Testament which is why they walk around in funny costumes and make fools of themselves.     

English not being my mother language, I had to use some dictionaries to express my thoughts after reading the above 17 posts.

Astonishment, surprise, amazement, astounding, stupendous...(you choose).

I absolutely don't want to offend or insult some writer, but for me, this is unbelievable, incredible, writing about people this way.

Yes, a lot of chess pieces are damaged, perhaps only one American in that town has the same sets at home and works up a piece and exchanges it after playing chess in the library.

But please keep belief and origin far from such unimportance, thanks !

I don't care if it's outta style but i am so ROFL right now.

chess_gg wrote:

>>Astonishment, surprise, amazement, astounding, stupendous...(you choose).

If so, in such a banal thread, I can't imagine what you'd feel upon seeing a naked woman.

What is ROFL ?

I still say they wanted to use the turret and cross for something else they are making.

Suggest you check out this website:

http://brothernathanaelfoundation.org/

What if I told you there where different styles of chess sets?

Trackin'.

I am not Brother Nathanael if that's what u r asking. If I were I wouldn't be wasting my time with idiots like u, Id be counting my money.

The club is the Midwood Chess Club located withing the Midwood Library, a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The chess sets in question were donated by the man who started the club. I don't know if he is aware of this particular problem. He comes to the club from time to time and I sometimes see him. He is a very nice person and from time to time he buys new sets. The reason I posted here was because one of the new sets was cut up in the described manner and I could not understand why. I could bring my own set but why bother if there are sets available for us to play with at the library. 

Cutting off the cross in some of the sets is an act of religious bigotry which is reprehensible. Cutting off battlements on rooks I do not understand!

lol.