So I love chess and variants like shogi and xiangqi and such. But in searching the internets i have found that some of the lesser known chess's played in countries like mongolia and burma witch are shatar and sittuyin respectivaly. are disapering in favor of western or international chess. Why do you think this is?
Will there be only one chess in 50 years?
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Interestingly, Bughouse actually has tournaments.
I'd like to think that may actually stick around in 50 years.
anyone else?
Jan 8, 2010
0
#4
I think it's part of a general trend of homogenization of world culture. A game like Shatar exists probably because a Mongol learned the rules of Chess (or Shatranj) some time ago, but got it wrong. He taught it that way to his tribe or his kids, and a new variant was born. Maybe he didn't get it wrong, but he just decided it would be better if he made a slight change to the rules. His descendants didn't know it was different than the "regular" game that they played in Persia or wherever it had been originally learned.
Today, a person interested in games in Mongolia can learn Shatar, but he can also buy a book or computer program on Chess. If he learns Shatar, he can play against a few locals. If he learns Chess, he can play against the world. Even more so, if he leaves his local region, and only knows Shatar, he can't find anyone to play.
This phenomenon isn't limited to Chess. The very languages of the people who play these regional variants are threatened by the same phenomenon. Local dialects and entire languages are disappearing, at least from day to day use, as people learn English or the dominant language in their part of the world, because people can't engage in commerce using the language that is known only in a few villages near where he was born.
I don't think these other variants will completely disappear. They are recorded and will be preserved by people interested in foreign cultures, and even more so as a point of national pride by descendants of those individuals as a way of keeping some memory of the ancestral culture alive.
For what it's worth, I actually plan on getting in a game or two of Tamerlane's Chess tomorrow. For all I know, it may have been 600 years since the last OTB tournament of that variant, but the rules are there, and we are playing it tomorrow. (At this event: http://gamesinmichigan.com/12night )
Coz there can be only one. There isn't enough room in my head for more games. I don't have the patience or the interest. Nothing beats Chess anyway so why bother?
I hope I never live to see the day where someone manages to successfully change the rules to 'International' Chess. I don't see it happening but clearly it's happened in the past.
