Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday Puzzle
Today Sunday's puzzle is, Four-Handed Chess:
Why?
Never going to be as good as the real thing, is it?
But . . . perhaps I judge too soon. The above chess set was owned by Captain George Hope Verney who invented in the Victorian era a particular form of Four Handed chess, whereby the players sat opposite each other team up to try to mate the other team's kings, and it indeed gained some popularity. In fact, says the link above, Verney formed a club for four-handed chess in London in 1883/4, "which was inaugurated October 13, 1885 with 80 members. The club existed till the second World War, i.e., it existed more than half a century!"
Fancy a game? Well, a set itself might set you back a bit. The one pictured above was located by Richard T. here at the website of auctioneers Gorringes, who recently auctioned it with an estimate of £500-800.
Finally, thanks to Richard for the tip-off.
Why?Never going to be as good as the real thing, is it?
But . . . perhaps I judge too soon. The above chess set was owned by Captain George Hope Verney who invented in the Victorian era a particular form of Four Handed chess, whereby the players sat opposite each other team up to try to mate the other team's kings, and it indeed gained some popularity. In fact, says the link above, Verney formed a club for four-handed chess in London in 1883/4, "which was inaugurated October 13, 1885 with 80 members. The club existed till the second World War, i.e., it existed more than half a century!"
Fancy a game? Well, a set itself might set you back a bit. The one pictured above was located by Richard T. here at the website of auctioneers Gorringes, who recently auctioned it with an estimate of £500-800.
Finally, thanks to Richard for the tip-off.
Comments:
<< Home
I see it sold for £2700, which is well above estimate, so there must have been a lot of interest in it.
Post a Comment
<< Home
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License. Please note all opinions expressed are solely the responsibility of the individual writing them. The blog does not have an editor or someone with overarching responsibility. But you can email us here.
