The Chess Match - fantasy chess by the old master James Christensen
There are 1,327 named openings and variations to a match in The Oxford Companion to Chess, but how can a player remember any of them when the day's spectators include a pair of dragons? Actually, I don't think anyone is worried about them at all, laughs the artist James Christensen. They enjoy a well played game. It's the little guys with the lances that get ornery when they are captured.?
Welcome to The Chess Match as imagined by James, the professor of the imagination. These characters are quite passionate about the game. You'll notice that they've incorporated the checkerboard pattern into their clothing and even onto the castle walls. But, they've only learned the game as distant observers, somewhat like you or me getting fascinated over a rugby match on the Aussie Channel. We could get all excited, run into the backyard and form up a scrum but we wouldn't know the nuances of the game. Still, wed have all sorts of fun and maybe even lose some teeth in the process.?
As for the field of play, it's classic Christensen. There is little doubt that the two queens, one with her magical staff and the other with her broadsword, are the most powerful players on the board. The kings, being slightly less so, have compensated for their diminutive stature with rather tall thrones. At this point in the game, the blue king has opted for a nap, while the red king does his best to direct traffic with a staff not as potent as his queen's.
I had fun playing the different pieces off of each other, relates James. Knights, castles and kings all employ minions and ogres to move them about the field. The red bishop is very Rome, as if he has just arrived, ornate mitre and all, from a conference at the Vatican. His counterpart is a red-haired, crazy druid running around (technically, diagonally) with a bunch of skulls on his belt. You have the Napoleonic, Great Garabaldi pawn in the foreground very serious and very fired up for his role while his opposite number seems to be having trouble mustering any real sincerity.?
An old, lost king lies half buried in the ground. Seventy-eight of his companions, known as the Lewis Chessmen, were discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. these medieval ivory pieces date back to the 12th century and are believed to have been brought to the Scottish islands by the Norwegians, who ruled Scotland at the time.