A28.Inglish BCEnc. Blauwe Kaas Encyclopedie, Duaal Hermeneuties Kollegium.
Inglish Site.28.
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TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP
SYDNEY KNIGHT, SYR JAMES JESUS SINGLETON, SYR CANARIS, SYR LAVRENTI BERIA ; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED THEM,
AND BEING DEAD GIVE THEM
THEIRE DVE.
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In the beginning there is darkness. The screen erupts in blue, then a cascade of thick, white hexadecimal numbers and cracked language, ?UnusedStk? and ?AllocMem.? Black screen cedes to blue to white and a pair of scales appear, crossed by a sword, both images drawn in the jagged, bitmapped graphics of Windows 1.0-era clip-art?light grey and yellow on a background of light cyan. Blue text proclaims, ?God on tap!?
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Introduction.
Yes i am getting a little Mobi-Literate(ML) by experimenting literary on my Mobile Phone. Peoplecall it Typographical Laziness(TL).
The first accidental entries for the this part of this encyclopedia.
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This is TempleOS V2.17, the welcome screen explains, a ?Public Domain Operating System? produced by Trivial Solutions of Las Vegas, Nevada. It greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall ?DESQview, the ?Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of ?personal computing? necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
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Index.
110.StarGateUniverse(SGU).
111.StarShipDestiny/DeLiefde.
107.Enochian/Rosicrucian chess.
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110.StarGateUniverse(SGU).
The Stargate program has founded Icarus base on a remote planet whose Stargate is powered by large naquada deposits throughout the core. The team, led by Dr. Nicholas Rush, postulate that the power from that core could allow them to use a 9-chevron code to "dial" into the Stargate, allowing them access to locations far remote from their galaxy, but lack the means to translate the writing of the Ancients to understand how to dial this properly. Dr. Rush designs a video game used across Earth to find brilliant minds to interpret the puzzle, which Eli Wallace, a young mathematics genius, is able to solve. Eli is reluctantly brought to Icarus base along with a contingent of guests of honor aboard the Hammond, a Daedalus-class starship battlecruiser; the guests include Senator Armstrong, who funds the Icarus Project, and his daughter Chloe. They are introduced to the base's military staff, led by Colonel Everett Young, Colonel David Telford, First Lieutenants Matthew Scott and Tamara Johansen, and Master Sergeant Ronald Greer.
Dr. Rush and Eli work together to discover the means to dial the ninth chevron, just as the base is attacked by members of the Lucian Alliance. Colonel Telford aids in an aerial assault of the ships with the Hammond, while the base starts dialing Earth into the Stargate, finding that the planet's power core is about to explode. Dr. Rush realizes that the explosion would follow them through the base back to Earth, and instead redials the Stargate with the ninth chevron, successfully opening a wormhole. The surviving Icarus Base members flee through the wormhole before the planet explodes. They find themselves aboard an old abandoned spacecraft made by the Ancients, which Dr. Rush finds was named Destiny. The eighty-some survivors begin to assure the safety of their team, Senator Armstrong injured and realizing he might not have long, sacrifices himself to seal an air leak in one of Destiny?'?s shuttles.
As the rest of the team works to make the ship hospitable, Dr. Rush, Eli, and other scientific members of Icarus Base start to understand the function of Destiny; they are not able to directly control the ship, and find that it will drop out of faster-than-light travel to allow its Stargate to connect to a number of nearby worlds for a fixed period of time before it continues; it fuels itself by diving into the outermost layer of a nearby star and collecting energy from it; the first time the Destiny did that, the crew feared the worst, until they understood why it happened. The crew is able to remain in contact with Earth via a set of Ancient communication stones that Dr. Rush brought, and are told to continue the Stargate mission of exploring that galaxy, while searching for a way to return home.
Stargate Universe is set on the spaceship Destiny, which was launched by the race known as the Ancients from the Milky Way galaxy several million years ago. Several ships were sent ahead of it to seed the universe with Stargates. The Ancients had planned on using the Stargate aboard Destiny to board that ship when it was far enough out into the universe, but they eventually abandoned the project after looking into ascension amongst other things. To reach this ship, an address would have to be dialed consisting of nine chevrons, a possibility that had been unknown in the previous Stargate series, due to energy constraints.
The series begins when a team of soldiers and scientists from present-day Earth escape through the Stargate and arrive on the Destiny after their base is attacked. Many of its primary systems are damaged or failing, and they are unable to return to Earth or even maneuver the ship. However, the Destiny periodically stops to dial the Stargate to planets with necessary supplies to repair the ship, and sustain human life. The writers have discussed the possibility that each season represents a voyage of the Destiny through a different galaxy.
Stargate Universe is intended to appeal to both veteran fans and newcomers, being firmly entrenched in established Stargate mythology without relying on it too often. It retains the familiar Stargate themes of adventure and exploration, but focuses mostly on the people aboard the ship. SGU is also more serialized than its predecessors, although the writers attempted to resolve each character story within the episode. There was a conscious effort to avoid making SGU too serialized, with the serialization stemming mainly from character development. The industry described the show with the buzzwords "dark and edgy". According to Robert C. Cooper, the essence of the story is "that sort of fear and terror of a tragedy combined with the sense that there is hope for us in the basic ways in which human beings survive". The planned increased levels of drama are balanced with humor to avoid pretentiousness. The differences between good and evil are meant to be less apparent, as the ship is populated with flawed and unprepared characters who are not supposed to go there. According to Brad Wright, the show should "hopefully explor[e] the truly alien, and [avoid] the rubber faced English-speaking one[s]". There are aliens, but not a single dominant villain race like SG-1's Goa'uld and Atlantis' Wraith.
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111.StarShipDestiny/DeLiefde.
The Destiny as it approaches a star in the episode "Light".
See also: Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is set aboard the Ancient ship Destiny, a massive vessel which was part of an Ancient experiment to seed the galaxies with Stargates millions of years ago. Their plan to return to the ship after it finished its journey never came about due to their ascension. The ship was sent on auto-pilot, preceded by other automated ships which seeded the habitable worlds along its route with Stargates. It uses an unidentified form of superluminal propulsion, said to be faster than light but "not hyperdrive." Destiny is reached through its on-board Stargate from any other location, using a unique nine-chevron address that acts as a code, dialed on a Stargate with sufficient power supply (only power source sufficient enough so far has been a planet with a Naquadria core, that is far greater than a ZPM is able to provide), the plausibility of which was previously unknown.
The series begins when a team of 80+ soldiers and scientists from Earth are forced to flee through the Stargate when their base is attacked. They find themselves on Destiny; unable to return to Earth, they must fend for themselves aboard the ship as it takes them to the far reaches of the universe. According to Brad Wright, the show will focus mostly on the people aboard the ship.
The Destiny has three shuttle landing pads and at least two shuttles, one of which had a hull breach until "Faith". In this episode, the shuttle was repaired but its engines could not generate sufficient thrust to leave a planet's gravity well after landing, so it was left behind.
The Destiny has an extensive array of energy weapons, including point-defense turrets located on strategic points all over the ship and a main cannon turret located on the underside of the ship. The point-defense turrets are used to defend against small, agile targets while the larger main cannon is used against capital ships. The larger main cannon can also be adapted for orbital bombardment.
Destiny also has energy shielding to seal hull breaches and to protect against solar radiation and energy weapons. It does this by operating a randomized shield pattern, which continuously cycles through various shield frequencies. The operations of the randomized shield pattern can be manually overridden to operate at a specific, small range of frequencies. The shielding strength can be attenuated to allow solid matter to pass through or increased to protect against impact from large objects. The energy shielding must be engaged to cover the entire ship before it can jump into FTL travel. Destiny can jump into FTL travel with energy shielding capacity as low as five percent.
The Destiny FTL drive system is composed of 16 separate modules. One of these modules had degraded over the years to the point where it brought down overall engine efficiency of the FTL drive system. This same module was later damaged by an act of sabotage and eventually disconnected and removed from the FTL drive system. After the removal of the damaged module, the FTL drive system efficiency was greatly improved. A minimum of three hours have to elapse between the end of one FTL jump and the start of the next. Once the ship is in FTL travel, it must maintain it for a minimum of four hours. Shortening an FTL jump or returning to FTL travel too early will cause cumulative damage to the FTL drive system.
The Destiny is fueled by plasma from stars. The ship skims over the surface of a star just before dipping below the star's photosphere to scoop in plasma using its retractable collectors. The retractable collectors are located on the underside of the hull, towards the rear of the ship. Destiny normally refuels itself from cool K- and M-class stars. Surface temperatures of these stars are low enough for the ship's energy shielding to protect the crew and the ship's vital systems. However, the ship can be manually ordered to refuel from stars as hot as class O, though such a procedure will raise internal ship temperatures beyond habitability and force automatic shutdown of core computer systems on board the ship, including navigation systems but not energy shielding.
Initial details of Destiny?'?s mission are revealed in "The Greater Good", when Dr. Rush is forced to reveal that he has cracked the master code and thus has control over the ship. It is stated that the Ancients had discovered a possibly artificial pattern to the cosmic microwave background radiation said to be a remnant of the Big Bang. This discovery suggested the possibility of life prior to or immediately following the Big Bang, and Destiny was launched to study this possibility.
Destiny shuttle.
Destiny initially carried two shuttles which were used extensively to survey planets and defend against attacking aliens. One ship lost the capability to fly into space so it was left on a planet with a few of Destiny's crew, who wanted to remain on the planet. Another is destroyed when Dr. Rush has a team explore a planet with a harsh atmosphere that causes the ship to crash into a mountain killing a crew member. However, later on in the season the ship left on the planet appears right next to Destiny after dropping out of FTL. This perplexes all aboard Destiny because the shuttle is unable to go into FTL, and it was too badly damaged to even fly outside of the atmosphere. Everyone on board came to the conclusion that it was the alien race that built the planet that Destiny came across earlier in the series who brought the shuttle to them. This shuttle was not only repaired, but restored to its original factory condition. A copy of the recovered shuttle was encountered some time later, after the expedition encountered a "time loop". The crew attempted to enact a modified plan to dial Destiny's stargate while the ship was recharging in a star in order to successfully dial back to Earth. This plan ultimately failed and resulted in the apparent loss of most of the crews lives and Destiny itself being sent back in time approximately twelve hours. With the crew gone and the ship itself having suffered critical damage, Rush abandoned Destiny aboard its shuttle and subsequently encountered a second version of himself, Destiny and its crew because of the time anomaly. Thus, Destiny was given a second shuttle in equally new condition as the first. However, in the series finale, after all other options were exhausted, the crew devised a plan to utilize the shuttle remotely as a diversion to lure the berserker drones and their control ship away from Destiny's location long enough for a team to gate to a planet with resources needed to effect repairs. By setting the shuttle up to emit a subspace pulse similar to the pulse that a stargate emits upon activation, the control ship traced the signal to the shuttle's location and the drones engaged it. However, upon Eli's suggestion, the shuttle's engines were set to overload and the shuttle was remotely piloted into the control ship while the engines simultaneously detonated, destroying the control ship and rendering its drones inactive. Thus, Destiny was again left with a single shuttle.
In spite of the shuttle's small size, its firepower is significant. With two aft-mounted energy weapons, one port and one starboard respectively, the shuttle is an effective multi-role transport/fighter craft. In several engagements, the shuttle has been utilized to assist Destiny in neutralizing smaller enemy craft that Destiny's point-defense weapons may otherwise have missed. As a defensive/offensive countermeasure, the shuttle possesses a stealth mode which allows it to become a decent reconnaissance craft. Additionally, each shuttle can accommodate up to five crew members (with a minimum of one necessary to pilot the craft), and up to twelve passengers. When not toting passengers the shuttle makes for a respectable cargo transport when gate travel is impractical or impossible.
Minor ships.
Seed ship A vessel type smaller than Destiny but of similar design. The Seed ships were sent out before Destiny and are thus also millions of years old. Their purpose was to scout ahead and identify habitable worlds, once a suitable world was detected they would drop off a Stargate there, after finding and collecting materials to build Stargates and then building them. This class of ship is capable of docking with the Destiny and initiating both information and power transfers. The Seed ships seem to possess significant energy reserves stored in capacitors.
Science vessel One of these ships, the Adaris, suffered severe damage fifteen thousand years ago in an encounter with a coronal mass ejection from the Lantean sun. The entire crew was killed except for the pilot, who managed to reach Atlantis and warn them. Transport ship These vessels are mentioned in "Before I Sleep" as carrying the last offworld Ancients to Atlantis for evacuation. They are equipped with cloaking devices, shields, and weapons. The last of these ships is destroyed by the Wraith over Atlantis, with over three hundred people on board.
Escape ship In Ark of Truth, when the Ancients decided not to use the ark, they left Celestis in a diamond shaped vessel. This type of vessel is never seen again.
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107.Enochian/Rosicrucian chess.
Enochian chess is a four-player chess variant, similar to Chaturanga, associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The name comes from the Enochian system of magic of Dr. John Dee (magus and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I), which was later adapted by Victorian members of the Golden Dawn into "a complete system of training and initiation."
Enochian Chess was created by William Wynn Westcott, one of the three founders of the Golden Dawn, but the rules of the game were probably never completed by him. The game was finished by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, who put its rules into final form. The game was four-handed because each set of pieces corresponded to one of the four classical elements and their several watchtowers, and the game was used for divination as well as competition. The four sets of pieces were variously colored, and identified with Egyptian deities or "god-forms". The main identifications of the pieces were:
1.Osiris, represented by the king;
2.Isis, the queen;
3.Horus, the knight;
4.Aroueris, the bishop; and
5.Nephthys, the rook or castle.
The chess board itself was also varicolored, and divided into four sub-boards in which each of one of the four elemental colors predominated. The rules of the game were partially derived from shatranj and other historical forms of chess; the queen is played like a fers, with a two square diagonal leaping move. The four players would form pairs of two, with each player having a partner. MacGregor Mathers, who finalised the game's rules, was known to play with an invisible partner he claimed was as spirit. Joseph Hone, biographer of William Butler Yeats, claimed, "Mathers would shade his eyes with his hands and gaze at the empty chair at the opposite corner of the board before moving his partner's piece."
The game, while complex, was in actual use; Georgie Yeats, wife of poet William Butler Yeats, relates actually playing the game as a part of her occult training in Golden Dawn circles. Her husband took part in some of these games, as did MacGregor Mathers.
Enochian Chess introduction.
Chess variants are sometimes created and played in a particular subculture outside the chess community itself. Notable examples of such an origin include Tridimensional Chess, hailing from the world of Star Trek, and Gary Gygax's Dragonchess, an offspring of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing phenomenon. Enochian chess, an interesting variation on Chaturanga for Four Players, also has its origins in a particular subculture, in this case the world of Victorian occultists.
Enochian chess first appears to have been played by members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, who used their boards and pieces for divination as well as gameplay. Documentary evidence for the existence of the game (in the form of a Golden Dawn paper dating from no later than 1897) has come to light, but no historical documents discovered so far have given the complete rules for game play. Nobel Prize-winning poet and Golden Dawn member William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) records in his memoirs that in 1894 he played "a curious form of chess at which there should be four players" with two other members of the Golden Dawn. One of the other players was MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), a founding father of the order. In his book The Golden Dawn noted occultist Israel Regardie (1907-1985) provides a description of the boards and the pieces used in Enochian chess. He also gives two arrays and the occult methodology whereby the others may be derived. Regardie attributes part of the information he provides, including the movement of the pieces, to an "Official Ritual" written by Mathers.
The Golden Dawn considered Enochian chess to be a secret teaching. At least partially because of this veil of secrecy, authorship of this variant is unclear. Golden Dawn founder Dr. Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) has been suggested as the inventor of this particular variant, but some (including Westcott himself) have claimed that the documents describing Enochian chess were among those supplied to him from an older occult group operating in Germany. The complete rules presented here are based upon a modern reconstruction by Golden Dawn student Chris Zalewski.
The magical practices of the Golden Dawn are of no concern to the chess variant community, so this essay will focus on Enochian chess as a game. Information of an occult nature will be omitted or glossed-over wherever possible.
Board.
Enochian chess can be played on the 8x8 board of FIDE chess. (Golden Dawn members did not use orthodox boards. For more information on the traditional equipment used to play this variant, see Appendix I.) However, play is facilitated by making the corner spaces of the board at least twice as large as the other squares. After some experimentation the author of this essay found the following board to be particularly suitable:
Figure 1: Board
The four corner spaces (a1, a8, h1, h8) are the throne squares and have special properties involving the four kings that will be explained below.
Setup.
Each of the four players begins with a king, a queen, a rook, a knight, a bishop and four special pawns. Enochian Chess allows for eight different initial arrangements of these pieces, each designated by reference to a combination of the classical 4 elements (fire, earth, water & air). One such array, "Air of Air & Water", is given below. For the others see Appendix II.
Figure 2: One Possible Setup
YELLOWking & bishop, a8
queen, b8
knight, c8
rook, d8pawn of bishop, a7
pawn of queen, b7
pawn of knight, c7
pawn of rook, d7
BLUEking & bishop, h8
queen, h7
knight, h6
rook, h5pawn of bishop, g8
pawn of queen, g7
pawn of knight, g6
pawn of rook, g5
REDking & bishop, h1
queen, g1
knight, f1
rook, e1pawn of bishop, h2
pawn of queen, g2
pawn of knight, f2
pawn of rook, e2
BLACKking & bishop, a1
queen, a2
knight, a3
rook, a4pawn of bishop, b1
pawn of queen, b2
pawn of knight, b3
pawn of rook, b4
In all eight initial arrangements each throne square is occupied by two pieces, a king and another piece (in the above case a bishop). This double occupancy is only allowed at the beginning of the game. Once either the king or the other piece moves off of the throne square then for the remainder of the game only one piece may sit on that particular throne square at any one time. Both pieces are captured if an enemy piece moves into a throne square while it is still occupied by the both original pieces.
Pieces.
The king moves one step in any direction as in FIDE chess. More information concerning the king may be found in the Rules section.
The queen moves by leaping two squares in any direction, as would an alibaba. The movement of a queen is illustrated in Figure 3. The queen has a special form of capture only allowed against other queens. For more information on this special case, see Rules.
Figure 3: Queen's Leap
The rook moves orthogonally as in FIDE chess. Castling is not allowed in Enochian chess.
The bishop moves diagonally as in FIDE chess, except that like the queen it has a special form of capture only allowed against other bishops. More information on this can be found in the Rules section.
The knight behaves exactly as it does in FIDE chess.
The four classes of pawn (pawn of queen, pawn of rook, pawn of bishop, and pawn of knight) behave much like FIDE pawns, moving one space forward or capturing one space in the forward diagonal. For yellow, "forward" constitutes movement towards row 1. For blue, forward movement is in the direction of column A. Red pawns move towards row 8 amd black pawns toward column H. Upon reaching the far rank/file, pawns can promote as in FIDE chess, except that promotion of pawns only occurs after a player has lost at least one pawn. Promotion must be delayed if all four of a player's pawn are uncaptured. Also, a pawn may only promote to its type. (A pawn of rook promotes to a rook, a pawn of knight promote to a knight, etc.) Furthermore, pawns are not allowed an initial double step.
Notes.
Neither the original Golden Dawn material nor Zalewski's reconstruction use the "pawn of ..." terminology. Both simply refer to these pieces as pawns. The nomenclature has been adapted from Tamerlane chess in an attempt to clarify the promotion rules.
Although Zalewski's reconstruction of the rules for Enochian chess may be sound, the author of this article cannot help but wonder if in an earlier version perhaps the queen and bishop moved more like their Chaturanga counterparts, i.e. the queen as a ferz (one square diagonally)and the bishop as an alfil (leaping 2 squares diagonally). Such a suggestion is merely speculation on the part of this essayist. Regardie and through him Mathers both support Zalewski's descriptions of the queen and bishop.
Rules.
Summary.
Enochian chess is a four player chess variant in which two teams (always blue & black versus red & yellow) strive to capture both kings of the opposing team.
Before Play Begins.
Prior to the start of a game the players should choose which of the eight arrays they will use. The players will also need to determine what color each will play (thereby determining who will be on which team) and what color will go first. (The Golden Dawn had a special procedure for making these determinations that had no substantive impact on play. For a description of this procedure, see Appendix IV.) Once these issues are settled play may proceed, going clockwise around the board.
Team Play.
There is no individual winner in Enochian chess. For example, if the blue army is eliminated from play and the black army goes on to the capture the red and yellow kings, then the team of blue and black have won the game.
Team members are normally forbidden from capturing each other's pieces, unless otherwise noted. Pieces belonging to armies on the same team do not threaten each other. (E.g. The blue and black kings can be adjacent without giving each other check.)
Capture of the King.
Kings are not mated in Enochian chess, though players must warn their opponents that the king is threatend by declaring "check" as in FIDE chess. A king in check MUST be moved, even if that means putting the king in check again. The player with the king in check may move another piece only if the king is blocked by friendly pieces so that it cannot be moved out of check.
When a king is captured all the pieces of that color become frozen. They remain on the board, but are unable to move, do not threaten other pieces, nor can they be captured. They simply sit on the board acting as blocking terrain.
Seizing the Throne.
Moving the king onto the throne square of a friendly player transfers control of the friendly army. The two armies still take separate turns, but are under the control of one player. Frozen pieces may be reactivated by this method. The player retains control of both armies even if the king that seized control is moved off of the throne square. If the usurping king is captured, control of the friendly army reverts to the original player, assuming that the army still has a king to lead it. Otherwise both armies are kingless and those players have lost the game.
Exchange of Prisoners.
Two opposing players who have both captured enemy kings may agree to an exchange of prisoners. The exchange can only be made if both players with captured kings agree and neither have lost their own king. The kings are placed upon their own throne squares, or if a throne square is occupied, the nearest empty square. Zalewski does not indicate how to place a king if the thrones square is occupied and multiple alternative squares are equidistant from the throne square.
Frozen pieces revert to normal pieces when their king is brought back into play in this manner.
Priviledged Pawn.
If a player is reduced to a king, a queen, and a pawn; a king, a bishop, and a pawn or a king and a pawn, then the pawn is considered to be priviledged. Upon reaching its normal promotion zone a priviledged pawn may be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight as the player chooses. In effect, the pawn becomes a normal FIDE pawn. However, if a priviledged pawn is promoted to a piece still in play, the original piece is demoted to the pawn of its type. This effect is illustrated by Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4: Before Using Pawn Privilege
Black has a pawn of bishop ready to promote and sees an opportunity to fork red's king and rook. Since the pawn of bishop is priviledged, black chooses promotes to a queen. Black already has a queen on the board, which is demoted to a pawn of queen.
Figure 5: After Using Pawn Privilege
What would happen if the above scenario were to involve a pawn of queen instead of a pawn of rook? Zalewski is unclear on this point, but it could be guessed that the original queen can avoid demotion, allowing two black queens on the board. Otherwise the player would be penalized for having priviledge.
Concourse of Bishoping.
A perusal of the eight possible arrays reveals that opposing bishops are bound on opposite colors. The special case known as the concourse of bishoping allows bishops to capture enemy bishops. The concourse of bishoping is similar to the triumph of the boat found in Chaturanga for Four Players. By completing a 2x2 square formation involving all four bishops, the moving bishop takes all three other bishops. A concourse is a special case in which capturing a teammate's piece is legal.
Figure 6: Concourse of Bishoping
In Figure 6 above if the black bishop were to move to e4 it would complete the concourse, capturing all three of the other bishops. Unlike the triumph of the boat, the concourse maneuver is legal in only five positions on the board. A concourse can happen either at c4, c5, d4, & d5 as illustrated above and at the sets (b2, b3, c2, c3) or (b6, b7, c6, c7) or (f6, f7, g6, g7) or (f2, f3, g2, g3). The other four concourse locations are illustrated by Figure 7.
Figure 7: The Other Four Concourses
Concourse of Queens.
Opposing queens are also bound on opposite colors. A concourse of queens occurs under exactly the same circumstances as a concourse of bishoping. Bishops and queens may not be combined in a single concourse capture. All pieces involved must be either bishops OR queens.
Bare King.
When two players on the same team are both reduced to bare kings the game is a draw.
Withdrawing.
A player may withdraw from the game at any time, leaving their pieces in command of their teammate. If the withdrawing player has only a bare king, the remaining teammate is allowed to move either the bare king or their own pieces on BOTH colors' turns. If any other pieces remain in the army of the withdrawing player, then each color army may only be moved on its own turn.
Stalemate.
If a player has no move available except such that would put their unchecked king into check, that player is stalemated. Play continues, but the player is not allowed to take a turn until such time as a move by another player alleviates the stalemate condition. The game is drawn if a player is stalemated and their teammate is also currently out of the game (teammate also stalemated, teammate's king captured, teammate withdrawn or the stalemated king has seized a friendly throne).
Two or Three Player Games Enochian chess may be played with fewer than four players by having one or both players command two armies. Each color still receives its own turn and pieces cannot be played out of turn. (E.g. If one player is playing both red and yellow, no red pieces may be moved during the yellow turn unless the yellow army has taken control of the red army.) A player operating both armies may not withdraw as described above.
Bibliography.
Howe, Ellic. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1989.
Yeats, W(illiam) B(utler). Memoirs trans. and edited by Denis Donoghue. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1973.
Zalewski, Chris. Enochian Chess of the Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
(Please note that off the four texts listed above, only Regardie and Zalewski will be of any possible use to the chess variantist. The others are cited only to help establish the historical pedigree for Enochian chess.)
Appendix I: Traditional Enochian Chess Equipment.
Figure 8: The Air BoardEnochian chess was traditionally played on one of four specially constructed boards. Each board represented on of the classical elements. Each square of each board was divided into 4 triangles, which were painted one of four different colors. These triangles were not game spaces themselves, merely components of the larger square cells used to play the game. Although confusing to the eye, an Enochian chessboard is functionally identical to a FIDE 8x8 board.
The pieces used in Enochian chess were generally stiff paper stand-ups much like the paper dolls and paper toy soldiers of the era. Each major piece had a unique name and design taken from Egyptian mythology and all the pieces were painted in four-color paint schemes. Figure 9 depicts the front of an example piece. Each piece was mounted upright on a base colored red, yellow, blue, or black to show its affiliation. The back of the pieces were each painted a solid color depending on piece type: Kings were painted white on the reverse. Knights were red. Queens were painted blue. Bishops were yellow and rooks were black.
Figure 9: Horus, the black knight
Appendix II: Alternate Arrays
The setup described in the main body of this essay is one of eight provided by Zalewski. The seven other possible set-ups are given below. All eight are equally valid arrays, with no preference given between them. Regardie indicates that there are 16 possible arrays, but Zalewski concludes that there are only eight arrays because there are eight pairs of arrays that are functionally identical. For example, the arrays "Air of Fire" and "Air of Earth" have the exact same piece arrangement. Therefore these two arrays are listed below under a single category, "Air of Fire & Earth".
Figure 10: Air of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & bishop, a8
rook, b8
knight, c8
queen, d8pawn of bishop, a7
pawn of rook, b7
pawn of knight, c7
pawn of queen, d7
BLUEking & bishop, h8
rook, h7
knight, h6
queen, h5pawn of bishop, g8
pawn of rook, g7
pawn of knight, g6
pawn of queen, g5
REDking & bishop, h1
rook, g1
knight, f1
queen, e1pawn of bishop, h2
pawn of rook, g2
pawn of knight, f2
pawn of queen, e2
BLACKking & bishop, a1
rook, a2
knight, a3
queen, a4pawn of bishop, b1
pawn of rook, b2
pawn of knight, b3
pawn of queen, b4
Figure 11: Fire of Air & Water
YELLOWking & knight, a8
rook, b8
bishop, c8
queen, d8pawn of knight, a7
pawn of rook, b7
pawn of bishop, c7
pawn of queen, d7
BLUEking & knight, h8
rook, h7
bishop, h6
queen, h5pawn of knight, g8
pawn of rook, g7
pawn of bishop, g6
pawn of queen, g5
REDking & knight, h1
rook, g1
bishop, f1
queen, e1pawn of knight, h2
pawn of rook, g2
pawn of bishop, f2
pawn of queen, e2
BLACKking & knight, a1
rook, a2
bishop, a3
queen, a4pawn of knight, b1
pawn of rook, b2
pawn of bishop, b3
pawn of queen, b4
Figure 12: Water of Air & Water
YELLOWking & queen, a8
bishop, b8
rook, c8
knight, d8pawn of queen, a7
pawn of bishop, b7
pawn of rook, c7
pawn of knight, d7
BLUEking & queen, h8
bishop, h7
rook, h6
knight, h5pawn of queen, g8
pawn of bishop, g7
pawn of rook, g6
pawn of knight, g5
REDking & queen, h1
bishop, g1
rook, f1
knight, e1pawn of queen, h2
pawn of bishop, g2
pawn of rook, f2
pawn of knight, e2
BLACKking & queen, a1
bishop, a2
rook, a3
knight, a4pawn of queen, b1
pawn of bishop, b2
pawn of rook, b3
pawn of knight, b4
Figure 13: Earth of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & rook, a8
bishop, b8
queen, c8
knight, d8pawn of rook, a7
pawn of bishop, b7
pawn of queen, c7
pawn of knight, d7
BLUEking & rook, h8
bishop, h7
queen, h6
knight, h5pawn of rook, g8
pawn of bishop, g7
pawn of queen, g6
pawn of knight, g5
REDking & rook, h1
bishop, g1
queen, f1
knight, e1pawn of rook, h2
pawn of bishop, g2
pawn of queen, f2
pawn of knight, e2
BLACKking & rook, a1
bishop, a2
queen, a3
knight, a4pawn of rook, b1
pawn of bishop, b2
pawn of queen, b3
pawn of knight, b4
Figure 14: Earth of Air & Water
YELLOWking & rook, a8
knight, b8
queen, c8
bishop, d8pawn of rook, a7
pawn of knight, b7
pawn of queen, c7
pawn of bishop, d7
BLUEking & rook, h8
knight, h7
queen, h6
bishop, h5pawn of rook, g8
pawn of knight, g7
pawn of queen, g6
pawn of bishop, g5
REDking & rook, h1
knight, g1
queen, f1
bishop, e1pawn of rook, h2
pawn of knight, g2
pawn of queen, f2
pawn of bishop, e2
BLACKking & rook, a1
knight, a2
queen, a3
bishop, a4pawn of rook, b1
pawn of knight, b2
pawn of queen, b3
pawn of bishop, b4
Figure 15: Fire of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & knight, a8
queen, b8
bishop, c8
rook, d8pawn of knight, a7
pawn of queen, b7
pawn of bishop, c7
pawn of rook, d7
BLUEking & knight, h8
queen, h7
bishop, h6
rook, h5pawn of knight, g8
pawn of queen, g7
pawn of bishop, g6
pawn of rook, g5
REDking & knight, h1
queen, g1
bishop, f1
rook, e1pawn of knight, h2
pawn of queen, g2
pawn of bishop, f2
pawn of rook, e2
BLACKking & knight, a1
queen, a2
bishop, a3
rook, a4pawn of knight, b1
pawn of queen, b2
pawn of bishop, b3
pawn of rook, b4
Figure 16: Water of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & queen, a8
knight, b8
rook, c8
bishop, d8pawn of queen, a7
pawn of knight, b7
pawn of rook, c7
pawn of bishop, d7
BLUEking & queen, h8
knight, h7
rook, h6
bishop, h5pawn of queen, g8
pawn of knight, g7
pawn of rook, g6
pawn of bishop, g5
REDking & queen, h1
knight, g1
rook, f1
bishop, e1pawn of queen, h2
pawn of knight, g2
pawn of rook, f2
pawn of bishop, e2
BLACKking & queen, a1
knight, a2
rook, a3
bishop, a4pawn of queen, b1
pawn of knight, b2
pawn of rook, b3
pawn of bishop, b4
Appendix III: Why "Enochian" Chess?
Enochian chess is named after the Biblical patriarch Enoch, father of Methusaleh. In an occult tradition going back at least to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Enoch is considered a source hidden mystical knowledge, for he "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24) and "was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death" (Hebrews 11:5).
Initially this chess variant was also called Rosicrucian chess, after the Order of the Rosy Cross, a continental mystic fraternity from which the Order of the Golden Dawn claimed descent.
Appendix IV: Traditional Starting Procedure.
The first step to playing Enochian chess in the traditional manner is to select which of the four elemental boards will be used. This choice also determines which army moves first. On the air board yellow moves first. On the fire board red moves first. On the water board blue moves first. On the earth board black moves first.
The players then agree upon an array to be used. If playing on the fire or earth boards then only "... of fire & earth" arrays may be selected. If playing on the air or water boards then only "... of air & water" boards may be used.
Then players throw dice. In order from highest total to lowest each player in turn selects which army they will play, thereby determining their teams in the process.
(This dice method seems odd. The players with the second and third highest total on the dice determine the composition of the teams. The player who won the die roll gets the priviledge of choosing which army to operate (and whether or not that player gets the first move), but the "winner" is then at the mercy of others in regards to choosing a teammate.)
Final Note.
Golden Dawn practioners may take this essay to task for the method of presentation used, whereby the mystical nature of Enochian chess has been stripped away wherever possible. No offense is intended. Nor is it the design of this essay to endorse or refute anyone's belief system. Enochian Chess has been submitted to the Chess Variant Pages so that it may take its rightful place in the broader outline of chess variant history.
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Inglish Site.28.
*
TO THE THRISE HO-
NOVRABLE AND EVER LY-
VING VERTVES OF SYR PHILLIP
SYDNEY KNIGHT, SYR JAMES JESUS SINGLETON, SYR CANARIS, SYR LAVRENTI BERIA ; AND TO THE
RIGHT HONORABLE AND OTHERS WHAT-
SOEVER, WHO LIVING LOVED THEM,
AND BEING DEAD GIVE THEM
THEIRE DVE.
***
In the beginning there is darkness. The screen erupts in blue, then a cascade of thick, white hexadecimal numbers and cracked language, ?UnusedStk? and ?AllocMem.? Black screen cedes to blue to white and a pair of scales appear, crossed by a sword, both images drawn in the jagged, bitmapped graphics of Windows 1.0-era clip-art?light grey and yellow on a background of light cyan. Blue text proclaims, ?God on tap!?
*
Introduction.
Yes i am getting a little Mobi-Literate(ML) by experimenting literary on my Mobile Phone. Peoplecall it Typographical Laziness(TL).
The first accidental entries for the this part of this encyclopedia.
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This is TempleOS V2.17, the welcome screen explains, a ?Public Domain Operating System? produced by Trivial Solutions of Las Vegas, Nevada. It greets the user with a riot of 16-color, scrolling, blinking text; depending on your frame of reference, it might recall ?DESQview, the ?Commodore 64, or a host of early DOS-based graphical user interfaces. In style if not in specifics, it evokes a particular era, a time when the then-new concept of ?personal computing? necessarily meant programming and tinkering and breaking things.
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Index.
110.StarGateUniverse(SGU).
111.StarShipDestiny/DeLiefde.
107.Enochian/Rosicrucian chess.
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110.StarGateUniverse(SGU).
The Stargate program has founded Icarus base on a remote planet whose Stargate is powered by large naquada deposits throughout the core. The team, led by Dr. Nicholas Rush, postulate that the power from that core could allow them to use a 9-chevron code to "dial" into the Stargate, allowing them access to locations far remote from their galaxy, but lack the means to translate the writing of the Ancients to understand how to dial this properly. Dr. Rush designs a video game used across Earth to find brilliant minds to interpret the puzzle, which Eli Wallace, a young mathematics genius, is able to solve. Eli is reluctantly brought to Icarus base along with a contingent of guests of honor aboard the Hammond, a Daedalus-class starship battlecruiser; the guests include Senator Armstrong, who funds the Icarus Project, and his daughter Chloe. They are introduced to the base's military staff, led by Colonel Everett Young, Colonel David Telford, First Lieutenants Matthew Scott and Tamara Johansen, and Master Sergeant Ronald Greer.
Dr. Rush and Eli work together to discover the means to dial the ninth chevron, just as the base is attacked by members of the Lucian Alliance. Colonel Telford aids in an aerial assault of the ships with the Hammond, while the base starts dialing Earth into the Stargate, finding that the planet's power core is about to explode. Dr. Rush realizes that the explosion would follow them through the base back to Earth, and instead redials the Stargate with the ninth chevron, successfully opening a wormhole. The surviving Icarus Base members flee through the wormhole before the planet explodes. They find themselves aboard an old abandoned spacecraft made by the Ancients, which Dr. Rush finds was named Destiny. The eighty-some survivors begin to assure the safety of their team, Senator Armstrong injured and realizing he might not have long, sacrifices himself to seal an air leak in one of Destiny?'?s shuttles.
As the rest of the team works to make the ship hospitable, Dr. Rush, Eli, and other scientific members of Icarus Base start to understand the function of Destiny; they are not able to directly control the ship, and find that it will drop out of faster-than-light travel to allow its Stargate to connect to a number of nearby worlds for a fixed period of time before it continues; it fuels itself by diving into the outermost layer of a nearby star and collecting energy from it; the first time the Destiny did that, the crew feared the worst, until they understood why it happened. The crew is able to remain in contact with Earth via a set of Ancient communication stones that Dr. Rush brought, and are told to continue the Stargate mission of exploring that galaxy, while searching for a way to return home.
Stargate Universe is set on the spaceship Destiny, which was launched by the race known as the Ancients from the Milky Way galaxy several million years ago. Several ships were sent ahead of it to seed the universe with Stargates. The Ancients had planned on using the Stargate aboard Destiny to board that ship when it was far enough out into the universe, but they eventually abandoned the project after looking into ascension amongst other things. To reach this ship, an address would have to be dialed consisting of nine chevrons, a possibility that had been unknown in the previous Stargate series, due to energy constraints.
The series begins when a team of soldiers and scientists from present-day Earth escape through the Stargate and arrive on the Destiny after their base is attacked. Many of its primary systems are damaged or failing, and they are unable to return to Earth or even maneuver the ship. However, the Destiny periodically stops to dial the Stargate to planets with necessary supplies to repair the ship, and sustain human life. The writers have discussed the possibility that each season represents a voyage of the Destiny through a different galaxy.
Stargate Universe is intended to appeal to both veteran fans and newcomers, being firmly entrenched in established Stargate mythology without relying on it too often. It retains the familiar Stargate themes of adventure and exploration, but focuses mostly on the people aboard the ship. SGU is also more serialized than its predecessors, although the writers attempted to resolve each character story within the episode. There was a conscious effort to avoid making SGU too serialized, with the serialization stemming mainly from character development. The industry described the show with the buzzwords "dark and edgy". According to Robert C. Cooper, the essence of the story is "that sort of fear and terror of a tragedy combined with the sense that there is hope for us in the basic ways in which human beings survive". The planned increased levels of drama are balanced with humor to avoid pretentiousness. The differences between good and evil are meant to be less apparent, as the ship is populated with flawed and unprepared characters who are not supposed to go there. According to Brad Wright, the show should "hopefully explor[e] the truly alien, and [avoid] the rubber faced English-speaking one[s]". There are aliens, but not a single dominant villain race like SG-1's Goa'uld and Atlantis' Wraith.
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111.StarShipDestiny/DeLiefde.
The Destiny as it approaches a star in the episode "Light".
See also: Stargate Universe
Stargate Universe is set aboard the Ancient ship Destiny, a massive vessel which was part of an Ancient experiment to seed the galaxies with Stargates millions of years ago. Their plan to return to the ship after it finished its journey never came about due to their ascension. The ship was sent on auto-pilot, preceded by other automated ships which seeded the habitable worlds along its route with Stargates. It uses an unidentified form of superluminal propulsion, said to be faster than light but "not hyperdrive." Destiny is reached through its on-board Stargate from any other location, using a unique nine-chevron address that acts as a code, dialed on a Stargate with sufficient power supply (only power source sufficient enough so far has been a planet with a Naquadria core, that is far greater than a ZPM is able to provide), the plausibility of which was previously unknown.
The series begins when a team of 80+ soldiers and scientists from Earth are forced to flee through the Stargate when their base is attacked. They find themselves on Destiny; unable to return to Earth, they must fend for themselves aboard the ship as it takes them to the far reaches of the universe. According to Brad Wright, the show will focus mostly on the people aboard the ship.
The Destiny has three shuttle landing pads and at least two shuttles, one of which had a hull breach until "Faith". In this episode, the shuttle was repaired but its engines could not generate sufficient thrust to leave a planet's gravity well after landing, so it was left behind.
The Destiny has an extensive array of energy weapons, including point-defense turrets located on strategic points all over the ship and a main cannon turret located on the underside of the ship. The point-defense turrets are used to defend against small, agile targets while the larger main cannon is used against capital ships. The larger main cannon can also be adapted for orbital bombardment.
Destiny also has energy shielding to seal hull breaches and to protect against solar radiation and energy weapons. It does this by operating a randomized shield pattern, which continuously cycles through various shield frequencies. The operations of the randomized shield pattern can be manually overridden to operate at a specific, small range of frequencies. The shielding strength can be attenuated to allow solid matter to pass through or increased to protect against impact from large objects. The energy shielding must be engaged to cover the entire ship before it can jump into FTL travel. Destiny can jump into FTL travel with energy shielding capacity as low as five percent.
The Destiny FTL drive system is composed of 16 separate modules. One of these modules had degraded over the years to the point where it brought down overall engine efficiency of the FTL drive system. This same module was later damaged by an act of sabotage and eventually disconnected and removed from the FTL drive system. After the removal of the damaged module, the FTL drive system efficiency was greatly improved. A minimum of three hours have to elapse between the end of one FTL jump and the start of the next. Once the ship is in FTL travel, it must maintain it for a minimum of four hours. Shortening an FTL jump or returning to FTL travel too early will cause cumulative damage to the FTL drive system.
The Destiny is fueled by plasma from stars. The ship skims over the surface of a star just before dipping below the star's photosphere to scoop in plasma using its retractable collectors. The retractable collectors are located on the underside of the hull, towards the rear of the ship. Destiny normally refuels itself from cool K- and M-class stars. Surface temperatures of these stars are low enough for the ship's energy shielding to protect the crew and the ship's vital systems. However, the ship can be manually ordered to refuel from stars as hot as class O, though such a procedure will raise internal ship temperatures beyond habitability and force automatic shutdown of core computer systems on board the ship, including navigation systems but not energy shielding.
Initial details of Destiny?'?s mission are revealed in "The Greater Good", when Dr. Rush is forced to reveal that he has cracked the master code and thus has control over the ship. It is stated that the Ancients had discovered a possibly artificial pattern to the cosmic microwave background radiation said to be a remnant of the Big Bang. This discovery suggested the possibility of life prior to or immediately following the Big Bang, and Destiny was launched to study this possibility.
Destiny shuttle.
Destiny initially carried two shuttles which were used extensively to survey planets and defend against attacking aliens. One ship lost the capability to fly into space so it was left on a planet with a few of Destiny's crew, who wanted to remain on the planet. Another is destroyed when Dr. Rush has a team explore a planet with a harsh atmosphere that causes the ship to crash into a mountain killing a crew member. However, later on in the season the ship left on the planet appears right next to Destiny after dropping out of FTL. This perplexes all aboard Destiny because the shuttle is unable to go into FTL, and it was too badly damaged to even fly outside of the atmosphere. Everyone on board came to the conclusion that it was the alien race that built the planet that Destiny came across earlier in the series who brought the shuttle to them. This shuttle was not only repaired, but restored to its original factory condition. A copy of the recovered shuttle was encountered some time later, after the expedition encountered a "time loop". The crew attempted to enact a modified plan to dial Destiny's stargate while the ship was recharging in a star in order to successfully dial back to Earth. This plan ultimately failed and resulted in the apparent loss of most of the crews lives and Destiny itself being sent back in time approximately twelve hours. With the crew gone and the ship itself having suffered critical damage, Rush abandoned Destiny aboard its shuttle and subsequently encountered a second version of himself, Destiny and its crew because of the time anomaly. Thus, Destiny was given a second shuttle in equally new condition as the first. However, in the series finale, after all other options were exhausted, the crew devised a plan to utilize the shuttle remotely as a diversion to lure the berserker drones and their control ship away from Destiny's location long enough for a team to gate to a planet with resources needed to effect repairs. By setting the shuttle up to emit a subspace pulse similar to the pulse that a stargate emits upon activation, the control ship traced the signal to the shuttle's location and the drones engaged it. However, upon Eli's suggestion, the shuttle's engines were set to overload and the shuttle was remotely piloted into the control ship while the engines simultaneously detonated, destroying the control ship and rendering its drones inactive. Thus, Destiny was again left with a single shuttle.
In spite of the shuttle's small size, its firepower is significant. With two aft-mounted energy weapons, one port and one starboard respectively, the shuttle is an effective multi-role transport/fighter craft. In several engagements, the shuttle has been utilized to assist Destiny in neutralizing smaller enemy craft that Destiny's point-defense weapons may otherwise have missed. As a defensive/offensive countermeasure, the shuttle possesses a stealth mode which allows it to become a decent reconnaissance craft. Additionally, each shuttle can accommodate up to five crew members (with a minimum of one necessary to pilot the craft), and up to twelve passengers. When not toting passengers the shuttle makes for a respectable cargo transport when gate travel is impractical or impossible.
Minor ships.
Seed ship A vessel type smaller than Destiny but of similar design. The Seed ships were sent out before Destiny and are thus also millions of years old. Their purpose was to scout ahead and identify habitable worlds, once a suitable world was detected they would drop off a Stargate there, after finding and collecting materials to build Stargates and then building them. This class of ship is capable of docking with the Destiny and initiating both information and power transfers. The Seed ships seem to possess significant energy reserves stored in capacitors.
Science vessel One of these ships, the Adaris, suffered severe damage fifteen thousand years ago in an encounter with a coronal mass ejection from the Lantean sun. The entire crew was killed except for the pilot, who managed to reach Atlantis and warn them. Transport ship These vessels are mentioned in "Before I Sleep" as carrying the last offworld Ancients to Atlantis for evacuation. They are equipped with cloaking devices, shields, and weapons. The last of these ships is destroyed by the Wraith over Atlantis, with over three hundred people on board.
Escape ship In Ark of Truth, when the Ancients decided not to use the ark, they left Celestis in a diamond shaped vessel. This type of vessel is never seen again.
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107.Enochian/Rosicrucian chess.
Enochian chess is a four-player chess variant, similar to Chaturanga, associated with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The name comes from the Enochian system of magic of Dr. John Dee (magus and astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I), which was later adapted by Victorian members of the Golden Dawn into "a complete system of training and initiation."
Enochian Chess was created by William Wynn Westcott, one of the three founders of the Golden Dawn, but the rules of the game were probably never completed by him. The game was finished by S. L. MacGregor Mathers, who put its rules into final form. The game was four-handed because each set of pieces corresponded to one of the four classical elements and their several watchtowers, and the game was used for divination as well as competition. The four sets of pieces were variously colored, and identified with Egyptian deities or "god-forms". The main identifications of the pieces were:
1.Osiris, represented by the king;
2.Isis, the queen;
3.Horus, the knight;
4.Aroueris, the bishop; and
5.Nephthys, the rook or castle.
The chess board itself was also varicolored, and divided into four sub-boards in which each of one of the four elemental colors predominated. The rules of the game were partially derived from shatranj and other historical forms of chess; the queen is played like a fers, with a two square diagonal leaping move. The four players would form pairs of two, with each player having a partner. MacGregor Mathers, who finalised the game's rules, was known to play with an invisible partner he claimed was as spirit. Joseph Hone, biographer of William Butler Yeats, claimed, "Mathers would shade his eyes with his hands and gaze at the empty chair at the opposite corner of the board before moving his partner's piece."
The game, while complex, was in actual use; Georgie Yeats, wife of poet William Butler Yeats, relates actually playing the game as a part of her occult training in Golden Dawn circles. Her husband took part in some of these games, as did MacGregor Mathers.
Enochian Chess introduction.
Chess variants are sometimes created and played in a particular subculture outside the chess community itself. Notable examples of such an origin include Tridimensional Chess, hailing from the world of Star Trek, and Gary Gygax's Dragonchess, an offspring of the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing phenomenon. Enochian chess, an interesting variation on Chaturanga for Four Players, also has its origins in a particular subculture, in this case the world of Victorian occultists.
Enochian chess first appears to have been played by members of the Order of the Golden Dawn, who used their boards and pieces for divination as well as gameplay. Documentary evidence for the existence of the game (in the form of a Golden Dawn paper dating from no later than 1897) has come to light, but no historical documents discovered so far have given the complete rules for game play. Nobel Prize-winning poet and Golden Dawn member William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) records in his memoirs that in 1894 he played "a curious form of chess at which there should be four players" with two other members of the Golden Dawn. One of the other players was MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), a founding father of the order. In his book The Golden Dawn noted occultist Israel Regardie (1907-1985) provides a description of the boards and the pieces used in Enochian chess. He also gives two arrays and the occult methodology whereby the others may be derived. Regardie attributes part of the information he provides, including the movement of the pieces, to an "Official Ritual" written by Mathers.
The Golden Dawn considered Enochian chess to be a secret teaching. At least partially because of this veil of secrecy, authorship of this variant is unclear. Golden Dawn founder Dr. Wynn Westcott (1848-1925) has been suggested as the inventor of this particular variant, but some (including Westcott himself) have claimed that the documents describing Enochian chess were among those supplied to him from an older occult group operating in Germany. The complete rules presented here are based upon a modern reconstruction by Golden Dawn student Chris Zalewski.
The magical practices of the Golden Dawn are of no concern to the chess variant community, so this essay will focus on Enochian chess as a game. Information of an occult nature will be omitted or glossed-over wherever possible.
Board.
Enochian chess can be played on the 8x8 board of FIDE chess. (Golden Dawn members did not use orthodox boards. For more information on the traditional equipment used to play this variant, see Appendix I.) However, play is facilitated by making the corner spaces of the board at least twice as large as the other squares. After some experimentation the author of this essay found the following board to be particularly suitable:
Figure 1: Board
The four corner spaces (a1, a8, h1, h8) are the throne squares and have special properties involving the four kings that will be explained below.
Setup.
Each of the four players begins with a king, a queen, a rook, a knight, a bishop and four special pawns. Enochian Chess allows for eight different initial arrangements of these pieces, each designated by reference to a combination of the classical 4 elements (fire, earth, water & air). One such array, "Air of Air & Water", is given below. For the others see Appendix II.
Figure 2: One Possible Setup
YELLOWking & bishop, a8
queen, b8
knight, c8
rook, d8pawn of bishop, a7
pawn of queen, b7
pawn of knight, c7
pawn of rook, d7
BLUEking & bishop, h8
queen, h7
knight, h6
rook, h5pawn of bishop, g8
pawn of queen, g7
pawn of knight, g6
pawn of rook, g5
REDking & bishop, h1
queen, g1
knight, f1
rook, e1pawn of bishop, h2
pawn of queen, g2
pawn of knight, f2
pawn of rook, e2
BLACKking & bishop, a1
queen, a2
knight, a3
rook, a4pawn of bishop, b1
pawn of queen, b2
pawn of knight, b3
pawn of rook, b4
In all eight initial arrangements each throne square is occupied by two pieces, a king and another piece (in the above case a bishop). This double occupancy is only allowed at the beginning of the game. Once either the king or the other piece moves off of the throne square then for the remainder of the game only one piece may sit on that particular throne square at any one time. Both pieces are captured if an enemy piece moves into a throne square while it is still occupied by the both original pieces.
Pieces.
The king moves one step in any direction as in FIDE chess. More information concerning the king may be found in the Rules section.
The queen moves by leaping two squares in any direction, as would an alibaba. The movement of a queen is illustrated in Figure 3. The queen has a special form of capture only allowed against other queens. For more information on this special case, see Rules.
Figure 3: Queen's Leap
The rook moves orthogonally as in FIDE chess. Castling is not allowed in Enochian chess.
The bishop moves diagonally as in FIDE chess, except that like the queen it has a special form of capture only allowed against other bishops. More information on this can be found in the Rules section.
The knight behaves exactly as it does in FIDE chess.
The four classes of pawn (pawn of queen, pawn of rook, pawn of bishop, and pawn of knight) behave much like FIDE pawns, moving one space forward or capturing one space in the forward diagonal. For yellow, "forward" constitutes movement towards row 1. For blue, forward movement is in the direction of column A. Red pawns move towards row 8 amd black pawns toward column H. Upon reaching the far rank/file, pawns can promote as in FIDE chess, except that promotion of pawns only occurs after a player has lost at least one pawn. Promotion must be delayed if all four of a player's pawn are uncaptured. Also, a pawn may only promote to its type. (A pawn of rook promotes to a rook, a pawn of knight promote to a knight, etc.) Furthermore, pawns are not allowed an initial double step.
Notes.
Neither the original Golden Dawn material nor Zalewski's reconstruction use the "pawn of ..." terminology. Both simply refer to these pieces as pawns. The nomenclature has been adapted from Tamerlane chess in an attempt to clarify the promotion rules.
Although Zalewski's reconstruction of the rules for Enochian chess may be sound, the author of this article cannot help but wonder if in an earlier version perhaps the queen and bishop moved more like their Chaturanga counterparts, i.e. the queen as a ferz (one square diagonally)and the bishop as an alfil (leaping 2 squares diagonally). Such a suggestion is merely speculation on the part of this essayist. Regardie and through him Mathers both support Zalewski's descriptions of the queen and bishop.
Rules.
Summary.
Enochian chess is a four player chess variant in which two teams (always blue & black versus red & yellow) strive to capture both kings of the opposing team.
Before Play Begins.
Prior to the start of a game the players should choose which of the eight arrays they will use. The players will also need to determine what color each will play (thereby determining who will be on which team) and what color will go first. (The Golden Dawn had a special procedure for making these determinations that had no substantive impact on play. For a description of this procedure, see Appendix IV.) Once these issues are settled play may proceed, going clockwise around the board.
Team Play.
There is no individual winner in Enochian chess. For example, if the blue army is eliminated from play and the black army goes on to the capture the red and yellow kings, then the team of blue and black have won the game.
Team members are normally forbidden from capturing each other's pieces, unless otherwise noted. Pieces belonging to armies on the same team do not threaten each other. (E.g. The blue and black kings can be adjacent without giving each other check.)
Capture of the King.
Kings are not mated in Enochian chess, though players must warn their opponents that the king is threatend by declaring "check" as in FIDE chess. A king in check MUST be moved, even if that means putting the king in check again. The player with the king in check may move another piece only if the king is blocked by friendly pieces so that it cannot be moved out of check.
When a king is captured all the pieces of that color become frozen. They remain on the board, but are unable to move, do not threaten other pieces, nor can they be captured. They simply sit on the board acting as blocking terrain.
Seizing the Throne.
Moving the king onto the throne square of a friendly player transfers control of the friendly army. The two armies still take separate turns, but are under the control of one player. Frozen pieces may be reactivated by this method. The player retains control of both armies even if the king that seized control is moved off of the throne square. If the usurping king is captured, control of the friendly army reverts to the original player, assuming that the army still has a king to lead it. Otherwise both armies are kingless and those players have lost the game.
Exchange of Prisoners.
Two opposing players who have both captured enemy kings may agree to an exchange of prisoners. The exchange can only be made if both players with captured kings agree and neither have lost their own king. The kings are placed upon their own throne squares, or if a throne square is occupied, the nearest empty square. Zalewski does not indicate how to place a king if the thrones square is occupied and multiple alternative squares are equidistant from the throne square.
Frozen pieces revert to normal pieces when their king is brought back into play in this manner.
Priviledged Pawn.
If a player is reduced to a king, a queen, and a pawn; a king, a bishop, and a pawn or a king and a pawn, then the pawn is considered to be priviledged. Upon reaching its normal promotion zone a priviledged pawn may be promoted to a queen, rook, bishop, or knight as the player chooses. In effect, the pawn becomes a normal FIDE pawn. However, if a priviledged pawn is promoted to a piece still in play, the original piece is demoted to the pawn of its type. This effect is illustrated by Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4: Before Using Pawn Privilege
Black has a pawn of bishop ready to promote and sees an opportunity to fork red's king and rook. Since the pawn of bishop is priviledged, black chooses promotes to a queen. Black already has a queen on the board, which is demoted to a pawn of queen.
Figure 5: After Using Pawn Privilege
What would happen if the above scenario were to involve a pawn of queen instead of a pawn of rook? Zalewski is unclear on this point, but it could be guessed that the original queen can avoid demotion, allowing two black queens on the board. Otherwise the player would be penalized for having priviledge.
Concourse of Bishoping.
A perusal of the eight possible arrays reveals that opposing bishops are bound on opposite colors. The special case known as the concourse of bishoping allows bishops to capture enemy bishops. The concourse of bishoping is similar to the triumph of the boat found in Chaturanga for Four Players. By completing a 2x2 square formation involving all four bishops, the moving bishop takes all three other bishops. A concourse is a special case in which capturing a teammate's piece is legal.
Figure 6: Concourse of Bishoping
In Figure 6 above if the black bishop were to move to e4 it would complete the concourse, capturing all three of the other bishops. Unlike the triumph of the boat, the concourse maneuver is legal in only five positions on the board. A concourse can happen either at c4, c5, d4, & d5 as illustrated above and at the sets (b2, b3, c2, c3) or (b6, b7, c6, c7) or (f6, f7, g6, g7) or (f2, f3, g2, g3). The other four concourse locations are illustrated by Figure 7.
Figure 7: The Other Four Concourses
Concourse of Queens.
Opposing queens are also bound on opposite colors. A concourse of queens occurs under exactly the same circumstances as a concourse of bishoping. Bishops and queens may not be combined in a single concourse capture. All pieces involved must be either bishops OR queens.
Bare King.
When two players on the same team are both reduced to bare kings the game is a draw.
Withdrawing.
A player may withdraw from the game at any time, leaving their pieces in command of their teammate. If the withdrawing player has only a bare king, the remaining teammate is allowed to move either the bare king or their own pieces on BOTH colors' turns. If any other pieces remain in the army of the withdrawing player, then each color army may only be moved on its own turn.
Stalemate.
If a player has no move available except such that would put their unchecked king into check, that player is stalemated. Play continues, but the player is not allowed to take a turn until such time as a move by another player alleviates the stalemate condition. The game is drawn if a player is stalemated and their teammate is also currently out of the game (teammate also stalemated, teammate's king captured, teammate withdrawn or the stalemated king has seized a friendly throne).
Two or Three Player Games Enochian chess may be played with fewer than four players by having one or both players command two armies. Each color still receives its own turn and pieces cannot be played out of turn. (E.g. If one player is playing both red and yellow, no red pieces may be moved during the yellow turn unless the yellow army has taken control of the red army.) A player operating both armies may not withdraw as described above.
Bibliography.
Howe, Ellic. The Magicians of the Golden Dawn. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1972.
Regardie, Israel. The Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1989.
Yeats, W(illiam) B(utler). Memoirs trans. and edited by Denis Donoghue. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1973.
Zalewski, Chris. Enochian Chess of the Golden Dawn. St. Paul: Llewellyn Publications, 1994.
(Please note that off the four texts listed above, only Regardie and Zalewski will be of any possible use to the chess variantist. The others are cited only to help establish the historical pedigree for Enochian chess.)
Appendix I: Traditional Enochian Chess Equipment.
Figure 8: The Air BoardEnochian chess was traditionally played on one of four specially constructed boards. Each board represented on of the classical elements. Each square of each board was divided into 4 triangles, which were painted one of four different colors. These triangles were not game spaces themselves, merely components of the larger square cells used to play the game. Although confusing to the eye, an Enochian chessboard is functionally identical to a FIDE 8x8 board.
The pieces used in Enochian chess were generally stiff paper stand-ups much like the paper dolls and paper toy soldiers of the era. Each major piece had a unique name and design taken from Egyptian mythology and all the pieces were painted in four-color paint schemes. Figure 9 depicts the front of an example piece. Each piece was mounted upright on a base colored red, yellow, blue, or black to show its affiliation. The back of the pieces were each painted a solid color depending on piece type: Kings were painted white on the reverse. Knights were red. Queens were painted blue. Bishops were yellow and rooks were black.
Figure 9: Horus, the black knight
Appendix II: Alternate Arrays
The setup described in the main body of this essay is one of eight provided by Zalewski. The seven other possible set-ups are given below. All eight are equally valid arrays, with no preference given between them. Regardie indicates that there are 16 possible arrays, but Zalewski concludes that there are only eight arrays because there are eight pairs of arrays that are functionally identical. For example, the arrays "Air of Fire" and "Air of Earth" have the exact same piece arrangement. Therefore these two arrays are listed below under a single category, "Air of Fire & Earth".
Figure 10: Air of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & bishop, a8
rook, b8
knight, c8
queen, d8pawn of bishop, a7
pawn of rook, b7
pawn of knight, c7
pawn of queen, d7
BLUEking & bishop, h8
rook, h7
knight, h6
queen, h5pawn of bishop, g8
pawn of rook, g7
pawn of knight, g6
pawn of queen, g5
REDking & bishop, h1
rook, g1
knight, f1
queen, e1pawn of bishop, h2
pawn of rook, g2
pawn of knight, f2
pawn of queen, e2
BLACKking & bishop, a1
rook, a2
knight, a3
queen, a4pawn of bishop, b1
pawn of rook, b2
pawn of knight, b3
pawn of queen, b4
Figure 11: Fire of Air & Water
YELLOWking & knight, a8
rook, b8
bishop, c8
queen, d8pawn of knight, a7
pawn of rook, b7
pawn of bishop, c7
pawn of queen, d7
BLUEking & knight, h8
rook, h7
bishop, h6
queen, h5pawn of knight, g8
pawn of rook, g7
pawn of bishop, g6
pawn of queen, g5
REDking & knight, h1
rook, g1
bishop, f1
queen, e1pawn of knight, h2
pawn of rook, g2
pawn of bishop, f2
pawn of queen, e2
BLACKking & knight, a1
rook, a2
bishop, a3
queen, a4pawn of knight, b1
pawn of rook, b2
pawn of bishop, b3
pawn of queen, b4
Figure 12: Water of Air & Water
YELLOWking & queen, a8
bishop, b8
rook, c8
knight, d8pawn of queen, a7
pawn of bishop, b7
pawn of rook, c7
pawn of knight, d7
BLUEking & queen, h8
bishop, h7
rook, h6
knight, h5pawn of queen, g8
pawn of bishop, g7
pawn of rook, g6
pawn of knight, g5
REDking & queen, h1
bishop, g1
rook, f1
knight, e1pawn of queen, h2
pawn of bishop, g2
pawn of rook, f2
pawn of knight, e2
BLACKking & queen, a1
bishop, a2
rook, a3
knight, a4pawn of queen, b1
pawn of bishop, b2
pawn of rook, b3
pawn of knight, b4
Figure 13: Earth of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & rook, a8
bishop, b8
queen, c8
knight, d8pawn of rook, a7
pawn of bishop, b7
pawn of queen, c7
pawn of knight, d7
BLUEking & rook, h8
bishop, h7
queen, h6
knight, h5pawn of rook, g8
pawn of bishop, g7
pawn of queen, g6
pawn of knight, g5
REDking & rook, h1
bishop, g1
queen, f1
knight, e1pawn of rook, h2
pawn of bishop, g2
pawn of queen, f2
pawn of knight, e2
BLACKking & rook, a1
bishop, a2
queen, a3
knight, a4pawn of rook, b1
pawn of bishop, b2
pawn of queen, b3
pawn of knight, b4
Figure 14: Earth of Air & Water
YELLOWking & rook, a8
knight, b8
queen, c8
bishop, d8pawn of rook, a7
pawn of knight, b7
pawn of queen, c7
pawn of bishop, d7
BLUEking & rook, h8
knight, h7
queen, h6
bishop, h5pawn of rook, g8
pawn of knight, g7
pawn of queen, g6
pawn of bishop, g5
REDking & rook, h1
knight, g1
queen, f1
bishop, e1pawn of rook, h2
pawn of knight, g2
pawn of queen, f2
pawn of bishop, e2
BLACKking & rook, a1
knight, a2
queen, a3
bishop, a4pawn of rook, b1
pawn of knight, b2
pawn of queen, b3
pawn of bishop, b4
Figure 15: Fire of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & knight, a8
queen, b8
bishop, c8
rook, d8pawn of knight, a7
pawn of queen, b7
pawn of bishop, c7
pawn of rook, d7
BLUEking & knight, h8
queen, h7
bishop, h6
rook, h5pawn of knight, g8
pawn of queen, g7
pawn of bishop, g6
pawn of rook, g5
REDking & knight, h1
queen, g1
bishop, f1
rook, e1pawn of knight, h2
pawn of queen, g2
pawn of bishop, f2
pawn of rook, e2
BLACKking & knight, a1
queen, a2
bishop, a3
rook, a4pawn of knight, b1
pawn of queen, b2
pawn of bishop, b3
pawn of rook, b4
Figure 16: Water of Fire & Earth
YELLOWking & queen, a8
knight, b8
rook, c8
bishop, d8pawn of queen, a7
pawn of knight, b7
pawn of rook, c7
pawn of bishop, d7
BLUEking & queen, h8
knight, h7
rook, h6
bishop, h5pawn of queen, g8
pawn of knight, g7
pawn of rook, g6
pawn of bishop, g5
REDking & queen, h1
knight, g1
rook, f1
bishop, e1pawn of queen, h2
pawn of knight, g2
pawn of rook, f2
pawn of bishop, e2
BLACKking & queen, a1
knight, a2
rook, a3
bishop, a4pawn of queen, b1
pawn of knight, b2
pawn of rook, b3
pawn of bishop, b4
Appendix III: Why "Enochian" Chess?
Enochian chess is named after the Biblical patriarch Enoch, father of Methusaleh. In an occult tradition going back at least to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Enoch is considered a source hidden mystical knowledge, for he "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24) and "was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death" (Hebrews 11:5).
Initially this chess variant was also called Rosicrucian chess, after the Order of the Rosy Cross, a continental mystic fraternity from which the Order of the Golden Dawn claimed descent.
Appendix IV: Traditional Starting Procedure.
The first step to playing Enochian chess in the traditional manner is to select which of the four elemental boards will be used. This choice also determines which army moves first. On the air board yellow moves first. On the fire board red moves first. On the water board blue moves first. On the earth board black moves first.
The players then agree upon an array to be used. If playing on the fire or earth boards then only "... of fire & earth" arrays may be selected. If playing on the air or water boards then only "... of air & water" boards may be used.
Then players throw dice. In order from highest total to lowest each player in turn selects which army they will play, thereby determining their teams in the process.
(This dice method seems odd. The players with the second and third highest total on the dice determine the composition of the teams. The player who won the die roll gets the priviledge of choosing which army to operate (and whether or not that player gets the first move), but the "winner" is then at the mercy of others in regards to choosing a teammate.)
Final Note.
Golden Dawn practioners may take this essay to task for the method of presentation used, whereby the mystical nature of Enochian chess has been stripped away wherever possible. No offense is intended. Nor is it the design of this essay to endorse or refute anyone's belief system. Enochian Chess has been submitted to the Chess Variant Pages so that it may take its rightful place in the broader outline of chess variant history.
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