[Ads-l] X-dimensional chess

Sat Feb 24 03:23:04 UTC 2018

Here is a citation with a "cubic chess-board" simile circa 1861.

Year: 1861 (Not listed in book; Approximate year specified in British
Library catalog)
Title: The Busy Hives Around Us: A Variety of Trips and Visits to the
Mine, the Workshop and the Factory
Chapter: India Mills. Heaton Norris. Cotton Lords
Start Page 19, Quote Page 22
Publisher: James Hogg & Sons, London
Database: Google Books

https://books.google.com/books?id=a4YBAAAAQAAJ&q=%22cubic-chess%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Buildings, chequered with scores of windows, are too numerous in
Lancashire to excite any great awe, yet here we fain give a glance
over a frontage of eight tiers, and a quarter of a hundred windows in
a tier; 200 windows on one side, as it were, of a cubic chess-board.
It is a marvel amongst marvels, and, as if to overwhelm us at once, we
see iron binders project from one end of the mill, pointing a finger
to another big space yet vacant, and in plain English publishing the
banns of marriage between the Adam there and the Eve yet to come.
[End excerpt]

[Excerpt page 257 & 258 indicating publication date around 1860 or 1861]
The Daily Telegraph doubled its size as we have said in the spring of
1858, and to judge by its present appearance in the winter of 1860, it
has not had cause to regret the change.
[End excerpt]

In 1907 a version of three-dimensional chess called "Cubic Chess" was
discussed in a London periodical.

Date: October 26, 1907
Periodical: The Accountant
Section: Weekly Notes
Article: Cubic Chess
Quote Page 529
Publisher: Gee & Co., The Accountant Office, London
Database: HathiTrust

https://hdl.handle.net/2027/umn.31951001893540k?urlappend=%3Bseq=559

[Begin excerpt]
Cubic Chess

Dr. Ferdinand Maack, a Jewish gentleman of Berlin, is evidently of
opinion that the game of chess in its present form is not sufficiently
involved to be worthy of maintained interest. It is reported that he
has added to its length and breadth the third dimension of depth, and
with this idea in view he proposes eight ordinary boards, one above
another in a frame with a space between each. It is difficult to quite
grasp the Berlin savant's idea in its entirety, because details are,
unfortunately, lacking, but we are happy to say that it does not
appear to resemble "Diabolo" in the least!
[End excerpt]

There were a few matches for "cubic chess" in 1908 including this text
in Scientific American.

Date: February 1, 1908
Title: Scientific American
Volume 98
Article: Chess in Three Dimensions by Our Berlin Correspondent
Quote Page 76
Database: Google Books

https://books.google.com/books?id=Coc3AQAAMAAJ&q=%22cubic+chess%22#v=snippet&

[Begin excerpt]
Tridimensional or cubic chess is played with the same typical men as
board chess, but with a greater number of pawns. The number of pawns
actually used depends on the operation basis adopted.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Wed, Feb 21, 2018 at 1:24 PM, Peter Reitan <pjreitan at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Surprisingly, references to three-dimensional chess, tri-dimensional chess, four-dimensional chess and multi-dimensional chess all predate Star Trek, in some cases by several decades, in literal and idiomatic senses.
>
> In 1915, a British chess writer wrote a story about Caissa (the godess of chess) revealing a three-dimensional version of chess to him on a visitation on on Christmas Eve. British Chess Magazine, Volume 35, Number 420, December, 1915, page 43.
>
> In 1926, students in the University of Rochester Chess Club launched a project to develop a new version of chess that would better reflect modern warfare, with pieces that moved (like airplanes) in three dimensions.
> Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY), March 26, 1926, page 23
>
> In 1932, at a meeting of the Marshall Chess Club in Brooklyn, a speaker appearing in character as a Martian described chess masters on Mars who could "play four-dimensional chess without sight of the board, which is in the form of a tessera."
> Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 26, 1932, page 28.
>
> On several occasions, beginning in the mid-1930s, Albert Einstein denied rumors that he spent his free time playing "three-dimensional chess." He claimed not to have any free time.
>
> The idiomatic use of "x-dimensional chess" to describe a complex system with many variables appears to have been in use in military circles in WWII. At various times, air defenses, submarine hunting and manpower issues.
>
> In 1939, a war correspondent in France described the scene in a war-room, the kind with a large map with pieces moved around to show the positions and circles and arrows showing movement, as "a sort of three-dimensional chess game with all the elements reduced to mathematical abstractions and therefore rendered comprehensible."
> Chicago Tribune, November 16, 1939, page 8.
>
> In 1942, a columnist described the difficulties of wartime manning of the military and war industries. "America's manpower problem is like the three-dimensional chess game invented by a couple of Oxford dons who thought ordinary kings and pawns too easy."
> St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 23, 1942, page 22 (Paul R. Leach in the Chicago Daily News).
>
> In 1956, Rear Admiral Morison published a multi-volume history of US Naval Operations in WWII.  A reviewer noted, "Rear Admiral Morison brings into simple understanding the deadly three-dimensional chess game that ultimately killed off the U-boats and secured the lifeline of the Allies."
> Grand Prairie Daily News (Texas), March 22, 1956, page 12.
>
> Others used the expression idiomatically as well.
>
> In 1952, a newspaper columnist mocked the new-age artists at an exhibition in Los Angeles. "They've taken to playing international tick-tack-toe and four dimensional chess!  Much better than knitting and tatting!  And so modern! And so safe from the big bad world! And the nice lady who was preaching the sermon on how blue goes back and red comes forward! She said to the people on camp stools, she said: 'Do you get an emotional or an intellectual reaction from it? Please raise your hands.'"
> Los Angeles Times, July e20, 1952, Part IV (Drama-Arts), page 4.
>
> In 1959, "Air traffic control has been compared to a fast three-dimensional chess game wherein the controller has to win every move."
> The Burlington Free Press (Vermont), December 17, 1959, page 26.
>
> And in 1965, just before Star Trek made it a thing, "To Hoffa, life is a multi-dimensional chess game, which he plays on many levels at once with gusto and self-confidence.  The problem is how to keep the opponent's capital pieces in jeopardy while persistently attacking his weaker fronts, a maneuver which requires a keen instinct for the realities of power."
> Detroit Free Press, September 5, 1965, Detroit Magazine, page 14.
>
> In 1971, during complicated trade negotiations between Britain and France:
> "Butter is one of the pieces in the multidimensional chess game: it can be moved, or not moved, on the board not only for the purpose of completing the game or registering a stalemate but also to signal intentions or false intentions."
> The Manchester Guardian, May 12, 1971, page 13.
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 6:59 AM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: X-dimensional chess
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      X-dimensional chess
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Creaky oldsters will recall the first time we saw Spock playing
> three-dimensional chess on board the old Enterprise back in 19 and 66.
>
> Recently a Trump supporter on TV explained that the president constantly
> plays "four-dimensional chess."
>
> Last night on CNN another one assured viewers that, while it may not seem
> that he's doing anything about Russian bad behavior, he's  working hard
> *behind* the scenes, in ways we can know nothing about. The explanation was
> that, as a successful businessman, Mr. Trump plays "eight-dimensional
> chess" his wonders to perform.
>
> And in the words of a GB author,  "Not even Garry Kasparov could grasp the
> basic principles of eight-dimensional chess."
>
> Myself, I prefer extradimensional chess  (68 Google hits). It enables me to
> work out most of my schemes in parallel dimensions until such time as I
> care to reveal them in this existential sector.
>
> JL
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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>
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