Chess and Friday the Thirteenth

[Phoenix]

Depending on where you are in the world tonight, Friday the Thirteenth has already started or is mere minutes from starting. So I suppose that means I am technically fulfilling my obligation by posting now.

Everyone knows the true value of a pawn is that they can, if they survive, become a queen. And if chess pieces were people, those that cared for that pawn may be concerned by the process. Would the pawn remember the other pawns that it had once fought beside or are they now expendable.

A lot of people forget about castling however. Wikipedia says this about the rule:

Castling is a move in the game of chess involving a player's king and either of the player's original rooks. It is the only move in chess in which a player moves two pieces in the same move, and it is the only move aside from the knight's move where a piece can be said to "jump over" another.

Castling consists of moving the king two squares towards a rook on the player's first rank, then moving the rook to the square over which the king crossed. Castling may only be done if the king has never moved, the rook involved has never moved, the squares between the king and the rook involved are unoccupied, the king is not in check, and the king does not cross over or end on a square in which it would be in check. Castling is one of the rules of chess and is technically a king move.

If one can't make a pawn into a queen, they might just choose to use a Rook to guard their king.

Happy Hunting!

[Ron Caliburn]

Castling is also a defensive move that limits your mobility. You give up being able to react for the perception of a strong defence. However, that defence is still able to be penetrated and when it is, you have nowhere to run.

I'm much more fond of using a Rook aggressively to eliminate my opponent's pieces before they can become a threat.

[Phoenix]

Which do you suppose Rook prefers? Though maybe the pieces would prefer not to be part of the game at all.

[Ron Caliburn]

I wasn't the one that brought her into the game. In fact, my preference was to give her a way out of the game completely. But the game tends not to let pieces just walk away.

However, unlike the ones that brought her into the game, I've never forced her into anything. She got to make choices with me, some of them worked out for her, some of them didn't, but I always gave her the option.

With her latest choice, she's trying to find her own way out of this game. I don't like her chances, but I'm hopeful it works out for her. If it doesn't, she'll find that I still have options available for her.

[Phoenix]

Maybe you're not so bad after all. Though appearances can be decieving.

[Last Moon]

As interesting as this back and forth may be, one wonders if perhaps the chess metaphor is a tad misplaced? While I understand only little about the young lady in question (at least if I grasp the context of a few more threads on this site), I do understand that her appellation has a meaning beyond that of just board-games.

In Persian, the language of the people who gave us the predecessor to chess, rook or rukh had a couple of different meanings. In the context of the game it meant a chariot. However, the rukh was also the Roc, a massive bird able to lift elephants and with a wingbeat that sounded like a thunderclap.

Now there is also a non-mythological rook. It is a species of raven that ranges from England to Japan. Ravens in general, and rooks in particular, are highly intelligent birds, able to use tools, understand human behaviors and mimic a wide variety of sounds. Methodologically they are very popular subjects, for example the Norse treat them as the spies of Odin and many cultures viewed them as bad omens or emissaries of death.

Perhaps the greatest mythology about the raven is the great trickster of Native American mythology, Raven. Like ravens, Raven was keenly intelligent and inquisitive. Raven used great mimicry skills and fast talking to trick many powerful beings and mortals. Raven's antics make Raven one of the most renown beings in Native American myth, and, like the Greek Prometheus, Raven has a place as a creator deity.

So yes, the young lady has more than a few choices as to what her name means. Perhaps you should consider some of the alternatives?

[Nemesis]

Knowing what I do about the handlers at the Foundation, their code name for her might well have had multiple layers of meaning. While I was the only one that learned magic, the fact that she survived the training at all speaks volumes about her abilities.

If anyone does encounter her, it wouldn't be wise to approach her or her handler (who appears to be a psychic with kenitic abilities). And if you must do so, approach with caution.

[Hannah]

I also recommend approaching with chocolate.

It worked for me last time I saw her.

HK

[Nemesis]

Mint chocolate might work better.