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Title
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1968_Sackson_360_December 07.jpg
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Creator
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Sid Sackson
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Date
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1968
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Type
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image
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Format
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.jpg
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Source
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Box 1, Object 6, Sid Sackson collection
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Language
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English
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Coverage
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1968
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Rights
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The Strong, Rochester, New York.
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transcription
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English
12/8
SATURDAY 7 DECEMBER
1968 342nd day - 24 days to come
Almost finished writing up OSMOSIS including a sample start of a game.
Played a hand of duplicate with BB & won it both ways.
Rcd. the rules for CHI CHI from Martin Gardner. It is from the
Nov. '68 issue of EYE Magazine. It is played on half a board with
the pieces started as shown.
[diagram of 8 x 4 grid with letters drawn: R, KN, B, Q, K; top two rows labeled "Black," bottom two rows labeled "White"]
(Direct copy from magazine.)
Imagine a game of CHESS that takes only minutes to play. From the open-
ing move, the action is series of fast, furious burst. "Check! ... Check! ..."
You can utter that satisfying word the first time you move a piece. You seize an en-
emy piece at almost every turn. Wild moves abound - like the lowly pawn trans-
forming itself into a glorious queen at its opening leap.
Interested? Then accept the invitation of the green-eyed, red-
haired chess player shown in the picture. She's Chi Chi Hackenberg, who is
studying dancing in New York and who devises chess problems for relaxation.
Chi Chi invented invented the jet-age version of the classic old game.
"There are only a few rule changes," says Chi Chi, who may have created
a landmark in the fourteen-hundred-year history of chess. "It's played almost
exactly like regular chess, but the average, thoughtful game takes only ten
or fifteen minutes."
Here are Chi Chi instructions: "Just fold the board in half. Then each player
sets his pieces as usual, except for removing three pawns (see diagram).
"There are only two new rules. First, white cannot move a pawn on his
opening move. Second, pawns can go backward as well as forward - one step straight
back into empty squares, diagonally back when capturing."
A model of simplicity, her rules are designed to enable the players to plunge
immediately into the middle game (eliminating the usual, slow-moving
prologue) with neither white nor black able to overwhelm the other at the
start with its tremendous firepower.
"The best opening move for white, in my opinion, is King's Knight takes rook pawn,"
says Chi Chi. This subtle opening immediately threatens KB-NZ checkmate!
Black might do well to reply with QPxP check! Black could thus mount an opening
offensive of at least four straight checks (including a queen capture) before
white could counterattack. From then on (except for the extra, reverse-direction
power granted the pawns), you're playing with all the rules and skill needed
for standard chess.
(With this article on chess, Eye launches a new department - to be run at
irregular intervals - called Change the Game. If Chess can be speeded up, so
can a host of tired-out, traditional sports and games.)
Claude called. Was at a store and saw THE BIG BOARD, which I have.
He was feeling depressed so we talked for quite a while. Told him of my meeting
next Tuesday & suggested that he work on a series of games based on
game theory.
(cont. on 12/8)
