Human chess

Game of human chess. Monselice, Italy.

Human chess is a form of chess in which people take the place of pieces. Human chess is typically played outdoors, either on a large chessboard or on the ground, and is often played at Renaissance fairs. Many human chess games are choreographed stage shows performed by actors trained in stage combat. When this is the case, piece captures are represented by choreographed fights that determine whether the piece is actually taken or not. Alternatively, the pieces may spar, following rules similar to those used by the Society for Creative Anachronism.

A costumed human chess game has been staged every two years in the Italian city of Marostica, near Venice since 1923. The game commemorates a legendary chess game played in 1454 by two young gentlemen in order to settle which of them would court the lady that both had fallen in love with.

In fiction

Human chess is featured in Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll and The Chessmen of Mars (1922) by Edgar Rice Burroughs (as the Barsoomian game Jetan). It appears in "All the King's Horses" by Kurt Vonnegut, as well as in Pawn in Frankincense and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. In the Discworld novel Interesting Times, human chess is played by the Emperor of the Agatean Empire, with captured pieces being summarily executed.

Human chess also appeared in The Prisoner episode "Checkmate" and the Simpsons episode "Tennis the Menace."

In computer games

Certain computer chess programs depict animations of combat between pieces. The first of these games was Battle Chess by Interplay, released in 1988, which featured comical but bloody battles between animated characters.^{[citation needed]} Other variations include pop culture icons such as Star Wars Chess. Chessmaster features an option to use animated 3D pieces that assault one another.

Many video games have included chess themed levels, such as American McGee's Alice and World of Warcraft, which feature chess iconography and some chess rules, usually without simulating an actual game.

Cosplay human chess

In 2004, Metrocon created and hosted the first anime human chess game.^{[citation needed]} It was pre-scripted and used choreographed combat.

Since then, other anime conventions ranging in size from Anime Boston to Manifest began featuring cosplay human chess in which the chess pieces are people cosplaying as anime or video game characters. Some cosplay chess games are themed (good versus evil, Shounen versus Shoujo, occult versus science, angst versus sugar).

Depending on the convention, the game of chess may be either pre-scripted or improvisational and its format may vary. The Anime Human Chess performed at Metrocon is a wholly pre-planned stage show, and each year's cast members are selected by auditioning. The show is rehearsed for months in advance, with all captures and victories determined beforehand and combat between pieces choreographed.

Smaller conventions such as Vericon, Connecticon, and AnimeUSA have held non-scripted games where pieces are played by volunteers who come to the convention in costume.

Anime Boston has developed a hybrid of these two styles. The chess pieces are convention attendees who apply in advance online, thirty-two of which take the place of pieces on the board, two of which represent the players and the rest of which are extra characters who come from backstage to help or interfere with combat. Such sequences are often scripted, as are certain special events, during which groups of characters attack or interfere with the chess game as part of an ongoing plot line fitting the theme of the game. The order of moves and overall chess game may or may not be improvised as decided by the players.

In AnimeNEXT, the game is completely improvised by the coordinators. One person plays out both sides and an actor takes on the role of the other player while bantering with the MCs who are usually voice actors.

The chess at Tora-Con is performed by RIT Cosplay Troupe. The entire show is comedic in nature and is scripted. The chess pieces' coordinators have been characters acting outside the board as well as pieces themselves. When capturing, the board is temporarily cleared for space as the pieces engage in stage combat. Although the game follows the rules of chess for the most part, brawls and fights involving multiple pieces are not uncommon. Themes in previous years have included anime versus video game and good versus evil.

External links

• http://www.metroconventions.com – METROCON – Florida's largest anime convention featuring the original Anime Human Chess Match. Located in Tampa, Florida.
• http://humanchess.typepad.com/project/ – an ongoing series of life-sized chess games in urban settings
• AnimeBoston.com – featuring New England's most complex Cosplay Human Chess game
• http://www.ng-master.org/cm/thumbnails.php?album=554 – detailed photos of Anime Boston 2007 cosplay chess
• [1] [2] Animeiowa 2008–2009 anime-themed human cosplay chess
• http://www.animenext.org/cosplay-human-chess - AnimeNEXT's Cosplay Human Chess
• [http://ritct.webs.com/ - RIT Cosplay Troupe official website