Talk:Chess

Aspects to cover

I started this article because chess is a well known game around the world, and there are international chess tournaments you can travel to watch. I think we should discuss what other travel-related aspects we can cover. For instance, are there any chess museums people can visit? I have also seen giant chess pieces as art installations. And to top it off, you can often buy ornamental chess sets as souvenirs in places like Russia or France, some of which can cost you thousands of dollars. What do people think? The dog2 (talk) 16:14, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

You can definitely add sections to the article like "buy" (think of the standard article headings) in travel topics to cover things like purchasing chess pieces, etc. I also think that we could create an overall article for board games.

What about checkers? Do you think that game should be included in the chess article? --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 16:57, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

I don't think it should be here as it is a different game, but if you know of any travel related stuff pertaining to checkers, I think we can create a separate checkers article. I think a better name to classify those games would be "mind sports", as that would also allow us to include games not played on a board such as bridge.

Speaking of which, how detailed should we be in explaining the rules? While the main purpose of this article is not to teach people how to play chess, and we do not seek to replicate Wikipedia, I'm not sure if the level of detail we have is enough for someone completely new to be able to watch and understand a game of chess. The dog2 (talk) 17:04, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

I think the amount of content we should include should be enough for someone to be able to watch a game of chess and understand it. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 17:18, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Thedog, you can buy ornamental chess sets in New York, too. I imagine you probably can in any big city. But there are probably some places where the selection is greater and there's more of a tradition of making beautiful chess sets. I'm guessing this would also be true in ancient chess-playing countries like Iran and India and places in the Middle East, Turkey, etc. Also, when you bring up museums: I seem to recall seeing at least one beautiful old chess set from someplace like Iran on display at the Metropolitan Museum. I think general historical art museums include beautiful chess boards and sets if they've got them. But what we'd be looking for to list would be a museum that displays a more extensive collection.

I agree that Checkers should be a different article, and there may be scope for other articles about Go and so forth - it just depends how extensive the tournament circuit is and so forth. Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:13, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Sure, I know you can buy ornamental chess sets in any big city, and you can even order them from Amazon, but I was referring to those places that have a long history of making them. Of course, French, Swiss and Russian cultures are all different, so ornamental chess sets made in each of those countries will be different. Speaking of which, although I won't call that set ornamental, I once bought a nice set at a street market in Colombia, and the design had a very nice indigenous South American flair to it.

As for Go, there is a huge professional tournament circuit in Japan. If you watch the anime Hikaru no Go, it is a strong reference to that circuit. And not to mention, China and Korea also have professional Go tournaments, and there are international tournaments where the best Chinese, Japanese and Korean players come together to compete for national glory. The dog2 (talk) 20:39, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

Speaking of which, I noticed that the redirect I created under "International chess". I think the redirect should be reinstated because people sometimes call the game "International chess" to distinguish it from Chinese chess (xiangqi) or Japanese chess (shogi). Therefore, it is not inconceivable that people would search for chess under that name. The dog2 (talk) 21:09, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

I've had similar redirects deleted on the basis that they are similar to the name of the article and, therefore, if they are entered into Wikivoyage search, the correct result will come up. For example, if you enter "International chess" into the search bar, the first result that comes up is "chess". --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 21:13, 3 November 2018 (UTC)

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘OK. I don't agree with this policy but if that's what the community has decided, I won't push the issue. I plan to create an article about Chinese chess (xiangqi) at some point in the near future, so I might create the redirect if necessary when that happens. The dog2 (talk) 02:13, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Oh, I'm not saying that I support the deletion of the "International chess" redirect; I'm just explaining why it was removed. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 02:49, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Outdoor chess sets

There must be thousands of parks around the world with outdoor chess sets. Can we restrict destinations to those with noteworthy chess facilities? Andrewssi2 (talk) 10:37, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Sure. What criteria would you propose to determine what we would consider to be noteworthy? The dog2 (talk) 16:21, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Probably, only include the five most important chess sets in this article. At least, that's what I think. That should be enough to give people an idea of what outdoor chess sets are like. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 16:53, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

The criteria is difficult for me to suggest! For example, the recently added Directors Park in Oregon appears lower priority, given both its own website and wikipedia article do not even mention chess.

I haven't had much luck Googling for advise. this forum suggests chess boards with:

• Good community of local players
• Free usage
• Nice surroundings
• In the shade for playing in hot weather

Andrewssi2 (talk) 21:36, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

I have a feeling that there are a lot of chess sets that meet those criteria. I'd still say that we should only mention a few outdoor chess sets in this article. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 22:22, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Yes... so how could we narrow the criteria further? Andrewssi2 (talk) 22:36, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Although I added Director Park, I don't object now to its removal. It has Big Chess (human-scale chess board), but I can see the argument that there would probably be too many such parks without requiring something more (I don't know how many people play there, etc). JakeOregon (talk) 22:51, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

@Andrewssi2: Perhaps we could do it based on the number of visitors, if those numbers are available. --Comment by Selfie City (talk | contributions) 22:53, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Many of these chess boards are in open public areas and often not supervised. I doubt numbers would be recorded. Also I personally wouldn't want to visit a chess board with excessive numbers of visitors. Andrewssi2 (talk) 23:42, 4 November 2018 (UTC)

Quote

The quote is nice, but the identification is insufficient. It's from the musical, "Chess", isn't it? Ikan Kekek (talk) 19:42, 21 March 2019 (UTC)

• Positively yes, the 1984 w:Chess (musical) one, and here is the appropriate reference, if we were to need it. Ibaman (talk) 21:33, 23 October 2020 (UTC)