Players

Their colors Red and Yellow in a checked design, much like the Kaissa Board itself. They include Those that play Kaissa perfessionally.

"Mintar was lost in thought, his small eyes fastened to the red and yellow squares of the board. Having recognised our presence, Marlenus, too, turned his attention to the game. A brief, craft light flickered momentarily in Mintar's small eyes, and his pudgy hand hovered, hesitating an instant, over one of the pieces of the hundred-squared board, a centred Tarnsman. He touched it, committing himself to move it. A brief exchange followed, like a chain reaction, neither man considering his moves for a moment, First Tarnsman took First Tarnsman, Second Spearman responded by neutralising First Tarnsman, City Neutralised Spearman, Assassin took City, Assassin fell to Second Tarnsman, Tarnsman to Spear Slave, Spear Slave to Spear Slave. Mintar relaxed on the cushions. 'You have taken the City,' he said, 'but not the Home Stone.' His eyes gleamed with pleasure. 'I permitted that, in order that I might capture the Spear Slave. Let us now adjudicate the game. The Spear Slave gives me the point I need, a small point but decisive.' Marlenus smiled, rather grimly. 'But position must figure in any adjudication,' he said. Then, with an imperious gesture, Marlenus swept his Ubar into the file opened by the movement of Mintar's capturing Spear Slave. It covered the Home Stone." Book 1, Tarnsman of Gor, pages 169 - 170 "The Players are not a caste, nor a clan, but they tend to be a group apart, living their own lives. They are made up of men from various castes who often have little in common but the game, but that is more than enough. They are men who commonly have an extraordinary aptitude for the game but beyond this men who have become drunk on it, men lost in the subtle, abstract liquors of variation, pattern and victory, men who live for the game, who want it and need it as other men might want gold, or others power and women, or others the rolled, narcotic strings of toxic kanda." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 27 ~才 "There are competitions of Players, with purses provided by amateur organizations, and sometimes by the city itself and these purses are, upon occasion, enough to enrich a man, but most Players earn a miserable living by hawking their wares, a contest with a master, in the street. The odds are usually one to forty, one copper tarn disk against a forty-piece, sometimes against an eighty-piece, and sometimes the amateur who would play the master insists on further limitations, such as the option to three consecutive moves at a point in the game of his choice, or that the master must remove from the board, before the game beghins, his two tarnsmen, or his Riders of the High Tharlarion. Further, in order to gain Players, the master, if wise occasionally loses a game, which is expensive at the normal odds; and the game must be lost subtly, that the amateur must believe he has won." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, pages 27 - 28 ~才 "Those who play the game for money have a hard lot, for the market is a buyer's market, and commonly men will play with them only on terms much to their satisfaction. I myself, when Centius of Cos was in Ko-ro-ba, might have played him on the bridge near the Cylinder of Warriors for only a pair of copper tarn disks. It seemed sad to me, that I, who knew so little of the game, could have so cheaply purchased the privilege of sitting across the board from such a master. It seemed to me that men should pay a tarn disk of gold just to be permitted to watch such a master play, but such were not the economic realities of the game." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 28 ~才 "In spite of having the respect, even to some degree the adulation, of almost all Goreans, the Players lived poorly. On the Street of Coins they found it difficult even to arrange loans. They were not popular with innkeepers, who would not shelter them unless paid in advance. Many were the nights a master would be found rolled in robes in a Paga tavern, where, for a bit of tarsk meat and a pot of paga, and an evening's free play with customers, he would be permitted to sleep. Many of the Players dreamed of the day they might be nominated for intercity competitions at the Fairs of the Sardar, for a victor in teh Sardar Fairs earns enough to keep himself, and well, for years, which he then would devote to the deeper study of the game." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 28 ~才 "There is also some money for the masters in the annotation of games, printed on large boards near the Central Cylinder, in the preparation of editing of scrolls on the game, and in the providing of instruction for those who would improve their skills. On the whole, however, the Players live extremely poorly." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, pages 28 - 29 ~才 "Further, there is a harsh competition amoung themselves, for positions in certain streets and on certain bridges. The most favorable locations for play are, of course, the higher bridges in teh vicinity of the richer cylinders, the most expensive Paga taverns, and so on. These positions, or territories, are allotted by the outcome of games among the Players themselves in Ar, the high bridge near the Central Cylinder, housing the palace of the Ubar and the meeting place of the city's High Council, was held, and had been for four years, by the young and brilliant, fiery Scormus of Ar." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 29 ~才 " 'Game!' I heard, an answering cry, and a fat fellow, of the Caste of Vintners, puffing and bright eyed, wearing a white tunic with a representation in green cloth of leaves about the collar and down the sleeves of the garment, stepped forth from a doorway. Without speaking the Player sat down cross-legged at one side of the street, and placed the board in front of him. Opposite him sat the Vintner." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 29 ~才 "The Player was a rather old man, extremely unusual on Gor, where the stabilization serums were developed centuries ago by the Caste of Physicians in Ko-ro-ba and Ar, and transmitted to the physicians of other cities at several of the Sardar Fairs. Age, on Gor, interestingly, was regarded, and still is, by the caste of Physicians as a disease, not an inevitable natural phenomenon. the fact that it seemed a universal disease did not dissuade the caste from considering how it might be combated. Accordingly the work of centuries was turned to this end. Many other diseases, which presumably flourished centuries ago on Gor, tended to be neglected, as less dangerous and less universal then that of aging. A result tended to be that those less suseptible lived on, propegating their kind." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 29 ~才 "...it is not permitted that Players be slave. That a slave should play is regarded as an insult to free men, and an insult to the game. Further, no free man would care to be beaten by a slave." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 31 ~才 " 'Your terms?' asked the Player. 'I move first,' said the Vintner. This of course, was an advantage, permitting the Vintner to choose his own opening, an opening he may have studied for a lifetime. MOreover, having the first move, he might more speedily develop his pieces, bringing them into the central areas of the board where they might control crucial squares, the crossroads of the board. And further, having the first move, he would probably be able to carry the initiative of the aggressor several moves into the game, perhaps to the conclusion." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 31 ~才 "Players, when playing among themselves, with men of equal strength, frequently play for a draw ehen they do not have the first move." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, pages 31 - 32 ~才 "In the prospect of a game, Goreans tend to foget the distances, amentities and trepidations of more sober moments." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 32 ~才 "Goreans often play without the board and pieces, though generally they prefer them becase then less effort need be expended on the purely mnemonic matters of keeping the pattern in mind, move to move." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 33 ~才 " 'A double tarn,' said I, 'to red, should red win.' Such an amount I knew would not be likely to be earned in a year by a Player." Book 5, Assassin of Gor, page 35 ~才 "It was true that the Kaissa of the north differed in some respects from tournament Kaissa in the south. The games, however, were quite similar. Indeed Kaissa was played varioiusly on the planet. For example, several years ago Kaissa was played somewhat differently in Ar than it was now. Most Gorean cities now, at least in the south, had accepted a standard tournament Kaissa, agreed upon by the high council of the caste of players. Sometimes the changes were little more than semantic. For example, a piece which once in Ar had been called the "City" was now identified officially as the "home Stone" even in Ar. Indeed, some players in Ar had always called it the Home Stone. More seriously there were now no "Spear Slaves" in common Kaissa, as there once had been, though there were distinctions among "Spearmen." It had been argued that slaves had no right upon the Kaissa board." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, pages 43 - 44 ~才 "One might note also, in passing, that slaves are not permitted to play Kaissa. In most cities it is regarded, incidentally, as a criminal offense to enslave one of the caste of players. A similar decree, in most cities, stands against the enslavement of one who is of the caste of musicians." Book 12, Beasts of Gor, page 44 ~才 "He looked down at the board. 'Perhaps it is stupid, or absurd, or foolish, that men should concern themselves with such things.' 'Kaissa?' I asked. 'Yes,' he said. 'Now,' I said, 'you are being truly foolish.' 'Perhaps that is all it is, after all,' he said, 'the meaningless movement of bits of wood on a checkered surface.' 'And love,' I said, 'is only a disturbance in the glands and music only a stirring in the air.' 'And yet it is all I know,' he said. 'Kaissa, like love and music, is its own justification,' I said. 'It requires no other.' " Book 20, Players of Gor, page 236

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