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KAISSA:
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Let us begin with the board itself. Most games of Kaissa are actually played
on a large checkered cloth. This cloth also serves as a pouch for the kaissa
pieces when not in use. There are some Goreans that prefer the wooden checkered
board to the cloth but this is rare and has nothing to do with
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status, simply a matter of taste. When unfolded, the cloth is set between
two opposing players with the nearest, left hand corner always being a light
colored square. The cloth consists of 100 checkered squares with the colors
normally being red and yellow, but this does vary from region to region.
In kaissa, the lighter color always has the first move.
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Kaissa is a game based upon battle. You and your opponent are about to engage
and the kaissa cloth is the battle field. You must advance your pieces strategically
across the field in an effort to capture your opponent's home-stone. Each
piece moves slightly different from the others.
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All capturing of your opponents' pieces must be done by landing directly
on the square containing his piece. The game is over when either a home-stone
is captured or when the players have agreed that niether side can capture
the other's home-stone, thus ending in a draw.
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Kaissa Pieces:
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Ubar:
The Ubar is the most powerful piece on the cloth. He is normally represented
as a large Man wearing robes. He is always the tallest piece on the cloth.
The Ubar begins in the center of the backrow on the red square. He moves
in a straight line in any direction over as many squares as he wishes as
long as his way is not impeded by another game piece.
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Ubara:
The Ubara is nearly always represented as a female wearing robes and is
the second tallest piece on the cloth. The Ubara sits just to the left of
the Ubar. The Ubara may move in a straight line in any direction but her
movement is limited to five squares. She may not move diagonally.
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Tarnsman:
The Tarnsman is represented as a large bird. There is rarely an image of
a human involved and in many regions a simple feather is used for this piece.
There are two Tarnsmen per side, they sit to the left and right of the Ubar
and Ubara. His movement is special in that he may move either up two `
squares and over three or up three and over two in any direction. In addition,
he is the only piece that may move over other game pieces.
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Scribe:
The Scribe is represented as a small man with crossed arms. He normally
is not wearing robes. There are two Scribes per side in Kaissa and the start
position is the square next to the Tarnsman. The Scribe moves in a straight
line of no more than five squares. He is limited to his own file and may
not move from left to right.
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Initiate:
Represented as a hooded figure on most kaissa cloths. His movement is forward
and backward diagonally on his own color as long as he is not impeded.
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Builder:
The Builder is represented as a round ball with a flattened bottom. Wealthy
Goreans have very elaborate Builders of clear glass with intricate colored
swirls in the stone. However, most Goreans simply use a simple river stone
worn smooth from the effects of the water. The Builder moves forward and
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back in a straight line as many squares as he wishes unless impeded. Unlike
the Scribe, he may move left and right out of his file.
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Spearmen:
The Spearmen are the most numerous pieces on the cloth. Each side has six.
The piece is represented as a figure holding a shield and a spear. He moves
forward only and captures only on the diagonal. On his first move, the piece
may move either one or two spaces. After this move he is limited to one
square forward with each consecutive move.
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Assassin:
The Assassin is usually represented as a dagger on the cloth.Like the Tarnsman,
there is usually no human image associated with this piece. The Assassin
has the ability to move two squares in any direction as long as they are
not impeded by another piece. He may move only one square at a time if he
desires.There are always two assassins working together on each side.
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Rider of the High Tharlarion:
This piece is normally represented as a human form atop a tharlarion. For
an unknown reason this piece is never holding a weapon. The Rider, as it
is commonly known, also moves two squares like the Assassin, but does not
have the option of moving only one square if he wishes. Also, he is unable
to move diagonally like the Assassin may.
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Home Stone:
The home Stone is a unique playing piece as it does not occupy a square
on the cloth till after play begins. Most Goreans do not have a particular
stone used for this piece in their pouch. Most will usually find a small
stone just before playing. The Home Stone is the objective of the game.
It is added to the cloth sometime after the seventh move but before the
tenth move. It
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must be placed on an unoccupied square somewhere in the back row. Once on
the cloth, the Home Stone may move one space in any direction but does not
have the ability to capture opponents pieces.
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The Nature of Kaissa:
On what grounds is kaissa like a game, a science, or an art?
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Kaissa as a game. This is an obvious candidate about which there can be
little dispute. Kaissa is one of the oldest board games in existence dating
back to the earliest times on Gor. There is no documentation to prove it's
age, but the scribe Thellerian of Gos was able to identify cave drawings
depicting a variation of the game that dated back nearly 700 years. One
can easily
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identify the aspects of the game, it's ability to relax, it's conjovial
nature, it's ability to bring amusement to the players. Indeed, my suspicion
is that most players would view kaissa as an enjoyable pastime that can
be used to while-away an afternoon. And to this type of player, kaissa has
a remarkable healing touch. However, to the more advanced player, those
found on the
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high towers of our cities or hunched over their cloth until the very early
ahn of the morning,kaissa seems to be much more.
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Kaissa as science:
The difficulty of kaissa has it's roots in the mathematical structure of
the game. There is an ability to break the game down into various pieces,
to examine moves and foresee outcomes,much like a mathematical problem.
Taruk of Cos has estimated that the number of atoms that make up our universe
is roughly 10 to the 70th power. That is nothing much on kaissa.
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Kraitchik the scribe has estimated the number of possibilities in a 40 move
game at 25x 10 to the 115th power, and that the number of possible games
is roughly 10 to the 120th power! Indeed, most Masters of the game see kaissa
as infinite as language.
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How then does one learn to play this game at all? As everyone knows, the
beginner is taught certain maxims or precepts of positional play which enable
him to cope with apparent disorder, eg. 'seize open files', occupy the 7th
rank with a scribe', 'avoid isolated spearmen', put your spearmen on opposite
colored squares to those of your tarnsmen', ect, ect…
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The mathematical vision of the game and the ability to teach certain maxims
have drawn many Goreans to the conclusion that kaissa falls more to a science
than a simple game. Even these players fall short in their view of the game.
The Masters see kaissa as something even deeper still.
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Kaissa as an art:
It has been said that to view Celenious of Ar play the game was like watching
poetry in motion. Kaissa affords a unique medium of expression to those
Masters who develop it. Art has the ability to draw men to it like a drug.
And like art, kaissa can become obsessive, and starvation from it can lead
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withdrawal symptoms. In Ar, men have been known to leave their free `
companions for the game and it was rumored that the slaves of Catullus of
Tyros would glue down his kaissa pieces in order to get time with him.
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There is a beauty to kaissa that draws men to it, a desire to create, to
defend, to inspire. Indeed, the strong aesthetic appeal makes kaissa a worthy
candidate as an art.
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Winning and Losing:
There are two priorities for any contestant in a kaissa match: to win,if
possible, and to avoid defeat. For most players, the misery of defeat is
far greater than the elevation of victory. For some players, the pain of
defeat is so high that throughout their careers they appear to strive not
for success, but for the avoidance of failure.
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Rarely willing to take risks, they prefer a safe draw to a venture into
the unknown with the chance of victory. This attitude can be seen in players
of all ages.
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Generally, however, the younger player is ambitious and willing to suffer
a little on the road to glory. The occasional defeat can be tolerated as
long as there are enough victories in compensation. As a player adds to
his list of battle honors, his appetite wanes. But the pain of failure and
the misery of defeat never retreat.
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Particularly when a Master has scaled the great peaks of the kaissa world,
a defeat to a lesser man has an element of humiliation. The temptation to
settle for a comfortable life of painless draws may become hard to resist.
The cause is not the peacefulness of old age but the comparative loss of
attraction of glory compared with the suffering of failure.
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Motivation and Talent:
There appears to be no unanimity about the central features of talent and
motivation in regards to kaissa. I will use this space to quote Tarrasch
of Treve , as I see the statement central to it's understanding.
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"A novice playing at the board sees only the details of the kaissa
cloth and the particular form of the kaissa pieces because he cannot grasp
their intrinsic significance. Conversely, the player absorbed in the strategy
of the game does not see a piece of wood with a shield and sword, but the
course prescribed for the tarnsman, that is worth approximately three spearmen,
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that is perhaps at the moment badly placed at the edge of the cloth, or
about to wage a decisive attack, or in danger of being nailed down by the
adversary, ect. In other words, he does not see a wooden figure; he is oblivious
to it's material aspects, he perceives the significance of the piece as
tarnsman….The player concentrates his effort and attention to the `
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exclusion of all else….Though his gaze may rest mechanically on some
external details, he is completely unaware of their nature….I could
not tell you whether wooden or metal kaissa pieces were used during the
Sardar Fair; even had you asked me as I left the tournament. Yet I still
know by heart all of the games I played there and all the moves of each
game….The yellow `
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Ubar of the set I play with at my tent has lost his head, and from time
to time my slave glues it's head back on with wax. After most long games….
I wouldn't venture to say whether I had played with a complete or headless
Ubar."
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Let me close by giving my own understanding of the game. I do not find it
offensively narrow to call kaissa a game. It is a science, a technique,
an art, that sways among these categories. At once a union of all contradictory
concepts: primal yet ever new; mechanical in it's operation yet effective
only through the imagination; bounded in geometric space though boundless
in it's
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combinations; thought that leads to nothing; mathematics that produce no
results; more lasting in it's being and presence then all books and achievements;
the only game that belongs to all the people for all ages; of which none
knows the divinity that bestowed it on our world, to slay boredom, to sharpen
the senses, to exhilarate the spirit. We go on searching for it's beginning
and it's end.
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