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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
At the time, Fischer declared "chess is war on a board", and at that moment in history it certainly seemed like it. But then it always has. If all games are to some degree a surrogate for violence and war, no game so closely compares to a set-piece battle as chess. Two opposing armies line up to march across the board, foot-soldier pawns1 in front, officers behind. Every chess-set shows a society at war. Whether that society is Indian, Middle Eastern or European, the way the pieces are named and shaped tells us a great deal about how that society functions. So, if we want to visualise European society around the year 1200, we could hardly do better than look at how they played chess. And no chess pieces offer richer insights than the 78 mixed pieces found on the Hebridean island of Lewis in 1831, and known ever since as the Lewis Chessmen.
Sixty-seven are in the British Museum. Eleven are owned by the National Museums of Scotland. Between them, these much-loved pieces take us into the heart of the medieval world.
"I was trying to define what chess is, and I asked Tony Miles, grandmaster. He said, 'It's not an art ... if I can find a way to win that's crude and blunt, I'll do it that way'. It's not an art, it's a fight ... it's a fight!" (Martin Amis)
"The Lewis Chessmen, they are so perfect, there are so many of them, a real family. They are so exquisitely2 made. They come from so far, far and cold away." (Miri Rubin)
当时菲舍尔宣称,“国际象棋是棋盘上的战争”,而在历史上的那一刻,情况也确实如此。其实用国际象棋来形容整个人类历史也未尝不可,因为所有的游戏在一定程度上都是战争与暴力的替代品,而没有哪种游戏能像国际象棋这样比肩精心布局的战役。双方军队摆好阵式,越过棋盘向对方进军,兵卒在前,将领在后。每一种棋具都呈现了一个处于战争中的社会,不管是在印度、中东还是欧洲,棋子的名称和形状都向我们展示了当时社会的运作方式。因此,要想了解公元一千二百年左右的欧洲,没有比观察他们的棋类游戏更好的方式了。一八三一年,在赫布里底群岛中的刘易斯岛上发现了七十八枚棋子,它们被命名为刘易斯棋子,没有哪套棋子能像它们一样让我们深入了解当时的欧洲社会。
1 pawns | |
n.(国际象棋中的)兵( pawn的名词复数 );卒;被人利用的人;小卒v.典当,抵押( pawn的第三人称单数 );以(某事物)担保 | |
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2 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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