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Enochian Chess. Four-player team variant of the Golden Dawn. (8x8, Cells: 64) [All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Daniil Frolov wrote on Fri, Jan 24, 2014 12:34 PM UTC:
Rearding earlier use of Ali-Baba.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_shogi
In Ko shogi of 18th century, Taoist priest and Spiritual monk moves as Ali-Baba, but can capture only other pieces of these kinds by replacement, other pieces can be captured igui if adjecent to destination space.

Anonymous wrote on Tue, Apr 3, 2012 09:58 AM UTC:Poor ★
'My board merely gives the king the elbow room that a personage of his
rank is due.' Not only is this extra corner square confusing, but in the
Golden Dawn game Osiris starts the game standing off the board completely
which indicates his status representing Spirit rather than a terrestrial
element, so the extra square is completely unnecessary. He is transferred
onto the corner square when moving, or when the piece in the corner square
vacates, or when checked (both pieces on the square come under attack
incidentally). Once either the King or sharing piece moves off the corner
square they can never again share the same space. 

Regarding any 'non-divination' non-magickal rules, these actually exist
historically in the Alpha Omega GD instructions and are called the 'Lesser
Battle Formulae' so I can see little point inventing a new version of
them? 
http://www.lulu.com/shop/steve-nichols/enochian-chess-book-three-alpha-et-omega/ebook/product-18597021.html


Steve-Nichols.com

Christine Bagley-Jones wrote on Mon, Apr 2, 2012 03:28 AM UTC:Excellent ★★★★★
The 'Queen' in this game moves like an 'Alibaba'.
It does say there is a special rule about queen capturing another queen and 
to look in 'rules' section, but i can't seem to see anything.
Edit: oh capture might be 'concourse of queens' rule.

Anyway, would this be the first appearance of an 'Alibaba' in a game?
Anyone know of an earlier game with the 'Alibaba', or, any old game it 
plays in?

Anonymous wrote on Sun, Oct 14, 2007 01:40 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
From someone that has studied enochian, I perferred his articles approach.
'This is how one plays the 'game.'

I've been a member of the yahoo group for enochian chess for about 6 mos.
this article is much more frank in how the board and pieces are used.

Thank you!

M Winther wrote on Thu, May 18, 2006 03:09 PM UTC:
Jeff, concerning divination, this phenomenon of how the divine coincides with the profane is evident in religious history. Prof. Rangachar Vasantha says that '...[c]hess was genetically linked to magical and religious rituals, which have been known in India from ancient times. Chess and other board games were derived from, and the moves of the pieces are being closely related to the movements of the celestial bodies and their numerical symbolism.'

We modern people tend to see chess as simply a martial game for entertainment. But such a simplistic view was unthinkable for the ancient people. Pavle Bidev discusses these issues and how Murray, typically, rejected the notion that original chess was 'based upon certain fundamental conceptions of the Universe.'
http://www.goddesschess.com/chessays/bidev1.html

Game depictions notoriously appear at holy places. They could, in some sense, have been deliberate sacrifices to the gods, and the spirits of the dead, for their pleasure and entertainment. Hence, the gods are drawn to the temple. It is similar to the well-known food-sacrifice. In the Christian context the encircling of the Fox, in Fox and Geese, could be viewed as an expression of the cloister community's continuous work to encircle Christ. I mean, it could be viewed as an unconscious expression. Thus, it is not wholly profane.

A good example of a 'holy game' was the Egyptian Senet. The '...stratagems of the game reflect nothing less than the stratagems of the gods, [and] senet, when properly understood, can reveal essential Egyptian religious beliefs about the afterlife.'
http://www.gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca/Archives/Piccione/index.html --Mats
(link updated today)

📝Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, May 18, 2006 02:21 PM UTC:
While Mr. Nichols is certainly entitled to his opinion, I thought I made my intentions quite clear in this article. The divinatory aspect of Enochian Chess bears little interest to me, nor did I consider it within the scope of this site. If, as Mr. Winther suggest, chess games throughout the ages have been used for occult purposes then I would love to see more on the subject, as it may shed some light on the development of the game. However I am hardly qualified to comment on this area.

M Winther wrote on Thu, May 18, 2006 12:32 PM UTC:
I believe that the divination aspect was very important in historical chess
variants. Nigel Pennick, in 'Games of the Gods' (1988), discusses this
aspect in games generally. The dice chess variants are particularly 
suited for divination, it seems, such as Oblong Shatranj with die.
--Mats

Jeremy Good wrote on Wed, May 17, 2006 11:20 PM UTC:
My impression is that perhaps the author doesn't so much miss the point as tailors the game to remove the divination aspect, as you see in the caveat he expresses at the end of his piece, but thank you for the info.

Steve Nichols wrote on Wed, May 17, 2006 08:18 PM UTC:Poor ★
Completely misses the point (and most of the information).
http://enochianchess.com http://enochia.net http://enochian.net
Enochian Chess is a Divination game, the important factor being the Ptah
placement (not even mentioned). Look up my information on Enochian Chess
in David Pritchard's Variant Encyclopedia

📝Jeff Rients wrote on Sun, Jun 20, 2004 08:06 PM UTC:
At the beginning of the game the corner squares are at double capacity, a
king and another piece.  The original Golden Dawn method squeezes two
pieces onto a normal sized square.  The point of my odd-shaped board is
that actual play is helped by using enlarged corner cells.  This allows
players to avoid crowding on the corner squares.

The oddly shaped board shown in the diagrams is one of my own making.  I
know of no one else that has used or proposed such a board for Enochian
chess.  One can play Enochian chess on an orthodox 8x8 board.  The only
difficulty is the rather cramped conditions that the king and his guest on
the throne square must endure at the start of the game.  My board merely
gives the king the elbow room that a personage of his rank is due.

Ian wrote on Sun, Jun 20, 2004 11:32 AM UTC:Good ★★★★
I had a question regarding the board used. You state in the rules that the corner squares of the board are twice the size of any other square, but the 'air board' depicted doesn't seem to have this trait. Is this a mistake? Or did the Golden Dawn also use coins at the corners of the board to represent the larger squares?

📝Jeff Rients wrote on Thu, Jun 10, 2004 01:29 AM UTC:
I believe the spelling of 'priviledge' can be attributed only to Mr. Zalewski and not to any earlier Golden Dawn practitioner. As far as I can tell, there is no evidence to indicate any special significance of this word within the occult framework of the Golden Dawn. Personally I had chalked the whole thing up to differences between American and British spelling.

Charles Gilman wrote on Wed, Jun 9, 2004 08:01 AM UTC:
Was the spelling 'priviledge' a peculiarity of the Order of the Golden Dawn, and if so, did it have any special significance? It certainly has the ring of Victorian punmanship.

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