So, lovely idea to use the floor in this way, but what’s wrong with the picture?
I spotted it while going past (downstairs in Doheny library last Tuesday), and could not let it go. In the end I had to go and figure out who was in charge of the exhibition and politely point out that there was a mistake. Apparently, people have been using it to play games and it might be that it is players who leave it improperly set up. My goodness.
Anyway, they said I should feel free to change it back to the right configuration. So I did. Some days later I went by and it was wrong again. I changed it back. Now I am thinking that I simply should not pass by that part of the building anymore to preserve my sanity…
It might seem a little nuts, but this is one of the campus flagship buildings that people visiting USC come through, looking at the building itself, and the exhibits down in the parts where this chess set is. Looks bad if we don’t know how to set up a chess set, doesn’t it? Well, I don’t know, maybe that’s silly… Also, I realized a bit later that maybe I am nuts, because… this has happened before.
I was in a Pottery Barn, maybe about two years ago, browsing through some of the items on sale when a member of staff started setting up a large chess set as part of a display of living room furniture. She set it up very poorly. I got a bit annoyed at the idea that she probably did not think it mattered, as long as it fit the look they were setting up for the display. Something about the focus on appearance and not content got to me, along with a feeling that there is a dwindling interest in, or knowledge of, the game in general (which may or may not be true actually – I do not know the statistics). I’m not saying that any of these thoughts were reasonable, or well-formed – in fact, I think that they happened all in an instant, but seem longer and more deliberate in my telling you about them here in a slower medium. Anyway, what did I do? Well, of course I would not take it all out on the staff member (who, for a start, is not responsible for thoughts and motives that I have conceived on her behalf), or otherwise act impulsively on half-baked thoughts. I also suspected that trying to explain it to her, however politely, was not going to work out well. I waited until someone at a different part of the shop called her over to check something and then I sprang into action and rearranged the chess set to the correct configuration. My work being done, that part of the universe being restored to order and safety for good citizens, I left the store.
Yeah, I’m nuts.
-cvj
Hi Jennifer, and other curious ones,
The convention is that the bottom square to the right should be white. Here it is black. Shifting everything to the right by one square needs to be done, but then the queens are no longer on their own colours, as they should be, so they need to be then swapped with the kings. Then all is ok. Alternatively, as I said above, turn everything black white and white black (pieces and board). Alternatively, do nothing except have black start first instead of white.
Cheers,
-cvj
Clifford! Now it is bothering me – the only thing I see is that the black king is to the right of his queen, and the white king is to the left of his queen. Surely this should be symmetric? Or do I have it all wrong? And the asymmetry is fine, but should be switched so that the black king is to the left of his queen, etc.?
I am happy that you fixed it. I hate to encourage your darling madness, but I think you should check it DAILY. If you fix it, and someone/thing unfixes it, surely this is a classic good vs. evil struggle, rather than a random occurrence. But, choose your battles, young man.
If someone could please let me know what is wrong with the board, I would be most grateful!
P symmetry,
Already explained equivalently above. Anyway, we don’t live in the mirror world, we live in this one. In this one the rules of how to set up the board make the way depicted wrong. It’s just the way it is. I did not say this was going to make any difference to world peace.
Cheers,
-cvj
Clearly you are wasting your time.
The game is isomorphic to the standard game, just viewed through a looking glass (mirror).
Ok, dude, I like your writing and you seem like a really nice person, but – you’re such a geek! 🙂
Oh maaaaaan! I’m certainly no chess maven, but I thought I at least knew the rules… until I read this post! It took me a good few minutes and a trip to Wikipedia to figure out what the problem was. Because of the way it flashed into my head, I’m pretty sure I must have heard about the relevant rule before, but I’ve definitely never thought about it while setting up the board. I’m still having trouble figuring out why the difference matters, but that’s probably because I’ve never been good enough for such tiny details to affect my game. 🙂
I’m ignorant of the game, so I don’t know the answer. However, visions of cvj as Monk played in my head. 🙂
Awwww… Well, I gather from your comment, Sara T., that the Library Deans are not discussing a restraining order…? Excellent.
-cvj
You are a “nutty” precise scientist, but we love ya!
So for all I know the students who were playing were starting with black first, in which case nothing was the matter.
Charles, yes, the symmetry breaking is the choice of which colour goes first.
-cvj
Ooooh…! I was just thinking about the answer to your question, Excited State, when I realized that the answer is easy to see without having to do a ton of analysis. If you allow black to start first, then it is entirely symmetric and nothing changes. So given that white starts first by convention, it is a different game, in that all games played with the correct starting arrangement are different. Change it to black starting first and then all is the same. The point is that another way of fixing the board above is to leave everything alone and simply change black into white and white into black. Including on the pieces.
Wish I’d thought of that solution at the time. Would have been so much more fun to repaint all the floor tiles in the building, and the pieces, with black and white paint. 😀
Cheers,
-cvj
Well I am only vaguely familiar with the game but I assume that what we have here is a nice example of symmetry breaking (in this case the wrong way).
Okay, I see the problem that you’re talking about, but then I was trying to figure out how this incorrect arrangement would affect the play of the game… and I couldn’t think of any. But maybe I’m missing something.
So is the game of chess symmetric under a 90-degree rotation of the board, or not? Can someone give me an example?
Well it is quite a bit of rearrangement that you had to do Clifford (though each move was very simple). I warmly approve of this effort, welldone!
I like how I knew the answer before I even looked at the picture- did chess tournaments for years as a kid (where I first learned how to not care if you’re the only girl!). So it’s not just you.
As an alumni, I am disappointed but not surprised at the repeated mistakes in setting up the board. There is a campus chess club with some very good players, but most of the population is only vaguely familiar with the game. It’s interesting that the heuristic for Queen position is remembered before the heuristic for board orientation, though.
Well, the one problem type then leads to the other type. Kind of.
-cvj
Not to give it away, and spoil it for others … but is the error you refer to a global, rather than relative, positioning of the pieces?