[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.He wore a cape, which was removed from him by two other players of Ar.He threw his cap into the crowd.Men fought wildly to possess it.He lifted again his arms to the crowd.There was then another cheer, for Centius of Cos, with the party of Cos, hademerged upon the stage.I heard now the anthem of Cos being sung.Centius of Cos walked to the edge of the stone stage, some five feet above thepit, and lifted his hand to the crowd.He smiled.The amphitheater, of course, is used for more than Kaissa.It is also used forsuch things as the readings of poets, the presentations of choralarrangements, the staging of pageants and the performances of song dramas.Indeed, generally the great amphitheater is not used for Kaissa, and theSardar matches are played in shallow fields, before lengthy sloping tiers, setinto the sides of small hills, many matches being conducted simultaneously, alarge vertical board behind each table serving to record the movements of thepieces and correspond to the current position.The movements of the pieces arechalked on the left side of the board, in order; the main portion of the boardconsists of a representation of the Kaissa board and young players, inapprenticeship to masters, move pieces upon it; one has thus before oneselfboth a record of the moves made to that point and a graphic representation ofthe current state of the game.The movements are chalked, too, incidentally,by the young players.The official scoring is kept by a team of threeofficials, at least one of which must be of the caste of players.These mensit at a table near the table of play.Games are adjudicated, when capture ofHome Stone does not occur, by a team of five judges, each of which must be amember of the caste of players, and three of which must play at the level ofmaster."Scormus of Ar will destroy him," said a man."Yes," said another.Behind the table of play on the stage, and a bit to the right, was the tablefor those who would score.There was a man there from Ar, and one from Cos,and a player from Turia, Timor, a corpulent fellow supposed to be ofindisputable integrity and one thought, at any rate, to be of a city farenough removed from the problems of Cos and Ar to be impartial.Also, ofcourse, there were hundreds of men in the tiers who would simultaneously,unofficially, be recording the match.There was little danger of a move being incorrectly recorded.An official insuch a situation insane enough to attempt to tamper with the record of themoves would be likely to be torn to pieces.Goreans take their Kaissaseriously.Page 52ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlI saw now upon the stage Reginald of Ti, who was the elected administrator ofthe caste of players.A fellow with him carried the sand clocks.These clocksare arranged in such a way that each has a tiny spigot which may be opened andclosed, this determining whether sand falls or not.These spigots are linked in such a way that when one is open the other must beclosed; the spigot turned by a given player closes his own clock's sandpassage and opens that of his opponent; when the clocks must both be stopped,as for an adjournment of play, they are placed on their side by the chiefjudge in the match, in this case Reginald of Ti.There are two Ahn of sand ineach player's clock.Each player must complete forty moves before his clock isempty of sand, under penalty of forfeit.The clocks improve tournament playwhich otherwise could become contests not of Kaissa but of patience, thevictory perhaps going to him who was most willing to outsit his opponent Therewas a movement among some of the younger players to divide the sand in such away that each player would have one Ahn for the first twenty moves, and oneAhn for the second twenty moves, subject to the same forfeiture conditions asthe two-Ahn clock.The point of this, I was told, would be to improve Kaissain the second Ahn.It was true that many times even masters found themselvesin time pressure in the second Ahn, having perhaps only a few Elm sand leftfor eight or ten moves.On the other hand, there seemed little likelihood ofthis Innovation being accepted.file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/12%20-%20Beasts%20Of%20Gor.txt (40 of 224)[1/20/03 3:26:42 AM]file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/12%20-%20Beasts%20Of%20Gor.txtTradition was against it, of course.Also, it was felt preferable by many fora player to be able to decide for himself, under the conditions of a givengame, the duration of his speculations on a given move.He is thought by manybetter able to govern his own play when there is only a single time pressureto be considered, that of the full two Ahn, I rather agree with the latterview.There are precision chronometers on Gor, incidentally, and a more mechanicalmethod of time control is technically feasible.The sand clocks, on the otherhand, tend to be a matter of tournament tradition.Centius of Cos tossed his cap into the crowd and men, too, fought to possessit.He lifted his arms to the crowd.He seemed in a good mood.He walked across the stage, in front of the table of play, to greet Scormus ofAr [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]