In the Faroe Islands, the chess tradition also gained its local characteristics and this stamp issue describes two of them.
Faroese Chess Tradition
Chess has undergone a long development and given rise to traditions in many cultures. In the 15th century, the popular board game found its present form, but variations have also developed in different countries. In the Faroe Islands, the chess tradition also gained its local characteristics and this stamp issue describes two of them.
Four Player Chess
In four player chess, the normal chessboard of 64 squares is extended by three extra rows in each of the four sides, a total of 160 squares. Each player's 16 pieces are placed as normal on the two outermost rows and the participants take turns. There are four players, two partners facing each other, and they must not give each other advice on the game. Otherwise, the rules differ very little from ordinary chess. If a player is checkmated, the partner can help him get free. If this fails and the partner himself is checkmated, the pair has lost.
Four player chess was usually played without time control, so games could become complicated and lengthy. Stories are told that games have been postponed in early summer and resumed in the fall when the men returned from the summer fishing trips. In some settlements, four player chess was commonplace and people gathered to attend the chess games. Enthusiasm could reach heights if the game was exciting and the bystanders could not keep from commenting on the developments on the chessboard. Today, only a few in the Faroe Islands meet to play this variation of the game.
The stamp shows the chessboard used for four player chess and four homemade chess pieces, riddarin=the knight, frúgvin = the queen, kongurin = the king and bispur = the bishop.
Rókurin – the Rook
The rooks that fortify the corners of the chessboard are effective and powerful pieces in the game. They can move quickly and far in one go. This piece is called "rókur" in Faroese and there are various theories about the origin of the term.
The Indian version of the piece is called "ratha" and "rukh" in Persian, both of which terms denote a horse-drawn two-wheeled wagon, often reinforced with a stone wall-like armour. When the game came to Italy, the piece was termed "rocca", which means tower. The term may also derive from “torre”, the attack tower, which was pushed on wheels against fortified walls in order to occupy them. The interpretation of the piece as a part of a building, a tower, was transmitted to other European languages, for example "tour" in French, and "turm" n German. As a result, the look of the piece has changed and taken on a tower-like appearance. The tower symbols are also used on coats of arms, but in heraldry the resemblance is perhaps more influenced by heads of horses sticking up above the chariot.
In English, the chess piece was sometimes called "castle", but today it is commonly called "rook" which is a word of questionable origin. This is also the name of the bird 'rook' (Corvus frugilegus) – a member of the crow family. It therefore appears that this designation has influenced the Faroese name of the piece "rókur". In Faroese, this word is also a name of the jackdaw (Corvus monedula), a member of the crow family as well.
Many of the Faroese chess pieces were homemade, carved in wood, often depicting people, the rooks as well as the other pieces. But there are some indications that the word "rókur", a synonym for the crow, influenced the visual appearance of the piece in the corner of the chessboard. In many old versions of the chess piece, the artist has carved a man with a bird perching on his head. The designation and the appearance has drifted from a war vehicle to a building and then to a bird's hat. Thus, cultural patterns wander in inscrutable trajectories.
The stamp depicts the piece "rókur" in a homemade version surrounded by the cultural elements from which the appearance derives: the chessboard, the chariot, the attack tower, the tower depicted in heraldry and the ordinary tower piece.
The chess pieces shown on the stamp are preserved in the National Museum of the Faroe Islands.
Ole Wich
