Janika: Chess

The following screenshots are all from SiriusBShaman on twitter. Apologies for the rough grabs, I was in the car a lot today and snagged them on the run.

I cannot speak to these screenshots as any kind of interpreter, but I do have experience playing chess and very much appreciate all these beautiful sets and the time it took to get them tweeted out. I will add a few words here and there as reader commentary.

This first shot isn't necessarily related but it's cool. You can pop it open as a separate image and zoom to see it.

I didn't find a precursor to his feed suddenly turning to chess. This was the first one. It immediately caught my interest because I have loved chess all my life. One year I created a chess thread for kicks on a forum I contributed to at Chess boards I wish I could collect - SyFyDesigns.com.

If you are not yet tuned to the Great Awakening and the 'game' being played for control of the matrix we live in (yes, I'm not kidding), even though this doesn't seem chess related, it's a peek at a timeline that's been erased from historical memory. We have buildings all over the world that don't fit cultures they're in and have yet to be replicated, and no explanation how and why they exist.

I'll personally play chess with anything, but those are nice pieces. My decisions about how I play generally defer more to my opponent's moves. Shall I kill now or dance around playing death by a thousand cuts? Basically, how long can my opponent stand being annoyed by me?

I used to look for chess board auctions taking bids just to drool over the sets. My favorite set ever sold for around $32,000. This isn't anything like it, but it made me think of that.

What's really fun is when candy and cake makers make edible chess sets. Wouldn't that be yummy?

Sometimes the pieces remind me of people. This set makes me think of high end shopping and people who drip with the finer things.

This one feels more like academia and offices closed off from the general public. My psychologist had a chess set in his office and in the many years I saw him, I never once played him. I did that on purpose. I knew from extensive play that he'd be able to read me and I denied him that. That is a real life chess move.

The pieces being a little plainer in this set allows the beautiful work crafted into the board to shine through. Sometimes real life is like that. I love looking at what people create. They look like plain people but make the most beautiful and unique things.

This would be a bitch to dust if you left it out, but it looks hardy enough to stand a little dishsoap. I'm sure people who can see its value think I'm blaspheming.

I've never played on a board marked with coordinates. Sometimes I wish I had.

Without another object for context, this looks tiny and crowded. Wonder if it is magnetic. I used to take my little magnetic board everywhere.

I've seen rocks being used for chess pieces in a pinch. Is this the more industrial side of life? Are these the engineers and laborers of the world?

This set looks very old. The king looks like an owl.

This was a repeat tweet. No idea if it was intentional.

I'm guessing he was asking twitter readers to chime in.

We're going metaphorical now. Metaphysical, even. I've often seen my own life through a chess board. Astral, "relating to a supposed nonphysical realm of existence to which various psychic and paranormal phenomena are ascribed, and in which the physical human body is said to have a counterpart" (encyclopedia.com).

That tweet was so long I split it into two screenshots. These must be the people sitting idly by living a peaceful life.

And quite suddenly, we're in a narrative that looks like nearly the end of a story... Artificial Intelligence? This sounds like it's more than simply playing chess against a computer. It sounds like history playing out was controlled or something. Maybe that chess board is a hint. The 'world' seems to locked in a pyramind shaped terrarium.

This next set actually looks like rugged war frozen in time, as if reality could be locked into pieces that get put into play over and over.

The Astral looks a bit... stretched out. There are way too many squares. If you close your eyes you could probably imagine a weird illusion of both far away and close up. I think the way he's talking about the pieces here is really about real life 'players'. You know, like all the world's a stage and we are but players.

People are pieces in a game, perhaps. We are used for various things like profit and skills and leverage and all kinds of things. I've won games with pawns many times. Does that make me a grand master? I've never cared to find out. I did once beat a man who'd studied chess for years and claimed to be master level player. He asked me what plays were my favorite. He had studied the books. I never opened a chess book. I had no idea what he meant. I held him at checkmate within minutes and he left the table. A kid slid into his place and I kept playing, because I love all the ways people play. I think that is the secret to the game. Anyone can play. Not everyone enjoys playing for playing's sake.

When we are in the world of people all around us, we play games all day long. We must interact correctly. There are rules. We size each other up and figure out how to move with the crowds. The Knights were always my favorite. Leave me with naught but a king, a knight, and a bishop and I could run the board against any odds. Knights are nonlinear and can 'move through walls'. People in real life like that seem more magical than the people who are supposed to have magic. It's like they live on a different plane of reality. I agree with Sirius, I can usually find the Knights around me. They are rare. They walk in heavenly realms, or something otherwordly sounding.

We are born onto a world chess board into player bodies that must play by social rules. Institutional setups are like concentric circles of control around us. I wonder who actually runs the board.

I don't know if this is a quote. I'm not finding it. I must confess, I see my queen as expendable if it makes my opponent sloppier with gloat. Playing chess is more about dancing around in someone else's head than moving pieces on a board. The pieces are there to distract so the person opposite doesn't feel me in their head.

Nope. What matters is what I just said up there. If you expand this thought, it's like keeping a populace entranced with a screen so they don't feel the vitriol in a government plotting their abuses and deaths. Wait, did I just... Nothing, disregard that. The chess board thing is all metaphorical, right? Not like being in certain buildings even matter, except...

When white goes first, depending on the play, it's possible to checkmate in a couple of moves. It's called Fool's Mate. I did that by accident once, didn't know it was even a named play. A guy sweet talked me into going to his posh house for a bong and a game of chess, and I'm sure more than that. Problem was, he was about the most arrogant guy I ever met, and by the time he had the board set up I had already decided to decimate him as prompltly as possible instead of my usual dancing around drawing the game of torture out. Oh man was he pissed, literally kicked the board and started throwing things. I said thanks for the game and made it out the door, into my car, and down the road before he could do something more drastic. Angry sex isn't fun when someone is that pissed.

I like pawns. Most of them are good people.

I'm sure Sirius is giving serious advice here 👇 but without more context, it's hard knowing what one is supposed to get out of so few words. I think the leap here is about grasping that the world is set up in a way that mimics actual chess. Chess goes way back. "As per legend, chess originated around 200 B.C. Hán Xin, a commander, invented chess to represent an important battle in the history of China. The game was soon forgotten and resurfaced in China with new rules in the 7th century A.D. Chess became popular with the name XiangQi, which meant elephant game." From Who Invented Chess? A Detailed Guide to the Origin of Chess (mpl.live). So strategy in game is relevant to real life. Knights must be trained to astral skirmish or something.

Each player is tied to a body. We may be able to reach far with our consequences, but we are always in the here and now with our bodies. Some people might be able to disguise their potential.

Pawns, like paid players? Or maybe trained players? Players who are easy to be persuaded into moves for king and country (or whatever they are loyal to) that draw attention away from those pulling their strings. We are all trained to be loyal somehow.

I did not know this, but after some of the experiences I've had throughout my life, I know I'm protected. I'm not knowledgeable about astral, I just know I can do things. I guess it makes sense there would be refs, like game moderators. I instinctively set up Thorns II because attacks have gotten so ridiculous a few times.

You know how kids play, they animate everything themselves, right. Some adults continue doing that. Imagine a non biological entity playing dolls and monopoly with humans as the dolls and game pieces. Would AI see anything wrong with that if we do it to each other ourselves?

Positions of power = full astral constructs? 🤔 If the masses believe it, does it become real? (Are politicians astral contructs? 😂)

Hey, if the pretty ones sit idly by living peaceful lives, someone's gotta fill the player roles.

So a person who knows how to step up and direct circumstances is virtually as powerful as a king? How is a king powerful, newbies to chess might ask. And what does that have to do with a grand master? We saw this play out in 2018 when Trump globetrotted. This was one of many chess moves, for example. Trump made some major missteps when meeting queen (yahoo.com)