ABSTRACT
Chess is frequently perceived to be a silent and courteous, even chivalrous, game. The emergence of the game of chess stretches back at least to seventh-century India and it is considered to have been known throughout Europe since the eleventh century. 1 Its diffusion in Europe therefore coincided with the emergence of feudal society after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, and the game indeed reflects – in many ways – the class and power structure of early feudal society with its three estates: nobility, priesthood, and peasantry, together with its royal power. Chess shows great stability over time when it comes to rules, moves, and pieces, but does it also stay stable when played online? In this chapter I will answer this question based on results from several years of playing at two different online chess sites. During this time I’ve made participant observations focusing on differences between face-to-face chess and online chess, and I draw on the same basic differences between face-to-face and persona-to-persona interaction that was established in the previous chapter.
