纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 061刘易斯棋子（8）（在线收听）

And perhaps these queens had something to be glum about. In medieval chess, the queen doesn't actually have much power, she can move only one diagonal space at a time. Her modern sister, on the other hand, is the most powerful person on the board. In the world of chess, feminism came early.

But apart from the queen, surprisingly little has actually changed in chess since medieval times, least of all the formidable mathematics of the possible moves. And this sedentary, cerebral game has always aroused passionate emotion. The writer Martin Amis has long been fascinated by both aspects:

"The maths of chess is very interesting in that after four moves, each of the possibilities are already in the billions. It is the supreme board game. All I can say of my achievements on the board is I'm not a complete mug, but very occasionally you do glimpse a combination, that a great player would be seeing all the time. And suddenly the board looks tremendously rich, it seems to bristle with possibilities. And combative will is what you see in all the great players. They've all got the killer instinct."

也许她们确实有忧郁的理由。在中世纪，国际象棋中王后的作用不大，一次只能斜着走一格，无法与现代国际象棋中的王后所占据的最重要的位置相比。除了王后之外，别的棋子都没有大变化，尤其是就各种走法的缜密推算而言。这项活动虽然需要久坐，也耗费脑力，但总能激起人们的热情。这两方面都吸引着作家马丁·埃米斯：

国际象棋的推算十分有趣，各走四步之后便出现了数十亿种可能性。它是顶级的棋类游戏。在极偶然的情况下，你才得以一窥优秀棋手一直了然于胸的布局；棋盘会在眨眼间变得无限丰富，充满了各种可能性。所有伟大的棋手都十分好战，并拥有杀手的直觉。