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News18
2 days ago
- General
- News18
Sathurangam': A Window Into Classical Tamizh Through Contemporary Chess
Last Updated: The modern game, largely unchanged in the past couple of centuries, has been through its fair share of iterations as it spread from India to the rest of the world. 'Kal thondri, man thondra kaalathe, mun thondriya mutha tamizh.' Man arrived at the modern iteration of the game consumed worldwide today in its contemporary form came to be through a long trial in the annals of time. While the existing rules of traditional classical chess haven't undergone major changes in recent centuries, possibly since the addition of 'El Passant' circa the 13th century, modern chess is a resultant of multiple iterations birthed in various parts of the globe. Stemming from the peninsular nation, the Arabs took a shine to the game of strategy, bringing it to home territory before it spread to Europe and further on out. In its ancient Indian form, chess or 'Chathuranga' represented the four units of military at a side's disposal, namely infantry, cavalry, elephants, chariots, in addition to a general or a counsellor, and of course, the king. The Persians, who adopted the game in the name of 'Chatrang', went along with the Indian design, opting to call it using the local tongue. The King was 'Shah', the advisor became Wazir, elephantry was termed 'Pil', the cavalry came to be known as 'Asp', the chariot became 'Rokh', and the infantry went by the call 'Piadeh'. As the game spread to the wider Islamic world following the conquest of Persia by the Rashidun Caliphate, the game was endorsed by the name 'Shatranj', labelling the game after the Emperor. There were minor linguistic changes in the nomenclature of the pieces as the Wazir became 'Firzan' and the Pil was sounded 'Fil'. Remodelling of the counsellor to the queen and elephant evolution With the influx of the game into Europe, it underwent a seismic change as the Elephant evolved to the 'Bishop' with an extended reach to the ends of its diagonal range, and the Vizir was upgraded to the modern 'Queen', bestowed with the near-free-flowing motion of the 'Nine-Point Piece'. Nathaniel Cook's introduction of chess as we know it has endured the test of time with the famous Howard Stauton's design striking a chord with the world. Getting Local, Madras Edition While chess is known by the name Sathurangam, more traditional versions prefer the term 'Vallu Palagai', with the pieces taking the name 'Vallu Kaigal'. 'Raja': King The almighty piece on the board, anointed to determine the outcome of the battle, has been the protagonist of the 64 squares since the inception of the game. While some point to the limited range of movement of the piece, it is perhaps what we have come to know as the royal treatment. With the ability to move one space in any direction the ruler deems fit, the nucleus of the game around which the game is built has been the most notable insignia of the board. 'Rani': Queen And the modern 'Mandhiri' or 'Pillai': Bishop Now, this is where it gets a bit tricky. Essentially, the most powerful weapon in the armoury, the Queen, as we know the utilitarian piece today, was formerly described as the 'Manthiri' or the advisor with the prescription to move a piece diagonally. The 'Manthiri's' linguistic journey to 'Wazir', then 'Firz' and the ultimate evolution into the queen, places it as one of the most altered, yet coveted, pieces on the board. With the metamorphosis of the Queen complete, the Elephantry, which could move diagonally, even bypassing pieces in its path, became the Bishop, or the modern 'Mandhiri', with similar diagonal activity but devoid of the ability to go around standard pieces. The elephantry, in its Indian iteration had the ability to move two squares, no more or less diagonally or in front and behind, while the Persians withheld the front and back motion. However, both versions permitted it to jump over pieces stalled in between. The Southeast Asians preferred to go with their elephantry to move a single space diagonally or forward, modelling after the trunk of an elephant. The bishop also goes by 'Pillai' in region home to multiple Chess Grandmasters 'Kudhirai': Knight Modelled after the cavalry force, marked for its swift approach in battle, the iconic 'L-jump' has withstood the test of time. One of the most versatile pieces on the board, the embodiment of the army of horses, serves as an idiosyncratic feature of the game. The differential, if you will. From 'Ratham' (Chariot) To 'Yaanai' (Elephant) The modern rook's origins can be traced back to the chariot unit that could operate in exactly the manner in which we understand as of the day. However, through time, the legion came to be represented as the 'Yaanai'. The indefinite horizontal or vertical range of the Rook has been retained as such since inception, with the piece's impact on end games in particular etching a mark for itself in the sport's trope. 'Sipai', 'Paadhai': Pawn The archetypal indicator of the infantry legion, the frontline warriors, which has the ability to move a couple of spaces on initiation of its ascent up the board, but only one thereafter, initially started out with the licence to move just the single square originally. The ability of the pawn to capture an opposition piece diagonally forward has sustained since inception, but has been granted the authority to be promoted to any piece as the player seem befitting in the modern era in contrast to the original permission to be elevated to the status of the Queen alone. And in a nod to reality, the development story of a Sipai to Rani, remains chess' styling of a rags to riches story. top videos View all Would you look at that! You just learned some Tamizh! And I, some chess! News18 Sports brings you the latest updates, live commentary, and highlights from cricket, football, tennis, badmintion, wwe and more. Catch breaking news, live scores, and in-depth coverage. Also Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : Chess India view comments Location : Chennai, India, India First Published: August 10, 2025, 08:02 IST News sports Sathurangam': A Window Into Classical Tamizh Through Contemporary Chess Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Inspired By ‘The Princess Bride', French Animated Movie ‘Pil's Adventures' Pulled In Punters After The Pandemic & Is Now Gearing Up For Some Small Screen Fun At Annecy
Welcome to Global Breakouts, Deadline's fortnightly strand in which we shine a spotlight on the TV shows and films killing it in their local territories. The industry is as globalized as it's ever been, but breakout hits are emerging in pockets of the world all the time and it can be hard to keep track. That's why we're doing the hard work for you. The big to small screen journey can sometimes feel an arduous trail but with France's it just felt right. As the TV spin-off of the 2021 big screen hit gets ready to premiere, sales execs will be seeking pre-sales of the inspired project at Annecy this week. The show's promo art will even be emblazoned on the side of shuttle buses. More from Deadline 'Dexter's Laboratory' & 'The Powerpuff Girls' Creators On How They Broke The System At Cartoon Network From Brink Of Bankruptcy, TeamTO Unveils Six New Shows & Adult Animation Push At Annecy Neil Court Joins Coolabi As Chairman Amid 'Warrior Cats' Growth Push And M&A Opportunities Name: Pil's Adventures Country: France Producer: TAT Productions Distributor: Folivari International (previously Federation) For fans of: The Princess Diaries, the 2021 movie of the same name If the thousands of attendees at this week's Annecy International Animation Festival get a bit weary on their feet, they can take up the fest's offer of a shuttle bus across town between the MIFA industry market and enormous screening halls. Emblazoned on some of these shuttles will be Pil's Adventures, a box-office hit of the recent past that is being touted for the small screen at Annecy as the great and good of the animation sector, including execs from all the major Hollywood studios, gather for their annual confab. France's Pil's Adventures show will launch in several months' time and the creative team are hoping this set of 52 mini adventures can deliver sustained success. Spinning off from the 2021 movie of the same name, the show is about Pil, a spunky vagabond girl living in the medieval city of Foggyborough. In the movie, while sneaking into the castle, Pil witnessed the sinister Regent Tristain casting a spell on Roland, the heir to the throne. She realized it was now up to her to find a way to reverse the spell and save the prince's life. The daring adventure turned the entire kingdom upside down and taught Pil that nobility can be found in all of us. Pil's Adventures studio TAT Productions had worked with the movie's creator Julien Fournet on their hit kids show Jungle Bunch for many years and pivoting Pil to the small screen seemed an obvious step as studios look to build out franchises in a risk-averse landscape. 'I was totally crazy about the idea,' Fournet tells Deadline in the days leading up to Annecy. 'I wanted to mix in some comedy with some adventure, keep the main characters and then create more while expanding the universe.' The TV show takes place just after the movie ends. Pil is now a young wannabe vigilante, facing up to dangers including car chases and monsters in each episode as she and her friends take on the world. While Jungle Bunch has lent him great experience in writing dozens of short animation episodes and he was bursting at the seams with ideas, Fournet says the challenge centered around 'making the stories as funny for parents as they are for kids.' 'We are exploring different ways to write things but this was an interesting challenge,' he adds. 'This is maybe a bit more comedy-oriented and less epic than the movies. We are more in the daily life of our characters. It's that freedom you can't have in a film, you can try something new for each episode.' Jean-François Tosti, a producer at Asterix & Obelix studio TAT and animation vet, says the TV version builds off a winning formula. 'The interesting thing with Pil and Jungle Bunch is every episode can be similar but with different stories,' he adds. 'It is an interesting playground for this. We need someone like Julien with a strong imagination to make that happen. With a traditional showrunner, this would be impossible for us.' The movie's inception goes back a fair few years now and the inspiration came from a rather unlikely source, which drove the creative team to go in with the idea that they needed a heroine, not a hero. 'Princess Bride' Provides Unlikely Inspiration 'We were totally agreed that we loved the renaissance movie The Princess Bride,' says Fournet of the beloved 1987 Rob Reiner fantasy adventure starring Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin. 'We wanted this subtle mix of adventure with crazy characters, lots of comedy but also strong emotion behind it. The idea was to have this young, female character who is not really a princess but is a real engine for the script and can be strong in front of the bad guys.' The spirit of the Princess Bride carried the team through the lengthy production period that was stymied by the Covid pandemic and Tosti points out that the movie defied odds by making box office money in 2021 when cinemagoers remained reluctant to head to the theater. '2021 was a very hard time,' says Tosti. 'We sold almost 500,000 tickets, which in normal times would have been maybe 900,000 or 1 million.' The movie went on to sell 1.7M tickets worldwide, was dubbed into English starring Dalila Bela and Carlos Mencia and grossed around $15M for all versions. Tosti was delighted to see the movie perform well in regions like CEE, Israel and the Middle East. Now, having taken over Pil's distribution from Federation Kids, new seller Folivari International has struck pre-sales for the small-screen version in France (France Télévisions), Sweden (SVT) and Switzerland (RTS), with the show likely to launch around Xmas time or early next year. 'France Télévisions is very excited and this could be one of their biggest kids shows for next year,' says Tosti. But all is not well in the animation sector more broadly, Tosti says, as he cites how studios 'grew too quickly' after the pandemic and now 'the ask for animation is really shrinking,' with pre-sales becoming more and more difficult to strike. 'TAT turns 25 this year and this is the first time I see such a crisis,' he adds. 'Producers have to take huge risks to complete a feature or series then sell it. It is a very strange time for animation producers.' Tosti remains optimistic the market will 'normalize' by next year and he feels he is lucky to have risen through the ranks of a French animation sector that has a 'great tradition.' 'Every producer from abroad wants to know why their sector isn't like ours,' he adds. 'When I was a kid I only watched U.S. and Japanese animation and European animation barely existed but now we have subsidies, markets, very strong national broadcasters and are financing first-rate French TV series. This leads to great talent, studios and broadcasters, so we have everything to develop animation.' As Annecy attendees are dazzled by the next Stranger Things or Bojack creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg's latest, the success of local shows a little closer to home will hopefully shine through. Best of Deadline Sean 'Diddy' Combs Sex-Trafficking Trial Updates: Cassie Ventura's Testimony, $10M Hotel Settlement, Drugs, Violence, & The Feds A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media Where To Watch All The 'John Wick' Movies: Streamers That Have All Four Films
The Independent
02-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
John Lydon says he will never return to ‘woke' Sex Pistols
As his Sex Pistols bandmates tour without him, John Lydon vows to 'never' return to the band which kickstarted punk in the UK, calling them 'woke' as he prepares for a tour of his own with Public Image Limited (Pil). Late March saw original Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, bass player Glen Matlock – who was replaced early on by the late Sid Vicious, and drummer Paul Cook replace Lydon – who was known as Johnny Rotten in the band – with singer Frank Carter to play their first gig at the 100 Club in almost 50 years. The Sex Pistols also played to about 5,000 fans at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust last month, but their legendary frontman was nowhere to be seen at either of the gigs, having initially been 'insulted' by the group performing without him, before now finding the situation 'hilarious'. When asked if he would reunite with the band, Lydon tells the PA news agency: 'Never, not after what I consider their dirty deeds, let them wallow in Walt Disney woke expectations. 'They've killed the content, or done their best to, and turned the whole thing into a rubbish, childishness, and that's unacceptable. 'Sorry, I'm not going to give a helping hand to this any longer, as far as I am concerned, I am the Pistols, and they're not.' The singer previously fought a high-profile court battle against the rest of the band in a bid to stop their songs being used in a Disney+ series of their story, called Pistol. Lydon's frustrations echo the sentiments he expressed on Pil's 1978 debut single Public Image, written about his feelings of being exploited by manager Malcolm McLaren and the press in the Sex Pistols. The song opens with Lydon's powerful wail, over the buzzsaw guitar of Keith Levene, singing: 'You never listened to a word that I said, you only seen me for the clothes I wear.' Asked whether the song's lyrics will hit harder than ever on the latest Pil tour, which will take place while his former bandmates embark on a world tour, Lydon replies: 'Listen, the opening line in Public Image, really seriously applied to the old Pistols back then, and still does. 'They had to get Billy Idol last year and now Mr Carter, to come in and listen to them (his lyrics) for them, that's a clown's circus at work.' With Pil, Lydon experimented with a wide range of genres, veering into electronic dance music, reggae and world music, but he revealed he had initially wanted to explore a broader range of styles with the Pistols. He says: 'I really wanted to (experiment with the Pistols) I wrote Religion, which is a famous Pil song, while in the Pistols, but unfortunately they wouldn't go near it. ''Oh you can't say that', it's like. 'have you not heard everything I've been saying before?', this is lightweight. 'That was frustrating, but I mean, again I don't mean to be digging them out, it's not their fault that they're talentless and can't f****** move on, is it? 'As for me, variety is the spice of life, I love all forms of music, and I adore anyone that's got the balls to rehearse, play live, record, and then deal with the guillotine that's called the press, you should get medals for this.' The 69-year-old went on to speak about his love of Lady Gaga's recent single Abracadabra, and UK number one album Mayhem. He explains: 'I don't listen to much music at the moment, because I won't get on to serious radio and all of that, and internet, because it's too complicated and I'm not paying for it. 'If it ain't got an on/off switch and blares like a regular radio, it ain't coming into my house. 'But I did see, and I do, I love her work, Lady Gaga, I love that new song, I love the theatrics of it. 'It's all just high entertainment, but to me, that's very much like when I was young, like Sunday Night At The London Palladium. 'It's not done to harm me, and there's good lessons to be learned in there, this great choreography. 'I like the way she plays piano frankly, and I like the structure of the songs, but they're just not my structures.' The singer says he has never been caught up in the narrow-mindedness of punk, after making headlines for saying he was a fan of flute-led prog rockers Jethro Tull's Aqualung album in an interview with YouTube channel Classic Album Review. Punk was often seen as being at war with prog during the late 1970s, with the Sex Pistols frontman himself wearing a T-shirt which read 'I hate Pink Floyd' during his first band's heyday. Lydon says: 'Those that know me, and that would be a Pil audience, and some of the Pistols' audience, know that variety is my game. 'I will delve into everything and anything done by human beings that I find fascinating and interesting. 'Otherwise, you're not in a learning process, you're merely imitating the genre, you've firmly stamped yourself into a box. 'Johnny, don't work with boxes, no burial for me, I will be cremated with a packet of Marlboro, I'm trying to get sponsorship.' His latest tour with Pil, is named This Is Not The Last Tour, a play on the title of one of the group's biggest singles This Is Not A Love Song, and Lydon says he has no intention to retire, comparing himself to the Duracell Bunny. The singer adds: 'I had suicidal tendencies last year, I not only lost my best mate (John 'Rambo' Stevens, Pil's head of security), but my wife (music promoter, model and actress, Nora Forster) as well, and so I went into a serious slump. 'The only thing that saved me from that was when I went out and did the talking tour (a Q&A named I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right), because that was pre-arranged and pre-booked, and I don't like letting people down. 'That was marvellous, the connection between me and people in the crowd was stunning, and it brought me back to my senses, so I intend to continue with that as well as Pil.' Shortly before her death, Lydon wrote the Pil song Hawaii as an ode to Forster, who was the mother of The Slits singer Ari Up, and he was invited to audition it as Ireland's 2023 Eurovision entry, but it was eventually rejected by the country's jury. He says: 'I took their very gracious offer very seriously to heart, and love and adore them for letting us do that, because this was before Nora died, and I wanted her to see the performance. 'So she did, and said, 'but why are you crying? You ruined it'. 'That was my wish, that she knew I'd written a song specifically for and about her, that she would see that before she died.' Lydon adds that Pil performing at the Eurovision final would have been 'impossible' due to his wife's battle with Alzheimer's, and him not wanting to be 'further and further away' from his wife while she was unwell. He says: 'God bless the panel for all their vile criticisms, they did me a world of good, and I can hop on the plane back to my loved one. 'Thank you, Jedward, you stole my old hair do, but you worked out good for me at the end.' Formed after Lydon quit the Pistols in 1978, Pil went on to prove equally influential, leading the post-punk movement which followed, alongside bands such as The Fall, Siouxsie And The Banshees and Wire. The band has released 10 studio albums, with another currently in the making, including Metal Box (1979), which saw the band explore bass-heavy dub reggae, the percussion-led The Flowers Of Romance (1981) and dabble with dance music on This Is What You Want… This Is What You Get (1984). Pil's This Is Not The Last Tour will begin on May 23 at Stone Valley Festival in Ware, before finishing in Wroclaw, Poland on August 23, with tickets now on sale.
