"I studied the board before me." "It was set on a square chest. It was a board made for play at sea, and such boards are common with the men of Torvaldsland. In the center of each square was a tiny peg. The pieces, correspondingly, are drilled to match the pegs, and fit over them, This keeps them steady in the movements at sea. the board was of red and yellow squares. The Kaissa of the men of Torvaldsland is quite similar to that of the south, though certain of the pieces differ. There is, for example, not a Ubar but a Jarl, as the most powerful piece. Moreover, this is no Ubara. Instead, there is a piece called The Jarl's Woman, which is quite powerful, more so than the southern Ubara. Instead of Tarnsmen, there are two pieces called the Axes. The board has no Initiates, but there are corresponding pieces called Rune-Priest. Similarly there are no Scribes, but a piece, which moves identically, called the Singer. I thought that Andreas of Tor, a friend, of the caste of Singers, might have been pleased to learn that his caste was represented, and honored, on the boards of the north.

The spearmen moved identically with the southern Spearmen. It did not take me much time to adapt to the Kaissa of Torvaldsland, for it is quiet similar to the Kaissa of the south. On the other hand, feeling my way on the board, I had lost the first two games to the Forkbeard. Interestingly, he had been eager to familiarize me with the game, and was abundant in his explanations and advice. Clearly, he wished me to play him at my full efficiency, without handicap, as soon as possible. I had beaten him the third game, and he had then, delighted, ceased in his explanations and advice and, together, the board between us, each in our way a warrior, we had played Kaissa.

The Forkbeard's game was much more varied, and tactical, than was that of, say, Marlenus of Ar, much more devious, and it was far removed from the careful, conservative, positional play of a man such as Mintar, of the case of Merchants. The Forkbeard made great use of diversions and feints, and double strategies, in which an attack requiring usually only an extra move to make it effective, a move which, ideally, threatened or pinned an opponent's piece, giving him the option of surrendering it or facing a devastating attack, he then a move behind.

In the beginning I had played Forkbeard positionally, learning his game. When I felt I knew him better, I played him more openly. His williest tricks, of course, I knew he would seldom use, saving the for games of greater import, or perhaps for players of Torvaldsland.

among them, even more than in the south, Kaissa is a passion. In the long winters of Torvaldsland, when the snow and darkness, the ice and wintry winds are upon the land, when the frost breaks open the rocks, groaning, at night, when the serpents hide in their roofed sheds, many hours, under swinging soapstone lamps, burning the oil of she sleen, are given to Kaissa. At such times, even the bond-maids, rolling and restless, naked, in the furs of their masters, their ankles chained to a nearby ring, must wait.

"It is your move, " said Forkbeard.
"I have moved," I told him. "I have thrown the ax to Jarl six."
"Ah!" laughed the Forkbeard. He then sat down and looked again at the board. He could not now, with impunity, place his Jarl at Ax four.
Forkbeard put his first Singer to is own Ax four, threatening my Ax. I covered my piece with my own First Singer, moving it to my own Ax five. He exchanged, taking my Ax at Jarl six, and I his First Singer with my First Singer. I now has a Singer on a central square, but he had freed his Ax four, on which he might now situate the Jarl for an attack on the Jarl's Woman's Ax's file.

The Ax is a valuable piece, of course, but particularly in the early and middle game, when the board is more crowded; in the end game when the board is freer, it seems to me the Singer is often of greater power, because of the greater number of squares it can control. Scholars weigh the pieces equally at three points in adjudication's, but I would weight the Ax four points in the early and middle game, and the Singer two, and reverse the weights in the end game.

Both pieces are, however, quite valuable. And I am found of the Ax.

"Your should not have surrendered your Ax," said Forkbeard.
"In not doing so," I said, "I would have lost the tempo, and position Too, the Axes regarded as less valuable in the end game."
"You play the Ax well," said Forkbeard "what is true for many men many not be true for you. The weapons you use best perhaps you should retain."

I thought on what he had said. Kaissa is not played by mechanical puppets, but, deeply and subtly, by men, idiosyncratic men, with individual strengths and weaknesses. I recalled I had many times, late in the game, regretted the surrender of the Ax, or its equivalent in the south, the Tarnsman, when I had simply, as thought rationally moved in accordance with what were reputed to be the principles of sound strategy. I knew of course, that game of context as a decisive matter in such considerations but only now, playing ForkBeard did I suspect that there was another context, involved, that of the inclinations, capacities and dispositions of the individual player. Too, it seemed to me that the Ax or Tarn might be a valuable piece in the end game, when it is seldom found. People would be less used to defending against it in the end game; its capacity to surprise, and to be used unexpectedly, might be genuinely profitable at such a time in the game. I felt a surge of power.

Then I noted, uneasily the Forkbeard moving his Jarl to the now freed Ax four......

"Your hall is taken," said the Forkbeard. Hs Jarl had moved decisively.

The taking of the hall, in the Kaissa of the North, is equivalent to the capture of the Home Stone in he south. "You should not have surrendered your Ax," said the Forkbeard.
"It seems not," I said, The end game had not even been reached. The hall had been taken in the middle game. I would think more carefully before I would surrender the Ax in the future......

Marauders of Gor, pgs 56-63