Word: chessmen
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...when something unpredictable happens - something that changes the rules of the game they usually play - they're little better than the rest of us. Chess grand masters can recall almost entire chessboard layouts from their games (approximately 25 pieces, compared with an average of four for novices), but when chessmen are randomly arranged on a board, those grand masters can recall the placement of only about six pieces. Similarly, experienced actors remember script lines much better than novices do, but they are no better at remembering material other than scripts...
...character saw as an existential revelation. In The Defense the novelist wrote of one chess-obsessed character's epiphany: "...he had seen something unbearably awesome, the full horror of the abysmal depths of chess. He glanced at the chessboard and his brain wilted from hitherto unprecedented weariness. But the chessmen were pitiless, they held and absorbed him. There was horror in this, but in this also was the sole harmony, for what else exists in the world besides chess?" With reporting by Yuri Zarakhovich/Moscow
...Canada Dry and Diet Coke, students found neatly laid-out rows of Carr’s Water Biscuits, Brie wedges and French bread slices on plates with paper doilies. There were also assorted cookies from boxes of Pepperidge Farm’s Entertainment Collection (Milano, Geneva, Bordeaux, Brussels, Lisbon, Chessmen and Chocolate Pirouettes) arranged in enticing circles. The pièce de resistance was a white porcelain bowl with a blue flower pattern filled to the brim with fresh strawberries...
...hangers-on happened to be on the payroll. All courts tend to be self-referential and mannered, and that of Alfonso I d'Este was no exception. The duke was considered fairly eccentric. He had a passion for do-it-yourself projects: in his own workshop he made tables, chessmen and elaborate boxes; he created ambitious ceramics as well, and even artillery...
...Oval Office minutes before he was to step onto the sunny lawn, where 3,000 of the old warriors and the new trustees of peace had been summoned. For four days the diagram of the proceedings had been drawn and redrawn, the seven chief figures moved like chessmen on their tiny stage, chairs put in the blueprint, then withdrawn, until finally it was agreed they all would stand to talk, sit to sign, stand again. Clinton was to act as stage manager. He would reach for the hand of Rabin at the crucial moment, turn next to shake the hand...