Hi Doug!
What an incredibly fun afternoon I've spent, peering into this for
you! I think the results might surprise you. They surely surprised
me!
You are correct that the Star Trek 3D chess board was not designed by
Irving Feinberg. No one is really sure who came up with the
*original* three dimensional chess board - according to the Wikipedia,
three-dimensional chess has actually been around since the late 19th
century!
"Three-dimensional chess is a good example of a chess variant.
Three-dimensional variants have existed since the late 19th century.
One of the oldest versions still regularly played is Raumschach,
invented in 1907 by Ferdinand Maack and played on a 5x5x5 board."
Three-dimensional chess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Dimensional_Chess
Wikipedia goes on to note that though 3D chess has been around for a
while, the most widely known variant is that made popular by Star
Trek. Franz Joseph Schnaubelt - author of 1975's "Starfleet Technical
Manual", published by Ballantine Books - reportedly made the
chessboard set for Paramount, while fan Andrew Bartmess developed the
Standard Rules in 1976, at the urging of Mr. Schnaubelt. Mr. Bartmess
had seen the game on the show, purchased the manual, and became
frustrated that only the barest hint of rules for the game had been
included. Mr. Schnaubelt encouraged him to flesh the rules out on his
own, and the Federation Standard Tri-D Chess Rules were born:
"The original Standard Rules of this game were developed by Andrew
Bartmess in 1976, while the chessboard set was made by Franz Joseph
Schnaubelt."
Three-dimensional chess
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Dimensional_Chess
"Popularized in Star Trek, this game was invented in the 1800s. It
adds a third dimension to the game making chess more difficult.
Vertical movement, as well as the tradition horizontal movement,
creates many new moves and strategy.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
First seen in the classic Star Trek television series, Tridimensional
Chess (a.k.a. Star Trek Chess) was first detailed in Franz Joseph
Schnaubelt's book, the Starfleet Technical Manual, published by
Ballantine in 1975. A fan, Andrew Bartmess, got in touch with Mr.
Schnaubelt and fully fleshed out the rules."
3-D Chess
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=3499
[ You can still find copies of the Starfleet Technical Manual. I
located two through Amazon:
Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual - $15
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y4622921Y3290372/qid=1066340151
Star Trek Starfleet Technical Manual - $75
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y3219987Y2194737/qid=1066340151
]
Bartmess himself explains:
"I was just a kid, a hard-core Trekkie, back in 1976 when Ballentine
Books published the original TOS Starfleet Technical Manual. At last,
the authorized Paramount version of true Trek hardware! I thumbed
through that book, almost drooling. And there it was...the original
TOS Tri-D chessboard! There lay the original thing: the four "attack
boards", positioned above and below the main boards; the starting
positions of the game pieces; some simple suggestions about
gameplay...but no real "rules." You could dream about playing, but
never really play. Something had to be done."
Tri-Dimensional Chess
http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~abartmes/tactical.htm
In 1994, capitalizing on the popularity of Star Trek, the Franklin
Mint released a collectable Star Trek Chess Set, pictured in an
auction below :
Star Trek Chess
http://www.trademe.co.nz/structure/auction_photo.asp?id=5879689&permanent=0&photoID=1796414&title=Offcial+Star+trek+Chess+Set&mcat=0187%2D0444%2D1501%2D
...and at the 3D Chess Federation:
3D Chess Federation
http://www.3dchessfederation.com/index.htm
To Mr. Bartmess' shock and dismay, the Franklin Mint was selling these
sets with the rules *he* had written, and passing them off as the work
of the Mint! Mr. Bartmess sued for copyright infringement. He's
rather close-mouthed about it on his web page, but two Usenet postings
reveal the story:
"I requested a copy of the fancy rules, concerned that the Mint
might be using the old Posterbook rules, or the newer ones I wrote
later. After stalling me for a month (assumedly to check the legal
position), I called the Mint and was connected with a Mr. Howard
Lucker in the legal department. After many conversations and
denials, I was mailed a copy of their rules, to discover that
except for one paragraph, they were word for word the ones I wrote
in 1978. The ad has been repeated in fan magazines, tabloid press
and other print media. The Mint must have sold thousands of these
sets to you, the faithful.
It came out after several more calls that a Franklin Mint staffer
had seen a copy of my original rules bootleg'ed at a Con, seen no
copyright on them, and proposed selling the chess board to his
superiors. Mr. Lucker at the Mint described the rules as "not
being an integral part" of their product. At that time, he offered
to settle for a chess set and future attribution if the set is re-
released (an unlikely event.)
For you legal buffs, the current idea I have been told is that
because of "Lanham Act", a 1978 copyright law, I have a weak case.
My rules were published in December, 1977. I am the original
author beyond dispute...they pirated a document when they saw it
had no copyright with the intention of defrauding somebody...if not
me per se."
From: ANDREW BARTMESS (andrew.bartmess@cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us)
Subject: Tri-D Chess Rules
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Date: 1995-01-24 03:58:48 PST
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&selm=8A203B1.0DFE0011DE.uuout%40cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us
"To ANYONE who has bought the "STAR TREK Tri-Dimensional Chess
Set" marketed in the past year by the Franklin Mint (or thinking
about the purchase of same):
If you are amongst the people who have received your set
WITHOUT rules, you should know that there is a reason...the Mint
stole rules I originally wrote in 1977 to use with their set. These
rules have stood the test of time as a standard, and were distributed
with the original run of the Mint's board as the "complete official
rules" that YOU paid for...until I caught the Mint publishing them.
Now that I have begun legal action against the Mint for taking my
rules, the Franklin Mint has pulled them from the sets and LEFT YOU
HANGING."
From: ANDREW BARTMESS (andrew.bartmess@cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us)
Subject: 3-D Chess Scam - NEW INFO
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Date: 1995/03/28
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&newwindow=1&selm=8A65536.0DFE002233.uuout%40cccbbs.cincinnati.oh.us
STasis Corporate News ran the following in 1998, adding a further
piece of information:
"November 4, 1998. "Doctrine of Indivisibility Shields Franklin
MintFrom Liability to Star Trek Chess Game's Author" by Shannon P.
Duffy, U.S. Courthouse Correspondent in The Legal Intelligencer. Legal
Communications, Ltd. November 4, 1998 Wednesday. Section: Regional
News. Page 3. The Franklin Mint has persuaded a federal judge in Texas
to dismiss a copyright suit brought by a man who said he authored
rules for a Star Trek three-dimensional chess game in the 1970s, but
that he was paid no royalty when a collector's edition of the game
appeared on the market in 1994. Chief U.S. District Judge Jerry
Buchmeyer of the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, found
that Andrew Bartmess never had a copyright on the rules because they
were published in a magazine dated prior to 1978 and didn't bear a
separate copyright reserving rights for the author.Applying the
"doctrine of indivisibility," The ruling is a victory for the Franklin
Mint and its lawyers, Nancy Rubner-Frandsen and Arthur H. Seidel of
Seidel Gonda LaVorgna & Monaco, who argued that Bartmess failed to
qualify for any of the recognized exceptions to the doctrine of
indivisibility. Copies of the 14-page opinion in Foote v. The Franklin
Mint, PICS NO. 98-2308, are available from The Legal Intelligencer.
Please call the Pennsylvania Instant Case Service at 800-276-PICS."
STasis - Your Guide To The Scholarly Literature of Trek
http://www.ircruise.com/stasis/desilu1998.htm
If you're interested in having a 3D chess board of your own, there are
illustrated instructions as well as an illustrated explanation of the
game below:
Building Your Own Star Trek Tridimensional Chess Board
http://www.chessvariants.com/3d.dir/starboard.html
Three dimensional Chess, from Star Trek
http://www.chessvariants.com/3d.dir/startrek.html
You can learn more about the rules, as well as look at a sample game
notation, here:
Tri-Dimensional Chess
http://my.ohio.voyager.net/~abartmes/tactical.htm
I hope this helps! Thanks again for a fun question!
--Missy
Search terms: [ "star trek chess" creator ], [ "three dimensional
chess" ] |
