It is no accident that we are all playing here today

Just as “it is no accident that we are all here today,” it is also no accident that our Friend has offered us a new, modern evolution of the ancient game of Chaturaji.

The regular practice of Quaternity imparts valuable lessons—many of which align with the well-documented benefits of traditional Chess. Over the years, much has been written about these benefits, leading some schools and educational institutions to successfully incorporate Chess into their curricula.

Chess is recognized as a sport, an art form, a pedagogical tool, and a refined form of entertainment. Its well-known advantages include the enhancement of attention, memory, concentration, logical reasoning, tactical and strategic thinking, self-control, patience, flexibility, psychomotor skills, and a sense of play. It has also been linked to increased cognitive reserve, improved time management, the harmonious coordination of brain hemispheres, and even the prevention of conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and senile dementia.

“…Patience… and if you are playing a card game or a board game or something like that or perhaps any other game.. you can wait patiently for the opportunity to win, if you are playing chess you have to be, by definition, patient, unless you are playing 5 minutes chess which is a quick thing…”

“The rules or secrets of the Naqshbandi Order”. Omar Ali-Shah

But… Quaternity offers much more.

Some of my initial observations about this game—intuitive at the time—were recorded in my blog. Here is one such reflection:

“Most people perceive chess as an overly serious, intellectual, and quasi-scientific pursuit, often monopolised by mathematical geniuses. This perception alone can discourage many from even attempting to play.

Paraphrasing one of its creators, Quaternity reintroduces the human dimension into the game.

It restores the joy of shared play, bringing back the ludic experience—one that can be enjoyed with family and friends—while still preserving the fundamental rules and ancient wisdom of the game.

Unlike traditional chess, where predicting an opponent’s moves is a crucial skill, in Quaternity, such foresight is nearly impossible. This unpredictability can unsettle rigid thinkers, yet it offers an invaluable exercise in letting go of prejudices and breaking free from fixed thought patterns.

In practical terms, once you make a move, three other moves will take place before your turn comes again. By then, the board will have changed entirely, often disrupting your original plans. This demands adaptability, forcing you to rethink tactics—or even shift strategies altogether—to navigate the newly unfolding circumstances.

These and many other elements make Quaternity not just an exceptional form of entertainment but also a powerful tool for developing strategic, intuitive, and lateral thinking.”.

“The reincarnation of the game of Chess”. November, 2018

And in a more recent reflexion:

"Unlike traditional Chess, Quaternity cannot be reduced to predictable mathematical patterns. In this game, you are not required to rely solely on linear, logical thinking.

A strong performance depends on the fluid balance between the brain’s two main functions—and something more. This something more could be described as a kind of sixth sense, an intuition that aligns with what one might call “the wind of Divinity” (Kami-Kaze in Japanese).

This mysterious force, though ever-present, can manifest at any moment during the game—sometimes in strikingly obvious ways—shaping players’ intentions and radically altering the course of play in unexpected directions.

Being open and attuned to this intangible flow can, at times, be the key to victory—much like a skilled sailor harnessing the wind to navigate the seas.".

“The wind of Divinity”. April, 2019

"Saint Genadio, (10th century Spain) the Bishop of Astorga, was the first saint to have his name associated with chess. Genadio allegedly recommended chess as a means of concentration and a vehicle to approach God."

“A History of Chess: From Chaturanga to the Present day”. Yuri Averbakh. p. 46

Above all, we can trust in the eye of our Friend watching over this game. He can convey his message through it, just as he might choose any other medium he deems appropriate. Because, as he himself stated in the introduction to the Book of Rules, this is not just a game.

“…What stayed with me were two things: the simplicity of the beautiful move, how it hid in plain view until indicated ~ and the unshakable feeling that Chess was not ‘just’ a game. In Sufi theory, Chess is a teaching tool but no one could be very clear about how it was used or even what it was used to teach. I had my theory. The complexity of the game pointed to it. It came together in my head during the caravan: like the movements of Gurdjieff (dances), like the original forms of Yoga, Chess was used as tool to so completely occupy the Human organism, to so completely fetter the Ego, that its practice allowed the more subtle faculties of the human to operate and indeed inform the Consciousness.”

“Quaternity Chess. International Rules”. Introducción. Arif Shah

Quaternity is more than a test of skill—it is also evolving. As our Friend has mentioned, the game is in a growing stage, and its development is ongoing. Some of the basic rules originally established have already been modified, including changes to the scoring of checkmates, confirming this continuous refinement.

Moreover, we, as a group, serve as pioneers, exploring the possibilities of this game, contributing our experiences, and offering suggestions that emerge through regular practice.

The planetary chessboard has expanded—just as our galaxy continues to expand. The number of players has increased from two to four. The board itself has grown, from an 8x8 grid of 64 squares to a 12x12 grid of 144. Some rules remain unchanged; others have adapted.

This evolution is not just about numbers—it is a reflection of something greater, an unfolding process that mirrors the transformations we witness in the world around us.

“The number Eight sings praise with us. Amen.

The number Twelve danceth on high. Amen.

The Whole on high hath part in our dancing. Amen.

Whoso danceth not, knoweth not what cometh to pass. Amen”.

Acts of John, 94

“The teachers of Gurdjieff”. Rafael Lefort

Is there, by chance, anything in this game that resembles a dance?

I remember a particular game from years ago, where, in the opening phase, all four players spent what felt like an eternity manoeuvring pieces within the confines of their fortified positions. This pattern, now familiar to regular players, reflects the natural learning process—each participant discovering what serves their best interest, particularly at the outset of a game.

Over time, I came to associate this cautious, intricate phase with the minuet, the French dance known for its delicate, measured steps. On one hand, the slowness of it all made me restless—this ceremony could last quite a while, until one player would inevitably break the ice by launching an attack. This often took the form of a calculated sacrifice—most commonly a knight—to disrupt an opponent’s defenses and set the real battle into motion.

In many ways, this was when the game truly began. Everything before was merely preparation, the slow arrangement of pieces, the quiet anticipation of movement. And yet, in another sense, this phase made perfect sense—because Quaternity is not just a game of conquest, but a dance of unfolding possibilities.

A passage from my blog captures this idea:

“...Without the pressure of time, the competitive element dissolves into a larger picture. There is beauty at every stage of the game. Each move follows a certain course, creating patterns that seem endless. No longer focused solely on defeating others, you become part of a kind of ‘cosmic’ dance, where every action influences the whole, and the whole, in turn, responds. The final outcome ceases to be the primary motivation—the journey itself becomes the transcendent experience, rather than the arrival at a destination”.

“Timeless dance of Beauty”. April 11, 2020

Much like a dance, Quaternity is about rhythm, movement, and connection. Each piece, each player, participates in a delicate interplay—sometimes deliberate, sometimes unpredictable, but always part of a greater unfolding.

“In the regular game of chess, there are two sides facing each other.

Yet the Game has changed.

There are no two ‘opposing teams’ in this Game – there are multiple.

Each side has their own agenda – shows their own colours –

and they await in all available corners.

The complexity of the game-board has risen considerably”.

“Welcome to the Machine”. A Revolution in Human Becoming. Kaleb Seth Perl. p.145

“The possibilities are endless. Chess is war, but Quaternity is life”. IQCA Official Website. Arif Shah

“From the point of view of the observer of the game, there are neither winners nor losers. There is only a constructive process leading to the formation of a new faculty. It is in this manner that those who are watching the game are able to familiarise themselves with the various stages of the activation of the inner structure of the human mind”.

“He who tastes not, knows not”. Wes Jamroz

It would hardly be fitting—considering the trajectory of previous transformations—that a quantum leap in consciousness into a new four-dimensional reality would lack a tangible representation in our three-dimensional world. Such a shift would require a physical manifestation—a crystallization of that higher projection. In this case, it takes form in the 12 × 12 Quaternity board. (12 × 12 = 144 = 9).

“…What is the 8 and what is the 9? To start with 9 is one more than 8, and actually, it’s all you need to know and all I’m going to tell you.

So why did I introduce the subject? I wish I knew. However I will make a guess, which is that it has some cosmological significance.

Why? Simply because the cosmos is older than the Tradition, but the people who created and designed the Tradition had to take their inspirations from somewhere.

Naturally, I’m going to disappoint you because I’m not going to tell you where or when, but what I can say now is that the reason and function behind both of these numbers is very specific.

You will see both these numbers in the form of the octagon and the enneagon or enneagram in 75% to 80% of the designs of the Tradition, in permutations of these two numbers”.

“Sufism as Therapy”. Omar Ali-Shah. pp. 191-194

The following concepts, drawn from The People of the Secret, offer a glimpse of the bigger picture:

“…A great event lay ahead in man’s temporal future. It existed already in eternity and was required to be actualised in time. The event is a mutation in man’s evolutionary nature involving a new modality of experience, a new organ of perception. Though latent, perhaps, since man emerged from his primate ancestry, it is an organ of experience that has only intermittently been active in certain exceptional individuals. Man is due to inherit it one day as part of his total experience. For this event man had to be prepared. Certain promising races of pre-man were inexplicable extinguished and it had been conjectured that this happened because they were unable to come to terms with intellect - for them an incomprehensible and unmanageable experience. By analogy, a function giving access to a four-dimensional world might be equally disastrous to intellect based Modern Man. A certain minimum standard of soul, a certain minimum psychic specific gravity is necessary before such a radical new modality may be risked”.

“The people of the secret”. Ernest Scott. p 51

While traditional Chess commands great respect for its ancient origins, cross-cultural influence, and symbolic depth—qualities that have led some to suggest its initiatory function—it seems to me that the game, at its core, still represents Modern Man and Woman as intellect-driven beings. If we extend this thought further, Chess can be seen as a mirror of the rational mind’s structured, strategic approach to existence.

In many Sufi stories familiar to us, the actions of great Teachers are often understood only in hindsight, long after they have completed their mission. Perhaps if we developed our inner organs of perception, we could recognize the true meaning of their actions in our own time. At the very least, we might stop reducing their significance to something far less profound than it truly is.

“Now that I am dead, you may read something of the truth of the Sufi. Had this information been given to you, directly or indirectly, when I was perceptibly among you, you would all, except for a few, have fed your acquisitiveness and love of wonder alone from it.

Know, then, that what the Sufi master is doing for the world and for its people, great and small, is often not seen by the observer. My task has been to benefit you. The task of making that benefit perceptible to you is that of others”.

Mirza Abdul-Hadi Khan of Bokhara. “The Way of the Sufi”. Idries Shah. p. 264

I am quite inclined to consider Quaternity as one of the possible gifts given by a teacher to his community—one whose true significance will become clearer in the not-too-distant future. Much like in the following story…

The Wandering Baba

“Attended by a small band of disciples, Chara, the Wandering Baba went on a journey visiting the many circles of dervishes, which he had established in a number of countries.

In Samarkand, the Baba gave a lecture to his followers and then spent several days separated from them, throwing tiny coins to all the children of the town, compelling them to dive into the river to retrieve them.

The disciples were not pleased and the people of the town exclaimed:

“The sooner this ignorant and ridiculous dervish quits our neighbourhood, the better.”

In Bokhara, the Baba gave out some teachings, then gathered the people together and told them jokes until their tears run from their eyes.

Some said: “This is disgraceful for a man of faith, a teacher and Hakim.”

Others thought: “If this is religion let us laugh all the way to Paradise.”

In short, everyone in that city became addicted to jokes and pranks.

In Badakhshan, the Baba initiated some followers and then held classes in singing and dancing until everyone in that remote province became involved in nothing else. Some people approved, others were profoundly dismayed.

When the party reached Kandahar, the Baba told everyone to stop writing in calligraphy, including illuminating manuscripts until people bit their thumbs with horror and hoped that this disaster would soon be passed over them.

Soon, however, such was the power of Baba’s example and energy, swimming became characteristic of Samarkand, Bokhara was the home of humour and in Kandahar a school of painters and miniaturists grew up because people had forgotten how to write.

Twenty years later, Chara the Wonderer was dead. One of his disciples relates:

“I retraced the path which I had followed with my master and it was thus that I realised what he had really been doing. When I was there in Samarkand there was a terrible flood. Those grown men who have been children, taught swimming by the Baba’s making them dive for pennies, took the rest of the inhabitants on their backs and in this way saved them.

When I arrived in Bokhara a cruel tyrant had seized the city. He was strutting about, trying to impose his will upon the people. But they, accustomed to laugh at everything because of the Baba’s jokes, laughed at him so much that he had a fit of apoplexy and fell down dead.

In Badakhshan a group of evil men, anxious to extend their sway over the populace had just brought drugs to the province when I arrived. They said:

“Take these, and you will gain happiness and fulfilment.”

‘The people invariably answered them:

‘“We do not need your drugs for we are already completely intoxicated with the dances and revels which the wondering Baba had brought us.”

In Kandahar, a usurper's edict demanded that all written records should be destroyed, so that all knowledge should seem to begin with his time. But the people - through the Baba’s having stopped them writing - had already long since committed all their learning to another form of communication. The ancient lore was by now preserved in the designs on carpets, on ceramic tiles, in brasswork, embroidery, decoration of all kinds.

Through the Wandering Baba all these people and these things had been saved”.

Idries Shah. Reflections. P 101,2,3

“…Shah spoke about an impending period of totalitarianism which would last 400 or 500 years. People expressed dismay at this long-term prospect. He answered:

“You are staggered by a 500 year term because you are incapable of the flexibility of looking backwards and forwards into time -to us this is normal practice. We work long-term…”

“The Steganographer VI”. Notes from my mother (1979). Oliver Hoare. p.281

Now, while we are unlikely to face an invasion by a barbarian horde of Mongols—though with the unpredictability of today’s volatile political landscape, one can never be entirely sure—the mechanisms of surveillance and control being implemented in most developed societies suggest that tyranny has merely adopted more sophisticated methods of subjugation. The battlefield has shifted, but the struggle for autonomy and awareness remains.

“…We are installing the system ourselves, in the name of being protected and for our greater good. We are, in effect, colonising ourselves, and any idea of personal responsibility becomes irrelevant when the State knows best and has the powers to impose its will. It is being installed little by little in many different ways - databases, surveillance technology, curtailment of individual freedoms, and above all, political correctness -so that people in general do not notice what is happening. Even the climate debate is manipulated to determine how we think and control how we live”.

“The Steganographer VI”. Dinner with I. Shah. (1979). Oliver Hoare. p.119

What does it really mean to win or lose a game?

This question has preoccupied me over the years while playing. Though I have not fully resolved it, I have passed through different stages of understanding—each helping me refine my focus on what actually happens within me when I win or lose.

It is obvious that we play with the intention of winning. But the experience of the game does not end there. There are deeper, less apparent forces at work within us when we engage in this practice.

One of these ideas resonates with a concept introduced by Wes Jamroz: that victory belongs not just to the individual player, but to everyone—whether they participate directly or simply observe.

At first, this notion surprised me. But over time, I saw its connection to another idea, one mentioned by Oliver Hoare—the concept of the electronic transmission of knowledge from teacher to disciple.

Agha often spoke of this transmission using the allegory of the chain—emphasizing the importance of well-connected links, of maintaining and cultivating unity within this chain. This corresponds to the Silsila, the lineage of transmission, where knowledge and insight flow through a living connection between individuals.

When harmony is present, the insights of one friend are naturally transmitted to the rest of the chain. This process resembles an electric current, carrying subtle yet profound knowledge from one individual to another—and, ultimately, to the entire network.

Quaternity, in this sense, is more than just a game. It serves as a medium—one that mirrors the greater processes of learning, transmission, and collective evolution.

“…Several important features become obvious in a functioning harmonised group. Firstly, from a Teacher’s point of view it is extremely efficient, even economical: he can deliver information or experience at one ‘terminal’ on the circuit, and it will be transmitted to all the other participants in a variety of ways, sometimes consciously and in other cases subconsciously.”

“…A harmonised group is a human organisation which can realise its potential in another realm. When the balance is right, a kind of ‘electronic’ link is established between people, through which experience is shared, and through which contact with the energy of the Tradition can be maintained.”

“The Steganographer VI”. Subeditorial Meditations. Oliver Hoare. p.224

“…When the group is operating correctly in accordance with the requirements and in the proper balance without too much emotion, and without too much intellectuality, there is a direct communication among all the people connected with this work, and that communication is telepathic.”

“Knowing how to know”. Idries Shah. Inclusion and Exclusion. p.25

This is where it makes sense to me that beyond the skill and expertise a Quaternity player develops through practice—a skill that, I suspect, is also transmittable to the rest of the chain—what is truly shared among its members is the essence of this activity.

Much like other exercises within the Tradition—journeys, practices, and activities that generate a refined type of energy—the distilled benefit of playing is not confined to the individual but extends to the collective.

From this perspective, the outcome of a game—winning or losing—becomes irrelevant.

What truly matters is the collective gain—an evolutionary increase in energy and awareness. This approach helps gradually loosen the grip of the old ego-driven conditioning that insists winning is good and losing is bad. Such polarity applies only at a superficial level; at deeper levels, the opposite may hold true—where losing can actually mean winning, and vice versa.

As Abu Sulaiman says...

“When the self weeps because it has lost,

The essence laughs because it has found”.

“A Perfumed Scorpion” Idries Shah. p. 69

Or, as expressed in the famous two lines from Rudyard Kipling’s poem If…

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster,

And treat those two impostors just the same”.

But for the final words on this matter, I would rather turn to Rumi:

“To whomsoever He has announced victory and triumph, to him success and unsuccess are one. To whomsoever the favour of the Friend has become a surety, what fear should he have of defeat and (painful) combat? When it has become certain to him that he will checkmate (his opponent), the loss of his horse (knight) and elephant (bishop) is a trifle to him. If his horse be taken by any one who desires to take the horse, let the horse go; (for) is it not he (by God’s help) the winner?”

“The Mathnavi of Jalalu’ddin Rumi”. Book V. p. 243