Results

Book 5. (1 results) Assassin of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	20	The word actually cried was "kaissa," which is Gorean for "Game".

Book 8. (3 results) Hunters of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	193	There, lost to the bustle in the tavern, oblivious to the music, sat two men across a board of one hundred red and yellow squares, playing kaissa, the game.
3	201	kaissa is popular in Torvaldsland, as well as elsewhere on Gor.
3	203	Sometimes disputes, which otherwise might be settled only by ax or sword, are willingly surrendered to a game of kaissa, if only for the joy of engaging in the game.

Book 9. (20 results) Marauders of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
4	58	It did not take me much time to adapt to the kaissa of Torvaldsland, for it is quite similar to the kaissa of the south.
13	136	The Jarl's Woman, in the kaissa of the north, is a more powerful piece than the Ubara in the kaissa of the south.
1	54	"Thurnock," she said, "would be pleased should you play with him a game of kaissa".
1	56	Huge, yellow-haired Thurnock, he of the peasants, master of the great bow, wished to play kaissa with me.
1	59	I had not played kaissa since my return from the northern forests.
3	230	"I play kaissa," I said.
3	366	"He plays kaissa".
4	49	The kaissa of the men of Torvaldsland is quite similar to that of the south, though certain of the pieces differ.
4	62	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.
4	68	Among them, even more than in the south, kaissa is a passion.
4	69	In the long winters of Torvaldsland, when the snow, the 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 sea sleen, are given to...
4	103	Two, like Forkbeard and myself, gave themselves to kaissa.
4	133	kaissa is not played by mechanical puppets, but, deeply and subtly, by men, idiosyncratic men, with individual strengths and weaknesses.
4	204	The taking of the Hall, in the kaissa of the North, is equivalent to the capture of the Home Stone in the south.
5	70	"You play kaissa well," had said Ivar Forkbeard.
6	160	"He plays excellent kaissa," said the Forkbeard.
6	497	"You play excellent kaissa," had said he.
13	238	Generally only kaissa and the songs of skalds can hold their attention for long hours, that and stories told at the tables.
14	230	But I had played kaissa with him.
14	232	We had played kaissa.

Book 10. (2 results) Tribesmen of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
18	44	This resembles the kaissa board.
21	499	I did not think I played kaissa with a fool.

Book 11. (4 results) Slave Girl of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
14	78	He carried the table past us, which he had taken to the shop of a carver and enameler, to be inlaid with a kaissa board.
14	123	I waited while he addressed himself to a game of kaissa.
14	129	I watched him playing kaissa, completely absorbed in the game.
14	133	They put away the pieces, sliding them into the drawer in the kaissa table.

Book 12. (30 results) Beasts of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	53	It was true that the kaissa of the north differed in some respects from tournament kaissa in the south.
2	512	"It is time for the kaissa matches at the Fair of En'Kara, at the Sardar," I said.
2	515	"How can you be concerned with kaissa at a time like this?" he asked.
2	517	Anyone who knew anything of kaissa knew this.
2	525	"kaissa!" grumbled Samos.
2	531	kaissa is a serious matter for most Goreans.
2	533	It is hard to understand one who is not concerned with kaissa.
2	538	"I said," said Samos, "that kaissa is a disease".
2	543	"If there was a crucial act to be done at a given time," said Samos, "and the fate of two worlds hung upon that act, and it interfered with a kaissa match, what would you do?" I grinned.
2	552	"You should have your mind not on kaissa," said Samos, "my dear Captain, but on the world's end".
2	700	He ruled the high bridges of Ar with his kaissa board.
2	701	No other player might call "kaissa" on those bridges until he had bested the young Scormus.
2	703	kaissa was for him a weapon.
2	705	Centius of Cos, on the other hand, was an older man; no one knew how old; it was said the stabilization serums had not taken their full effect with him until he had seen fifty winters; he was slight and gray-haired; he was quite different in personality and character from the young Scormus; he was q...
2	718	And one who plays kaissa may find it in the arrangements of tiny bits of wood on a board of red and yellow squares.
3	50	"Where are the merchant tables," I asked a fellow from Torvaldsland, with braided blond hair and shaggy jacket, eating on a roast leg of tarsk, "where the odds on the kaissa matches are being given?" "I do not know," he said.
3	51	"They play kaissa only in the North".
3	55	Indeed, kaissa was played variously on the planet.
3	56	For example, several years ago kaissa was played somewhat differently in Ar than it was now.
3	57	Most Gorean cities now, at least in the south, had accepted a standard tournament kaissa, agreed upon by the high council of the caste of players.
3	61	More seriously there were now no "Spear Slaves" in common kaissa, as there once had been, though there were distinctions among "Spearmen".
3	62	It had been argued that slaves had no right upon the kaissa board.
3	63	One might note also, in passing, that slaves are not permitted to play kaissa.
3	145	"Where are odds made on the kaissa matches," I asked the fellow from Tharna.
3	150	"Where are odds made on the kaissa matches?" I asked a small fellow, in the garb of the leather workers.
3	246	Then I said, "Where are the tables for the gambling on kaissa?" "They have been arranged but this morning," he said.
3	275	It was there that the tables for the odds on the kaissa matches might be found.
3	293	In a few minutes I had come to the area of the public tents, and there was there no difficulty in determining where the kaissa lines were to be found.
3	671	I wondered what thoughts occupied these giants of kaissa on the eve of their confrontation.
3	680	"Here, I think," had said Centius of Cos, "the hand of Philemon, unknown to himself, once came close to touching the sleeve of kaissa".

Book 13. (3 results) Explorers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
8	84	I played a game of kaissa with another guest of the tavern.
8	97	"You are quite skilled at kaissa".
8	105	Those who play kaissa are good chaps.

Book 14. (4 results) Fighting Slave of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
16	54	If one may judge by the outcome of kaissa tournaments, amateur tournaments as opposed to those in which members of the caste of Players participate, there are brilliant men in most castes.
21	253	"kaissa," he mused, "is sometimes played for high stakes".
21	254	kaissa is an intricate board game popular on Gor.
25	262	"It is a grim kaissa that is being played," said a man.

Book 16. (1 results) Guardsman of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
9	84	"That would be transparent kaissa, as it is said.

Book 19. (5 results) Kajira of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
6	26	"You are still angry with me," I said, "about the kaissa matches".
28	34	These are the fellows who make their living from the game of kaissa, playing it for prizes, charging for games, giving instruction and exhibitions, annotating games, and so on.
28	36	The general affection and respect which Goreans feel for the game of kaissa is probably the explanation for the practical immunity from bondage commonly accorded the members of the caste of players.
28	37	Slaves are seldom permitted to play kaissa.
33	787	Gorean libraries, like the tables of kaissa tournaments, tend to be open to men of all castes.

Book 20. (30 results) Players of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	31	Sometimes, however, to distinguish it from differing forms of the game, it is spoken of as Merchant kaissa, from the role of the Merchants in making it the official form of kaissa for the fairs, Player kaissa, from the role of the Players in its codification...
2	406	A fellow, a pulley-maker I recognized from the arsenal, and the arsenal kaissa champion, rose to his feet, from where he had been sitting cross-legged before the kaissa board in the kaissa booth.
1	30	This form of kaissa, now utilized in the tournaments, is generally referred to, like the other variations, simply as kaissa.
1	13	Most kaissa boards do not have this counter.
1	24	These considerations are controversial in the theory of kaissa.
1	26	Incidentally, there are many versions of kaissa played on Gor.
1	28	The caste of Players, to its credit, has been attempting to standardize kaissa for years.
1	856	It was unusual for Samos to invite me to his holding simply for a game of kaissa.
1	860	He had told me once he preferred a different kaissa, one of politics and men.
1	861	"I do not think you brought me here to play kaissa," I said.
1	1047	"Surely not merely to play kaissa?" He was now resetting the pieces.
1	1053	This is one of the most common opening moves in kaissa.
1	1171	I thought that I had played kaissa well tonight.
1	1173	He preferred, as I recalled, a different kaissa, one of politics and men.
2	396	I paused only a yard or two from the end of the stage, before a kaissa booth.
2	412	Perhaps I did not see everything he did!" "Try another game," encouraged the paunchy fellow, he who had been associated with the stage and who, it seemed, had an interest also in the kaissa booth.
2	415	"He thought he knew how to play kaissa," said the man behind the board.
2	416	"How much have you taken in tonight?" asked the paunchy fellow, angrily, pointing to the copper, lidded pot, with the coin slot cut in its top, chained shut, near the low kaissa table.
2	424	He replaced the copper coin pot, chained shut, beside the kaissa table.
2	457	I wondered if he knew anything about kaissa.
2	465	"You, Sir," said the paunchy fellow turning to me, "do you play kaissa?" "A little," I said.
2	493	"It is an insult to kaissa," I said.
2	518	He lives only for kaissa.
2	544	His kaissa, on the other hand, seems strong.
2	554	To be sure, there was more money to be made in the kaissa clubs and on the high bridges.
2	556	I had once known a kaissa player who had done that.
2	560	"I do not play kaissa".
2	570	"Hold," said the officer to the paunchy fellow, who, it seemed, had backed away, turned, and was about to disappear between the stage and the kaissa booth.
2	657	He turned away, and then turned back, to stoop down and pick up the copper pot by the kaissa table.
2	662	I reached down and picked up the pot from beside the kaissa table.

Book 22. (4 results) Dancer of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
6	235	These candies are usually sold at such places as parks, beaches, and promenades, at carnivals, expositions and fairs, and at various types of popular events, such as plays, song dramas, races, games, and kaissa matches.
12	66	Too, tonight, it seemed that many of the men had come to the tavern only to drink and talk, and some, too, near the walls, where it was quieter, to play kaissa, a Gorean board game.
12	67	I did not care for kaissa.
12	69	Because of kaissa we had to sometimes wait hours for attentions! Too, I had come to the floor late, Tupita having assigned me cleaning duties in the slave area.

Book 24. (3 results) Vagabonds of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	343	In kaissa matches between clubs and towns, and sometimes even cities, incidentally, a certain form of similar deception is often practiced.
39	81	Some come to them to play kaissa.
47	121	Conveniences, facilities, refreshments, and such, are commonly available in large camps, as they are, for example, at games, tharlarion races, and kaissa matches.

Book 25. (11 results) Magicians of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
3	173	I passed a pair of fellows intent over a kaissa board.
3	613	For example, a skilled kaissa player is sometimes greeted in such a manner.
7	200	These were not a handful of Taurentians that might have been swept from their path like figures off a kaissa board.
11	402	"It is a form of kaissa, is it not?" he asked.
11	413	Yet I had known men who enjoyed such kaissa, the games of politics and men.
11	463	"That is part of your kaissa?" he asked.
12	491	"This is more of your kaissa," said he, distastefully.
13	36	"This time," he said, "I think my kaissa is more subtle than yours".
16	286	"This is your kaissa?" he said.
20	622	"This is more of your kaissa," he said.
27	637	"kaissa?" he asked.

Book 26. (13 results) Witness of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
40	225	"Sometimes," said the officer, "the best kaissa is no kaissa".
30	69	"And what kaissa would you play?" inquired the officer.
31	271	"You have played a clever game of double kaissa," said the leader of the black-tunicked men, "leading us to believe, as though falsely, this was he whom we seek, when it was in truth he, but the game has been penetrated".
34	5	The officer of Treve and the pit master were sitting at the table, playing kaissa, which is a board game of this world.
34	66	How often I had had to wait for contentments, even such as might be granted to a slave, because of kaissa! How often I had been uneasy, restless, in my kennel, pressing a tear-stained face against the bars, grasping them, they damp from the sweat of my palms.
37	462	"Excellent kaissa," said the pit master.
37	1115	"It is hard even to understand such kaissa," said the pit master.
38	2	The pit master had been engaged in a game of kaissa with the officer of Treve.
38	110	Two guards were at the far end of the long table, also involved with kaissa.
39	3	Terence, the officer of Treve, had not visited in the depths for several days, not since the last game of kaissa he had played with the pit master.
40	89	"We have not yet concluded our kaissa match," said the officer.
40	173	"Easily," said Terence, "by kaissa".
40	174	"kaissa?" "Of course".

Book 27. (4 results) Prize of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
15	268	"Certainly," said he, "as there are manuals for agricultural practices, military tactics, cartography, navigation, kaissa and such".
15	269	"kaissa?" "A board game," he said.
27	995	"It seems our kaissa has come to a locked position," said the rider.
27	997	"This is not kaissa".

Book 28. (4 results) Kur of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
15	1	How kaissa Came to the Forest There is no mistaking the sound of slave bells.
20	51	"kaissa," said Cabot.
81	164	"Perhaps you are no more than a piece on their kaissa board," said Grendel.
81	177	"How so?" "It is feared you may yet be upon the kaissa board of Priest-Kings".

Book 29. (18 results) Swordsmen of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
2	222	"Were you there?" one seaman might ask another in the taverns of Port Kar, over kaissa or paga, the girl of his choice lying bound hand and foot by his table, waiting to be carried over his shoulder to an alcove, at his convenience, or wherever two fellows of that unusual polity might ...
5	49	You know little of poetry, and your kaissa is commonplace".
5	50	"My kaissa is satisfactory," I said, "for one who is not a Player".
5	54	"kaissa is not for children," I said.
5	55	Life and death sometimes hung on the outcomes of a kaissa match, and war or peace.
5	388	Sometimes high warriors, city masters, Ubars, generals, and such, play "blind kaissa".
5	392	Gradually, however, from the adjudicator's reports, particularly if one has much experience of this version of kaissa, one begins to sense the positions and strategy of the opponent.
5	395	Too much in war, and often much of fearful moment, is "blind kaissa".
5	396	And so, I thought, perhaps in the northern forests, I might try my hand at "blind kaissa".
5	1085	There is a time to kill, a time to play kaissa, a time to share paga, a time to do business, a time to exchange slaves, and so on.
16	158	General engagements are sometimes unavoidable, and too often unavoidable, but their outcome is too often, as Goreans might say, a matter not of kaissa, but of the casting of dice.
18	459	How many men are conquered by a look cast over a shoulder, by a smile! Some men are drunk on kaissa, others on power, others on kanda, others on paga.
19	326	I had seen them in markets, awaiting their sale, and during their sale; I had seen them trekked in coffle, transported in slave wagons, reclining in cages, looking out at men who might buy them; I had seen them hurrying in the streets, bargaining with vendors, busy on the quays, laughing, and teasin...
25	26	Some men move others with words, as others move the pieces on the red and yellow board of kaissa.
27	110	It is unwise to move in kaissa when the board is obscure, when the number of pieces, their nature, and their positions are uncertain.
28	134	It is a time rather for the taverns and halls, for fires and brew, for paga and kaissa, for brawls and slaves, and the waiting for En'Kara, when, one's resources likely having been depleted, one will seek out captains and merchants, and seek perchance a new bench, a new oar.
33	8	Did these things have to do with Priest-Kings or Kurii, each of which faction was skilled in utilizing humans as their instrumentalities? I wondered what kaissa was being played, and who were the gamesmen.
43	158	"Having to do with the kaissa of blood, the dark game".

Book 30. (7 results) Mariners of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
1	41	One might have heard the clink of a goblet now and then, the scraping of a wooden trencher on a low table, sometimes the crack of a kaissa piece being struck down on a board in an aggressive move.
1	50	The trenchers had been gathered in, and the kaissa boards had been folded and put away, the red and yellow pieces in two shallow drawers, fixed in the board, one on each side, one for each color.
1	52	Commonly, however, kaissa boards are simple, straight boards, and the pieces are kept separately, in boxes or sacks.
17	95	Many masters, in their pride and vanity, and as evidence of their wealth, good fortune, or taste, enjoy displaying their slaves, much as owners of various goods, of various sorts, enjoy displaying other sorts of properties, statuary, rare coins, artworks, fountains, veminium gardens, classical czeha...
21	403	What in one man might seem pointless or gratuitous, in another, such as Tyrtaios, might be the result of sober calculation, a move on the kaissa board of advantage.
23	98	In the kaissa of steel such an opponent is quite dangerous".
37	531	One would think they were doing kaissa, or stones, not buying and selling.

Book 31. (24 results) Conspirators of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
8	233	Do the free men not attend the auctions, do they not scout the exposition cages, do they not saunter to the gates, to witness the arriving coffles, to see the former free women of another city being marched naked to local markets, do they not want a shapely collar slut trembling at their slave ring,...
8	1439	There is no lingering over paga, taking time for a game of kaissa or stones, trying out one or another of the proprietor's girls in an alcove, or such.
9	83	Sometimes, interestingly, fortunes were wagered on kaissa matches.
9	213	Little kaissa was played in such taverns.
17	26	For example, one would almost never see them at the pageants, the plays, the concerts, the song dramas, the epic readings, the great kaissa matches, and such.
18	360	Still, to one side, at more than one table, fellows were intent upon a game of kaissa.
19	95	One game does tend to be standardized, or relatively standardized, however, and that is kaissa.
19	96	The kaissa of Turia is apparently identical with that of Ar, and that with that of Port Kar, Ko-ro-ba, Anango, Tabor, the island ubarates, and so on.
19	100	Important kaissa players are celebrities, welcomed in a hundred cities, and entertained at the courts of Ubars.
34	43	"That is like a kaissa board, is it not?" I asked.
35	135	"Do you play kaissa?" he asked.
35	157	Accordingly, the first level of concealment is that the sheet is not what it initially appears to be, and might not attract particular attention, certainly not from those unfamiliar with kaissa, and probably not from your average player, who would not be likely to inquire into the anno...
35	159	And even if he looked at the sheet he would presumably soon cast it away as some sort of hoax or joke, perhaps even a jibe from some critic of kaissa, who thinks too much time and attention is devoted to the game.
35	169	"The kaissa squares in which they are inserted thus constitute no intelligible part of the message.
35	249	It was as unintelligible to me as the first, which had resembled, as I had been given to understand, the record, or annotation, of a kaissa game, but it was clearly different.
35	264	"In the case of the kaissa concealment," he said, "we were fortunate enough to obtain, and later copy, crucial sheets, materials in virtue of which the message might be concealed, and then, later, revealed.
35	287	"You are thinking of something like the kaissa concealment".
35	331	"Perhaps the cards are a diversion, a false trail, a distraction of sorts, something to consume time, while the actual messages are conveyed in some other way, as by the kaissa concealments".
37	2	There were eleven men in the room, and four slaves, the three who had been in the party of the Lady Bina, Jane, Eve, and myself, who had either prepared or copied the kaissa sheets, and Mina, formerly the Lady Persinna of Ar, who had been purchased by Trachinos.
38	42	We have the kaissa sheets.
41	194	"Surely the kaissa sheets will be brought to the cities, surely men will be warned?" "All that," he said.
43	10	It is from Grendel that we learned of the kaissa sheets, and were supplied with the materials, the privacy, and time required to copy them.
48	11	Might there not be indefinite subtleties, one lurking behind the other, in this kaissa of choice? "Tal, Noble Agamemnon, Theocrat of the World, Eleventh Face of the Nameless One," said Desmond of Harfax.
52	472	"The matters of kaissa sheets, of plans, of subversion, have been made known," I said.

Book 32. (4 results) Smugglers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
14	439	"Consider a kaissa board," he said.
14	448	"Perhaps," said he, "it is another way of continuing the game, a darker, more fearful kaissa".
47	65	There is a game, called Blind kaissa.
47	67	It is played much like ordinary kaissa save that there are two boards, separated by a vertical screen, precluding each player from seeing the moves of the other.

Book 33. (6 results) Rebels of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
59	210	In the kaissa of steel, as in the kaissa of the hundred-square board, beware the seeming mistake, for it may not be a mistake.
6	25	But then, might they not as well have wagered on a game of kaissa or tharlarion racing at Venna? What were the parameters of this game, if game it was? Could a number of Pani warriors, brought to continental Gor, somehow find their way back to the embattled homeland? Perhaps, if the un...
9	47	In the field manuals the common lesson is to pursue an advantage to the end, to follow up on the victory, never to stop with an incomplete victory, but the field manuals are written with the care and leisure which might accompany kaissa.
9	87	We began with the tents farthest to the south, selecting tents in the kaissa-board fashion, to conserve our incendiary materials, fire jars lit in flight, as this approach is designed to capitalize on the likelihood that a fire consuming one tent may spread to another.
40	58	"Who would not, in kaissa," I said, "sacrifice a Spearman for a Ubar?" "I do not understand," he said.
42	150	Sometimes, of course, the master has other things to do, perhaps finishing a kaissa game, and the slave must wait to be caressed.

Book 34. (7 results) Plunder of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
13	44	Too, the rich man often supports public spectacles and events, such as song dramas, readings, kaissa competitions, civic banquets, and such.
30	31	Two were playing kaissa, which game I recognized, but did not understand.
30	52	"Master," I said, "at the far table two men play kaissa.
36	90	"We are pieces on a kaissa board," I said.
46	378	Thus, one supposes, given the possible failure of one plan, a second plan was already in place, and simultaneously in motion, an additional move in this game of dark kaissa, the acquisition of the Lady Bina.
49	86	One of the most interesting castes is that of the Players, who live by means of a board game called 'kaissa'.
65	202	It was said, even, that he occasionally enjoyed a game of kaissa with Marlenus, the Ubar himself.

Book 35. (12 results) Quarry of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
29	51	They were playing "speech kaissa," or "boardless kaissa," announcing to one another their moves and countermoves.
8	20	It is called 'kaissa'.
8	584	The kaissa board and pieces were set aside.
10	43	Too, some come and, for the price of a drink, linger, to talk with friends or hear the news; some come and play kaissa, or stones, cards, or dice.
10	45	are found the hundred squares of the kaissa board.
11	154	I also passed two stalls, in one of which a fellow was exhibiting drawings, paintings, carvings, and small pieces of metal artwork, while in the other a man was offering kaissa sets, cards, and dice for sale, displayed on a table, while, behind him, arranged on hooks and shelves, oddly...
15	169	Tharlarion races in Venna were underway, Centius of Cos, guaranteed safe conduct, had won the kaissa garland in the Argentum competitions; an attempt to elevate and standardize cargo fees on the Vosk had failed; the migration of four-gilled parsit fish had begun; Rencers had raised the...
18	54	The girl goes with the price of the drink, but many men come to the tavern merely to eat and drink, meet friends, apprise themselves of news, gossip, and rumors, hear or tell stories, listen to the musicians and watch dancers, when they are performing, or even to play kaissa or stones,...
29	8	In kaissa a game is won, lost, or drawn, and it is clear which is the case.
30	99	Goreans bet on the outcomes of kaissa matches, not only at the great fairs or the city championships, but in the alleys, squares, taverns, and streets.
35	173	It was not our fault if he was defeated at kaissa or lost a game of stones at the Golden Chain.
36	112	"It is said he is adept in the kaissa of the sword".

Book 36. (7 results) Avengers of Gor

Chapter #	Sentence #	Quote
15	20	Our kaissa was flawless.
39	52	"He who wastes moves in kaissa," said Thurnock, "asks for the loss of his Home Stone".
42	59	"As in kaissa," I said, "momentum is to be exploited".
42	93	Is not the reputation of a Dietrich of Tarnburg worth a thousand troops? Whose hand does not shake on the pieces if, across the kaissa board, he sees a Centius of Cos, a Scormus of Ar? An army believing itself doomed does not hurry to the field.
42	158	"kaissa," I said.
42	159	"The kaissa of blood".
62	173	"Our enemies play a fine and cruel kaissa," I said.