30 men with ladies two
Gathered for a festive do.
Dressed quite formal, black and white,
Yet movement turned to nasty fight.

What's going on?

I agree with Kasey and Peter, please do not post the answer in the subject line

Penguins, nice.

Dan:
"The riddle states that there were "30 men with ladies two." A chess game has 2 ladies (the queens), only 26 men (2 kings, 4 bishops, 4 knights, 16 pawns), and 4 non-gendered rooks (castles). And if all the pieces are referred to as chessmen, then there are 32 men, not 30. "Dressed quite formal, black and white" - of course no one "dresses" chess pieces. They are made of wood or plastic, and painted various colors. And "movement turned to nasty fight" - chess games are enjoyable, never nasty. "
Okay, so supposing there are two ladies, the queens, and all the rest are men, that leaves thirty.
OF course nobody "dresses" chessmen!  but the most common color for chess pieces are black and white.
And the fight refers to taking each other's pieces.  And as for chess not being nasty--ever seen Harry Potter 1?

Posted by Libby on 2004-12-30 05:13:28