During my
reading of Yalom's description of chess throughout history, the shift in the
late 13th century from a royalty game to one of the masses I see as a key
shift; one which the Catholic Church made sure they took part in. Jacobus de Cessolis of Italy in particular
used chess as a way to enforce the hierarchal structure, in terms that the common
folk could more easily understand.
"Imagine
the audience in church listening with rapt attention as Cessolis evoked an
ideal state in terms of the miniature figures of a chessboard. (Yalom,
p.68) The key structure to these sermons
is that "the lower classes were by no means dismissed as an
indistinguishable class". (Yalom, p.68)
The sermons allowed people to feel better about where they were placed
in society, as the idea of a pawn was no longer something weak, but something necessary
in the way of life. Yalom's sermons were
compiled into a book, The Book of Chess, and
was increasingly popular in Italy.
The placement
of people in society within this game of chess is what I find very
interesting. It feels almost like subliminal
messaging through a popular game. The
King was given a "scepter in his right hand". Both the king and queen were placed in
"colored cloaks", which was a clear sign of royalty at the time. The words "chaste" and "chastity"
are used many times in Cessolis' book when referring to the queen as a way to enforce
the Church's view on women in the society.
"Sexual fidelity was particularly
crucial for a queen , as to ensure her offspring were unequivocally descended
from the king".(Yalom, p.70) In addition, the church's fight for monogamy
was enforced through the clear rule of only one king and one queen.
In a game of
chess a pawn can take over a queen or a king, which is something that would not
be allowed in society. Cessolis gets
around this by stressing it to be a game of intelligence, a trend that
continued as chess was "no longer solely a war game"(Yalom, p.68). "The chess pieces flanking the kind and
queen were likened to be judges. Their
virtue lay in firmness, incorruptibility, intelligence, and wisdom."
(Yalom, p.70). This presented traits
that everyone should want to hold, and should aspire to have if they want the
chance at royalty in real life.
The elephant
of old Indian chess was something that Europeans weren't sure what to do with,
but this later became the standard-bearer in Italy. The Knight was a clear translation, and was given
armor and a shield, and were known to represent being "brave, compassionate,
generous, and wise". The rooks were
to be king's servants, and were dressed appropriately in Cessolis' chess
board. A scepter in the right hand
showed that they were on king's business.
Also they were dressing in fur, which was not something actively accessible
to the lower classes.
Despite the
setup of the hierarchal society, Cessolis' greatest success was his focus on
the "pawns" of society, which was a majority of who he preached
to. Cessolis attached aspects of the
lower class to each and every pawn individually. This stressed more than ever each person's
role in the hierarchy. Very specific details
of each pawn, such as "jug in his right hand" for the innkeeper, or
"scales in his right hand" for the merchant, helped people relate to
the game and its structure, and in turn helped them to understand their place
in the structure of the monarchy.
The final
representation of the hierarchal structure is in the amount of moves different pieces
on the board can make. The king for
example, "was allowed to move two, three, or four squares on his first
move. In addition "he could take
the queen with him on his first and only three square jump". This further enforced the idea that the king
is at the top of the hierarchy. This
also enforced the Christian view of the time that the man is the head of the
household, and is over his wife.
This
implementation of a hierarchal system into a game was very clever, and ultimately
the key to Cessolis' success. The
attention to detail allowed everyone in society to understand, and more
importantly value their part in the structure of society. No one can win a game of chess without any
pawns, just as the monarchy of Italy in the 13th century could not have
survived without the lower class.
Bibliography
Yalom, M.
(2005). Birth of the
Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.
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