More than anywhere else in the Middle Age world, Spain took on chess as a crucial part of class and culture. Influenced by Jewish, Muslim, and Christian cultures, chess in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula has a long and lasting history. At the beginning of the eleventh century chess was widely played by members of royal families. The immediate temporality of the game made it easily accessible while its mechanics allowed for it to become a cultured practice of the elite.
Not only was it a practice of play, but also a practice of gaining influence. King Sancho II of Navarre donated pieces to a monastery, as did Ramón Borrell of Catalonia. When the Countess Ermessenda followed in the footsteps of her brother-in-law Ramón and left her crystal chessmen to the church of Saint Giles, she secured a tradition of donations of chess sets and pieces to local churches and monasteries. These donations would create influences and connections with local parishes and wider sets of the religious range, allowing the ruler to have the insurance of papal support. This tradition is interesting, however, as it clashed with the Church’s sporadic notion that the game of chess was somehow sacrilegious and should be banned. Despite this inconsistency, chess and chess sets became a heavy part of church history decorations and maintained its influence.
Chess was also being used as a wedge in cultural barriers in the eleventh century. Alfonso VI was known for his Don Juan personality and was an avid fan of the game. Never discriminating against whether fellow chess players were Muslim, Christian, of Jewish, Alfonso would welcome all into his court to play. The rise of chess in Jewish culture can also be tracked. While Arab Muslim pieces were still abstract and reluctant to display human forms, Jewish pieces were not so strict and the chess sets of Jewish players from the 11th and 12th centuries give evidence to the game’s growing popularity. Two separate poems written by the Spanish Jewish rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra show the games influence and it’s metamorphism. The first poem describes the role of a vizier, while the second poem replaces the vizier with the queen, representing a more open-minded approach to the game and a turn away from the tradition play. As seen by the influence of the Countess Ermessenda, this was not only a game for men. Not only did Alfonso VI allow women to play as well, but his daughter Urraca would become one of the strongest queens in Spanish history and one of the leading catalysts to the chess queen’s rise in Spain.
There
is no doubt that chess was an activity practiced by the elite and upper
class. Petrus Alfonsi, physician
of Urraca’s divorced husband Alfonso in the beginning of the 12th
century, named the seven skills a knight should have: riding, swimming,
archery, boxing, hawking, chess, and verse writing. But chess was slowly becoming a part of common culture. With the acceptance into the various
cultures and religions of the Spanish region, chess was becoming more
widespread and therefore less exclusive to the elite. The emergence of the chess queen and its replacement of the
king’s vizier also influenced chess’s becoming a more acceptable part of all classes in 10th and 11th
century Spain. However, chess
still held a firm rank in the accomplishments and activities of the elite, and
it would not be until later in its life that it would truly become a game for
all, from royalty down to the common worker.
Works Cited:
Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the
Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004.
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