An Indian queen was distraught over the enmity between her two sons, Talhand and Gav. When she heard Talhand had died in battle, she thought Gav had killed him. The sages of the kingdom, developed the chessboard to recreate the battle, to clearly show the queen the king died from battle fatigue. The king was in "check mate", or more literally "the king was exhausted" [Yalom 5]. This story illustrates the core game mechanic of one of the most universally played games in existence. Furthermore, this story exhibits how this core mechanic, the win condition, is a story all in it's own - one of a fallen king.
My father taught me to play Chess when I was five years old. We were in the family room playing on a chess board that he had owned far before I was born. I remember how smooth the pieces felt, as my father explained the mechanics of each one. Now I realize how it must of felt to play the same game with your son, your father taught to you years earlier. One day I might be sitting at a chess board facing my son for the first time, and I know if I do, I will remember, as I play, the day my father taught me to play chess in our family room. Chess is a game that has been passed down from generation to generation for over a millennium, and has a wealth of history and culture that has been passed down along with it. Like my childhood memories of playing chess with my father are represented in the game, stories of the game's creation, though more monumental, have the same effect. As chess becomes part of a surrounding culture, it absorbs stories, and new mechanics, as it's continually passed down. What gets passed down is more than just a game.
Frederick was only three when his mother died in 1198, and had already been crowned king of Sicily. In his lifetime his "love for chess was contagious" [Yalom 40], and "by the end of his reign, in 1250, players from Italy, especially those from Lombardy, were becoming famous throughout Europe" [Yalom 40].
While Constance was pregnant with her son, Frederick, she was on a war campaign to conquer Sicily with her husband. "During the forty days of her lying-in period, she may well have enjoyed the distraction of playing chess and checkers in bed" [Yalom 39]. One can only imagine a queen playing chess in bed shortly after giving birth, while campaigning across a great distance to reunite with her husband and his army. This humble image must have been forever engraved in the mind of Frederick, being so young when his mother passed.
It's funny how a simple game can record such vivid imagery as its revolving stories are passed to future generations. King Alfonso X of Leon and Castile commissioned a manuscript titled The Book of the Games of Chess, Dice, and Boards. This literary piece inspired nearly completely by chess, is nearly a millennium in age. This manuscript illustrates King Alfonso passing down the game of chess to future generations. "If you can imagine a priceless coffee table book with everything you want to know about medieval Spanish chess, this is it" [Yalom 58].
In nearly every culture chess has existed, it has absorbed stories from that culture and immortalized them. From Constance to Alfonso, chess is intertwined with most human culture. In the same way Frederick would forever remember his mother playing chess on the war campaign, I will always remember the day and moment my father taught me to play chess.
Bibliography
Yalom, M. (2005). Birth of the Chess Queen.
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