Game Design as Cultural Practice Fall 2009

Chess as a Social Metaphor in Italy

    For some time chess was viewed by the Roman Catholic Church as a "path to perdition". Eventually the church began to change their tune on chess and viewed it as a propaganda gold mine as opposed to a evil pass time. Specifically, "Jacobus de Cessolis used chess as the basis for a series of sermons" (Yalom 68). By this time chess was no longer considered a game of war due to the inclusion of non-warlike pieces such as the king and queen. This allowed Cessolis took advantage of this new paradigm to convey chess as an allegory for society. Using the chess board to demonstrate an ideal state Cessolis preached of a "social pyramid" with the king on top and the peasants at the bottom. 

    In two books based on Cessolis's sermons, The Book of the Customs of Men and the Duties of Nobles and The Book of Chess, each station of life was described in terms of it's chess piece. The knight had the most obvious description. Being described as "brave compassionate, generous, and wise", the knight was depicted in" the usual knightly accouterments, including gauntlets and greaves, helmet and shield." The rooks were transformed from turrets to the envoys of the king and "[were] to be dressed in a fur coat...[and] in his right hand he shall hold a staff to show that he is on the King's business". The rook was expected to act with "justice, piety, humility, patience, voluntary poverty and generosity". Cessolis described the pieces flanking the king and queen, the modern day bishop's, as judges who's, "virtue lay in firmness, incorruptibility, intelligence, and wisdom" . As a note, the discrepancy in this description came from the fact that Europeans did not know what to do with the original Indian elephant based piece.  (Yalom, 70).

    Cessolis also used the pieces of the king and queen to demonstrate their ideal characteristics, specifically the control of sexuality. "Thus the king 'must observe absolute continence. That is symbolized by a single Queen'", or in other words monogamous. Due to raising anxieties over the raising female power. To undercut the queen's political importance the women were presented exclusively as wives and mothers. The queen was required to "be chaste, docile, descended from a good family, and attentive to the upbringing of her sons". Cessolis used the words chaste and chasity repeatedly to remind the reader that "sexual fidelity was particularly crucial for a queen, so as to ensure that her offspring were unequivocally descended form the king." Furthermore, Cessolis described a unique move in which the king was allowed to move up to 4 spaces in any combination on his first move. In a further attempt to undermined the queen, the rule allowed the queen to follow the king on this move. In reality the move was a "symbolic attempt to remind the queen that she belonged to the king"  (Yalom, 69-71). 

    Still, propaganda without an audience isn't much use. To that end Cessolis payed special attention to the pawns, analogous to the peasants, on the board. Each pawn represented a different lower class profession. The first pawn was described as a "peasant and a wine grower" while the second pawn was said to be a "smith carpenter and mason". The attention Cessolis payed to the lower class i most likely the secret behind his success, and may even help  bring chess to the masses. Cessolis's Book of Chess was a medieval best seller. In fact, after the advent of the printing press, the printer Caxton published the book second, after the bible.  4.

Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: Harper Cllins, 2004.

The Culture of Chess in Recent History

    There's a story in the Shah-nameh about how Chess was invented for the queen of India. She had two sons vying for the throne, and when one died, she suspected that it was at the hands of the other. The story has it that the sages of the kingdom developed the chess board to show that her son had in fact died of battle fatigue. This version of the invention of Chess describes the game as essentially being invented to demonstrate to a woman how a man died on a battlefield. This tale seems say that real battle is for men and that Chess is a way for women to comprehend how a battle is fought.

    The game made its way into Persia and to the Muslims, who removed recognizable figures from the board, and eventually into Europe where the Queen was initially not as powerful as she is today. In fact, early European Chess rules made the Queen the second weakest piece after the Rook. The rule was in place that a Pawn could become a Queen if it reached the other end of the board, but only if the first Queen was dead because a King having two Queens caused anxiety. Eventually, in part because of the influence of powerful real-life queens like Isabella I, the Queen became the powerhouse she is today in a version called "Lady's Chess" or "Queen's Chess," which has since become the standard.

    So why is it today that Chess is primarily a man's game? If you go to Central Park in New York and see all the people playing Chess, why are so few of them women? Why are so few of the upper-echelon of Chess players women?

    Over the past century or so, Chess still has a cultural significance. It was used as a benchmark for artificial intelligence and computing power when IBM's Deep Blue defeated the reigning Chess champion, Garry Kasparov, in 1997. In fact, Kasparov accused IBM of cheating because he didn't believe a computer was capable the insight he sensed in his opponent. Chess is viewed as this benchmark for AI because it is currently seen as almost the perfect game for a competition of strategy and intellect. In the Western world, Chess is seen as the thinking man's game. The basic idea seems to be that if you are smart, then you can play Chess.

    But it's not like women aren't smart. I think the big issue is that Chess is also viewed as nerdy. Just watch any children's programming and you'll see that the nerdy character has glasses, freckles, a pocket-protector, and is captain of the Chess team...and that it's always a boy. I think the main factor in Chess being a man's game in modern society is the cultural idea of the nerd, and that Chess is for nerds. Other things associated with nerds are science fiction, role-playing games, and any video games that don't involve guns or touchdowns. These are all things that are primarily indulged upon by males.

    So, while Yalom urges women to follow to Chess Queen's example and outwit their male counterparts, I find it unlikely that women as a whole to take up Chess to the degree that men do. It all starts with childhood. While my parents encouraged me to play Chess, they encouraged my sister to wear dresses and play with Barbie dolls.

Bibliography:

Yalom, Marilyn. Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Aspects of Chess in Muslim Culture

    The earliest versions of chess were played in India, Persia, and the Arab lands. Many sources debate as to where chess originated, but it is commonly believed to have originated in India. The Indian ancestor of chess was called chaturanga, developed in the 6^th century AD.  Meaning “Four Members”, it comes from the four military divisions of the Indian army: infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry(3). Instead of a queen, it had a vizier, the shah’s second-in command. Yalom, in her book The Birth of the Chess Queen, placed heavy emphasis on the influence of culture in regard to the evolution of chess, with a primary focus on the queen piece.  In fact, the early predecessors of chess did not include a female piece of any kind, since the vizier’s command is more powerful in these countries.  Eventually, the game spread to Persia where it became known as Shatranj. After the Islamic Conquest of Persia, the game spread westward and a large portion of the Arabian population began to take up chess where it became known as shatranj (but for the sake of this essay, I will continue to refer to it as ‘chess’).

    In the Arab countries, chess was not limited to just the men of high status. In fact, according to Yalom, chess players included everyone: “rich and poor, educated and uneducated, young and old”(131). The caliphs were the ones to popularize chess among Muslim circles. Caliph Harun al-Rashid made chess into a mandatory court activity that even altered the course of history.  Harun  sought out skilled chess players with unusual prowess, for example, the ability to play chess blindfolded.  He would admit these players, despite their economic standing, and present them with riches. This move was translated in the chess move of “queening”: promoting a pawn to the rank of vizier.

    The Muslim female ideals translate to the pieces of the chessboard as well. Yalom makes the queen piece into a vital clue to a culture’s take on chess. It would have made no sense to have a queen on the chessboard in these early representations. For one thing, Chess was “resolutely and exclusively a war game enacted between male fighters mounted on animals or walking on foot”(XIX). Also, as pointed out earlier, the position of the vizier was firm and absolute by the Shah’s side. The Muslims did not share the Christian ideal of a monogamous pairing, but instead displayed possibilities for polygamous relationships. The power of the Muslim woman was thinned down and less significant; the wife of a shah was not expected to share political power with him. A shah may even have many wives. (XVIII)

    Arab women, despite their low status in culture, would appear in Muslim literature as chess players. In one story of Arabian Nights, the Muslim prince Sharkan competes in a game of chess with the Christian princess Abriza. The prince is captivated by Abriza’s beauty and loses, only to win her heart and hand in marriage. In many of such stories, the theme of a “battle of the sexes” in a chess match is clearly defined. The Arabic version of these stories usually has the Christian woman fall in love and convert to Islam, while, in contrast, the European version has the exotic Arab princess fall in love, and invariably convert from Islam to Christianity (11).  This says something about gender realities in both Christianity and Islam.  From what we can see here, chess is used as a medium to reflect themes of love and religion (133). It is an important part of early Islamic culture, just as video games and aspects of popular culture is today.

    There was much opposition to chess and aspects of it; the most important being the ban on displaying realistic figures in chess pieces. The Sunni Muslims took a strict interpretation of one passage in the Koran, which states: “Believers, wine and games of chance, idols and divining arrows, are abominations devised by Satan. Avoid them, so that you may prosper”. So strict were their followings to their religion that they took the passage as a ban on all representations of animals and humans, forcing them to portray even chess pieces in abstract shapes. (6-7) Even to this day, most Islamic countries (save Turkey) continue to portray abstract chess sets. (238) Playing the game itself was not banned, as long as it “did not interfere with the performance of religious duties, was not played for money, and did not lead to dispute or foul language”. However, this does not stop some extreme caliphs to order a destruction of all chess sets throughout the centuries. One example Yalom mentioned involved a more recent practice of chess prohibition as a part of the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan. Once the Taliban’s rule was overthrown, “the first objects to be taken out of hiding were radios, musical instruments, and chess sets.” (7-8)

    An expanding Arabian Empire was now spreading chess throughout Europe. By the 10^th century, the Muslims have brought chess to far spread areas throughout North Africa to Spain. The nephew of Caliph Abd al-Rahman III brings chess to Christian territories, keeping the abstract set design. When chess is introduced to Cordoba, a Spanish Islam city, they allowed Christians, Arabs, and Jews to play together, both the men and the women. This “Golden Age” of Muslims and Jews helped spread chess and other aspects of Muslim culture along. After the Arab Invasion of Southern Europe we begin to see the next major transformation of chess: a queen piece in place of the vizier. In Persia, to this day, the chess pieces still retained their Muslim names. When brought to Russia, the queen piece is still based off the Arabic vizier. Funnily enough, Russians still kept the abstract chess pieces for many years. A few examples of Islamic influences on chess that still linger to this day.

Bibliography:

Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004 (hardcover)

"Chess: Introduction to Europe". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica. 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-80430/chess.

They will Remember

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. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Chess in 13th Century Italy: A Socio-Religious Metaphor

In the middle ages, nobles and members of the church opted for a different method while talking to the common people. Even though the game was previously condemned by the church, they accepted it and used it extensively while conversing with the public.

In Italy, Jacobus de Cessolis used chess to communicate with the masses through cleverly constructed sermons. He used chess as an "allegory of society" (Yalom 68), and carefully illustrated the place of the common man. He considered chess to be an ideal comparison to the social hierarchy of the time. He didn't dismiss the lower classes as an indistinguishable mass (Yalom 68), but emphasized on the position and power of the king.

A book derived from his sermons, The Book of Chess, has detailed descriptions on his comparison of the general populace to their respective chess pieces. These descriptions clearly manifest the "catholic view of morality" (Yalom 69) that prevailed during the middle ages. A strong religious overtone is especially expressed while describing the role of the queen. He frequently juxtaposes sexual fidelity with her role to remind the audience where a woman's greatest virtue lay (Yalom 70). This among other descriptions of the queen were mainly to undermine her political significance by assigning her a pre-defined religious responsibility.

The moves of each piece were different but the symbolic representation was consistent. The king was allowed a move in which he could jump three squares. An addition to this rule was that he could take the queen with him for this initial move. This clearly was an attempt to remind the queen that she was under the king's jurisdiction (Yalom 71). Cessolis used such representations even when appealing to the common people.

Cessolis knew that to gain popularity with the common people, he should recognize them in a public religious gathering. He carried this out by assigning the professions of the common man to the respective number of pawns on the chess board. There is an entire section in his book dedicated to pawns and their professions in which it is shown that he meticulously covers all walks of life among the common folk. He mentions peasants, masons, merchants, physicians, innkeepers, guards, collectors and even criminals as being assigned places on the chess board (Yalom 71).

The important thing to note is not the mention of all these professions, but rather the fact that he validates their functions on the chessboard. He does this by describing the tools each of the "pawns" would carry. This simple mention of physical objects related to their trade gives a strong impression that their significance in society was noticed.

After understanding the socio-religious implications of Cessolis's work, it is quite clear how The Book of Chess was second to only the Bible in numbers during the late 15th century. It is also a clear example of how a game like chess could be used to express a vicarious sense of social signifiance among people under a religious banner.

Works Cited:

Yalom, M. 2004. Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins.

The development of chess through 11th and 12th century Spain

           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 11^th and 12^th 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 12^th 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 10^th and 11^th 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.

The Culture of Chess: The Evolution of the Game

Chess is believed to have started in India around the sixth century. The game back then had many differences from the game we have today. It also had many differences from the game that would appear in European countries around the end of the first millennium. The game of chess that was played in Indian and Arab countries as well as Spain consisted of “the king, vizier (predecessor of the queen), elephant (predecessor of the bishop), horse (predecessor of the knight), rook and pawns.” [Yalom 14]  These pieces would be abstract to honor the ban on “idols” in the Koran.

Around 990's chess made a very large change. The poem “Verses on Chess” shows the game in Europe and is the first mention of the queen replacing the vizier piece.  The queen was given the same move as the vizier (1 square in a diagonal direction) a fraction of the power she would gain in later centuries [Yalom 17].  However a distinction was made between the queen and the vizier: there was only allowed to be one queen on the board for each side. Through “queening” a pawn was allowed to be promoted to the ranks of the queen or vizier. In the Arab version a player was allowed to have multiple viziers, this act actually became a social metaphor of a rags to riches story. On the other hand, in the European version the king was only allowed to have one wife, one queen, and the games rules reflected that element of there culture.

Another change that occurred concerned the elephant piece later known as the bishop. In “Verses on Chess” the piece made a step towards the form it has today. The piece was named the “count or aged one” it would take many years for the piece to gain the name we know today. In the poem the piece was said to “[move] diagonally to the third square of [the piece’s] original color.” [Yalom 18] This movement style, much like the queens, is a primitive form of the pieces current abilities. This piece wouldn’t attain some of the features we know today until the twelfth century where “bishops wielded enormous power as administrators of church moneys, properties, and even armies.” [Yalom 19]

The game would continue to evolve from there. The game it self would evolve based on the ideas and morals of the day it was played in. the powerful queens who ruled through the eras after the chess queens birth would ultimately shape the power of the piece much like the piece that later became the bishop was shaped by there real life equivalent. The game would be used to represent many social events and ideas. Ideas such as what was written in a short poem in the thirteenth-century

“The black pieces belong to the Devil, the white one to God. Our first ancestor, called Adam, was like a great king on the board. He played against the Devil, who defeated him in three moves. When God saw that Adam had been checkmated, he started the game over again, this time with Jesus as the white king, and the Virgin Mary at his side in the place of the queen.” [Yalom 109]

This poem is an example of what the game could represent to some. In many other instances the game carried a much lighter idea behind it. Because the game didn’t belong to one gender, female and male players were considered to be of equal value. The game often became a metaphor for courtship. The pieces were given names such as “knight of the lion, boldness” and “knight, shame” [Yalom 142 143] which would enhance the metaphor of courtship. The movements in the “love battle[s]” would “represent a decisive moment in the game of love.” [Yalom 141]  This form of chess was just a different variation to reflect the ideas at the time. This particular game was vastly different in that the pieces were spread across three rows instead of two.

 

Bibliography

Yalom, M. (2005). Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

Rise of the Chess Queen

The first literary reference to the game of chess appears in an ancient Persian romance, Karnamak, written around 600 (Yalom, 4). Although it wasn't until almost four hundred years later (just before the end of the 10^th century) that the chess queen made her way onto the board. In 990 a ninety-eight line Latin poem, now called the Einsiedeln Poem, appeared, containing the first indication the queen had made her way on the board.

Yalom suggests that the chess queen likely made her way onto the board in the last decades of the ninth century and was modeled after Empress Adelaide (wife of Otto I) or Empress Theophano (wife of Otto II) two empresses of the Holy Roman Empire circa 962-990. Though Yalom argues that a “circumstantial case can be made for both” (Yalom, 24) the impact on chess was that at the start of the 11^th century their was in fact a queen on the chess board.

In this era in European history was “marked by the rising power of kingship, queenship, and the church” (Yalom, 26). The king and queen chess pieces marked this rise reflecting the status of royalty having the king stand as the tallest figure on the board followed by the queen. Chess pieces represented a class system in which everyone knew their respective place in the social order. However, at this point in history, despite her high status in the actual kingdom, on the chess board the queen could only move diagonally one space at a time making her the weakest piece on the board.

In Italy in the late thirteenth century the book Good Companion described the state of chess. Here we see that the power of the chess queen has grown. Now the queen had the ability to move two spaces and jump over any pieces blocking her way. Here we see the game still starkly reflects the hierarchy of social classes, but since the queen has grown stronger, she represented the rise in female power in society, which was difficult for most men to accept.

The chess queen did not reach her full potential until the late 15^th century during the reign of Isabella of Castile, most well known for her funding of Columbus' inadvertent trip to America. The power of the new queen was documented in a poem “Love Chess” written at some point in the 1470s. The poem told of a game played by current rules, with the exception that a pawn could not be “queened” while the original queen was yet to be captured. This was most likely directly related to the fact that Isabella of Castile was at that time in civil war with Queen Juana of Portugal.

It took nearly one thousand years from the first documentation of the game of chess until it formed into the game we knew today and there were many significant women throughout the history of the game that attributed to the rise of the chess queen.  The queen's rise directly relates with the rise of female power throughout the centuries and the cultures that changed and formed the game. Although, unfortunately, even today there are those who have not accepted equality of all humans regardless of race, gender, or religion. I wonder how years from now game fanatics will view the games of our generations.

Works Cited

Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005

Games as Culture and the Traveling Chessboard

Today, chess is associated with daytime professional competitions on ESPN2 and nerds in the back of the high school lunchroom. It's hard to imagine a time when the game was considered a serious element of social status and even an allegory for society as a whole. Such a time existed in the game's advent in Europe.

The role of chess in Spain dates back to the 8th century in Spanish Muslim culture. The Book of the Games of Chess, Dice, and Boards from the 13th century illustrates the game's relevance during the height of its influence across Europe. Women were explicitly encouraged to play, along with prisoners and slaves. Pawns were called "inferiors" and the other pieces were called "superiors" to assert the nobility's social status among all players. It was the only game acceptable for royalty to play. (Yalom 66)

Chess came to France from Spain. Playing chess was seen as a sign of wisdom, but also as a dangerous game where players could lose their tempers and physically harm each other, sometimes on the same level as jousting (Yalom 85). It was in France that replacement of the "standard bearer" from the Spanish board was first popularized as the Queen - although at that point in time, the Queen was still one of the weaker pieces. According to French accounts, the game was played with a different strategy than it is today. Pieces were valued based on the position they held in society in addition to their purpose on the board. (Yalom 97)

The game likely came to England from Normandy in the 11th century, and its reception was somewhat similar. The game was known to provoke violence, and in the mid 13th century, the game was banned altogether by the clergy. Many English theologians across multiple religions condemned chess as a form of gambling because it was often played for money. (Yalom 104) These attempts to destroy the game largely failed, and it remained popular even in monasteries.

Jacobus de Cessolis, a Dominican friar in Italy, used chess to teach his congregation about society - a very conservative yet real view of society in the 13th century: "The king belonged at the top of the social pyramid and the peasants at the bottom."  (Yalom 68) Each piece represented some part of society. Even the pawns were designated as carpenters, weavers, merchants, doctors, and innkeepers. Yalom notes that the descriptions of the pieces in Cessolis' Book of Chess was designed to enforce the monogamous views of the Catholic Church: "the king must observe absolute continence...symbolized by a single Queen." (Yalom 69).

During the same time in Germany, chess was a game of nobility where everyone was expected to know how to play. When it spread outside the circles of nobility, the rules were often recited in poems or songs, most notably through the Carmina Burana, a rhymed poem of Latin couplets. (Yalom 77) The village of Ströbeck even required students to learn chess in school.

The historical significance of chess is particularly interesting in studying the general perception of games today. Will we get to a point where being good at Guitar Hero is socially embraced, or if leading a guild in World of Warcraft is respectable outside of Azeroth? It's a silly thought, but it will also be enlightening to see where culture takes us in the next decade.

Works Cited: Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: Harper Collins, 2004.

The Culture of Chess: Spain’s Unifying Game

Start of Chess in Spain

Even in Christian Spain, where it had been prohibited several times, chess was starting to make a huge impact on the society.  Muslims, Christians and even Jews were all a part of the chess movement, each contributing their own ideals and values into the game to shape it into what it is today.

 

The game had been played by every religion in every social strata. It was a very popular game, and the records of wills show Christian royalty, common Jews, and even clergyman all left chess pieces to the church or loved ones (Yalom p.44). Even though the game started out as Muslim, it spread to everyone in Spain. It actually became tradition for Royalty to leave chess pieces to the church. Even though the church was (sometimes) against chess, since so many pieces had been donated they began hanging them as ornaments around crosses or vestments. (Yalom p.45) Something that had started as obviously Muslim had penetrated itself deeply into another religion. The pieces you donated actually determined your worth. The more you donated, the better off you were. Through the contributions, it looked as if Muslim style pieces (abstract designs because they were unable to show realistic idols (Yalom p.7)) were still in fashion in Christian Spain even though realistic models have already started appearing.

 

Alfonso VI and Dona Urraca

Many of Spains rulers were passionate about chess. Alfonso VI was no exception. People of all creeds and religions were allowed into the court if they had the same passion for chess as he did. He would have been proud of the heir he left behind. Urraca, his eldest daughter, helped shape the chess queen.

 

Urraca had married a tyrannical man (Alfonso I), and after the annulment of their marriage the two went to war. Her conquests and defeats proved how powerful a queen can be, and helped boost the idea of having a queen on the board. The chess queen had made a mark on chess by the 12^th century in Spain (Yalom p.52). Whether she was accepted was completely up to the culture she was introduced to. Muslims never let her in. They stuck with their vizier, and continued to use their abstract pieces (and I wouldn’t be surprised if to this day they continued to shut her out). Christians were completely for it. Jews were iffy. They didn’t like the idea at first, but then grew to accept the chess queen as part of the game. Jews weren’t known for being very accepting of women so I was a little surprised to find out how the chess queen made her way into the board in their culture. Yalom believes this is because there have been enough powerful women in the old testament that it was more acceptable to have a female piece on the chessboard. (p. 54)

 

Alfonso X and His Book

Alfonso X wrote an amazing book about chess, dice, and backgammon. While the book wasn’t revolutionary in terms of the rules of chess, I think it was culturally revolutionary. The book contained pictures of women from all cultures playing chess, even against male opponents. The pictures also depicted people of different social classes participating in the game. This signifies that chess really was a unifying game. The Christians believed anyone who did not believe in Jesus was in league with the devil, but still wanted other religions contributions when it came to chess. Even in these days religions battle and usually have no reason to come together, but in medieval Spain people put aside their differences for the love of chess. If you were a chess master, your religion or gender didn’t matter. It was about passion.

-Danielle Arabov

Bibliography

Yalom, Marilyn. The Birth of the Chess Queen. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2005