Francesc Vicent (1450 in Segorbe – c. 1512) was a Spanish author who wrote the first treatise about

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

using the present-day moves for the

queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

and the

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

. ''Libre dels jochs partits dels schacs en nombre de 100'' was printed in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

on May 15, 1495, by Lope de Roca Alemany and Pere Trincher. No copy of this work has survived. It is assumed that the book contained 100 endgames. It is believed that there was a copy in the library of Santa Maria de Montserrat, but this was destroyed by the occupying French forces in 1811 during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spai ...

. Vicent is considered the founder of

modern chess Modern chess is a chess variant played on a 9×9 board. The game was invented by Gabriel Vicente Maura in 1968. Besides the usual set of chess pieces, each player has a prime minister and an additional pawn: : The prime minister (M) combine ...

. As his work spread throughout Europe, the innovation of the queen's change in movement making it the most powerful chess piece appeared for the first time in the poem '' Scachs d'amor'' (1475) written by Bernat Fenollar, Narcís Vinyoles and Franci de Castellví. This has been presented as evidence that the modern queen's move is a Spanish invention.Karpov supports the Valencian Queen
The

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet of the Solar System#Inner solar system, inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic o ...

78071 Vicent, discovered in 2002, is named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vicent, Francesc 1450 births 1512 deaths People from Segorbe Spanish chess writers Medieval Catalan-language writers 15th-century people from the Kingdom of Aragon