''Scachs d'amor'' (, meaning "Chess of Love"), whose complete title is ''Hobra intitulada scachs d'amor feta per don Francí de Castellví e Narcis Vinyoles e mossén Fenollar'', is the name of a poem written by
Francesc de Castellví,
Bernat Fenollar
Bernat Fenollar, also Mossèn (Bernat de) Fenollar ( Penàguila, Valencian Community, 1438 – Valencia, 28 February 1516) was a poet, cleric and chess player from Valencia, Spain. He was an abbot (the title "Mossèn" was often given to clergymen), ...
, and
Narcís Vinyoles
Narcís Vinyoles, also Narciso Viñoles (between 1442 and 1447 – 1517) was a poet, lawyer and politician from Valencia, Spain. He was twice appointed to the post of Justicia Civil, the supreme judge in civil cases, and in 1495, King Ferdinand II ...
, published in
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
,
Kingdom of Valencia
The Kingdom of Valencia (; ; ), located in the eastern shore of the Iberian Peninsula, was one of the component realms of the Crown of Aragon.
The Kingdom of Valencia was formally created in 1238 when the Moorish taifa of Valencia was taken in ...
, towards the end of the 15th century.
The manuscript, written in
Valencian language
Valencian () or the Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community to refer to the Romance language also known as Catalan language, Catalan, 'hour'. However (although regarded as non ...
probably in 1475, was discovered in 1905 by at '. Though the original was lost, a photograph of the codex has been kept at the
Library of Catalonia
The Library of Catalonia (, ) is the Catalan national library, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The primary mission of the Library of Catalonia is to collect, preserve, and spread Catalan bibliographic production and that related to the ...
in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
.
The poem is conceived as a
chess
Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...
game in which the players are Castellví, playing
White
White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
(in modern chess) (
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
''Març'',
Love
Love is a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment (psychology), attachment to a person, animal, or thing. It is expressed in many forms, encompassing a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most su ...
''Amor'', and red pieces in the game), and Vinyoles, playing Black (
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is often called Earth's "twin" or "sister" planet for having almost the same size and mass, and the closest orbit to Earth's. While both are rocky planets, Venus has an atmosphere much thicker ...
, the
Glory ''Gloria'', and green pieces).
[Francesco di Castellvi vs Narciso Vinyoles](_blank)
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
, Crown of Aragon
The Crown of Aragon (, ) ;, ; ; . was a composite monarchy ruled by one king, originated by the dynastic union of the Kingdom of Aragon and the County of Barcelona (later Principality of Catalonia) and ended as a consequence of the War of the Sp ...
, 1475, Chessgames.com. They debate about love, and Fenollar comments and establishes the rules. The opening in the game would, centuries later, be called the
Scandinavian Defense
The Scandinavian Defense (or Center Counter Defense, or Center Counter Game) is a chess opening characterized by the moves:
:1. e4 d5
This opening is classified under code B01 in the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings''. The Scandinavian Def ...
. Notably, the game ends in a
pure mate, which is a specific class of checkmate generally considered to be aesthetically pleasing. Green and red are still used in
xiangqi
Xiangqi (; ), commonly known as Chinese chess or elephant chess, is a Strategy game, strategy board game for two players. It is the most popular board game in China. Xiangqi is in the same family of games as shogi, janggi, chess, Western ches ...
as the colors for the pieces.
The poem uses the game as an
allegory
As a List of narrative techniques, literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a wikt:narrative, narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political signi ...
for love. Its structure is based upon sixty-four
stanza
In poetry, a stanza (; from Italian ''stanza'', ; ) is a group of lines within a poem, usually set off from others by a blank line or indentation. Stanzas can have regular rhyme and metrical schemes, but they are not required to have either. ...
s (the same as the number of
chessboard
A chessboard is a game board used to play chess. It consists of 64 squares, 8 rows by 8 columns, on which the chess pieces are placed. It is square in shape and uses two colours of squares, one light and one dark, in a chequered pattern. During p ...
squares), nine verses each. The stanzas are grouped three after three: The first stanza in the group represents White's move, the second one Black's move, and the third one a comment on the rules by the arbiter. The three stanzas in the beginning are an introduction and the last one is
checkmate
Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.
In chess, the king is ...
.
This is believed to be the earliest documented game of chess with the modern rules concerning the moves of the
queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
and
bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
. However, it is unknown whether the complete modern rules of chess were in use as of this game, because neither player
castled or captured ''
en passant
In chess, ''en passant'' (, "in passing") describes the capture by a Pawn (chess), pawn of an enemy pawn on the same and an adjacent that has just made an initial two-square advance. This is a special case in the rules of chess. The capturi ...
''.
The game
White: Francesc de Castellví Black: Narcís Vinyoles
Opening
Opening may refer to:
Types of openings
* Hole
* A title sequence or opening credits
* Grand opening of a business or other institution
* Inauguration
* Keynote
* Opening sentence
* Opening sequence
* Opening statement, a beginning statemen ...
:
Scandinavian Defense
The Scandinavian Defense (or Center Counter Defense, or Center Counter Game) is a chess opening characterized by the moves:
:1. e4 d5
This opening is classified under code B01 in the ''Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings''. The Scandinavian Def ...
, (''
ECO'' B01)
Valencia, Crown of Aragon, 1475
1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd8 4.Bc4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bg4 6.h3 Bxf3 7.Qxf3 e6 8.Qxb7 Nbd7 9.Nb5 Rc8 10.Nxa7 Nb6 11.Nxc8 Nxc8 12.d4 Nd6 13.Bb5+ Nxb5 14.Qxb5+ Nd7 15.d5 exd5 16.Be3 Bd6 17.Rd1 Qf6 18.Rxd5 Qg6 19.Bf4 Bxf4 20.Qxd7+ Kf8 21.Qd8
The game is not particularly well played: for example, instead of playing 6.h3 White could play 6.Bxf7+ or 6.Ne5 with a big advantage in both cases. However the game was in its infancy, and the moves allegorize the love affairs that constitute the basic literary plot. For this reason, the authors did not care much if the movements were technically good or bad, but if they harmonized with the development of the literary plot.
See also
*''
Versus de scachis
(Latin: "Verses on Chess"), also known as the ''Einsiedeln Poem'' in some literature, is the title given to a 10th-century Medieval Latin poem about chess. It is the first known European text to provide a technical description of chess for did ...
'', the earliest known reference to chess in a European text
*
Chess in early literature
One of the most common ways for chess historians to trace when the board game chess entered a country is to look at the literature of that country. Although due to the names associated with chess sometimes being used for more than one game (for ins ...
*
History of chess
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in History of India, India; its prehistory is the subject of speculation. From India it spread to Sassanian Empire, Persia, where i ...
*''
Libro de los Juegos
The (Spanish: "Book of games"), or ("Book of chess, dice and tables", in Old Spanish), is a 13th century Spanish language, Spanish treatise of chess that synthesizes the information from Arabic works on this same topic, dice and Tables games, ...
''
References
Further reading
En el poema scachs d’amor del siglo xv se presenta la primera partida bajo las reglas del ajedrez moderno (in Spanish)
External links
{{Wikisourcelang, ca, Scachs d'amor
The chess gameAn English Translation of Scachs d'AmorA commentary on the game (video)
History of chess
Medieval Catalan literature
History of the Valencian Community
Chess in Spain
15th century in chess
Poems about chess
15th-century poems
Chess games