Birth of the Chess Queen: A History

by Marilyn Yalom

Book Overview

Everyone knows that the queen is the most dominant piece in chess, but few people know that the game existed for five hundred years without her. It wasn't until chess became a popular pastime for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060090642
• ISBN13: 9780060090647
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

FASCINATING HISTORY INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN

this book was a thorough treat from start to finish... the history of chess is truly fascinating and ms. yalom interweaves incredibly interesting historical details of the lives and incredibly exploits of the medieval monarchs, specifically the queen of the time... every page is filled with pure pleasure... the pictures add a very unique dimension to the story by making you feel you are there and seeing the very people in those paintings... and ms. yalom gently reminds you of who's who when she brings back names that were mentioned earlier many pages before so you can keep track of the truly fascinating historical figures as the story builds and unfolds... ms. yalom, WOW! i loved this book tremendously

Very informative history of chess

The birth of the chess queen is synonymous with the birth of "modern" chess rules, when the Court of Queen Isabella of Spain expanded the power of the Queen. Had we all known about the date and place of this sudden change, the book would be little more than a "travel guide" down the corridors of chess heritage; but the new light that Marilyn Yalom sheds upon chess history makes "Birth of the Chess Queen" a landmark work. It was interesting to read chess history for the specific nations of Europe, England, Scandanavia, Spain, Italy, Russia, and the lands bordering upon the Mediterraniean Sea. Marilyn Yalom presents the archaelogical record related to the chess sets or pieces recoverd from the many nations, and adds to it, historical accounts of the chess play from around the world known at that time, through poetry and other literature and representation of chess in art work. It is an account of chess used for romance and courtship, in addition to other social discourse. It is refreshing for the ability of its author to elaborate the defining moment when chess expanded from it's slow-moving and primitive structure, to the dynamic game we know today. There is a chess history which costs well over $70.00, besides which, chess history can lend itself to mere repetition. I appreciate this affordable and scholarly work for its distinct approach. Marilyn Yalom draws a clear distinction between chess play of the Medieval period, the players of the chess "Golden Age" (1800's ), and the highly competitive and organized event we play now. Marilyn Yalom introduces some fascinating questions regarding certain historical anomalies. For example: Why was Queen Isabella of Spain the only female monarch to pass through the ritual of coronation or "crowning" with a SWORD? Why indeed! Crowning with a sword was, until Isabella, a right reserved for male monarchs only. The reader will want to know more. Yalom brings a distinct insight into the history of our beloved game. To it's credit, "Birth of the Chess Queen" is devoid of "feminist" stereotyping. Yalom's research is thorough and well presented in an objective way, unbiased. The relationship between chess playing and the religious authorities is of distinct interest. In different times, Muslim Imams, Christian Popes, Cardinals, and Bishops and Priests, and Jewish Rabbi's and Talmudic Scholars all vied with each other for offensive prohibitions against play of the "Royal Game". At other times, chess had approval. You betcha I recommend it. Chess players will find their interest in the game renewed and deepened. ---Bruce R. Bain, President, Denver Chess Club

living history

I have read the History of the Chess Queen with much interest and pleasure. I'ts one of the best non-fiction reads of the year. It's one of those books which elucidates something that has always been dimly perceived but never clearly and elaborated upon. The language is sprightly and the author is obviously devoted to communicating and edifying, not to impress the reader with her great scholarly research. Somehow the book gives me a whole new perspective on the game of chess, a game that is fifteen hundred years old and has changed in response to changes in culture and especially in relationship to the edifice of queenship. The author goes as far as she can in making connections between the history of the chess queen during the middle ages and the society in which she was born. But she never goes beyond the facts, and we are left with a judicious assessment of how the chess queen reflected the growing power of queenship from around the year 1000 when the queen came to be born, and on to the the year 1500 when the chess queen became most powerful piece. This is history at its best!

The Queens Have the Power

Even if you know little about chess, you know that since the object of the game is to take an opponent's king, the king is the key to the game and properly considered the most important piece; but also, the king is a weak piece, much less able to move than the most powerful piece on the board, the queen, who can move in eight directions as far as a blocking piece or the edge of the board will allow. The rules of chess are all in standard form now, but they weren't always, and the queen used to be far weaker (or even nonexistent). In _Birth of the Chess Queen: A History_ (HarperCollins), Marilyn Yalom takes a look at a most peculiar coup d'etat. Her contention, which is entertaining and credible even though it may never be proved, is that the rise of the queen in chess is linked to the rise of historic warrior queens, to the cult of the Virgin Mary, and to the then-new tradition of courtly love. She has produced a rich history not only of a chess piece and the game itself, but of the evolution of female power. The first literary mention of chess comes from Persia, around 600 CE, but the Persians had taken the essentials of the game from India. There was no queen on these chessboards. What was to be her square was occupied by the vizier, the advisor to the king. He was the weakest piece on the board, moving only diagonally and merely one square at a time. Around 1000 CE, there were the first European mentions of a queen instead of a vizier; perhaps this was a recognition of who it was that really had the king's ear. By the 1500s, people were playing "lady's chess" or "queen's chess," with the queen acquiring the extensive moves that she has retained ever since. As far as can be known, the powerful queen arose in southern Europe, and may reflect that aristocratic women in that region had more power than in northern Europe; they could inherit land and become the rulers of the land, for instance. The move made the game much faster and more complex, but churchmen objected in particular to the prospect of a pawn changing to a queen by reaching the far rank. Not only did this involve an unnatural change of sex, but it might be that there could thus result two (or more) queens on the board. The original rules said that changing to a queen could only happen if the original queen had been captured. This would avoid turning the king into a bigamist. Arab players, with viziers instead of queens, suffered no such qualms. Simultaneous with the queen's rise were examples of actual queens wielding real power. There are different obscure ones whose stories are told here, but familiar to many will be Queen Isabella who as "a militant queen more powerful than her husband" might have made more acceptable the idea of a powerful queen on the chess board. Eleanor of Aquitaine and Elizabeth I may have performed the same symbolic function. (Isabella also indirectly spread "queen's chess" all over Europe by expelling the Jews from Spain in 1492; Spain ha