Chessays
Historical Chess and Other Board Games

Among titiles listed on this page, you will find items of interest gathered from the Internet and other sources. Some of the material posted here is original and unique to Goddesschess.com.

I. EURO-CHESS - Spain and the Spanish School

• M.C. Romeo: The Introduction of Chess into Europe by M.C. Romeo May 21, 2006 (41 pages) As translated into English from an address given to the Merida Conference of March, 2006. Extraordinary contents, both graphic and informational. (PDF 1.2 Mb)

• Dr. Ricardo Calvo: The Oldest Chess Pieces in Europe Presentation to the IGK - Amsterdam, December 2001. The trail of the Urgel pieces leads to other discoveries in the north of Spain.

• Dr. Ricardo Calvo: Some Facts to Remember Culled from the I.G.K. website, Dr. Calvo offers erudite observations on critical matters in chess history.

• Dr. Ricardo Calvo: Dr. Calvo's Presentation to the CCI, May, 1998, Vienna, Austria, Dr. Calvo's presentation delivers evidence supportive of pivotal Spanish involvement in late fifteenth century changes that resulted in today's modern game. Many trace the introduction of the increased powers of the Queen and the Bishop to Renaissance Italy. Dr. Calvo presents a compelling case for his native homeland. [10/15/99]

• Goddesschess: Goddesschess Renaissance Thread - Further details regarding the Renaissance era. An excerpt of a chess discussion at Delphi with frequent appearances by Dr. Calvo.

• M.C. Romeo: Lucena - A mystery after 500 years By M.C.Romeo Carmen's research on the man, his legend and the intrigue involving publication of his work on chess - with special appreciation of the late Dr. Ricardo Calvo's writings on the subject.

• M.C. Romeo: The Literary World of 15th Century Valencia: The Scachs d'amour Manuscript and its Three Authors A wonderful portrait of the Spanish literary circle which made modern chess what it is today. (PDF 760 Kb)

• Dr. Ricardo Calvo, M.C Romeo et al: (MSWord doc 1.7 Mb) Instant Download This partially edited folio includes a collection of translated essays extracted mostly from Dr. Ricardo Calvo's Spanish publication - "Lucena: an Escape into Chess".

Love, Chess and Literature in Lucena - an Unnoticed Precedent of "La Celestina"- Part I - by Dr. Ricardo Calvo (Special thanks to Carmen Romeo, who kindly forwarded Goddesschess this remarkable essay.(html version)

• Franco Pratesi: "Socius, Civis et Alii" M.C. Romeo's forward regarding the European literary traditions of chess. (PDF 1.4 Mb) Also included: an additional "printer friendly" series of individual PDF page files

• M.C. Romeo: Three Games - Three Epochs M.C. Romeo's recent 2007 IGK presentation investigates a succession of events and a common theme running through medieval literature.(PDF 716 Kb.)

• M.C Romeo: Alfonso X and Gambling in Chess November 27, 2005 - Original html version.(updated Dec 7. 2005) M.C. Romeo's masterful treatment of the Alfonso literature. One could lose more one's shirt in the Spanish chess of medieval times. (English translation with original Spanish included).

Alfonso X and Gambling in Chess August 7. 2006 - Updated pdf version with additional bibliographical content. (PDF 2.07 Mb)

• Jan Newton: Dr. Grovert Westerveld - The Queen's Man October 31, 2004. Dr. Westerveld's celebration of the famous Isabella la Catholica, Queen of Spain, rubs shoulders with chess, checkers and the evolving history of female influence in the development of both games.

II. EURO-CHESS - General Outlook

• Pierre Mille: L’Occident chrétien médiéval et les échecs. L’évolution des pièces non figuratives du 10e au début du 16e siècle.This catalogue offers a graphically rich and rewarding survey outlining the 10th - 16th Century evolution of western chess pieces. pdf

Currently under reconstruction > Copy modified for html access March 22, 2009 - English-French Introduction - French text

TRANS-NATIONAL

• Horst Remus: The Origin of Chess and the Silk Road A thougtful overview of the invention and diffusion of chess.

* Jean-Louis Cazaux: Is Chess a Hybrid Game?from the presentation delivered by Janet Newton at the 2001 Amsterdam I.G.K. Symposium

• Stewart Culin: Chess and Playing Cards At 44 Mgs, this is a book length file. It may also be the only complete copy of his exhaustive inventory available online. (PDF 44 Mb)

• Ian Riddler: When There Is No End To A Good Game from British Archaeology, Vol. 31, February, 1998 Ian Riddler explores the history of ancient board games that many scholars believe contributed to development of Chess [11/18/00]

• Alex R. Kraaijeveld: Origin of chess - a phylogenetic perspective... pdf"Board games are like plant and animal species in that they can can evolve and give rise to new forms. This leads to an important similarity between board games and bio- logical species (Eagle 1995, 1998; Kraaijeveld 1999): in both cases a group of similar-looking ‘species’ most likely owe their similarity to their being descended from a single common ancestor.

• G. Ferlito and A. Sanvito Protochess, 400 B.C. to 400 A.D. Published in Pergamon Chess Monthly, Volume 55 No. 5, September 1990. [07/14/01] This article questions H.J.R. Murray's theory that chess originated in India sometime during the 7th century A.D.. An excellent overview of accepted historical theory, as well as a review of current archaeological evidence not available to Murray when he wrote his monumental, "A History of Chess". Ferlito and Sanvito shed new light on the development of The Game while throwing Murray's interpretation into serious doubt.

ANTIQUITY

• Jan Newton: For Love of the Game(December 25, 2003) "The Idea of Chess" is almost more compelling than its actual history and seems to extend further back in time than the game itself...

• Janet L.Newton: Goddess Iconography in Ancient Board Games A Written Presentation submitted to the 2001 Conference of the Initiative Group Koenigstein Amsterdam November 30 - December 2, 2001

• Peter Piccione: Abstract for 2003 publication on the Egyptian game of Senet (MSWord RTF doc)

• Friedrich Berger: From Circle and Square to Image of the World: a possible interpretation for some petroglyphs of merels boards. - - pdf - Abstract - The game board for 'nine man's morris' (merels) us found incised on horizontal rock surfaces at many places of the world. It was also used in inclined or vertical positions as a motif for petroglyphs on rocks and historical buildings. The possible meaning of such depictions is examined. After an investigation into merels game boards, the route of circle and square motifs from Eurasian and Egyptian symbolism into Christianity is reviewed.

“The Monkey Race” – Remarks on Board Games Accessories pdf Anne-E. Dunn-Vaturi - In the ancient Near East, games represented an essential dimension in social life. It is because they are closely related to another principle, important in the stability of human communities...

• C.J. Gadd Babylonian Chess? Ties to Babylonian divination and mythology offer an interesting view of board games evolution

• Phillip Crummy, Steven Benfield, Nina Crummy, Valery Rigby, Donald Shimmin, et al.: Stanway: An Elite Burial Site at Camulodunum - Excavations betweeen 1987 and 2003 on the fringes of the site of Camulodunum revealed an extraordinary funerary site with a Middle Iron Age antecedent.Title Page - Britannia Monograph Series 24 (PDF16 Kb) Purchase Order Information (PDF 524 Kb)

• Dr. Ulrich Schadler: Dr. Ulrich Schadler's Specialist Report on the Doctor's Game (PDF 260 Kb) A New Light on the History of Ancient Board Games" provides us with a high quality analysis from an esteemed authority on Roman era board games. Bibliography (PDF 660 Kb)

"The Doctor's Game - A New Light on the History of Ancient Board Games" (html version) Excavations betweeen 1987 and 2003 on the fringes of the site of Camulodunum revealed an extraordinary funerary site with a Middle Iron Age antecedent. Dr. Ulrich Schadler's specialist report provides us with a high quality analysis from an esteemed authority on Roman era board games.

• Mark Hall: Publications - A Double-sided Hnefatafl Board from Cathedral Hill, Downpatrick: Copyright © Down County Museum - - The implication of the summary report is that the graffiti board was one of the finds recovered from the Early Christian period cemetery... Re-use or deposition of graffiti gaming boards in a burial context is not unusual, as work at Tintagel Parish Church (Cornwall) has shown.

• McLees, C and Ekroll, Oystein: A drawing of a Medieval Ivory chess piece from the 12th-century church of St Olav, Trondheim, Norway - pdf - Medieval Archaeology, Volume 34 (1990.) The piece fragments themselves have disappeared; all this is left are the drawings and a brief description from 1890.

CHINA

• Joseph Needham: The pseudo sciences and the sceptical tradition Excerpts from: Science and Civilisation in China: Physics and Physical Technology, Part I: Physics, Cambridge University Press, 1962, ISBN 0521058023 • Joseph Needham - Ch.11 (PDF 900 Kb)

• Joseph Needham: Ch. 26 Physics - the Chinese orientation to chess - Ch. 26 Physics, (8) The Magnet, Divination, and Chess, pp. 314-334. (PDF1.88 Mb)

• Joseph Needham: Thoughts on the origin of chess Needham's research into China opened up new doors to chess historians around the world.

• Sam Sloan: Was Chess Invented In India? by , 1985. (The monograph can also be found at Sloan's website) [03/26/01] Sam Sloan is a well known figure on the New York chess scene. In this article, critical comparisons between Chinese and Indian chess take center stage.

• David Li: Oriental Chess David Li's letter to the IGK Chair (Extract from the IGK's 2001 "Yellow Book")

• Hsu, Agnes (China Institute): A Stone Game Board and the Development of Weiqi in Early China - pdf - - Examination of Han era tomb structures: A spectacular research paper by Agnes Hsu. The entire document is relevant to our understanding of how weiqi fit into early Chinese mortuary programs and the culture of the game in general. In particular - p.41 - 62 delves into the oldest Chinese weiqi set.

• Peter Shotwell: The Game of Go: pdf Speculations on its Origins and Symbolism in Ancient China - © 1994-February 2008 -- "... just as new thinking and new evidence have turned up in recent years to help strengthen the original theses, scholarship and excavations of the multitude of China’s archeological sites that remain underground will undoubtedly influence future thought."

PERSIA- IRAN

Anna Contadini: Islamic Ivory Chess Pieces, Draughtsmen and Dice An exhaustive 5 page index of Islamic chessmen and other board game curiosities. Includes many examples of chessmen and dice.and an extensive bibliography.

The Games of Chess and Backgammon in Sasanian Persia pdf By Touraj Daryaee California State University, Fullerton - "Board games were played in many parts of the ancient world and so it is very difficult to attribute the origin of any board game to a particular region or culture."

Chessmen and Chess By Charles K. Wilkinson We present here (with our notes) the text of Charles K. Wilkinson's article about the chess pieces excavated at Nishapur, Iran in 1939.

INDIA

• Pavle Bidev: Chess - a Mathematical Model of the Cosmos- From an article published in British Chess Magazine, 1979

• Titus Burckhardt: The Symbolism of Chess by Burckhardt ties the game of chess to a larger, sacred reality. He covers an almost incredible amount of information (the caste system, astrology, and World Cycles) in a short period of time."

• Prof. (Mrs.) Rangachar Vasantha: Ashtapada and Indian Cosmolgy (Extract from The IGK's 2001 "Yellow Book")

• J. C. Tarapore, Vijarishn I Chatrang: Explanation of Chess and the Arrangement of Vin-Artakhshir - A translation - Bombay, 1932 FROM: Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives Contents

• John Ayer: A new paradigm for an "Origins of Chess" theory- This essay argues that the generally accepted scheme for the derivation of the current and disused forms of chess from the original Indian proto-chess is mistaken:

GNOSTIC CHESS