speaking of chess, the ny times has a coo article today on the book “birth of the chess queen’: power play” and how the female came to be the most powerful piece on the chess board. for anyone even remotely familiar with western chess, or “queen’s chess“, the queen is the most powerful piece on the board, and the central piece of many strategies. the queen can traverse the field taking down knights, bishops, or whoever it is she feels like girl-slapping. while not as sneaky as say the knight and his tricky movements, the queen gets by with raw mobility.
so how was it that the only female piece came to be the most powerful piece in the game, while the impotent king gets to piddle around one square at a time? according to marilyn yalom, the author of the new book, the emergence of the modern incarnation of western chess coincided with the rising status of women in europe at the end of the 10th century. prior to the emergence of the queen, it was actually the vizier that stood next to the king, viciously smacking aside potential assassins with his piddly one square move…and diagonally too. pussy. as chess spread throughout europe tho…and the likes of toda of navarre, urraca of galicia, and queen isabella of castile marked the rise of women in power, the vizier was tossed in favor of the queen. and with the introduction and subsequent evolution of the queen, chess got decidedly faster and more complex. and for gods sake this was a good thing. chess would be rather boring with a sucky little vizier wheel-chairing his way around the board.
the article also happens to mention another centuries-old game with persian roots and european evolution…backgammon. but backgammon eats, so whatever.
> birth of the chess queen: power play (via ny times)
Where’s that pic from? It looks strangely familiar
that…is the cover art for the old-school game battle chess, which was the first step for oodles of ppl (including me) learning their way into chess.
Oooooh…that’s right! I remember seeing that pic before, and thinking “damn, that queen is hot!” Unfortunately the queen in the actual game didn’t have nearly as much cleavage.
yea, i guess you could only do so much with ega colors and whatever resolution they used back then. two pixels to cover her cleavage isnt much.