I really enjoyed the Birth if the Chess Queen book. Although I did not go nuts over the bible like beginning of the book that brushed over generations of heritage, I did enjoy the parts of the book that delved into the mystical aspects of Chess. I found the Indian origin story, where the chess board was originally a means of recreating a past battle, to be really interesting.

I especially enjoyed the regional parts of the book, where the author described the European lore around the game of chess. Last week I talked about the image of Indian gods playing that Indian checkers game, and I couldn’t help but draw parallels between that and some of the examples of European lore from the book.

Stories like Charlemagne’s son getting so pissed about a game of Chess that he killed a guy with the chess board are just as farfetched as images of God’s playing checkers. (Although as the author mentions, homicidal chess games were not unheard of in the 1200s  in England, which I also found very interesting)

These fanciful chess related stories featuring eternally revered European leaders really made me appreciate how much chess has been ingrained into European societies in the same way that is was ingrained into Indian society even before it was exported. King Louis throwing his brothers chess set off a boat before banning the game in all of France, and Alexander the great simultaneously mastering chess and seduction, are just as farfetched of images as Indian gods playing board games.