Games reflect the culture at large. This applies to any kind of cultural element, be it essentials like food and architecture or more discretionary elements of life such as music and games. The Birth of the Chess Queen reinforces this idea, driving home the interactions between leisure activities and the culture that surrounds them. The interaction of more powerful matriarchs in Europe and the rules of the game mirror the social and economic changes in the first half of the 20th century and the board games of the time, if only in the interplays of culture and leisure. Birth of the Chess Queen investigates this interplay in close detail, offering a prototypical example for future developments of games.
For me, the two main points that Birth of the Chess Queen raises are the evolution of games in response to the culture of the time, and to a lesser extend how the game in turn influences culture, and the mechanisms by which a game from one region or culture is adopted into another. The cultural feedback loop is a relatively well explored idea, as it remains pertinent and powerful through modern day. The current game franchise sales leader in the US, Call of Duty, had built its brand on a particularly American-centric style of “ripped from the headlines” stories. Often these stories and themes reflect the culture of the US, one where our military is a more powerful and numerically inferior force which spreads US will and ideas around the globe. These themes, expressed through both narrative and game play, pander to the ideal US image of ourselves. It is no surprise that, while powerful female monarchs reigned, there would be a surge in the number of chess sets that portrayed a Queen, and a more powerful queen at that. The games that are played reflect the culture of the time.
The second point, the importation of games, offers a glimpse into the natural systems that have today been derived to form a pillar of the modern games industry, both digital and analog. More recently, in the process of importing a game, elements are changed, added or removed to make the game or media more compatible with the importing culture. With chess, the best example was the evolution of the elephant to a bishop, with the author noting that, while the Europeans had no idea what an elephant was, the double peak of the bishop’s mitre remained somewhat reminiscent of the tusks on an elephant. The themes and style of chess what somewhat preserved, but it was translated into a form that was more easily understood and consumed by the European audience.
The modern version of this would be the importing of Japanese games to the US, a difficult task due to the vast cultural and language differences between the two cultures. I wish I could give more specific examples, but Japanese games and culture are not my strong suit and most European or Russian games can be imported with minimal changes beyond a translation. Japanese games require more work as the cultural gulf is greater.
As for the image analysis, the two different queens shown on pages 36 and 56 offer an interesting comparison as to how the aesthetic style of chess was interpreted differently based off of the geographic location of its target audience. The first queen shown is for use in Southern Italy and has a radically different attire, seating and posture than the queen on page 56, which was designed for a Spanish audience. Each reflects the culture and customs of the intended region and exemplifies the variations within the game. This offers a wonderful visual reinforcement of my previous observations regarding both culture and importation having an effect on games and media.