2016 (First edition)
Govert Westerveld
The Spanish Origin of the Checkers and Modern Chess Game
Volume I
FOREWORD
Govert
Westerveld
Until now the
different scholars practically limited themselves to indicating France
as the country of origin of the
draughts game, among them the famous chess scholar Harold
James Ruthven Murray is emphasized. With respect to the new powerful dama in the modern chess game that was developed
around the end of the XV century, the situation is not much better, since the
scholars of this game believe that France, as well as Italy, could be the
native countries of this modality of the game, in spite of the fact that
the first chess book, Luis
Ramirez of Lucena, with such new modality dates from 1497 and is of Spanish
origin.
In draughts we see a similar situation, since
the first Spanish books about the game of draughts have a very
high level and date from the XVI century, while the first French book comes from the
XVII century and the game described is a
very elemental one. Contrary to this
evidence, the scholars did not consider
it necessary to grant Spain the honour
of being the creative country of the game of draughts and of the new modality in the chess game with the new dama. How is it possible that the different scholars never took into account
the rich Spanish bibliography on both
games? Was it a linguistic problem or were there other existing circumstances that forbade this
reasoning? In the case of
draughts, this could be a
reasonable cause for
the Dutch scholars that did not
master the Spanish language, but not for the English scholar Murray who knew
several languages, among
them Arabic. On the other hand, regarding the chess game it is difficult
to accept that none of
them knew the
Spanish language. Therefore there
had to be other motives for them to deny
that Spain could be the country of origin of the new powerful dama in chess.
Whatever it may be, there can be several
motives, but happily in the last
years we have observed a trend of two outstanding
scholars that began to modify this point
of view.
In the case of the new powerful dama in the
chess game in Spain we rely on an
outstanding chess investigator, Dr.
Ricardo Calvo, who, since
the eighties defends Spain as
being the country of origin of the new
powerful dama in the game of chess. His
investigations and discoveries
of ancient written
chess manuscripts from the XV century make it possible to assert
that this new property is of Spanish origin.
With respect
to the draughts game we must not forget
to mention Ir. Gerard Bakker of Utrecht (Holland), who with
an initial work in 1983 and another advanced one in 1987 praises
the Spanish origin of draughts
from the alquerque and chess game. Those
were good starting points, but still
there were remaining dark points in the
solidity of this hypothesis.
This is, humbly
speaking, the purpose of this book, to seek evidence and to situate Spain in an outstanding place that
it naturally deserves. For such
effect we chronologically treat
the texts studied between 1283
and 1700, gathering more than 950 bibliographical references that can be more
easily consulted by future scholars.
From 1986 we maintain
the hypothesis that the origin of
the game of draughts is a Spanish one and to such effect we have sought
answers and evidence for some 10 years. We started on the basis of the fact
that the chess game reflects the royal situation of a time.
So we can ask ourselves why the queen in the modern chess game has more power than the
king. If we study the life of Spanish
royalty in the XV century we see that
this question is not so difficult to answer. There was, in 1469 a dama in Castille that
was married to a future king of Aragon,
Fernando. Some years later, in
1475, this dama, Isabel la Catóica, was crowned queen with greater effective
power than her husband, Fernando. So much, so that when Spain in 1492 was
released from the last Moorish outpost
in Granada, discovering America and enforcing one sole religion in its
territory, it was suddenly justified to
use in chess a
new queen with more power than
her "king”. But, concerning the name
"dama", what is its origin? We
know that the word "domina"
was already translated in the XIV century
by the French word "dame" in chess manuscripts
and it is supposed that in the
XV century, due to the influence of the printed books
of Jacobus of Cessolis, one began to use frequently in Spain
the dama term for the queen in
chess. But was it not also due to the
idealization of the woman to dama in court poetry, where the
supremacy of the dama
is one of the
characteristics of the frustrated love?
The new modality of
the game in chess was given several
names abroad. Thus, we see contemptuous
terms as: "alla
rabiosa" in the Italian translation and of "dame enragée” in the French translation. In Spain we see a
neutral term: "Axedrez de la dama". Motive by
which we also believe that France as well
as Italy cannot be the country of origin of this
new type of chess. Other historians asked themselves how it was possible that this peculiarity of the game could be introduced and maintained in all the
European countries. This is not so difficult
to explain if we take into account the fact that in 1492 Spain banished some 250.000 Jews from its land, who were distributed all over
Europe with all
its political and economic influence. Furthermore,
the Spanish king Carlos V spent
more time away from Spain than within
its boundaries in function of the defence
of the Spanish hegemony in Europe.
The new "powerful" dama of the chess
game would have much to do with the invention of draughts and with the use of this new
piece. To such effect we have chronologically treated in
this work the bibliographical texts, whose commentaries are mostly translated into Dutch.
The original texts are basically
Spanish, though we have not forgotten to mention the most notable foreign books in
Latin, German, English, French, Italian and Dutch.
The first chapter deals with ancient
Egyptian games, since they were considered erroneously by some scholars as precursors of the
dama. In the same chapter reference is
made to the “Ludus Latrunculorum" game, that was taken by
Thomas Hyde as antecedent of
the draughts-game. Below are described
similar games to the
now disappeared "Ludus
Latrunculorum", some of
those which still exist.
Chapter two describes
a board game with squares (alternatively white and yellow?) the
"Jaldeta", that was forbidden in
the XIII century and was no longer
practised around the end of the XV century. In chapter
three we see ourselves in the Spain
of the XV century, being able to
observe the general influence of the Queen
"Isabel la Católica”. We discuss the expulsion
of the Jews
and the conversion of the Moors
to the catholic religion. It was
between 1474 and 1492 when the new powerful dama was developed and this time it
can be considered as a dormant stage.The
definitive beginning originated in 1492 when the queen was at the height
of her reign : 1. Conquest of
the Morish outpost “Granada”; 2. Discovery of America; 3.
Expulsion of the Jews; 4. Loss of power of the nobility due to the
administrative reforms.
In chapter
4 the Latin terms
"scruporum" and "calculorum" are examined. In the subsequent chapters (5, 6, 7,
8,) Spanish words, which previously were designated to the draughts-game, such
as "marro", "marro de punta", "andarraya" and
"alquerque" are studied in detail. We demonstrate with bibliographical proofs that "punta"
does not mean field,
as Branch, Murray, Kruijswijk and
Van der Stoep claim, rather
"punta” means diagonal. Thus
the game "marro de punta" is
nothing more than a
game with a diagonal direction.
The denominations "marro" and "marro de punta" belong to the
kingdom of Aragon and those of "andarraya" and “alquerque" to the kingdom of Castille.
The ancient word "trecha", that years afterwards was converted into " treta", is
analyzed in chapter
9 of Volume II. Apparently
the word
“castro" (castles game) had a certain link to draughts in Turkey
and Palestinian. In chapter 10
this expression is studied in detail. In chapter 11 of Volume II we extensively analyze the Latin term "domina" and the word
"dama". In the conclusion of
this chapter different modalities of draughts in different countries
are described. Also, in the following
chapter the lost book of Antonio de Torquemada is examined. In 13 a vast study on the book of Juan de
Timoneda, printed in 1635, is discussed. According to our investigations some
of those texts could date from
1550. It is quite possible that some of
the positions of draughts that appear in this book will be similar to those
which are described in the book of Torquemada.
The Spanish draughts
books between 1547 and 1996 and the first European draughts books are discussed
in chapter 14 of Volume II, as well as the Spanish game books of the
period of 1283-1700. At the beginning of the XIX century, Jose Paluzie y Lucena
established the first Spanish
bibliographical study of chess.
In this modest text we do something similar with
draughts. To the existing bibliographical lists in other history books
about draughts we can add a draughts
book of 1792
found by Prof. Dr. Juan
Torres Fontes and a manuscript of the year 1690 we found in an Andalusian library. Until now a complete relationship among all the Spanish books, referred to
the games in the period
1283-1700, had not been
established. Thus our investigations
could fill that vacuum. In chapter 15
of Volume II hypothesis of other
draughts scholars are submitted to discussion and furthermore a point of view
is offered on the development
of the game of alquerque of 12 up
to our current draughts. Much evidence
exists to assert that
Valencia could be the
kingdom of origin of draughts, similar to the powerful dama in the chess
game, according to the opinion of the
chess scholar Dr. Ricardo Calvo. Finally, the Spanish bibliophile of Spanish draughts
books, Victor Cantalapiedra Martin, expounds in Spanish language, his
knowledge of the said books in
chapter 16 of Volume II.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book
owes its existence to the
draughts scholar Rob Jansen of Amsterdam and to his efforts over the
periods 1991-1994 and 1996-1997 in providing me with abundant bibliographical
material. During my years of
investigation I have had the fortune of finding
scholars of great prestige: my friend
Dr. Ricardo Calvo, a great chess scholar, who provided me with data on
his investigations of the
origin of modern chess. Without his support
and stimulus this book would
never have been concluded; Prof. Dr. Juan Torres Fontes (Professor of the University of Murcia in Medieval History)
who was so kind as to give me several of
his books written on Queen Isabel
la Católica and on the XV century, while
giving me valuable suggestions on how to continue the investigation; the Dutch draughts
scholar, Ir. Gerard Bakker, who kindly made available to me all his
publications and photographic material in his draughts magazines; Prof. Dr.
Günther G. Bauer of the Institute
for the Investigation and the
Pedagogy of the Game, created in 1991 by himself, as the
fifth scientific institute of the Music and fine arts school, Mozarteum, at Salzburg in Austria, for his support in
publishing my previous articles in his books and in encouraging me to continue
publishing; the Spanish draughtsbook
bibliophile, Victor Cantalapiedra Martín,
who taught me to play the Spanish draughtsgame and informed me
little by little the secrets
of his extensive library, and made
available to me a great quantity of
bibliographical material and
photos. More people have
collaborated in the preparation of this book and it is not possible to mention
all of them. Nevertheless, we do not want to forget Prof. Dr. Joachim
Petzold (Germany), Mr. Felix Berkovich
(U.S.A), the Dutch draughts scholars Karel Wendel
Kruijswijk and Drs. Arie van der Stoep,
Dr. Pratesi (Italy), Dr. Adriano
Chicco (Italy), the Portugese draughts scholars Dr. Cândido Sena Carneiro and
Francisco Henriques, and Flory Navarro Belmonte (Licensed in Medieval
History by the University of Murcia). Thanks to all of them!
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