Birth of the Chess Queen: A History

by Marilyn Yalom

Everyone knows that the queen is the most dominant piece in chess, but few people know that the game existed for five hundred years without her. It wasn't until chess became a popular pastime for European royals during the Middle Ages that the queen was born and was gradually empowered to become the king's fierce warrior and protector.

Birth of the Chess Queen examines the five centuries between the chess queen's timid emergence in the early days of the Holy Roman Empire to her elevation during the reign of Isabel of Castile. Marilyn Yalom, inspired by a handful of surviving medieval chess queens, traces their origin and spread from Spain, Italy, and Germany to France, England, Scandinavia, and Russia. In a lively and engaging historical investigation, Yalom draws parallels between the rise of the chess queen and the ascent of female sovereigns in Europe, presenting a layered, fascinating history of medieval courts and internal struggles for power.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Chess, Historical, Microhistory, Games, Sports

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2004

About the author

Marilyn Yalom grew up in Washington D.C. and was educated at Wellesley College, the Sorbonne, Harvard and Johns Hopkins. She has been a professor of French and comparative literature, director of an institute for research on women, a popular speaker on the lecture circuit, and the author of numerous books and articles on literature and women's history.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would have made a great 20-page article.

[Orsolya · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m Hungarian. This means that aside from great food and the Rubik’s Cube, we also love chess. Personally, I am also a fan of queens, royalty, and history; making “Birth of the Chess Queen” by Marilyn Yalom ideal reading.

Birth of the Chess Queen has two main themes: (1) the history of the game of chess/queen game-piece (2) the queens who MAY have influenced the creation of the queen game-piece’s rise within the chess world. Both, together and separately, are topics of interest, however; Yalom doesn’t seamlessly connect the two and instead flip-flops back and forth with history lessons.

Beginning with interesting tidbits on the Indian and Persian roots of chess, Yalom then attempts to dive deeper into the biographies and accomplishments of queens and empresses during the time periods of high chess play. Basically, her conclusion to her thesis is that, “Queen A had such-and-such accomplishments (describes them here) that she must have influenced the queen chess-piece. Then again, so was Queen B…” Not convinced? Neither was I.

Chapters in Birth of the Chess Queen are sub-divided into various topics similar to how one would imagine Yalom’s bullet-proofed manuscript notes. Some readers may find this to be helpful at breaking up the information into manageable portions but I found it distracting. Just as I was “getting into” a topic, the next one would begin pushing me out of the boat again. More pushed-out-of-boat moments occurred with Yalom’s habit of including her own thoughts and opinions within the text i.e. “Would that I could present even more convincing evidence for one or both of the empresses! As I studied their lives…” Um… not only was that not necessary but it hardly even made sense. Another example: “An ivory chess queen carved in Italy during the early twelfth century makes me think of Matilda…” Although this may be an attempt to de-scholarize the text and commit to one wavelength with the reader, it added to my distraction.

On the positive end, Yalom’s extensive research shines though with a clearly amassed wealth of knowledge. Her work is well-annotated and with clear notes. Additionally, Yalom includes several photos throughout, adding a museum exhibit quality to the book. Sections simply on the game of chess itself are interesting but her connectivity attempts toward women’s studies fails. Much of the text is scannable. Simply: there is a lack of cohesiveness and steady pace. Although Yalom does stray on tangents, once you get used to this style and not focus on the dispatch of focus on chess history, the text becomes more interesting and tolerable.

What Yalom lacks in interrelated topics and unity, she makes up with her wealth of knowledge. Although Birth of a Chess Queen is not what I expected and Yalom doesn’t quite prove her thesis that popular queens influenced the rise of the chess queen game-piece, I will still read her other works if due (to nothing else) on the unique topics involved.

[Lewis Weinstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book years ago when I was doing research for my first novel The Heretic, perhaps looking for a way to relate it to Queen Isabel of Spain, a character in my novel. I didn't use it, didn't even read it then. Pruning my shelves, I found the book and read much of it. It's actually an interesting history of the evolution of chess. In the beginning, there was no Queen. There was a Vizier, who stood next to the King but had none of the substantial powers later taken on by the Queen who replaced him.

The connection between the emergence of the Queen on the chessboard and powerful women in real life is only hinted at, but here's a quote from the epilogue ... "Any woman wishing to follow the chess queen's lead, especially in the public realm, needs to be tactically superior to the men around her, relentless in battle, even cruel when necessary ... She will have to learn to negotiate a treacherous terrain, not unlike the chessboard, if she wants to move forward, both at home and in the workplace ... She, and those committed to her well-being, could do worse than take up the chess queen as their personal emblem and silently utter those ritual words: Long live the queen!"

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was so interesting and engaging. It shows how the growing prestige and political power of queens during medieval Europe shaped the game of chess and gave the game it's Queen.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well-written and educational read! There are a number of historical threads running through this book - the history of chess itself, the rise of courtly love, the rise of Mariolatry, brief biographies of a number of influential figures in history (specifically queens) - so while the book doesn't get too in-depth about any one thing, it gives a satisfying overview of the topic and its influences.

Prior to this, I knew how to play chess, but knew next to nothing about its history or origins. I had no idea that the queen used to be a vizier, and that the allowed moves of the pieces were so different. I also appreciated the introduction to several historical figures that I'd love to learn more about - Dona Urraca, Blanche of Castile, Adelaide of Burgundy, Sigrid the Strong-Minded, Margaret of Denmark. It even prompted me to borrow a book on the Lewis Chessmen, so expect that review shortly! :-)

2016 Popsugar reading challenge: a book you had to drop everything and read

[Chrisman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book alternately irked and entertained me. There were interesting stories about the evolution of some regional "dialects" of the game, and I enjoyed the recounting of some folk lore in the game was a vehicle for romance and seduction.

The times in which the author droned on about role of the actual living, breathing queen, though, bored me almost to tears. In fact, it seems at times that there is more information about queens and powerful ladies in this book than there is about the game.

But then again, and I didn't know this before starting to read, but this is by the author of A History Of The Wife and A History Of The Breast, so a bit of feminism is to be expected after all.

[David Dinaburg · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a question unasked everywhere except within Birth of the Chess Queen; given the historical level of vitriol directed toward women in authority and the vast—almost non-existent—minority of women in traditional armed fighting, how did the queen become the most potent tactical piece of an ancient wargame? The kerfuffle over FIFA2016’s inclusion of female players is an example par excellence for the unique position of the chess queen; where else but Mad Max: Fury Road are women portrayed as a match for—let alone superior to—their male counterparts?

Historically, not everyone was keen on the chess queen:

A woman who raced about destroying knights, bishops, and even the king struck terror in the hearts of men, some of whom reacted not only by calling the queen “mad,” but also by impugning the whole female sex….John of Wales accus[ed] queens of being greedy, like all women, and known to take through rapine and injustice. He made much of the fact that both the bishop and the queen moved on the diagonal, representing unjust qualities, whereas the king and rook moved in just, straight lines.

Birth of the Chess Queen cares not a fig for your stereotypes, be they medieval or modern; the book is first and foremost a didactic experience. It presents information divested from any sort of modern inflammatory clickbait language—no "You'll-never-believes" nor "What-she-did-next-will-astonish-yous" to be found. Enough authorial personality peeks through to keep it from being dry, but the book was published in 2004; a time before the somewhat ambiguously dated narrative non-fiction revolution that brought dense characterization, snappy dialogue, and rising story arcs into the thick of factual inquiries.

If one knows nothing of chess history, there are cool cocktail-party facts to pick up: that what is now the current queen was once the vizier—the king’s adviser, if you’ve forgotten your Aladdin—and he used to be quite weak, moving only one diagonal step. Not quite mocked-for-being-lame weak; at least, not until he became a she:

“….Before she acquired her unparalleled powers, the critique of the chess queen was gentle: she was simply advised to stay close to the king. Conflating the chess queen with living queens, the authors of those earlier chess treatises would also occasionally remind her to remain chaste and behave in a “feminine” manner—attributes that obviously had nothing to do with her moves on the board.”

That the queen was once a vizier is a neat fact. That the queen used to only be able to move one square diagonally is a neat fact. That the queen was mocked for weakness when her piece was frail, but then scorned for madness when it was potent, is a sad one.

Pages move quickly in Birth of the Chess Queen, driven by the singular focus of the narrative. It is an honest surprise that an entire book can be filled with the theories surrounding “Wherefore Queen?” and the facts supporting those theories. The answers it gives are satisfactory and—given the relative esoteric nature of the material—probably as close as anyone will ever get to the truth.

Plus, it spurred me to actually enter—not just walk past—the Chess Forum in the West Village and legit geek out over their replica Lewis Chess sets. Which are fantastic!

[Koen Crolla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yalom traces the development of the chess queen from the earlier and weaker vizier through a series of moderately sloppy sketches of the social context of chess in medieval Europe and biographies of various queens of varying relevance. Mostly just really didn't need to be as long as it was.

[Marianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Η εξέλιξη του σκακιού. Πολύ ενδιαφέρον και εκπαιδευτικό.

[Lily P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptionally well researched history of chess, how the rise of politically strong women changed the gender of the piece we now know of as the Queen, and how it's power to move around the board evolved to be ever more powerful.

RECOMMEND

[Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enlightening social history of the queen chess piece, focusing on how the changes to the game reflected changes in women’s position in society, particularly in the late Middle Ages.

[Lindsay Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the best history lesson, it helped my chess game by allowing me to further understand the story and role of the most important piece on the chess board, the chess queen. Any Chess enthusiast should read. This book also manages to shed light on the general role of women and, more importantly, the women who went against that role in times around the time of Christ. I'd recommend this book!

[Samuel Ch. · Rating 4 out of 5]

No pude terminar esta lectura porque era un libro de la biblioteca que pedí mientras estaba de vacaciones, y el tiempo no me rindió. Sin embargo, al menos los primeros 4 o 5 capítulos son excelentes. Relatan la historia de mujeres del medioevo de suma relevancia para la formación no solo de la pieza de ajedrez sino en legados monárquicos y políticos, demostrando que muchas guerras se ganan o se pierden por influencia de alguna mujer, una concepción o una ruptura de tradiciones. Es una lección de Historia llena de personajes interesantes, enterradas por figuras más dramáticas o adineradas y sin embargo influyentes en los órdenes militares y gubernamentales de la Europa Medieval. Me quedé con ganas de continuar esta lectura que seguro hace desfilar a muchas otras mujeres del siglo XVI y XVII, además de por supuesto fotografiar al ajedrez como manera de honrar a estas reinas con sus enormes estatuas en miniatura.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

Interesting premise and very well researched. However, the book did not flow cohesively. It was mainly just a book about female royalty in the medieval period and renaissance with some chess facts mixed in. Every thing was well sourced but there seemed to be no actual evidence of her overall thesis (the rise of the chess queen was caused/heavily influenced by real life female royalty).

Super interesting regardless.

[Άννα Μακρή · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μ' αρέσει να διαβάζω τέτοια βιβλία, αν και γίνονται πολύ λεπτομερή, με τον κίνδυνο να γίνουν και βαρετά σε κάποια φάση, στον μη έχοντα την ίδια αγάπη για το αντικείμενο της μελέτης.
Το συγκεκριμένο δεν είναι μόνο ένα βιβλίο για το σκάκι, αλλά ένα βιβλίο για τις βασίλισσες του Μεσαίωνα και, κατ' επέκταση, για τη βασίλισσα του σκακιού. Και το ανάποδο.

[Campbell Geary]

Read for class

[Vicki Kondelik · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Birth of the Chess Queen, historian Marilyn Yalom tells the fascinating story of the evolution of the chess queen, and how she was not always the most powerful piece on the chessboard. In fact, she was not always part of the game. Yalom writes about the origins of chess in India and Persia, and its rapid spread throughout the Muslim world. In the earliest version of the game, the piece that eventually became the queen was the vizier. This piece could only move one square diagonally, making it one of the weakest pieces on the board. In fact, Arabic chess sets today still use the vizier instead of the queen, although now the vizier moves the same way the queen does today.

Eventually, chess spread to Europe, appearing first in Spain because of the Arabic influence, then to the Holy Roman Empire, Italy, France, and England. The first mention of the chess queen occurs in a manuscript found in Switzerland, which at that time was part of the Holy Roman Empire. The manuscript was written sometime in the 990s or early 1000s. Like her predecessor the vizier, the queen could only move one square diagonally. Yalom writes about why the chess queen came into being at that time, and she attributes it to the influence of two Holy Roman Empresses: Adelaide, wife of Otto I and her daughter-in-law and bitter rival, the Byzantine princess Theophano, wife of Otto II. Theophano may have been especially instrumental in bringing chess to the Holy Roman Empire from the Eastern countries.

In spite of the general misogyny in medieval European culture, it was a time when there were several powerful queens, who exercised influence over their husbands and sometimes led troops into battle. Very often, when the king died young, the queen would become regent for her son until he came of age, effectively ruling the country on her own. Yalom presents several fascinating examples of strong medieval queens. In addition to the two Holy Roman Empresses mentioned above, she writes about Urraca, Queen of Castile and Léon, who divorced her abusive husband, in one of the very few examples of the Pope granting a divorce, and then defeated him in battle.

Particularly fascinating is Sigrid the Strong-Minded (I love that name), a Scandinavian queen from the 990s-1000s, who refused her suitor, the King of Norway, when he tried to convert her to Christianity and slapped her in the face, and then married the King of Denmark and led men into battle. In fact, the history of chess in Scandinavia has its own chapter in the book. Medieval Scandinavian chess queens, at least the few that survive, are often depicted on horseback, recalling such queens as Sigrid the Strong-Minded. Yalom also writes about a famous Scandinavian chess set, which had been lost for hundreds of years and then discovered in 1831 on the island of Lewis, off the coast of Scotland, by a laborer who was digging on the seashore. This set is known as the Lewis Chessmen. The pieces were carved out of walrus tusk and whalebone, and some of them are still missing. In fact, one piece of the Lewis Chessmen was discovered very recently (2019).

Yalom also writes about medieval queens who are more familiar to us, especially Eleanor of Aquitaine. Eleanor was very influential in spreading chess to the courts of France and England. Her grandfather, William IX of Aquitaine, is considered the first troubadour, and he began the tradition of courtly love, which, according to Yalom, influenced the game of chess. Many poems by troubadours—and that includes female troubadours—describe chess games and contain elaborate metaphors comparing chess to love. As Yalom points out, chess was one of the few activities in the Middle Ages that both men and women could enjoy, and women often played against men. She discusses depictions of famous lovers, such as Tristan and Isolde and Lancelot and Guinevere, playing chess.

Medieval epic poems such as the Legends of Charlemagne often included chess games, although, in real life, chess would have been unknown at Charlemagne’s court. These poems were written at the time of the Crusades, when chess had become very popular, and the authors of the poems would not have known the history. Very often, medieval epics describe chess games between a Christian man and a Muslim woman, who fall in love over the game, and the woman ends up converting to Christianity. Poems by Muslim authors, written around the same time, contain stories of chess games between Muslim men and Christian women, which end in the woman converting to Islam. As Yalom points out, it is always the woman who converts in these poems.

Another important part of medieval European culture was the devotion to the Virgin Mary, and Yalom describes small statues of the Virgin Mary, common in churches, which resemble chess queens. Although European chess started out as a game played at the royal courts and among the nobility, it spread to the common people. Towards the end of the 14th century, playing cards became a rival to chess at the royal courts.

A fascinating chapter on chess in Russia discusses how the game arrived there, through the Eastern countries. Russians were exceptional chess players very early on, and visitors to Russia often described how great the people were at chess. But Russian chess sets used the vizier instead of the queen for much longer than the rest of Europe, largely because of Russia’s long isolation from the Western world. It was not until the reign of Catherine the Great, and largely because of her influence, that the queen became part of Russian chess sets. Interestingly, Catherine the Great preferred cards to chess.

It was not until the end of the 15th century that the chess queen became the powerful piece she is today. Yalom attributes this directly to the influence of Isabella of Spain, who was an enthusiastic chess player, along with her husband Ferdinand. Isabella was known as a warrior queen, and it was in Spain that the powerful chess queen first appeared. The first references to “new chess” with the powerful queen are in Spanish sources. A book of chess problems makes the distinction between “new chess,” where the queen could move the whole length of the board, in any direction, and “old chess,” where the queen could move only one square diagonally. “New chess” spread rapidly throughout Europe, largely because of the invention of the printing press, which made these chess manuals more readily available than older ones, which would have been in manuscript. Yalom also writes about Elizabeth I and her role in spreading “new chess” to England.

But there was a backlash among misogynistic male writers on chess against the queen’s new power on the chessboard. They called the new game “mad queen’s chess.” Beginning in the 17th century, there are fewer examples of women playing chess. The introduction of the powerful queen led to a quicker game, which gave rise to the professional chess player. Chess was taken out of the royal courts and noble households, and was seen instead in coffeehouses and chess clubs. It was not considered appropriate for women to play chess in public, and so the membership of chess clubs was almost exclusively male until the turn of the 20th century. Even in the 20th century, when women played chess, it was usually against other women. In her last chapter, Yalom writes of the relative lack of female chess players, even today. When the book was published, in 2004, only 5% of professional chess players worldwide were female (although the percentage was larger in some countries). There is no single reason why this should be, but Yalom suggests it has a lot to do with the way girls are socialized, and how, in many cultures, they are still expected to marry and have children, and how it is considered strange for a girl to be focused exclusively on chess. But this may have changed in very recent years. I have certainly heard of young girls who are chess champions. It would be interesting to know how much has changed since Yalom’s book was published.

I highly recommend Birth of the Chess Queen to anyone interested in chess. It is not just about the chess queen, but about the whole history of the game. Also, anyone interested in medieval society, and especially in the strong queens of medieval Europe, would enjoy this book. Yalom presents the fascinating stories of the real-life queens who influenced the game. Even readers who are not particularly interested in chess would enjoy these stories.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marilyn Yalom's history, which traces the transformation of the queen in chess and parallels its transformation from a relatively weak piece called the "vizer" to the most powerful piece on the chess board with the rise of several powerful female monarchs in Europe, is a well researched, very readible work that shows Yalom's scholarship and interest in feminist issues. Yalow is a senior scholar for Women and Gender at Stanford University and is the author of several works examining the roles women have played in history. Her scholarship is evident as she traces the history of chess in general, the chess queen in particular, and the backdrop of the role women have played in chess development and political power from the time of chess's murky origins in India around 1500 years ago through its introduction to Europe by way of the Arabs and their interaction with Western European countries and cultures. Her research looks at Muslim, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, and English chess playing and politics. She present a fulsome bibliography from both standard and obscure sources. The work not only explores chess and feminist history, but is a tour of the importance of historical events such as the rise of Islam, the response of the Crusades, the cult of Courtly Love, religious devotion to the Virgin Mary, the Renaissance, on through to modern Europe.

Yalom discusses how the queen piece in chess evolved from one of the weakest pieces, able only to move to an adjacent square diagonally to the "fearsome warrior" able to nearly singlehandedly deliver checkmate turning chess from a slow-paced leisurely game to the far faster conquest where mate can be delivered in as little as three move. She speculates, but never completely proves, that this change, which included a complete change of gender for the piece in European chess, may have come from the rise of several politically powerful females: women like Adelaide of Burgundy, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Otto I, Isabella of Spain, Catherine the Great of Russia, and England's Elizabeth I. Along with these women, Yalom examines the rise of Mariolatry, the cult of worship of the Virgin Mary, as well as the Courtly Love tradition that elevated the status of the female love object over the would-be male seeking her love.

Although this books is scholarship, it is very readable. The prose is never turgid or pedantic. The chapters are broken up into sub-section that create pause points in the reading, which I found very helpful to keep my focus.

I would not only recommend this book to chess lovers, but also to those interested in history and the role women have had in developing civilization. There is very little technical "chess language". In fact, the only fault I have with the book is that she doesn't try to include the annotation for a couple of the chess matches mentioned in the book, particularly the one played between King Ferdinand and one of the female royal servants, which some claim gave Isabella the opportunity to persuade her husband to full Christopher Columbus's voyage of exploration.

I very much enjoyed this book as a example of very good scholarship and very good writing.

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starting with the basic history of game of chess from pre-600's in Persia with the pieces being the king, general, chariots, cavalry, elephants and infantry, the author provides not only how the general became the advisor/vizier and eventually the queen but how the game has been modified over the centuries and as it moved through various countries.

Even the movement of the pieces have changed - originally the vizier/queen was able to move only one square in a diagonal direction only - as well as how the game was played - using a dice to determine which piece to move or to have the players determine themselves.

Once the game moved into Europe, Yalom restricted her examples of how the game was viewed with emphasis on religion and the nobility, some examples of literature, literature and some surviving pieces and then to short biographies of powerful women in the region and in various times. The cult of the Virgin Mary. The cult of love. She ends with the decline of women players from the late 17th century partially due to the misogynistic viewpoint of many men towards women as well as the chess queen. The past two centuries has had female players viewed as too intellectually inferior to become 'good' chess players. So it is yet another area primed for women to show their abilities in.

The only real negative that I could say is Yalom dedicates an entire chapter to Isabella of Castile. It was not due to her being a exceptional chess player but more due to her being a exceptional queen. A personal bias on Yalom's part perhaps but it stood out when she only spoke of other 'queens' for a few pages and it was not due to the lack of history. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth I; Margaret of Denmark; Catherine the Great of Russia; Catherine de'Medici are all examples she used and each had a fraction of space dedicated to their history as a queen. It's just odd and glaring.

To end on a positive note - the fabulous color and black-and-white examples of historic chess pieces and illustrations of people playing chess.

2019-031

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an indifferent chess player, but I know enough to admire the strategy involved.

Marilyn Yalom attempts three objectives in this interesting book. Firstly, and of most interest to me, she outlines a history of the game of chess and its likely spread across the world. Secondly, Dr Yalom explains the development of the piece currently known as the queen in most European chess play both in terms of its replacement of earlier pieces, and its emerging power. Finally, Dr Yalom makes a case for parallels between the emergence of the power of the chess queen and the rise of powerful female sovereigns in Europe.

While I am attracted to the notion of the role of the chess queen as a reflection of the rise of strong queens (such as Isabella of Castile), and a possible association with the cult of the Virgin Mary, this is of peripheral interest to me. What I did find fascinating was the history of the development of the game, especially the differences between cultures and countries. Dr Yalom advises that the chess queen did not appear on the board until about 1000: some 200 years after the game had been introduced to southern Europe. Yet, by 1497, the queen had developed from a weak piece (moving one square at a time on the diagonal) to the far more formidable force that she is today.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[James Henry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know that the chess queen wasn't on the board originally and that she
didn't have her "super moves" until much later. Do you even care ?
Well it used to be an all male cast with the Vizor ( military advisor
to the King ) being the original Queen. The book tells her story from
a feminist perspective and equates the rise of the Chess Queen with
the rise of the real queens ( esp. Isabella of Spain ) and the
increasingly powerful cult of the Virgin Mary. It's sort of a sad
history tho in that women used to play as much as men ( and win ) but
the actual emergence of the Chess Queen coincided with the decline of
women players. Another side note of interest is religious prohibitions
on chess...the Catholics tried to ban it from time to time, the
Eastern Orthodox church kept up their ban long after that and the
Muslims just used abstract pieces since they can't represent human or
animal form. Some Christian nay-Sayers even had a problem with the
"sex-change" the pawn undergoes when it reaches its opponents back row
and becomes a Queen. SHEESH ! Oh and the original chess pieces ( out
of India ) had the Vizor instead of the queen, a boat for the knight
and an elephant for the rook. Isn't that cute ?

[John Carter McKnight · Rating 4 out of 5]

An utterly enjoyable read, a fascinating tour across Medieval Europe in search of queens regnant, Mariolatry (the cult of the Virgin Mary, a new word for me), figurative art and evolving chess rules. Yalom tells a highly entertaining tale while delivering solidly researched history, documenting the evolution of the weak "vizier" piece in Islamic chess sets into the all powerful European "queen."

A fascinating study of the co-construction of games and culture, this really should be on games scholars' reading lists - and it'd be fun to think of as an example of how entertainment technology, religion, politics and the arts all shaped each other - though, alas, many of those changes, in which women were widely expected to play, and to play as equals of men, were undone by the rise of modernity.

Just great stuff, which I expected from the author of A History of the Breast.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who likes chess will get a lot out of this book. Anyone who has read anything by Marilyn Yalom will be enthralled that she picked this topic. One of the world's most accomplished feminist writer, Yalom has conquered such subjects as "The History of the Wife" and "The History of the Breast" and done an admirable job with both. I was astounded at how much hard history Yalom was able to unearth with this homage to the most powerful piece on the chess board. What surprised me is that the queen is the most recent player on said board. How she appeared is the mystery I won't spoil. A good read, but it will be lost on you if you have never played the game.

[Allie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was super interested in the subject matter, as I had never known that the queen in chess was something that developed rather than began with the game. But this book bored me out of my skull. The structure was plodding and the writing style too plain for the material. Too bad, because there is some great research here.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love how one small facet of history can shine a light on the society as a whole. And thus it is with the birth of the chess queen. Originally, her role was "vizier" in the Arab game, and the story of how the male vizier was replaced by the female queen also explores the role of women in society.

[Slmcmahon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never learned to play chess, and have always been fascinated by the game. This history of the development of the queen as the most powerful piece on the board follows the development of the game and the evolution of the piece. My intent to learn the game is renewed.

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book explores the evolution of the queen in the game of chess. Pretty interesting, but best interspersed with a nice juicy fiction novel to switch to when the going gets slow.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the way the author approached the subject. She mixed the history of chess with the lives of these queens. Pretty good.

[Ruth Laura Edlund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, scholarly, and obscure. The perfect leisuretime book.

[Louise Chambers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good. Fascinating history of the Chess Queen and the real life women who inspired Her.