Well, I don't think the point of this recent discover was that da Vinci authored the problem itself. Rather, a friend of his did and he illustrated the chess set for the problem.

 

As for Leonardo being a chess player, I find it hard to believe that he would not have played the game if he could get his hand on a chessboard. This is not to say that his play was anything noteworthy. Who knows? But your right, I suppose there would be some sort of report of his play since we know so much about him in other areas.

 

thanks, for the comment.

 

Jason

 

PS, The news article I read simply reported the possible link to da Vinci; I haven't seen the chess problem yet. If anyone has access to that, perhaps it could be posted on this website (at least the link thereto) for posterity's sake. ---JKV

Yes, I have also read an article by Raymond Keane in The Times a while back. However, I don't think Leonardo da Vinci is the one to have authored the problem. Had he been a chess player it would have obviously been noted considering his stature. Wouldn't it be odd not to have games by the genius had he been a chess player? I didn't manage to solve it, though. It's mate in 8.