The incredible story of the Queen

Hi everyone! Today I'm going to tell you about a subject that has intrigued me a lot and held my attention until now.

To put it in context, I'd like to ask you a quick question: "How come the Lady has so much mobility?

Well, I can see where you're coming from, you're going to say: "well, because that's how it is! the Queen is the most powerful piece! and that's how it's been since the game was created! Well, it's true that the Queen is THE most important piece (its disappearance from the chessboard rhymes with : "BUT! you're wrong about one thing: the Queen wasn't always so powerful... and was even considered equal to the King and Pawns! 

Can you see where I'm going with this? and yes, "how did a piece that was so weak when it was created become the strongest piece today?

To find out, you have to go back to the beginning of its creation.

The story of its creation is rather muddled: many say that it was Palamedes who invented it to entertain soldiers during the siege of Troy. But others prefer to argue that: "No, it wasn't Palamedes who invented this game... it was the Hindu Sissa! It's true that the game of chess is thought to have been invented between the 3rd and 6th centuries, and that it was distributed in Europe much later! So we'll settle for this.

Around the 10th century, the game was brought to southern Europe. And since then, it has been an incredible success! ALL the monarchs, kings and emperors wanted to own the game. The game began to be played just about everywhere, in inns, outdoors, at home... and even in churches! In short, you get the idea: this game had shot up the popularity ladder!

chess pieces in the 6th century. As soon as it entered Europe, chess pieces began to change and became the pieces we know today.

At some point, however, it acquired a very bad reputation. Indeed, people were sometimes killed because they had won a game! This is no joke! they were stabbed, beaten to death, and even guillotined!

a game of chess degenerating into murder.

So, personally, I think the method used before was a bit exaggerated... don't you?

after all, they were all very angry at the time!

pov: you in 2024 laughing because you just won against a guy :

 You: if you'd been caught in the Middle Ages: 

We're not so bad here... really...

Well, what about the Queen ? Don't worry! I'm getting there...:

Before, this room wasn't called a Dame, but rather a Ferz (no, I didn't make a mistake, that's how you spell it!). This piece was used in all chess games (Shatranj, Tamerlan, Chaturanga, etc.) when it was first created. According to some games, there was one... or more! to be able to checkmate with his pieces, the king had to collect three of them! and the worst of it all: this ancestor of the Queen was worth half a pawn!!! So you're probably wondering: "But how did we go from the most shot piece to the one that could rival the Terminator? Well, it's thanks to a queen you may have already heard of: Isabella of Castile (nicknamed "the Catholic"). She is THE person who changed the history of our Ferz.

We're almost at the end of the 15th century: even then, women wanted more rights. The Queen, bored, wanted to try a game that she saw a lot of people playing. One piece immediately caught her eye: it was a feminine-looking piece that was much smaller than the other pieces.

Isabella 1st of Castile. 1490

intrigued, she asked what the piece was and how it could be moved? She was told that it was the queen (yes, because in the meantime she had changed her name) and that she could only move one square diagonally. So imagine this: when we told her that she was the weakest piece of all and that she was inferior to the king, we could clearly say that Madame la Reine had a fit! she declared that, from now on, this piece could go wherever she wanted! and that's how we went from there :

to that... : 

really: the history of chess is a fascinating subject! it's incredible to know that a simple game can conquer the whole world! and even degenerate into assassination and execution! (well, they've gone a long way yet!).

So that's it! You now know the Lady's IN-CRO-YA-BLE story. If you liked the article, let me know in the comments. And if you want to know a little more about the history of chess: you'll have to dig! 

Ciao !