Scachs d'amor

"Scachs d'amor" (Catalan for "Chess of Love"), whose complete title is "Hobra intitulada scachs d'amor feta per don franci de Castelvi e Narcis vinyoles e mossen fenollar" is the name of a poem written by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar, and Narcís de Vinyoles, published in Valencia, Spain towards the end of the 15th century.

The poem is conceived as a chess game in which the opponents are Franci de Castellvi, as White (in modern chess), (Mars "Març", Love "Amor" and red pieces in the play), and Narcis Vinyoles, playing Black (Venus, the Glory "Gloria", and green pieces). They debate about love, and Bernat Fenollar comments and establishes the rules. Green and Red are still used in Xiangqi as colours for the pieces.

The poem uses the game as an allegory for love. Its structure is based upon sixty-four stanzas (the same number as for the chessboard squares), nine verses each. The stanzas are grouped three after three: The first stanza in the group represents the White move, the second one the Black's move, and the third one a comment on the rules by the arbiter. The three stanzas in the beginning are an introduction and the last one is checkmate.

Supposedly, the game played is the first one documented with the modern rules of chess.

External links

* [http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1259987 The chess game]
* [http://batgirl.atspace.com/Amor.html The complete poem]
* [http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lab/7378/scachs.htm Scachs d’amor by Bill Wall]