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This is the second of a three-part series. Part 1was an introduction;in Part 3 we will dig deeper into the poem's historical relevance.

The poem exhibits severalprecise elements thatconnect it with the chess universe:

1. It consists of sixty-four chained verses (which follow the ABAB /BAB/CC metric rhyme), the same number of squares on a chess board.

2. The story begins thus, giving the poem its name: "Trobant se Mar ab Venus en un temple, / ensemps tenint Marcuri (en) sa presencia, / ordi hun joch de scachs, ab nou exemple: ()"

As Mars met Venus in a temple,

While having Mercury in their presence,

He devised a game of chess, with new example:

The expression "with new example" is key, as it gives a clear indicationthat this is the modern form of the game and, in that sense addingthe details that we will mention below the poem canbe considered to be a work that outlines the rules ofchess.

3. It is noteworthy that colouring the squares is presented as a novelty. And in fact it was!In the Eastern versions, the squares were single-coloured they were usuallywhite.In the poem:

Mercury, always ready in his ways,

Painted the board with hues clear and dark:

And made it Time, split into days and nights,

A box to bring the first enclosures.

4. Theidea of the squares being associated with time ("pintl 'taulell de sorts clares y escures" and "partis per nits y diez", in the original), is in line with the famous quatrains of the Persian Omar Khayym (1048-1131), who wrote in hisRubiyt:

But helpless Pieces of the Game He playsUpon this Chequer-board of Nights and Days;

[Translation byEdward FitzGerald (5th edition, 1889)]. Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) invokes the work of the Persian in one of his sonnets:

The player also is a prisoner(The saying is Omar's) of another boardOf black nights and of white days.

[Image:Narcis de Vinyoles]

5. Each piece is given specific characteristics. Red pieces were described thus:

Taking Reason as King without preeminence;Will for Queen, with great potency;Thoughts he deems for his Bishops;His Knights, praises of sweet eloquence;Rooks are desires to flare up ones memory;Pawns are servers striving to Victory.

Bishops, who are associated with Thoughts, were usually representations of wise, old men, who gave advice to the monarch.

6. Green pieces, on the other hand, were depicted as follows:

Desired for her Rooks cautious reserve;For Knights, disdains of deserved return;Her Bishops, glances of delightful sight;For her Lady she took most pleasing beauty;And her King, following the tale of love,Was Honor, his life ever in danger;For faithful Pawns he took courtesy,All armed and clad with ostentation.

7. The queen's mobility is expanded "ab gran potencia" ("with great potency), as you can witness inthe game presented below.

8. As we could imagine, fairly classical ideas of medieval moral values are followed.Reason and honour are attributed to the king; to the queen, the most feminine virtues of will and beauty; in the case of the rooks,the gift of desirescontrastswith the representation ofshame; a kind of contradictionoccursin the case of the knight, between praise and disdain; bishops are attributed, for both the red and green pieces, positive qualities: thoughts and delightful sight; while the humble pawns are relegated in the social hierarchy, as can beexpected within the framework of the rigid courts, considering them as mere servants although theyseemto be vindicated by being associated with courtesy(which should, of course, be given to their masters) and by being given the chance to bepromoted.

9. The knights are given a place of nobility, when the author says:

10. In addition to clarifying the way in which the pieces move, some regulations that continue to this day are mentioned, like the touch-moverule ("Diu que lo tocat se hagia de jugar").

The first rule you must abide byIs, in this game, that a piece once touchedFirmly, admitting neither debate nor confront,By any player, true, must be played.

The rule is then justified by making a parallelism with life itself:

It falls to reason: for a lover's thoughtsHaving chosen, cannot freedom affordOr doubt, but take full submission.Thus the saying: Courage and follyIn every move, as once done, done it is!

[Image:Bernat Fenollar]

11. The game begins with the king's pawn moving two steps ahead:

He moved towards the field of the beautifulThe most valiant Pawn in conquest:He moved two paces towards her.By this move the King discovers ReasonAnd opens the road of Will.

So, while the monarch may become unprotected, the queen is allowed toshow her strength, and the fight begins...

Chess for Novices Vol.1

This DVD is for anyone who knows the rules of chess but would like to be able to improve their game with some specific tactics and strategies. It builds on the basic principles of chess that should have already been learnt.

12. The previous mention clearly denotes that the game begins according to the prevailing chess notation with e4 (P4K, in descriptive notation). And so it will be from then on: each stanza is easily associated witha specificmove, so we can follow the sequence of thegame, in which the red pieces will end up clearlyimposing their strength overtheir green counterparts.

13. Three paths to victory are mentioned. Some are not in use nowadays, asthe "mat offegat" (stalemate), which later wouldnot lead to defeat but to adraw, and the "mat robat",when the king is left alone, with nopiece of his army left over the board (this is not enough to win a game in modern times).The prevalent "mat com" is also mentioned, which happens when the king cannot move to any squareand none of his piecescan help him (while being threatened at the same time, i.e. the classic checkmate).

14. Another rule that might seem strange to us, which the arbiter Fenollar points out, is that the empowered queen cannot capture her colleague and thatcatchingher counterpartlosesthe game. It is prescribed that the queen must be at the service of the king since:

If Will won't placate Reason,It stands to sense that the captured be felled.

15. As for the king, the so-called "leap of joy" is considered, as the following passage shows:

The next decree for this our gameIs that Kings to their third house,At first shot, keeping within measure,May jump in total freedom;

In an older form of chess,atranj, the piece known as ferswas allowed a similar jump it couldmovethree squares backwardswhen it was the product of a sarbaz (pawn) promotion.

Attacking with the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez

The purpose of this DVD is to teach players how to conduct the attack on the black king using different methods. Although the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez are mostly positional openings, it is very often possible to make use of attacking methods of play

16. In some medieval versions of chess and despite the fact that when exposedit was in a very dangerous position the king was given the ability to jump.Ruy Lpez de Segura (c.1530-1590) mentioned this possibility in hisLibro de la invencin liberal y arte del juego del ajedrez, published in Alcal de Henares in 1561: "the first time you can jump three houses through the pathyou wishfinding the path cleared; and this neither above a piece, or a pawn, own or else's, as long as it is not to capture the opposite: because the King cannot jump and seize..." [Own translation].

17. This "king's leap", in any case, can be considered to be apredecessor tocastling. In this sense, this leap served as a model to the modern manoeuvre,since itcan only take place under three conditions: a) that the king cannot capture any piece in the jump; b) that the king cannot jump over other pieces; and c) that the jump cannot be made when the king is in check.

18. As often happens, the intricacies of the gameofferpoets a chance to give lessons or moral advice, such as the following:

...among others.

Thegame lasted 21moves, with De Castellv checkmating Vinyoles while marshalling the red (white) pieces. The complete poem translated to English can be found here.

Translation from Spanish: Carlos Colodro

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Scachs d'amor: Describing the rules of chess - Chessbase News