Gareth Williams: Master Pieces - The Architecture of Chess

Allen and Unwin

$36.95

Chess is a truly international game. It originated in India by the sixth century and spread to Persia and the Islamic empire, into Africa and then into Spain.

From there it swept like the queen across the board grandly through Western Europe, reaching England by the 11th century.

Wherever this game of wits has been played, chess pieces have been designed to reflect local aesthetic tastes, politics or even simply available materials

In the 20th century, the Bauhaus left us abstract, industrial pieces, at variance with the ornate, ivory pieces of, say, medieval times.

The Soviet Union spawned sets which depicted the capitalist king as Death, his queen as Greed, while on the communist side the king is an honest blacksmith, his queen a wholesome wife.

Now chess pieces have come to replicate cartoon characters such as the Simpsons and the casts of Disney movies; and computers have further revolutionised the look of chess sets.