Chess Reaches Europe

The History of Chess

Course 13 · Chapter 3 · Chess Reaches Europe

By the ninth century shatranj was well established in the Islamic world (Chapter 2). This chapter follows it into Europe, where it was adopted by the church, the courts and the knightly class, and where its pieces took new names and new meanings. The best surviving witnesses are objects: the Lewis chessmen above all. Details are flagged "check"; the main facts about the Lewis find were checked against museum and reference pages found by web search.

Routes into Europe

Spain and Sicily

Under Muslim rule, Iberia and Sicily were points of contact between the Islamic and Christian worlds. Surveys point to these as an entry route by about the tenth century (check).

Byzantium and the East

The game also reached Europe through the Byzantine world and by trade routes across eastern Europe, where Russia and Scandinavia met the east (check).

Pilgrims, crusaders and merchants

Travellers carried the game too. By the eleventh century it was known in many European courts and monasteries (check), and Latin poems and treatises refer to it.

No single door It is tempting to say chess "arrived" at a place and date. The evidence points instead to several routes over some centuries, with the dates of the first references varying by region. Be suspicious of any claim to the "first" chess in a country unless it names its source.

The Names Change

Shatranj piece	European name	Note (check each)
Shah	King	The root of "chess" and "check" through Old French.
Firzan	Queen, or fers, dame	A counsellor became a queen in many languages, though the piece still moved one square diagonally.
Fil	Bishop, alfil, fol or archer	Names for the elephant varied widely, from a bishop in English to a jester in French.
Faras	Knight	A horseman became a knight.
Rukh	Rook	Kept the Persian and Arabic name; the shape in Europe became a tower.
Baidaq	Pawn	From the word for a foot-soldier.

The Lewis Chessmen

The best-known medieval chess pieces were found in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, at or near Uig (check the exact find-spot: sources differ and the details of the find are disputed). They are carved mostly in walrus ivory, with some in whale's tooth, and are usually dated to the twelfth century, with the British Museum giving about 1150 to 1200 for many of them (check). In all, about 93 pieces are normally counted, including chessmen, plain draughts-type pieces and a buckle, but sources give different totals and some reports suggest more (check).

Question	What is known (check each)
Where are they now?	Most are in the British Museum in London. A group of eleven is in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.
Who made them?	They are generally described as Scandinavian work, often connected with Norway and perhaps Trondheim, but where they were carved is debated.
Why were they on Lewis?	Not known. At the time the Western Isles were under Norwegian rule. A merchant's stock lost on the way to Ireland is one suggestion, among others.
How many sets?	Several sets, probably four, are mixed together in the find.

What the Pieces Show

The king sits enthroned with a sword across his knees.
The queen sits with her hand to her cheek, a pose often read as thoughtful or worried.
The bishop wears a mitre. The shatranj elephant has become a churchman, so the church's world has entered the game.
The knight rides a small horse with spear and shield.
The rook is a standing warrior (a "warder") in some sets, who bites his shield in some figures. These figures are often linked to Norse berserkers, though that identification is uncertain (check). In later chess the rook becomes a tower.
The pawns are small geometric shapes, not people.

As evidence these pieces are rich. They show the pieces of Chapter 2 re-interpreted in the Christian and feudal world of north-western Europe: king, queen, bishop, knight, warder and pawn. They also show that the game was in the twelfth century a high-status object. But they tell us nothing about the rules in use, which have to come from texts.

Early European Rules

Early European chess was still close to shatranj. The pieces moved by the old rules. Players had their own local variations, and rules were not standardised (check). European writers also used the game as a moral and social allegory. A well-known example is a thirteenth-century treatise by a Dominican friar, Jacobus de Cessolis, which explains each piece as a member of society: king, queen, bishop, knight and so on (check). The treatise was copied and translated widely, which is a sign of how deeply the game had entered medieval culture.

A short script can list the pieces and their medieval roles as a lookup table, a way to practise the vocabulary.

# Shatranj names and their European descendants
pieces = {
    "shah":   "king",
    "firzan": "queen",
    "fil":    "bishop",
    "faras":  "knight",
    "rukh":   "rook",
    "baidaq": "pawn",
}

for old, new in pieces.items():
    print(f"{old:8} -> {new}")

Evidence, Weighed

Claim (check each)	Evidence	Verdict
Chess came to Europe through Spain	Contact with Islamic Spain; early references	Likely one route, not the only one
The Lewis pieces were made in Norway	Style, Scandinavian parallels, trade in walrus ivory	Probable but debated
The rooks are berserkers	Their biting of shields	A suggestion, not proven
The Lewis pieces show how the game was played	They show the pieces, not the rules	Overstated

A British comparison The Lewis chessmen are a Scottish story that is also a British Museum story: the pieces were bought for the museum in London in 1831-32, while a smaller group went to Edinburgh (check). That division has been a source of discussion in Scotland ever since, and some of the pieces have been shown on loan in Lewis itself (check). If you can, compare the Edinburgh pieces with the London pieces in person and look at the faces.

Not Yet Verified A web search agreed on the main facts of the Lewis find: discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis, walrus ivory and some whale's tooth, usually dated to the twelfth century, most in the British Museum and eleven in the National Museum of Scotland, with debate over the exact find-spot, the number of pieces and where they were carved. The routes into Europe, the piece names, the Cessolis treatise and the berserker reading come from general knowledge and have not been checked against primary sources; treat every "(check)" accordingly.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Explain why the evidence for chess reaching Europe points to several routes rather than a single date and place.

→ Solution

Exercise 2

Choose two Lewis pieces and say what each shows about the medieval world and what it cannot show about the rules of the game.

→ Solution

Exercise 3

Extend the lookup script so that it also prints how each piece moved in shatranj, and describe the output for the queen.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

Routes: Spain and Sicily, Byzantium and the east, travellers
Lewis chessmen: found 1831, twelfth century, mostly walrus ivory, London and Edinburgh
New names: firzan to queen, fil to bishop, faras to knight
Method: objects show pieces and status; only texts show rules