Yalom beschreibt in ihrem Buch, wie sie darauf gekommen ist, über die Entwicklung der Schachkönigin zu schreiben. In einem Bostoner Museum, wo sie zu einer Lesung aus ihrem Buch
Die Geschichte der Brust eingeladen war, wurde ihr eine stillende Madonna gezeigt:
While preparing for a lecture at the Isabella Stewart Garner Museum in Bpston on my book A history of the Breast, I was shown a small ivry figure of a Madonna and Child by one of the curators, who referred it as a "chess queen". This figure of Mary suckling the baby Jesus captured my imagination. How could a 14th-century nursing Madonna be a chess queen? (S. XVII)
Sie hat (oder hatte? Sie vertröstet den Leser auf Kapitel 7 und ich habe bisher nur die Einführung gelesen) also eher Zweifel an der Behauptung, dass es sich um eine Schachfigur handelte. Das Bild habe ich mir aus dem Netz gefischt:
In ihrer Einführung vertritt sie jedenfalls die These, dass die Königin nur im europäischen Schach überhaupt zur Figur werden konnte:
In contrast to the Near East, where the vizier was the shah's secon-in-commad, the European queen was the king's others haf, his trusted companion, his deputy weh he was absent or incapacitted. The Christian monogamous ideal, which paired one husband and one wife, stood in contrast to the polygamous possibilities allowed Muslim men, and the pairing of king and queen on the chessboard symbolized a partnership more significant and mor enduring than that of a king and his chief minister. [...]
In India, where chess had originated in the fifth century, it would have made no sense to have a queen on the board.
[...]
When the Arabs carried the game [...] into Spain and Sicily, chess began to reflect Western feudal structures and took a social dimension. The queen replaced the vizier, the horse was transformed into a knight, the chariot into a tower [...], the Elephant ito a bishop (though in France, it became a jester, and in Italy, a standard bearer). (S. XVIII f.)
Über die Aufwertung der Königin schreibt sie in ihrer Einleitung:
The chess queen did not start out as the mightiest piece on board. In fact [...] she was initially the weakest member of her community*... Yet by the end of the fifteenth century, she ha acquired an unparalleled range of movements. In 1497, when Isabelle of Castile reigned over Spain, a Spanish book recognized that the chess queen had become the most potent piece on the board. This book, written by a certain Lucena and titled The Art of Chess (Arte de axedres), was a watersehd dividing "old" chess from "new" chess - the game we still play today.
It is fitting that the chess queen reached the summmit of her power under the rule of Isabella of Castile [...] This convergence of queen and icon begs anthother set of questions: Was the evolution of the chess queen related to the increased prominence of queens during the late Middle Ages. [...] (S. XX f.)
A second cultural current that coincided withe the chess queen's birth and reinforced the institution of queenship was the cultu of Virgin Mary. From the 11th century onword, the miracolous birth of Jesus became the subject of countless poems [...] Hundreds og churches were deidcated to Our Lady [...]
A third influence was the cult of romantic love. The adoration of a beautiful lady, often the wife of a king or powerful noble, was first celebrated by troubadors in the South of France [...] Chess soon became associated with good breeding and "courtesy" (S. XXII)
Insofern hat die Einleitung von Yalom erst mal nichts wirklich Neues zu bieten. Mal schau'n, was auf den nächsten 240 Seiten angeboten wird.
*Über diese Wertung kann man sicher streiten.
