Pieces of Power: Medieval Chess and Male Homosocial Desire

Jenny Adams, University of North Texas

Chess, a game played throughout medieval Europe, enjoyed an increase in popularity in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The numerous extant manuscripts containing chess problems (diagrams of boards with pieces set up to achieve a checkmate in a given number of moves), the frequent references made to games in texts from this period, and the popular allegories of the game as human society suggest that chess was not merely a widespread amusement but had become a resonant metaphor in medieval cultures throughout Europe. Modern readers have not failed to notice the frequent appearance of chess in medieval literary texts, and many see the game as a medium for male-female interaction or a space that fosters romantic, heterosexual desire.