Scachs d’Amor

The game, move by move

The new queen comes out

1. 1. e4 King’s pawn The first move of the oldest game of modern chess there is a record of. Everything about it looks ordinary now, which is the point.
2. 1… d5 Straight back at it
3. 2. exd5 Taken
4. 2… Qxd5 The queen crosses the board Here is the whole reason this game survives. Until a few years before it was written the queen moved one square at a time; on d5 she has just travelled four, and every game since has been this game.
5. 3. Nc3 The knight, gaining time on her
6. 3… Qd8 And home again Two moves spent to send her back — the cost of bringing the strongest piece out first, which players worked out almost immediately and are still being taught.
7. 4. Bc4 The bishop at f7
8. 4… Nf6 A knight out

A bishop for a knight

1. 5. Nf3 The second knight
2. 5… Bg4 Pinning it against the queen
3. 6. h3 Asking the bishop a question
4. 6… Bxf3 Taken
5. 7. Qxf3 Recaptured with the queen White has given a knight for a bishop and has both bishops left. In a poem about courtship the pieces are still being traded like pieces.
6. 7… e6 A pawn to e6
7. 8. Qxb7 The queen takes b7 A pawn, and the rook in the corner is next. Black gets nothing for it — this is a fifteenth-century game and the idea that time is worth material has not been invented yet.
8. 8… Nbd7 A knight to d7

The queen takes the wing

1. 9. Nb5 The knight to b5
2. 9… Rc8 The rook steps off the file
3. 10. Nxa7 Taking the a-pawn
4. 10… Nb6 The knight to b6
5. 11. Nxc8 The knight takes the rook A rook and two pawns to the good, on top of the bishop he got for a knight on move six. What is left is a queen, two bishops and a rook against a king who cannot castle.
6. 11… Nxc8 Recaptured
7. 12. d4 The centre pawn, at last Move twelve, and only the second pawn White has pushed all game. The pieces have done the work.
8. 12… Nd6 The knight to d6

Checks on the light squares

1. 13. Bb5+ Check, from b5
2. 13… Nxb5 Taken
3. 14. Qxb5+ Recaptured, with check
4. 14… Nd7 Blocked with the knight
5. 15. d5 The pawn opens the middle
6. 15… exd5 Taken
7. 16. Be3 The last bishop out
8. 16… Bd6 The bishop to d6
9. 17. Rd1 The rook to the open file Every white piece is now developed and pointing at a king who has not moved and cannot castle out of it.
10. 17… Qf6 The queen to f6

Mated by the queen alone

1. 18. Rxd5 Taking the pawn
2. 18… Qg6 The queen to g6
3. 19. Bf4 Offering the bishops off
4. 19… Bxf4 Taken Black takes, which is natural and which leaves the knight on d7 defended by nothing but a king.
5. 20. Qxd7+ The queen takes the knight, with check And she cannot be taken: the king has to move instead.
6. 20… Kf8 The only square
7. 21. Qd8# Checkmate The queen alone. She covers e7, e8 and g8 from d8, and f7 and g7 are Black’s own pawns — his own queen is still on the board watching from g6. Five hundred years ago, and the piece that finishes it is the one that had just learned to move.