1/13/2021 – You do not need to know the rules of chess to understand the metaphors of the game. In one of his many letters to his confidante and platonic friend Milena Jesenská (1896-1944), Franz Kafka made an excursion into the realm of chess to bare his soul and heart. Sergio Negri had a closer look.

9/22/2020 – In the last instalment of a seven-part series, Sergio Negri presents a list of the knowns and unknowns regarding the origins of chess. The Argentine researcher concludes, “For now, it might be better not to know everything yet. [...] A suggestive and primordial mystery continues to haunt us: when did the magical and millenary game of chess appeared on Earth”. | Pictured: Chess Set (Shatranj in Iranian), glazed fritware, 12th century. New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

8/17/2020 – Four theories regarding the origins of chess have been presented by Argentine researcher Sergio Negri — that the game came from India, China, Egypt and hypotheses based on myths, legends and the fictional world. Now he introduces theories that consider that chess was conceived by cultural syncretism, with different civilizations contributing to the development of the game. | Photo: Living and extinct chess variants, taken from “Chess – A living fossil” by Gerhard Josten

7/8/2020 – After presenting the Indian, Chinese and Egyptian theories of the origins of chess, researcher Sergio Negri takes us through hypotheses based on myths, legends and the fictional world — many of which are better known than those based on historiographical data.

6/17/2020 – In the fourth instalment of his treatise on the origins of chess, researcher Sergio Negri explores a hypothesis that did not quite cement an alternative paradigm, that of an Egyptian origin. While presenting this theory, he introduces a couple of ancient games, the Greek ‘petteia’ and the Egyptian ‘senet’.

5/14/2020 – In September 2017, in the city of Buenos Aires, Sergio Negri, a researcher specialized in chess of Argentine origin, completed a thoroughly detailed and thought-provoking treatise on the origins of chess. We now present part three, which focuses on the theories that consider that chess originated in China. | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

4/7/2020 – A poem written in Valencian by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar and Narcís de Vinyoles was the first literary work to describe a game with the modern rules — the queen could move multiple squares in all directions and the scope of the bishops widened importantly. SERGIO NEGRI tells us the story. | Image: A chessboard illustrated in Jacobus de Cessolis' "De ludo scachorum".

3/30/2020 – A poem written in Valencian by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar and Narcís de Vinyoles was the first literary work to describe a game with the modern rules — the queen could move multiple squares in all directions and the scope of the bishops widened importantly. SERGIO NEGRI tells us the story. | Image: A chessboard illustrated in Jacobus de Cessolis' "De ludo scachorum".

3/16/2020 – A poem written in Valencian by Francesc de Castellví, Bernat Fenollar and Narcís de Vinyoles was the first literary work to describe a game with the modern rules — the queen could move multiple squares in all directions and the scope of the bishops widened importantly. SERGIO NEGRI tells us the story. | Image: A chessboard illustrated in Jacobus de Cessolis' "De ludo scachorum".

7/21/2019 – "Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream" or "The Dream of Poliphilus" is a work of early printing which recounts the story of a man pursuing his beloved through a dreamlike landscape. The book is said to have been written by Francesco Colonna and, as SERGIO NEGRI notes, it is also the first publication to include the depiction of a 'human chess' game. | Photo: Alberto Davide Lorenzi, via Wikimedia Commons

4/12/2019 – From 1928, the Argentine city of Mar del Plata has hosted a large number of remarkable chess events. The 50th edition of the "Abierto de Mar del Plata" will take place on April 13th-20th, with about two-hundred players participating. SERGIO NEGRI takes us through some of the biggest chess milestones that transpired in the tourist destination, which even gave name to a variation of the King's Indian Defence. | Photo: Leandro Kibisz (CC BY-SA) via Wikimedia Commons

2/14/2019 – At the end of last year, co-authors Sergio Ernesto Negri and Enrique Julio Arguiñariz presented a book that recounts the history of Argentina's national chess team at the Olympiads that took place between 1950 and 1976. "The Silver Generation" is the second instalment of a four-book series that kicked off with "The Pioneer Generation" (spanning from 1924 until 1939). The period studied in the book includes big names such as Oscar Panno, Raúl Sanguineti, Miguel Quinteros and, of course, Miguel Najdorf. | Pictured: Donner and Najdorf in Wijk aan Zee, 1973. | Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo

10/31/2018 – On this All Hallows Eve, we examine the chess connections of one of literature's great spooky storytellers, the American author Edgar Allen Poe. (See part one!) Poe was curiously dismissive of chess, comparing it unfavourably to both draughts and the classic English card game Whist. In the process, he attempted to weigh the relative importance of calculation and analysis, and while he clearly misunderstood the game by our modern estimation, his work carries tremendous literary weight and influenced generations, including writers who would also use chess for its metaphorical powers in their stories.

10/31/2018 – On this All Hallows Eve, we examine the chess connections of one of literature's great spooky storytellers, the American author Edgar Allen Poe, beginning with his relationship to an original "chess costume" — The Turk. Poe discovered the chess-playing automaton during its American tour in the 1820s, and quickly became suspicious of its authenticity. He set about to unravel the mystery, which to this day offers a lesson in rationality and morality.

10/7/2018 – “Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly”. This phrase, extracted from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s ‘Little Prince’, has travelled all around the world, like its author had done while alive. The French writer and aviator was, incidentally, also very fond of chess. SERGIO NEGRI compiles quotes, anecdotes and interpretations that confirm this compelling, albeit unsurprising, connection.

8/24/2018 – Born at the very end of the 19th century, 119 years ago today, Jorge Luis Borges is a key figure in twentieth-century literature. The Argentine, known for his preciseness and rigour, thought very highly of chess. One of the most respected authors never to have received the Nobel Prize even wrote a poem dedicated to the royal game. SERGIO ERNESTO NEGRI recaps the links between chess and literature found in the renowned author's oeuvre.

6/27/2018 – One of the most popular writers in Europe — the most translated in the interwar period — Stefan Zweig escaped the Nazi regime as a prominent writer. Since he thought Hitler's threat would spread throughout the world, he emigrated repeatedly and visited South America several times, considering the continent "a promised land". An admirer of Argentina, he finally settled in Brazil, where he died in 1942. In this article, SERGIO NEGRI reviews his extensive and successful literary work, including the one that has chess as its fundamental protagonist, "Schachnovelle".

5/19/2018 – "Never play with drunkards and desperate men and quarrelsome people for it leads to a brawl”. Chess researcher SERGIO NEGRI continues his deep dive into the origins of our game, this time focusing on the most widely recognised theory, that of an Indian origin | Image (centre): Krishna and Radha playing chaturanga (early chess) on an 8x8 Ashtāpada (a board) (Wikipedia Commons)