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The Queen’s Surprising History
How a female piece became the most dangerous on the chessboard
Chess is a game meant to simulate warfare. The king sits in the back ranks of the army, directing strategy; if he dies, the battle is lost. The pawns are expandable front-line soldiers whose purpose is to guard more valuable pieces and die on their behalf. The powerful pieces in the back row — knights, rooks (representing the king’s castles), and bishops (elephant warriors in the original Indian and Persian versions of the game) are more dangerous and have more freedom of movement. But the most powerful piece on the board, capable of outmaneuvering and overpowering all others, is the queen.
If you’re like me, you may have played chess and wondered why, in an ancient game based on warfare, the strongest piece is female. It turns out that the queen wasn’t always a part of chess, and her strength is connected to the history of real-life queens.
Centuries without a queen
Chess originated in ancient India, as a game called “chaturanga” in the Gupta Dynasty around the year 500. We don’t know what the exact rules were, but all of the…
