Medieval Chess and the Subversion of Racial Stereotypes: New Research from Dr Krisztina Ilko

Cambridge University historian and Queens’ Junior Research Fellow, Dr Krisztina Ilko, has unearthed a range of evidence showing depictions of of non-white players from Africa, the Middle East and Asia, each demonstrating their intellectual prowess in the game. One scene depicts a contest between a Muslim and a Jewish player. Another depicts four players identified as Mongols.

Mongol chess players. Chess problem 23 in the Libro de axedrez, dados e tablas (Seville, 1283). Credit: Patrimonio Nacional. Real Biblioteca del Monasterio de El Escorial

“Medieval sources repeatedly state that chess is war without bloodshed, and that it represents a just world,” Dr Ilko tells the  University of Cambridge.

“When people with non-white skin colour are depicted in medieval images, scholars have tended to see them in either exalted or subdued positions. So you get the Queen of Sheba at one extreme and executioners and other malignant forces at the other. Chess reveals a different, more complex story.”

Dr Ilko’s study ‘Chess and Race in the Global Middle Ages’, published in Speculum, will receive the Medieval Academy of America’s prestigious ‘Article Prize in Critical Race Studies’.

Credit: Krisztina Ilko

You can read the full story and research release on the University of Cambridge’s website.