Here are the presentation slides by Mr Jan Løfberg

Lecture given on Friday 28 August 2026 in Copenhagen.

by Jean Olivier Leconte

Following in the footsteps of Sergio Boffa and his excellent book on Philidor (in French) (Le Café de la Régence), I set out to explore in greater depth what he had written about Philidor and the game of draughts. That is the subject of this article.

François-André Danican Philidor went down in history as the greatest chess player of his time. Far less well known is the fact that he also enjoyed a strong reputation as a player of Polish draughts, played on a board of one hundred squares.

How strong was he really at this game? The accounts are numerous and sometimes contradictory. We even have six positions attributed to him. And such was his reputation that, in 1785, a bookseller in Amsterdam did not hesitate to publish under his name… a treatise he had never written.

Here are the presentation slides by Mr Mattias Johansson.

Lecture given on Friday 28 August 2026 in Copenhagen.

Here are the presentation slides by Mr Per Skjoldager.

Lecture given on Friday 28 August 2026 in Copenhagen.

by Claes Løfgren

A rare book. A presentation of the first edition of Philidor’s book in Danish.

by Jean Olivier Leconte

Slides from my presentation on Philidor.

The idea was to present new or little-known facts about Philidor. I plan to explore each topic in much greater depth on my blog. To begin with, here is a detailed article about Philidor’s time in prison (in French): https://lecafedelaregence.blogspot.com/

Here are the presentation slides by Mr Michael Negele.

Lecture given on Friday 28 August 2026 in Copenhagen.

by Georges Bertola

In 2015, I wrote an article devoted to Alekhine and his controversial course during the Second World War.

The Spanish historian Xavier Juncosa kindly sent me several very interesting documents that shed light on this troubled period.

Among them is a letter dated 22 November 1944, sent by the French consulate in San Sebastián to Jacques Truelle, Minister Plenipotentiary and representative in Spain of the Provisional Government of the French Republic in Madrid.

by José A. Garzón

1475–1512: The Great Transition from Medieval to Modern Chess

In this chapter from Ajedrez, arte y cultura, Spanish historian José A. Garzón recounts the fascinating half-century when medieval chess and modern chess briefly coexisted.
Between 1475 and 1512, a generation of poets, humanists, and printers transformed a slow, symbolic game into a dynamic intellectual art — a perfect reflection of the Renaissance spirit.

From Shatranj to the Valencian Revolution

For seven centuries, Europe played chess according to the Arabic shatranj: a weak “alferza” (queen) and a short-moving bishop.
Everything changed around 1475 in Valencia, where Bernat Fenollar, Narcís Vinyoles, and Françí de Castellví composed the poem Scachs d’amor (“Chess of Love”).
This extraordinary work — both allegory and manual — introduced the modern Queen, the en passant capture, the double pawn move, and even an early form of castling.
It also describes the first complete modern chess game ever recorded, in which Castellví (Mars) defeats Vinyoles (Venus) under the arbitration of Fenollar (Mercury).

Vicent and the Spread of the New Game

Twenty years later, on May 15, 1495, Valencian scholar Francesch Vicent published the Llibre dels jochs partits dels scachs en nombre de 100, the first printed treatise on modern chess.
Though the original book has been lost, Garzón reconstructed it through a manuscript discovered in Cesena: one hundred problems written in Valencian, many identical to those found later in Lucena’s Repetición de amores y arte de ajedrez (Salamanca, 1497) and Damiano’s Questo libro (Rome, 1512).
Vicent thus stands as the true father of modern chess and one of the pioneers of scientific printing in Spain.

The last two articles, sent to us by José A. Garzón, are more of a summary of his research.

Once again, I would like to thank him for these various contributions.

A Historical Journey through the Earliest Books and Manuscripts

by José A. Garzón

In this 2021 article published in eHumanista, historian José A. Garzón reflects on more than two decades of research devoted to a fundamental question:

Where and when was modern chess born?

Through a meticulous study of fifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century manuscripts and printed books, Garzón demonstrates that Valencia, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, was the true birthplace of the modern game.

From Shatranj to the Chessboard of Europe

Garzón traces the evolution of chess from its Indian ancestor, chaturanga, to its Arabic form, shatranj, which reached medieval Europe through Muslim Spain.
For centuries, the rules barely changed: pieces moved slowly, and the alferza — the forerunner of today’s queen — could advance only one square diagonally. The game mirrored the static hierarchy of the feudal world.