Saturday, 24 March 2012

Oldest recorded game?

A possible entry for oldest recorded game. It was played around 1485 and pre-dates any entries I have in my databases. My source for the game is the book "The Golden Treasury of Chess" by Francis Wellmuth. The author says the game comes from a Catalan manuscript, where the score is contained in a poem.
While the game is of a fairly low quality (both sides overlook tactical tricks) it at least was played with the modern rules (Queen and Bishop fully mobile), although I'm not sure the fact that neither side castled is significant.


de Castellvi,Francisco - Vingles,Narciso [B01]
Catalan Manuscript, 1485


Start positionPrevious MoveNext MoveEnd positionPlay movesStop playing
1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd8 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. h3 Bxf3 7. Qxf3 e6 8. Qxb7 Nbd7 9. Nb5 Rc8 10. Nxa7 Nb6 11. Nxc8 Nxc8 12. d4 Nd6 13. Bb5+ Nxb5 14. Qxb5+ Nd7 15. d5 exd5 16. Be3 Bd6 17. Rd1 Qf6 18. Rxd5 Qg6 19. Bf4 Bxf4 20. Qxd7+ Kf8 21. Qd8# 1-0
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This game is given in Murray's History of Chess as described in a Catalan poem between Castellvi and Vinoles, although it is not definite that the game was a real one. The poem includes comments by a third person, Fenollar, about the (Aragon) rules, including en passent, only one queen allowed per player and loss of a queen was also loss of the game. Castling was not common for another hundred years.
MP

25 March 2012 at 19:39
Shaun Press said...

Thanks for the extra info, Miles.

25 March 2012 at 20:08

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