Smart moves

Chess was not always the enlightened game it is today. A copy of the first book setting out its rules, written by the 13th-century cleric John of Wales, is coming up for auction later this month in London. Then the queen was the weakest piece, allowed to move “aslant only, because women are so greedy that they will take nothing except by rapine and injustice”. And they were not the only ones on the receiving end of Friar John’s prejudices. Bishops move obliquely, he wrote, because “nearly every bishop misuses his office through cupidity”. The great game lost its sexist baggage some time back, but it was not modern campaigners who raised queens to their rightful status. This was achieved in time for our first Elizabeth. It would have to wait until the reign of Elizabeth II for women to become grandmasters.