The work of the historian from Alcoy reproduces the poem in full for the first time, and improves and completes previous studies published in the early 1990s. This vital study is that called for at the start of the century by the bibliophile Ramón Miquel i Planas. Calvo decodes the 3 superimposed planes of expression found in the text: poetical, allegorical, and strictly pertaining to chess. The poem acquires its full splendour and historical importance as the first document of modern chess.

Garzón definitively establishes Vicent’s book as the first published on modern chess. Although much progress had been made in the field of chess history as far as knowledge of the contents of the book was concerned thanks to the studies of Averbakh, in a strictly bibliographical field the very publishing of the book was doubted. News of the Montserrat copy as early as 1783, the visit to the abbey of Vargas Ponce in 1799 who actually held the book in his hands (and lingered over the chess diagrams), and the sale of 30 copies in January 1496 prove not only the publishing of the book but also its contents. Finally, Garzón documents a sale of the book in Barcelona in 1913, which gives new hope of its future discovery. In short, we are given 4 independent pieces of evidence as to the book’s publication, its primacy, its content, and even its current existence.

The author takes on the commitment of proving the Valencian origin of modern chess so as to universally satisfy specialists on a matter that could not be settled in the 19th and 20th centuries.
To do so he assumes the burden of proof by a novel method of the direct consultation of all documents of the key period (1450-1530). Two magnificent new pieces of evidence allow the establishing of the writing of the poem Scachs d´amor precisely in 1475. After an endless wait of five centuries he reveals the subject matter of the book by Vicent and its 100 problems, which were copied by the same author in the Cesena manuscript (video to present the work p.2 multimedia section).

A great personal effort by the author and publisher has resulted in the English translation of Garzón’s book so as make his research available to specialists in general. The fine translation by Manuel Pérez Carballo does justice to the subject.

This monograph provides a detailed study of the chess treatise by the noted Renaissance mathematician Luca Pacioli (c. 1445-1517), which was rediscovered in 2006 in the Library of the Palazzo Coronini Cronberg Foundation in Gorizia, Italy.
Its importance lies in the fact that it is the first truly Italian testimony of the great revolution in modern chess (alla rabiosa chess) implied by its arrangements. This study by Garzón confirms his research of 2005 according to which the ancient Italian manuscript preserved in the National Library of Florence, known as It., dates without doubt from the early 16th century. Although the earliest date for the Pacioli manuscript is 1497 (watermark), Garzón provides evidence of its creation in the period between 1500 and 1508.

This piece of research features significant novelties, of which the two most important should be singled out:
These are the confirmation of the origin of modern chess in Valencia through another related game that is marro de punta (a tribute to the pioneering studies of Westerveld, to whom the book is dedicated), and the locating of the bibliographical error as a result of which the first work published in the world on the game of draughts was attributed to Torquemada. The Ingenio, which was printed in Valencia in 1547, is the work of Juan Timoneda.

In the sixth part of his Manual, a work culminated with his Bibliografía Española de Ajedrez. Primer ensayo, Paluzíe studies in some depth the Scachs d´amor manuscript that he had also duly reported in La Stratégie the previous year.
A scholar like Paluzíe did not miss the most important characteristics of the poem; he indicated that “this is the oldest (match) known today in the modern style” and realised that the new style of play was being forged at that time as is recorded in the poem.

The exhaustive research of Westerveld proposed convincingly that it is the grande dame of Spanish history, Queen Isabel the Catholic, who inspired the powerful piece of the small board. He also refers to the connection between the origin of modern chess and the creation of a new game, marro de punta (draughts); he documents both events in Valencia. José A. Garzón has collaborated in several passages of the work and in the writing of 3 chapters and the epilogue. Both authors devote a chapter to the study of the Scachs d´amor with significant novelties and give the date of the poem as 1475 [Link to the article by J. Garzón, Vienna 2010].